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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

“Ellos Vinieron Del Sur” by Samuel Eppley

Submitted to Contest #158

The Rio Grande was a crepuscular figure in the looming darkness. Its calm brown waters softly sailed through the desert, splitting the land in two, separating hopeful dreams from the brutal bitterness of reality. The cryptic depths moved morbidly along the shallow banks of sandy loam where the watchful eyes of mysterious predators bided patiently behind the gloom. Only the docile light of the moon, which billowed obediently through the sand and ebbed silently between the waters, made the oppressive hostility of the dark more bearable. Perche...

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“Me” by Joshua Trockel

Submitted to Contest #158

Morality is a tricky thing. No one ever tells you exactly what’s right or wrong. There’s no bullet-point list outlining the consequences of each action you take. Let alone a bullet-point list explaining how your actions might affect others.I reread the same sentence for the fifth time. “The key is listening.” Rather prejudice against deaf, aren’t they? The bookstore is quiet. A soft glow illuminates the dust floating near me. It casts an ethereal light on the shelves of untouched spines. People whisper around me and the smell of bo...

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“America's Dad” by Hilary R. Glick

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #158

(CELEBRITY NEWS TODAY) – Clark Fletcher, "America’s Dad", the beloved American actor best known for his starring role of "Doctor Mason McCarthy" in the decades-long melodrama, The Physician, died last night of natural causes at his home in Hollywood Hills. He was 84.Before his 100-plus film and TV credits, Fletcher began his career as an extra in films back in 1956, when he was only 18 years old. Hollywood producer, James Fillmore, stated in a 1965 New York Times Article, "The other [producers] were sleeping on him, using him as an...

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“Not Music to My Ears” by Suma Jayachandar

Submitted to Contest #158

CW: Mention of death by suicide/homicide.“Normally, one cannot distinguish between homicidal poisoning and suicidal poisoning,” a hoarse voice from the witness stand rasps.Unless someone cries too much or too little.I shush my mind. I am not here in the capacity of an advocate or a private investigator. But just as a teenager sent to the courtroom to figure out if she is meant to pursue law.The Judge, honourable C.K. Gopal looks on impassively at the prosecuting witness. And coughs.“That will be all, your honour,” the rotund prosecuting advo...

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“Rock Bottom is Wherever You Stop Digging” by Althea Gowen

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #158

Oh no. No no no no no no. This can’t be happening. I sit up from the bench I was sleeping on, trying to take in my surroundings and not vomit. Oh, my aching head. Many of my hangovers have been terrible before but never THIS terrible.I am in an unfamiliar subway station. The smell of fuel and greasy food and dirty floors and public urination suddenly becomes too much, and I run into the station bathroom which is thankfully nearby, and up comes all my stupidity. Mixed together with the martinis and scotch and champagne and whatever else I’ve ...

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“Fading red ” by Yadriel Rivera

Submitted to Contest #158

“I read it somewhere that each day about 1,600 youth tries their first cigarette,” I said. We were both sitting on the hood of the car in a parking lot. She was holding a cigarette and looking up at the stars.“hmm”“One fact states that based on your lame replies, you have no interest in what I am saying.”She watched as the smoke filled the air around us and started disappearing after a few seconds. “I don’t understand your fascination with facts or the reason why you care so much about things that don’t matter,” Red muttered....

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“The Silent Man” by Theresa Tiller

Submitted to Contest #158

She leaned forward, hair partially obscuring her face, a cigarette held to the lighter in his outstretched hand. She inhaled deeply and sat back, exhaling smoke and misery in one long sigh. “This isn’t how it was supposed to go,” she said softly, “There was supposed to be more time.”’He watched her in silence, her words hanging in the air like the smoke from her cigarette. She was right, he thought. There was supposed to be more time. People always thought that; everyone who came to him had plans that were theory only, plans that, no matter ...

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“For Maeve” by Cam Gray

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #158

I exit the corner store, a flimsy plastic bag filled with off-brand cheese puffs and a six-pack tucked in the crook of my elbow. Nothing out of place, we’ve been buying beer here since we first got fake IDs. The blue neon light washes over the dark parking lot, a peeling Toyota pickup with a for-sale sign still squatting in the far corner. Weeds twist up around the tires, tickle the low underbelly that has probably been butchered for parts. The same graffitied dumpster and the same patches of glittering broken glass.Maeve sits on the fa...

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“Cigarettes, Chianti, and Karaoke” by Mary Jo Fortes

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #158

The hot ember of her Kool Extra Long cigarette mesmerized him each time she waved her hand in conversation. He had long since lost focus on her words and even her smoldering green eyes. All he thought of was that familiar smoky scent invading his nostrils, his neurons. They had just finished devouring linguine and clams, paired with Chianti, at Mama Rossina's Ristorante on Elm Street. It was, in fact, a date—their first date. They met at a party hosted by mutual friends and hit it off immediately. He asked her out toward the end of the nig...

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“The Spider Web House” by T.S.A. Maiven

Submitted to Contest #158

A dew-covered spider web so sticky and threads gleaming with four am moonlit sparkles, was spinning soft yet deadly circles around his body. Ben was here again, soon to be stuck in a room, in a house that was begging for repair, on a road he didn't want to be on. The road located in an area that could only be called the wrong side of the tracks. The cliche screamed, but fit, so there it lay. The house itself was in disrepair yet lucky enough to still have two working windows on the second floor. Covered in greasy fingerprints that st...

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“Unplanned Obsolescence ” by Aron Bennett

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #158

Screw-ups, breakthroughs, heavy downs, inspirational highs; the turmoil followed by the sweetest relief. That’s the process. Thereafter the wait, the crackling in the air, a callous foretaste; this time as with earlier times, another slow trundle back to the old drafting table; through pages of shame. Of waste. Sorry but not sorry. Sorry but it’s not right for us. It’s why I don’t bother anymore. Writing I mean. It’s why I don’t bother. I write instead for myself, for I am easily pleased. Or at least more easily pleased t...

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“Aftermath of the Water Wars” by Kendra Lindholm

Submitted to Contest #158

It’s been five years since our scouts found this planet. Our home was just like it once, before the population boomed and the planet developed into the technological, advanced civilization it is now. One thing we took for granted was the reason for our mission. We sought the fundamental resource our planet no longer had. Water. I thought back to my childhood when the Water Wars divided the world. The countries with natural water resources became the world powers. But even the most powerful and wealthy countries had a limit to their r...

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“And life went on ” by Justin Casian

Submitted to Contest #158

Elena wasn't very clear on the details. She could not fathom how quickly she had let go of her common sense for sheer, utter recklessness. It could be blamed, she supposed, on the Ferris Wheel of thoughts her mind had become; receive the highest grades, get the best recommendations, gain this internship or that, look good, dress well; the same drivel running over and over in a slow torturous pace in her head. Breaking away from them, breaking away from that need for perfection and success, had been thrilling. Twenty years old and still liv...

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“Non Vivant” by L.M. Lydon

Submitted to Contest #158

Shivering despite the unseasonably warm evening, Ambrose slumped on a splintery park bench in Golden Gate Park, face buried in his hands. The empty vaults of his stomach echoed with frustrated need, sapping him of the energy to pull himself fully upright. Through the fine fault-lines separating his fingers, he glimpsed the chilly, unsympathetic light of the full moon. The fog hadn’t moved in from the bay yet to cloak her pallid nudity. Back when he was mortal, he’d never fully appreciated the frigid timbre of her light; her barren, arid d...

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“Mystery in Mayhem” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #158

It was another dismal day in the City of Mayhem, where criminals outnumbered law enforcement three-to-one. The dark, grey clouds hovered over the city like a blanket. Thunder rumbled so loudly, that it rattled the windows of the 1986 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that was parked in the shadows on Porter Street. Shards of metal fell from the rusted-out fenders as the door swung open. &n...

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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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