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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#133: Chocolate Box

Next Monday is Valentine’s Day, which means chocolate boxes are popping up in stores everywhere. The sweet association between cocoa and romance began with the Mayans and Aztecs, but it only became a hallmark of Valentine’s Day when British confectionery giant Cadbury introduced the first ever heart-shaped gift boxes in the 1860s.

Today, chocolate is inseparable from this occasion in many parts of the world: in Japan, some give homemade chocolate to their loved ones; in Ghana, February 14th is National Chocolate Day. And we’re joining the fun with this week’s set of delicious chocolate-inspired prompts. Take your pick!

This week's prompts

Write about someone going on a search for a specific type (or brand) of chocolate.

Middle School – 24 stories

Start your story with a character finding an old heart-shaped box in their house.

Valentine's Day – 78 stories

Set your story in a confectionery shop.

Middle School – 40 stories

Write a story about someone making a gift (chocolate or otherwise) for a loved one.

Valentine's Day – 36 stories

Write about a character who finds Valentine’s Day sickly sweet.

Valentine's Day – 26 stories

Stories

“Mimi” by Janet Change Balda

Submitted to Contest #133

She paused, keys in hand, to admire the little chocolate shop before heading in. The windows were still covered in brown paper, like her favorite kind of package, and a handwritten sign on the door said, “Opening Soon.” Her very own chocolate shop. She smiled and said it again to herself, knowing that repetition would not make it feel any more real: her chocolate shop. She shook her head in happy disbelief and unlocked the door. The front of shop still had a ways to go. She peeled back a corner of brown paper on one window to let some morn...

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“Sweets 'N Treats” by FabWritesStuff -

Submitted to Contest #133

There was no worse place on Earth to be than a candy shop on Valentine’s Day. Dozens of customers flocked through the doors of Sweets ‘N Treats all through the day as they frantically purchased last minute chocolate and candies for their loved ones. It was the most profitable day of the year for the store, so every Valentine’s Day the shop remained open until midnight. Ella had been one of the unlucky souls who had been scheduled to work the 4pm to 12 am shift. After around 8 pm, foot traffic into the shop dwindled significantly and ...

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“I LOVE YOU JAR” by Joan Wright

Submitted to Contest #133

Joey sat up in bed. He looked outside and it was still dark. He couldn't see his clock, but he knew it wasn't anywhere close to morning. What had woken him up? He listened. Then he heard the familiar sobbing from his mother's room. He crept out of his room and across the dark hallway. She wasn't crying very loud tonight, maybe she was crying in her sleep. He never knew what to do. Mom had been crying like this most nights since Dad had left. She was always embarrassed if he went in. Then she would apologize for waking him up. He was tir...

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“Where passions lie, ideas blossom” by Tristan Scott-Lowe

Submitted to Contest #133

Title – Where passions lie, ideas blossom. The floorboards creek as the young Harry Butcher fumbles his way around the bedroom on a dark winter’s morning in the outskirts of Birmingham, November 1860. Harry tried intently not to wake his beloved wife from her restful slumber. He rubs his hands together then brings them to his mouth and blows warm air from deep within his lungs, before striking a match and igniting the candlestick on his bedside table. While shaking out the match, his hand connects with a book, knocking it to the floor with...

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“TOGETHER NO MATTER WHAT” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #133

We got off on the wrong foot the last time I was back home. I didn't listen to Rianne and only knew what I wanted to say. So as our conversation evolved, it was me and all me talking over anything she had to offer in the way of a peace gesture. I didn't know what the hell was going on in my head. The enemies were screaming a foul language and got me wrapped up in my own dismal moment in life. Tremors and confusion finally got to me, and I lost it and put my fist through the wall. Breathing heavy, I paused and looked at my hands. What the hel...

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“The Remnants” by Lin Macredie

Submitted to Contest #133

What could have been romantic firelight glinted off the scratched and dull gold band Jayde twisted around her knuckle. She sat in silence with her husband next to her, wondering why she’d fought so many years for this. When she realized this would be her thirtieth Valentine’s Day spent with Caleb, it should be marked by something special. Something that symbolized their achievement. Not everyone can say they’ve been together their whole life. Now, she turned to Caleb with the light feeling of dumping the weight of holding up both ends a marr...

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“The box” by Samantha Benson

Submitted to Contest #133

"Why are we up here? Attics are nasty." My sister Sheena grimaces as her hand skims along a dusty trunk. I just shake my head at her "Are you kidding me? Attics are awesome! You never know what vintage items or cool antiques you might find. Especially when you are looking in your crazy great-aunt's attic. I mean, seriously, look at this stuff." My aunt used to be a fortune teller traveling all over Europe plying her trade in her youth. Her attic is filled with random items used for fortune telling and rare antiques from her travels. I scan ...

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“Fossil” by Carmen Perez

Submitted to Contest #133

Fossil My eyes burn and tears have been soaked into my robe. I’m on my knees before the chamber. I hit the metal with my fist denting the side. The chamber holds the ribbon Lovata had held. I return to the biogenic mass on the table downstairs. I use the flathead screwdriver and the hammer, tapping into it with a tenacity I hadn’t felt before, loosening the rocks, and the glasses, and crushed shells allowing them to fall to the plastic tablecloth. A heart shaped box is revealed, and inside, a folded note: Dear Dr. Vespert...

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“Sara's Pardon” by Kristine Bone

Submitted to Contest #133

Sara's Pardon Maggie sighed heavily and carefully folded the silky blouse, placing it back in the dresser drawer. The day's chore was wearing on her, this sorting through all this old stuff of her moms. Had the woman never tossed anything? She thought she'd begin the chore in her old bedroom which mom had made into a guest room for every down and out relative. Now, she found that this dresser was packed with old clothes and junk. Whose she did not know. The old Victorian house her parents had lived in for nearly fifty years was hers now ...

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“The Love You Lost ” by Lily Elborn

Submitted to Contest #133

The box was hard to notice at first. Small and shallow enough not to catch the eye right away and pretty much the same wood shade of the attic floorboards. If it wasn’t for my crazed cleaning frenzy that day, I probably wouldn’t have seen it, tucked into a corner and completely covered in dust. But as it stands, I did find the heart-shaped, wooden box. And my life changed the second I did. **** When I first latched onto the idea of buying a fixer-upper, I had yet to absorb all of the side effects of such a venture. I must admit, I have ...

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“Matriarch” by Brooke Woodworth

Submitted to Contest #133

(Mentions of child abuse, and inter-generational trauma) A dark wood entertainment center sits unused in a living room with no source of light other than the broken sliding glass door, shielded by the awning of a hurricane-weathered porch. Inside the entertainment center (where a heavy box television once belonged) is now a cluttered mess. Amongst the Wi-Fi router, and an unused generator, is white heart shaped box. It is deep enough to hold all the burnt and dehydrated molecules of a human being. The box is empty, now. But you remem...

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“The Heart-Shaped Box” by Ramona Powell Poole

Submitted to Contest #133

“Mom, we found it!” yelled Becky and Natalie to their mother who was now resting in her bedroom. The girls, as mom called them, spent their entire Saturday, turning the house upside down looking for the wooden heart-shaped box that their dad Tom had given their mother back when they first started dating. Tom enjoyed working with his hands and loved tinkering in the garage with his father’s tools. Tom was so excited to work on his next project, a heart-shaped wooden box. He wanted to make it for Patty, the love of his life, who lived nex...

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“Love Letters” by Martha Meacham

Submitted to Contest #133

When I was young, even into my teen years, I used to go through my mother’s hidden things. For some reason I thought grown-ups would have something interesting stashed away, hidden from prying eyes. Adults were so mysterious. They had to be more interesting than they seemed. What was the point of growing older if it were as dull and tedious as every adult I knew made it seem. My mother certainly had secrets. I did not realize the significance at the time of finding wine bottles hidden amongst her things. As a child I thought it the n...

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“The Heart Shaped Box” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #133

Everything I learned about love, I learned from a heart-shaped box. As to how it came to me, I hope to understand one day. It all started the day I moved in to the Tic-Tac-Toe house.Driving in a rented moving van, we pulled up to a dusty, once-yellow house. It had an unkept overgrown yard, paint or something on the windows, and it was mine.“Andriy- that is a beat up house!” Danny says. My oldest friend, he was helping me get everything moved for the usual fee of beer and pizza. I had just received the keys to my new place, my...

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“Nobody Was Coming to Save Her” by Nicole G

Submitted to Contest #133

I am cleaning out my parents’ house as my husband and I prepare to move to our new home. I find buried in the attic a pink heart-shaped box with a paper rose as a bow that Amelia gave me for my birthday in 1998. “To Cassie: Happy 8th Birthday. Love, Mellie.” I haven’t seen or even thought about Amelia in years. I have no idea where she might be. I don’t even know if she’s alive. ************************************************************ I wouldn’t say that Amelia and I were friends, exactly. Our parents were natives of all parts of N...

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$250

Prize money

204

Contest entries

121

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 18, 2022 EST

Won by Stephanie Kaye 🏆

Title: Mythes

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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