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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#151: Back to the Reboot

This past week we’ve been inspired by Lightyear, Top Gun: Maverick, and all the prequels, sequels, and reboots hitting our screens lately. For many of us, reboots inspire a sense of nostalgia, or déjà vu. But how do you interpret them? Do you welcome new creatives and their reimaginings of the past, or do you crave something fresh in its own right? 


Of course, repetition can be creepy — and it can even become boring — but it can also open the doorway to improvement and growth. However you feel about the ever-rebirthing media cycle surrounding us, we hope you’ll find inspiration in these week’s prompts:

This week's prompts

Write about a character who wakes up in their past life, or as a future reincarnation of themself.

Fantasy – 54 stories

Write about somebody breaking a cycle.

Narrative – 42 stories

Write about a character who keeps ending up in the same place.

Sad – 40 stories

Repeat the same line of dialogue, from the same character, three separate times.

Middle School – 58 stories

Write about a character who’s expected to follow in someone’s footsteps.

Kids – 38 stories

Stories

“Footsteps” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #151

“It wasn’t me.” They all say that, or most of them anyways.  When it gets to this stage of the game, the ones that admit it are just as much of a problem. Those ones enjoy themselves too much. Revel in it. I suppose the deniers do too. It’s all a game to them and they think they have already won by the time they are sitting here. I look into those baby blue eyes of hers and have to remind myself where we are. Who we are. At another time and in another place… Yeah right, Arnold! Who you kiddin’? She’s way, way outta your league. ...

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“Circle of Time” by Anna Turnitsa

Submitted to Contest #151

Natalie pulled the night vision goggles over her eyes and scanned the stone wall surrounding the city. The snowstorm was a welcome ally because the guards were inside the guard shack keeping themselves warm. She spotted the ventilation exit a short distance from the shack and zoomed in on the locking mechanism. Relieved that it was an outdated one, she crawled back down the hill to where she left her gear and swung it over her shoulder. When she reached the exit tunnel, she picked the large lock and was careful to put it back into place once...

4 comments 4
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“Born Again Stalker” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #151

TW: Death Standing at the back of the mourning crowd I listen to the story of her life. She grew up moving all over the country. She travelled the world. Her childhood friends wipe their eyes and sniff. Everyone is wearing black.             I should be part of the story. I spent years of my life married to Judith. Not this life. I want to push my way through the crowd and hug her sister and her mother. I want to tell them we’ll get through this together.     &...

15 comments 15
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“Working Out the Past ” by Michael Markoff

Submitted to Contest #151

Sensitive content warning: Potential triggers re: Violence, Mental health Working Out the Past by MJ Markoff The YMCA gym’s pretty quiet. The piped-in music is set low enough for Charles to hear the clacking of equipment, the hush of the air conditioning, and the grunts and hisses of the few other members. They’re too engaged in their various routines to be aware of the ‘old-guy’ in the corner, who’s donning hand-wraps and sixteen-ounce blood red boxing gloves. Charles is glad that the heavy bag was in a corner; Once he got in ‘the...

4 comments 4
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“Break the Cycle” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #151

Break the Cycle. In my teenage year’s summertime meant heat and boredom. Laid out like an offering to Sun Gods on a blanket of stagnant damp, because towels soaked up sweat, Le Tan, or coconut oil products. Advised by a skin specialist in a plush Subiaco office, to rectify teenage acne by, ‘get as much sun as you can.’ Obedient out of respect for sums my parents paid, a row of framed degrees, and innocent of how men could manipulate. A time long before I learnt about worldly complexities. Dead mussels lined shores, also rotting in glare,...

2 comments 2
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“Nightmare” by Chloe Schaefer

Submitted to Contest #151

“There’s a creature from old folktales that’s remained nameless for centuries,” Jennifer, his babysitter, told him, sitting on a stool beside his bed. In her hand was a book of old folktales he insisted she read to him. “A vile, vicious creature that preys on children.” “It’s said it chooses its victim carefully, cherry-picking kids who don’t stand out among the crowds.” She paused. “Kids who won’t be missed as much as the others.” He pulled his blanket over himself as if to hide from the imaginary creature. “It creates hyper-realistic...

4 comments 4
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“The Third Floor” by Jim Hirtle

Submitted to Contest #151

THE THIRD FLOOR By J Hirtle Fleeing like the pearls of a fractured necklace, perspiration rolls down the unhandsome, pock-marked face of Freddie Shackleman. The tick, tick, tick of the cooling engine provides metered ear candy for the car’s lone occupant. Outside, the temperature has crept past the century mark again (five days running and it is only May); inside the nine-year-old PT Cruiser, where Freddie Shackleman, wearing a white cotton shirt stuck to his too thin frame, and khaki trousers stained by grass, mustard, and unidentifiable ...

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“Escape Artist” by Emily Pollan

Submitted to Contest #151

Again. I’m sitting here, staring at the same dirty concrete floor again. Scrapes and bruises cover my arms and legs from my earlier struggles. The eerie echo of the dripping dirty water in the corner of the room is taunting me. I can feel my anger growing every time a drop hits this filthy floor.  Sinking my nails into my mud stained green dress, I then tare my hands away from it and grab the plate near me and throw it against the wall, shattering it on impact and smashing the rotten food against the wall, sending glass and unknown foo...

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“Gurgleplop” by Dempsey Hyatt

Submitted to Contest #151

“Old witch, Gurgleplop, she likes her repetition Her curse is foul, just as her bowels, and leads to your perdition Old hag, Gurgleplop, eats to her volition Once you disgorge, her will is forged and feeds as your mortician!” “Ah, Balin, good to see ya. You hear those fools singin’ in there?” asked a patron smoking a pipe outside the town’s only tavern. A sign painted with a Green Egg swung above the man’s head as he said, “You’d think they’d get tired of that old song, but they just keep singin’ it and singin’ it.”’ Balin knew the tavern ...

3 comments 3
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“Horror to Hope” by Cajek Veilwinter

Submitted to Contest #151

After fifteen brutal years of adventure, love, and loss, I had finally found the doorway on the wooded island again.  Had it really been that long? Had I really been merely a child since I had stepped through it? A lot had happened. So much so that I was overwhelmed and merely laughed when I saw it again - like seeing an old, sardonic friend at an obscure cafe. I placed myself at the bottom of a tree and just looked at it. It looked pretty much the same as it did when I was little. I wondered if I could destroy it, but I had lost ...

2 comments 2
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“Control Is Everything” by Julia Hewison

Submitted to Contest #151

It started off as it usually did. Looming shadows, a single red door, and her running. Running from what? Leda didn’t know, she never caught sight of it. But every time it rushed closer and closer, shrieking laughter piercing her ears, flames licking at her heels, and jagged claws just barely missing her throat. Legs pumping, heart racing, she sprinted to the only safety in this godforsaken place dodging a hit sure to take her head off. Sweat stung her eyes but she kept tearing forward, eyes locked on the bright red. She wheezed as she s...

2 comments 2
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“GUNS AND ROSEWATER” by Jamie DelSole

Submitted to Contest #151

GUNS AND ROSEWATER The officer stationed behind the desk at the court house annex noticed when the car came slowly past the plate glass window of the lobby and past the only two empty parking spaces, drove fruitlessly to the end of the lot, which had no outlet, performed a 12 point turnaround, and headed back toward the front of the building. The car pulled into one of the two spaces, which happened to be the only handicapped space available. The car was large and sturdy, not new but well kept. No radical bumper stickers that set...

5 comments 5
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“The blueprint” by Paul Tanner

Submitted to Contest #151

"What am I supposed to do? What is life and what is my purpose?". There comes a time when parents must answer these questions. Mr. Noh knew that. He had asked the very same questions to his mum a long time ago, as she had done herself with her parents in her own time. Following a cycle yet to be broken. "We live to serve God!" his mum had proclaimed that day. She was a strong believer, she had lived her life based on the teaching of Jesus Christ and had tried her best to mold her sons in the same way. No aspect of her life, and I m...

5 comments 5
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“Memories of the Future” by Jessie Winterspring

Submitted to Contest #151

Did you ever wish you could go back in time? I bet you did. I know I want to. I won’t ask for a lot of time, but I’d give half of my life to get back to the day before I received my older sister’s call, no, even just fifteen minutes ago would be enough, because then I wouldn’t be trembling as I get up from the ground and I weakly pushed through the gathering crowd watching her unrecognizable bloody face. The face of a twenty-six-year-old woman, who was begging me to hear her out a moment before this happened.The driver, who would have run me...

2 comments 2
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“Stolen Soul” by Shazmin Rizlan

Submitted to Contest #151

I sat down on the dead, wilted grass beside Alyssa. Soccer practice had just ended, and Lyss and I were waiting for my mom to pick us up. I was staring at a tree dreamily, watching the orange-red leaves gravitate. “So, what do you think? Should I do it or not?” Lyss asked. Ugh. I hadn’t been listening, but I didn’t want to hurt Alyssa’s feelings. “That sounds like a great idea, Lyss! You should definitely do it”. Lyss burst out laughing, and I could feel my cheeks burning red. “I knew you weren’t listening! You never...

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$250

Prize money

232

Contest entries

108

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 24, 2022 EST

Won by Kelsey H 🏆

Title: The Lake

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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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