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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#176: Magic in the Air

Do you feel that? That almost imperceptible shift you can’t quite place?

Maybe it’s magic. Forces at work right under our noses. Powers we just don’t have the senses to detect — outside what scientists call our “umwelt,” or the slice of the world we’re able to see, hear, and feel.

This week, let your stories be guided by this question: what if, alongside things like electrical fields and infrared waves, there are magical forces in the world that we just can’t perceive?

This week's prompts

Write a story involving a magical potion — which may or may not work.

Fantasy – 58 stories

Start your story with someone witnessing magic from a hiding place.

Fantasy – 52 stories

Cast a magician (a real one, or a party entertainer) as your story’s protagonist.

Adventure – 26 stories

Write a story told from the point of view of an animal.

Kids – 49 stories

Set your story in a magical bookshop.

Fluff – 46 stories

Stories

“The Willow's Vines” by Grace Hodges

Submitted to Contest #176

It had been a week since I had mysteriously appeared in a world I could hardly memorize the name of. Apparently that's what you get for wishing on the right shooting star. It had been a strange few days, from the weird words people used instead of others, to the mystifying sight of magic every time I saw it, which was quite a lot all things considered. I had been struggling to find the right words for my situation, the uniqueness of it and the peculiarity of everything. It was what I had wished for, of course, but that had been an offhande...

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“My auntie’s bookstore ” by V. Yura

Submitted to Contest #176

You must have noticed how the demand for magic has grown these days. Every second one is interested in astrology, every fifth one reads tarot, and every tenth one considers themselves a follower of Norwegian or Druidic paganism. So it is not surprising that so many windows with signs like "Tarot Reader", "Palm Reader", and "Crystal Reader" appeared on the streets. Did you notice? Everyone is a reader! Maybe because everything just starts with reading? It starts with childhood fairy tales that your mother read to...

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“Bottled” by Jonathan Morris

Submitted to Contest #176

“Do you think it will work?” Lettie eyed the small bottle into which I was decanting a thin gray liquid from a small cauldron, roughly the volume of a large muskmelon. I was taking great care not to disturb the sediment that precipitated to the bottom of the cauldron as I slowly, carefully filled the bottle for Lettie. “It just looks like dirty water,” she grumbled, eyeing the coppers in her hand, payment for my services, and wondering if it was worth such a sum. I sighed, trying carefully not to break my concentration. “I assure you this is...

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“A NEW TOWN POTION” by Gregory Day

Submitted to Contest #176

The move to a new town is always exciting. Meeting new people, seeing new sights and eating in completely new restaurants just to name a few of things.Mark and Cindy arrived in southern Illinois in the spring of 2015 but it wasn’t without some difficulty.They had wanted to move closer to their grandkids who lived in central Illinois but the house search took Mark and Cindy farther south than they really wanted to be. It was getting more affordable the further south they went. Weather got nasty with thunder, lightning and flooding the further...

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“Jumpstart Café” by Grace Kabliska

Submitted to Contest #176

Addie swore under her breath at the iced coffee that now covered her favorite pair of blue jeans. She was already in a bad mood after the nagging conversation with her mother earlier that morning, and now she had wet pants and no coffee. After rifling around in her purse for a moment, Addie pulled out a tube marked Stain-Be-Gone! and applied it to the dark spot on her jeans. In seconds, the spot faded away until all that was left was a small damp patch in the fabric. Now, onto her second problem: coffee. Addie couldn’t handle her obno...

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“A Dream of Bavaria” by Mason -

Submitted to Contest #176

It was hard for me to wake up. I had been up all night taking shot after shot, and buying for anyone that could stomach more. It was a certain mixed drink that the bartender pushed me to try that really put me over the edge. It wasn’t even on the menu, and it came in a glass bottle closed off with a cork. I had already been too drunk to worry about any consequences, but I wished that I had. My head was pounding as I slipped out of the covers and opened the blinds in front of me. The light seemed to pierce my skull as it entered the room, my ...

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“Music and Magic” by James Reed

Submitted to Contest #176

1 'Old Steve' is how most folks referred to him. He was a story teller, a home-grown oral historian with a prodigious memory. People of all ages listened to him. He was 12 years old when he arrived in town on a September day in 1906 and joined the crowd celebrating the completion of the railroad. The town was finally connected to the outer world by something that didn't involve horses. Orpahed at age five, he was passed between families. He never got past the eighth grade. An adventurous kid, he had hitched a ride as a brakeman on a suppl...

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“Mirror, mirror” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #176

-"Once upon a time..." -"Let me stop you right there mom!" my daughter replies. -"Why?" I act surprised. "You used to love stories, especially in December." -"Yeah, yeah: the bleak midwinter is the season for storytelling." she sighs. -"That's the spirit" I happily exclaim. -"You are a storytelling animal, mom." she jokes, "But please don't start with once upon a time, I hate stories that start with once upon a time." -"Okay, no problem. You have your way." I come to a compromise, "If you can bring yourself to put down that eternal iPhone." ...

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“Never Trust a Magician” by Gregg Punger

Submitted to Contest #176

A tall mysterious stranger wearing a slightly, worn multicolored coat and a tall purple top hat strode into the middle of the town square with a box under his arm catching a few of the townspeople’s eyes, but not stopping them from going about their business. He put the box down right in the middle of the square, hopped surprisingly nimbly on top, and exclaimed, “Gather round, gather round, for I have a story to tell.” His exclamation caused some of the townspeople to stop and all of them to look his way. “Please, please, don’t make me ye...

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“La Magie” by Hannah Reed

Submitted to Contest #176

In. Out. In. Out. I take a small step out of my bedroom. Carefully. Silently. My mind, always the contrarian, flashes back to my mother catching me at age eight with a smeared face and handfuls of Kouign Amann hiding in our kitchen dumbwaiter. But, as I creep towards her drawing room, I know that a sore behind is a better punishment than the one I would reap if Madame Riche was to see me creeping along her foyer late at night. As my caretaker, the Madame is my North Star. She instructs me in the way that I, as a high society lady, should s...

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“Magical Night” by Chase Stuart

Submitted to Contest #176

The room is average size, the walls are bookshelves overflowing with books and journals and papers. There’s a table in the middle of the room with herbs, plants and animal parts as well as beakers and vials on it. The floor holds piles of more books and loose pieces of paper are scattered on it. Against the wall opposite the door there is a standing cupboard. The one door from the cupboard is closed tight, the other is open just a crack, just enough for someone to peek through. Hailey was crouched down in the cupboard looking through the cra...

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“Flick” by Judith Von Esh

Submitted to Contest #176

There it was again. Flick. Flutter. Flick. In the stillness and silence, there it was. Old Jack rubbed his eyes with the grimy callused fingertips poking out of his fingerless gloves. He pushed the thick Yankee beanie further above his furrowed and wrinkled brow. He alternated between widening his eyes and squinting his eyes. He shifted his weight, his dirty boots discoloring the snow underfoot. Clouds of panicked condensation swirled around his large nose in quick bursts. Heart pounding, tripping, and stuttering, Old J...

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“"Magician" Turned Magician” by Keith Maynard Jr

Submitted to Contest #176

Heels can be heard storming down the passageway, yet they aren’t heard. Quickly the heels approach the open bedroom, there sprawled on the bed he lays with one hand resting on the clock’s snooze button. The heels stop right at the bedroom’s entrance, their owner stands wide-eyed at the sight in front of her. Precociously she approaches the bed and strokes his hair and cheek with the back of her hand. She whispers, “Baby, baby, it’s time to get up”. At the same time, she grips the bed sheet and kisses him on the cheek before yanking the she...

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“Moomy” by Valerie Church

Submitted to Contest #176

‘Clang! The cage vibrated as the metal grid snapped down to block Moomy’s escape. He panicked, searching frantically for an exit, biting at the mesh that enclosed him. Dad rabbit had warned him, if you’re hungry, don’t go for anything that’s not growing in the ground. Those two-legged creatures leave chunks of stuff lying around in all kinds of strange places. They’ll try and trap you, he’d said. Be very careful. A selfish lot, they don’t want to share the plants they grow. M...

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“Aww-ooh-wooh-wooh” by Douglas W. Carr

Submitted to Contest #176

I must’ve been around eight weeks old when the commotion began. There were a lot of strangers visiting and our caretakers were having plenty of conversations with them. All my brothers and sisters, including me, were allowed outside to run and play freely in the yard when someone visited. There were eight of us with all sorts of colors. My mom was black with curly hair and my dad was reddish gold with wavy hair. In time, I learned that my mom was a Labradoodle, that’s half Labrador Retriever and half Poodle. It seemed like an odd mix, but ...

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$250

Prize money

231

Contest entries

111

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 16, 2022 EST

Won by Kylah Adams 🏆

Title: I Knew Better

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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