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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#158: It's All Good, Man

With only a few episodes left to air, the legal drama Better Call Saul is coming to an end. Along with the Breaking Bad saga, this spin-off garnered dozens of nominations and countless fans around the world through excellent character development and storytelling. Saul Goodman’s colorful suits, elaborate scams, and wordplay (“It’S all Good, man”) will be hard to forget.

Whether you're familiar with the series, or this is your first time hearing about it, there'll be something for you in this week's prompts — inspired by the show's characters and themes.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a couple sharing a cigarette in a parking lot.

Adults – 66 stories

Write about a character with questionable morals.

Dark – 41 stories

Write a story where the law plays an important role.

High School – 24 stories

Write a story about a character who is trying to become a better person.

Middle School – 42 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “It’s not fair.”

Middle School – 72 stories

Stories

“Devil's Meal” by Irtaza Khan

Submitted to Contest #158

Running, her hand over her disheveled, goldy locks, eyes sunken deep with tears flowing down her cheeks like waterworks. Her sapphire eyes locked onto a scrawny boy whose body was dismembered to their own. Blood as red as a fresh apple that has just been grown and plucked, seeps from every crevice slowly being pulled into a drain that was conveniently placed underneath the body of Burton Demain.With a sudden jerk, she pulls the boy towards herself and weeps quietly into his chest as the hot tears run down her cheek. Her heart sobbed with fee...

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“Dangerous game ” by Kayla Bearden

Submitted to Contest #158

I cough slightly as the warm smoke fills my lungs. Aaron glances in my direction, a gleam of sadness in his eyes. Things weren’t supposed to be this way for us. We sit in silence and absorb the sounds of the forest. This used to be a happy place, our happy place. I feel his icy fingers pry the cigarette from my grasp. I can’t help but watch as he slowly takes a pull, the end glowing amber. “What happened to us?” I hear a voice say barely over a whisper, only to realize it was my own. His eyes never leave mine as he exhale...

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“The Half-Lit Flame” by Lori Davis

Submitted to Contest #158

She hurried to the front entrance of the hospital, and issued a sigh of relief when she spotted the security guard there. Her anxiety was in overdrive regarding what awaited her once she reached the interior. Through the corner of her eye, she spotted a man walking across the parking lot who would soon join her and the guard outside the electronic sliding doors. She constructed her story as she spoke; informing the guard that her boyfriend had been in an accident, had surgery, and desperately needed his phone charger.&nb...

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“wasted lucky” by Karina Tanaka-Cadoret

Submitted to Contest #158

“Wrong side!” My mouth is dry. The skin of my cheeks sticks to my gums and those were the first words I’d spoken in hours. Wrong side. When you’re in the dark, lost in thought, and your fingers place a stog between your lips with the dried tobacco side open in your mouth, you don’t notice at first. You don’t notice, still, when your thumb’s holding the gas down on a lighter a little too long… the metal heating up against your skin. You might let it burn until that terrible taste of the melting filter violates you from t...

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“Complicated Sisterhood Love” by Marcia H.

Submitted to Contest #158

“You know that smoking is a bad habit.” James smiled at Samatha showing his tobacco stained teeth. He walked over to her in the parking lot of the apartment building and stood next to her. “I know. I know. But, it is a hard habit to break. I’ve been smoking on and off since I was 15. Want a puff?” Samatha asked, winking at James. James took the lit cigarette from Samatha and took a long drag. He passed it back to her and she did the same. “So, what are you doing out here on a cold winter’s night besides smoking?...

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“I Was Hoping You Would Come Outside” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #158

The year was 2018. Greg, an informally dressed man with longish hair in disarray, and shirt untucked is seen bursting out of a building, shaking his head and holding a pack of cigarettes. Pam, the one who is observing him, thinks that her grandmother would have called him a ragamuffin. As soon as he is a few steps away from the door, he is approached by Pam, a casually dressed woman with wild blond hair, and bright red lips. He thinks that his grandmother wou...

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“The End of My Addiction ” by Fire Bird

Submitted to Contest #158

I turned off my car engine as I spotted him driving towards me. I took one last glance in the rearview mirror to make sure I looked semi decent and that my bangs still sat neatly on my forehead. I ran my fingers through the rest of my nappy hair and wished I had brushed it before I left the house. I whispered to myself ‘you got this’ as I reached for the door handle. I was wearing a fitted tee and a pair of his old sweatpants. As silly as it sounds, Tanner always said I looked so cute in his sweats. Maybe somewhere deep down I tried to win h...

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“Ashen Inheritance ” by Christine Balke

Submitted to Contest #158

Frail hands, stained by nicotine and time, reach out shakily for the third cigarette in the space of an hour. The man of my dreams is reliably consistent when it comes to his smoking habits. A young man of 82 years and everything I could and have ever wanted in a husband. “Please,” he croaks as I hold the cigarette just out of his reach. I sigh before relenting, “but darling, you really know you shouldn’t. The Doctor…” “Pah, the doctor knows nothing.” He sucks in a deep lungful of smoke and holds it in his chest, savouring the...

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“Fresher Air” by Gillian McGregor

Submitted to Contest #158

I stare at the broken-up dark black spot on the parking lot under my feet. Pavement that's been abused and fixed by vehicles so often that it’s become a patchwork parking lot. Like the inconsistency in the lot - a strange array of people whisper, and gossip in the building lit up behind me. I was able to excuse myself after 15 minutes too long of “oh you’re so so strong”s and “you haven’t changed a bit”s. The air out here in this forever musty town was fresher than the breaths of disappointments and sighs that filled the inside behind me.&nb...

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“We don't know what love is” by Chiara Grace

Submitted to Contest #158

Greg was never a romantic type of person, so when we first started dating our spot was Walmart’s parking lot. Our dates consisted of the two of us sitting in the trunk of his Jeep, sharing cigarettes and a very unhealthy just-bought meal. And while we consumed that cig, he would try to communicate to me how dangerous for our health was smoking. And I would laugh, a bit because he was a hypocrite and a bit because his sign language was a disaster. He would mess up the hand movement and end up saying total disconnected words. I would laugh, ye...

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“March Hare” by Sharon Williams

Submitted to Contest #158

Fifteen-year-old Ali slowly sat up and cautiously rubbed the back of her head. Gazing around she tried to make sense of her surroundings. Gradually, like a pack of shuffled cards, her memories began to fall back into place. She could remember meeting Josh in the college car park after lectures. He’d said: ‘Want to go somewhere for a smoke?’ Then she could recall holding hands and walking together to a nearby park. Here, lying with her head in Josh’s lap, lazily sharing a spliff under the shade of one of the few trees on the recreation...

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“Apartment of terror” by Wayne Steele

Submitted to Contest #158

The screams pierced the inky night air. Ella and I sat on the roof of her red car, sharing a cigarette, staring at the stars as they gleamed in the sky. The smoke seemed to be reaching for them. “Are you ready to head in?” She asked. The blue under glow on her car made it easier to see her curly red hair brushing against my shoulder. Her blue eyes gleamed in the light of the zippo lighter. The gray apartment building loomed in the background. “I don’t know,” I turned to face her. “What I do know is that I’ll miss you.” A small ...

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“TOUCH OF MAGIC” by R. J. Garron

Submitted to Contest #158

A parking lot lay ahead rimmed with thatches of trees. The area was vacant, not seeing a car in years considering the outgrowth jutting from the cracks in the pavement. Not a leaf rustled, except the evening wind trailing off solid ground in a quietude beneath a sunset sky. A poplar overhung the far corner where two men, one tall and lanky and the other of medium build, settled themselves. They were tired and bedraggled, keeping watch of their surroundings. The tall man drew into his back pocket and...

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“Road Games” by Connie Elstun

Submitted to Contest #158

Cigarette smoke filled the air, soon followed by the aroma of reefer as the teens gathered at the small parking area by the river. The celebration was both for a birthday and a beer ritual known as a ‘kegger’.The party was cool, but all Tom Fink ‘really’ wanted for his 18th Birthday was to get laid. That’s when a pretty 17-year-old blonde named Mary Alright walked over. Tom knew as he watched her golden curls bounce off her unrestrained breasts-the summer of 1977 was about to get hot fast. “Hey, Tom baby, can I bum a smoke?” Mary asked ...

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“Not today, maybe tomorrow?” by Kit Dan

Submitted to Contest #158

The woman shivered in the oversized trench coat, hiding her ruddy-tinged hands in the deep pockets. Standing to her left was a man, not one she had known for a very long time. Actually, she couldn't recall if they had ever met. "Do you want to hit this?" The man brought a cigarette to her cracked lips, watching the smoke plume around her sunken, ghost-like face. "It will make all those problems go away."Go away. She yearned to say those words, but they stopped at the edge of her tongue. "Yes," she agreed, accepting the smoke. ...

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$250

Prize money

245

Contest entries

103

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 12, 2022 EST

Won by Scott Christenson 🏆

Title: Your Cat™️ Customer Service

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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