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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#174: Evolution

On November 25th, 1859, Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking book, On the Origin of Species. The idea of evolution was controversial; to claim that the world wasn’t unchanging and had not always been the same chafed against human ideals of perfection. But as we well know, nothing in life is truly static. 


In the spirit of this anniversary, this week we want to explore evolution and new discoveries; because sometimes change can be terrifying, but it can also be freeing.

This week's prompts

Write a story where someone says, “Everything is changing.”

Dramatic – 59 stories

Write about two old friends meeting for the first time in years.

Adults – 60 stories

Write a story about someone coming to terms with how different they are from their younger self.

Angst – 49 stories

Write about someone whose desire to constantly improve something borders on obsessive.

Dramatic – 25 stories

Write a story about a brilliant scientist making a startling discovery.

Science Fiction – 45 stories

Stories

“When we were wallflowers ” by Jennifer Cameron

Submitted to Contest #174

mentions of drugsThe beauty of being shrouded in yesterdays is that you are blissfully ignorant of all that you will learn in the todays. Yesterday I had no idea that I was capable of murder, today there is no doubt. My eyelids closed delicately and released the singular drop that had been waiting for a slight movement to shimmy it down my cheek, tracking a path through tan foundation. It started 12 years’ worth of yesterday’s ago, that’s it. That’s all it took. And I can see your face contorting into a look almost like bewilderment but let ...

4 comments 4
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“Martha Johnson ” by Mia Marie

Submitted to Contest #174

We used to boast about being able to stay friends longer than any of the others. When old acquaintances would ask, "Are you still friends with Lily?" knowing of our inseparable friendship throughout the years, I’d proudly reply, “Yeah, I just saw her this weekend.” Through grammar school, middle school, high school, and college: our ties never cut. We beat them all. We defied the odds. Even when my mother told me our friendship would crumble because people don’t stay the same and you were going to be another clone of her once-best friend Mar...

1 comment 1
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“The View from My Swing” by Linda Forest

Submitted to Contest #174

    Packed away for safe keeping, I have an assortment of old black and white pictures. Many of which has information written on the back partially covered with bits of black paper, as if someone had hurriedly ripped them out of one of those old photo albums from the forties and fifties, held on with little black triangular fasteners that fit each corner of the picture. I have no information of what year they were taken, or who they are, and now, after all these years, there is no one left to ask.    &nbsp...

0 comments 0
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“The Song of "Someday"” by Shawn Wier

Submitted to Contest #174

Millie stares right through her mug of green tea. There's nothing particularly special about the day, but she feels off somehow. Two hours of practice daily from age 10 to 16. Three to four hours of practice and study from age 16 to 18, daily. Minimum six hours of practice and two of study from age 18 to 19, daily. She sees the band room where she first put together her flute and learned to read music, then the bedroom she set up to practice in those first few years. Somehow they had the same wine-colored carpet, though the bedroom's flo...

7 comments 7
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“Wholly Recyclable” by Michelle SHAAY

Submitted to Contest #174

The lab was as quiet as a museum while everyone focused on their specific assignments. This marked day 1000 for Dr. Craddock and his team of unorthodox, resourceful thinkers. Dr. Craddock, once a tenured professor gave it all up to pursue something much greater. "I am very much a scientist and realist," he said while walking around to each lab station. "You have been an integral part of my contribution to humanity. We will change the world for the better." As a genetic mapping pioneer, he hungered for acceptance in the alternative science co...

2 comments 2
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“Right In Two” by Daniel Legare

Submitted to Contest #174

Warning: Graphic imagery and language. The park bench is painted with frost and I curse Dr. Fillmore under my foggy breath for dragging me out here this early. I look up and let my eyes rummage through the multiplicity of stars, the morning light only just beginning to peak out in the faintest hue over the horizon. A hand on my shoulder pulls me out of my whimsy and I turn to see Dr. Fillmore. “God, you scared me. Why don’t you have a coat on? It’s freezing-” “Come with me, now,” he says before turning around and walking briskly to...

5 comments 5
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“The Contest” by Mackenzie Littledale

Submitted to Contest #174

CW: ableism, abuseThe Contest“What do you think the new director will do first?” Lisandra asked, as she stowed her purse in her locker in the spa’s breakroom.“As long as he doesn’t change the add-on menu, right?” Chevelle said, next to her.“He can’t touch it!”“You’re the add-on queen, girl.”Just as Lisandra flung her hair with pride at her earned title, a new voice began talking.“Everything is changing,” Mark announced as he entered the breakroom on his first day as spa director. He was the only one in the room in a suit jacket. “For the bet...

3 comments 3
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“The Choices We Made Again And Again; A Poem That Only Ends When You Let It” by P. T. Golden

Submitted to Contest #174

Chronicles multiple years of mass shootingsThe choices we made again and againTen bodies hit the floorEight more the week beforeOn the job, or out buying foodAll it takes is to die, is a bad moodAt the movies, in your churchesIt all started with a purchaseA gunFor funOr defendA friendEmotionLeads to motionTwitching fingerIs the bringerOf deathAnd bereftBlack and brownHit the groundLives cast asideIn a hellward slideSociety on a pathLead by wrathThoughts and prayers for the deadBut we must defend our leadIt’s our right to own the gunThat took...

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“The University Student” by Alexander Hanna

Submitted to Contest #174

The University Student“I don’t understand this world,” the university student agonized to himself. “What is this madness I’ve been thrust into?”  Nighttime was never a good time for the university student. Exhaustion from reading through the many pages of human life and society throughout the species existence, combined with his anxiety and depression from thinking too much about the darker side of humanity, created a sharp strain on the crown of his skull. He rubbed the hair covering the strain, hoping the ache would subside.The l...

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“Lamplighter” by Christopher Biery

Submitted to Contest #174

I’m an oil man, in broad terms. My fingers were made black from years of smut, and by the time I settled down, I could hardly remember what my real hands looked like. The dye is fading, and so am I. Perhaps it’s time. I made my start working in the Navy yard. I was nine years of age, rolling empty barrels aboard ship after ship. “Reworking material” they called it, hauling used barrels back down the coast. As a lad, there wasn’t much money in it, at first. I worked for scraps and loose change, and mercy from the men. The yard had become m...

2 comments 2
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“Beauty Queen Brushoff ” by April GIBSON

Submitted to Contest #174

“I’m worried about Annabelle.” The matter-of-fact statement was discharged into an otherwise silent room. Its recipient, a salt-n-pepper-haired gentleman in his early forties, was intently glued to the computer screen before him.  “Yeah…” came his slow reply. “Yeah. She’s had to leave all of her friends. She knows no one here. She has very little interest in getting to know anyone. She has very little interests for that matter--” The woman, clearly Annabelle’s mother, stopped her pacing and ranting to stare directly at her husband. “Par...

3 comments 3
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“Seven” by Justine Klavon

Submitted to Contest #174

 “I think you should come live with me, and we can be pirates.”   The short but gorgeous Taylor Swift song hit my ears through my earbuds as I pushed on against the bitter Illinois wind. I was walking alone back to my barracks on the Great Lakes Naval Station base from having dinner at the galley on a cold December evening. Even though I was bundled up with my fleece liner inside my uniform parka and my black knit cap covering my ears, the wind coming off of Lake Michigan bit and tore at my exposed skin.   “Seven" wa...

0 comments 0
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“Her Ray (Only the Moon: Episode II)” by Sarah Rich

Submitted to Contest #174

“Noah!” Violette screeched.Noah jogged through the small, concrete space housing his friend’s array of plants. They’d lived and thrived for over a month since Violette convinced him to travel underground. As a self-taught botanist, he wasn’t confident in his skill at all, but he refused to admit it. He guessed he was worth something if Violette wanted him on her crew to ‘revive the world.’“Noah!” she howled a second time. “I think I did it!”“What?” he heaved. “What did you do?”“I’ve finally got a powerful enough ray, and it won’t melt your h...

2 comments 2
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“Brotherly Love” by Bella Fox

Submitted to Contest #174

I couldn’t stop pacing in the stables. Bastian was grooming Balder and shooting me nervous looks, but I couldn’t bring myself to acknowledge him, as I was still fuming over my brother putting my invitation to his wedding in with the traitors. I thought, not for the first time that morning, about how different things would be if Priamos hadn’t been killed.            My oldest brother had never understood me, much like the rest of my family, but unlike them, he made an effort to connect w...

8 comments 8
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“atelophobia” by C. Batt

Submitted to Contest #174

"I know this... thing is important to you, but don't you think you're going a little too far?" "I can honestly say I have no idea what you're talking about." Amira bites her lip. Elodie stirs her tea with a swirl of her finger, stopping on the tenth turn and pulling it to her lips with a come hither gesture.  She decides to try again. "When was the last time you slept?" "This morning." Elodie sets the cup down with a little pat, pale green wisps of her magic disappearing beneath it. "For three hours. That counts, doesn't it?" "Did you f...

6 comments 6
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$250

Prize money

238

Contest entries

96

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 02, 2022 EST

Won by Sam Porter 🏆

Title: Playing God

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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