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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#180: A Roll of the Dice

Despite all our skill and effort, sometimes life simply comes down to luck. Whether you’re trying to win a game, land a job, or find a significant other, there’s no sure way to know how it’ll work out — or how good your luck will be. A twist of fate could send you catapulting into happiness, or your luck could sour in the blink of an eye. But if you can push through bad luck, you might just find you can change it.

So this week, you’ll want to get your rabbits’ feet and four leaf clovers ready. Are you feeling lucky?

This week's prompts

Write a story that hinges on the outcome of a coin flip.

Adventure – 68 stories

Start your story with someone having a run of bad luck.

Angst – 42 stories

Write about someone losing their lucky charm.

Mystery – 26 stories

Set your story in a casino.

Adults – 34 stories

Write about someone whose luck is running out.

Character – 44 stories

Stories

“The Brighter Side ” by Diamond Star

Submitted to Contest #180

“Get out of the way lady!”Jolted, I take an awkward step back, spilling the over priced coffee I waited fifteen minutes for all over my pale pink blouse. “Watch it, asshole!” I yell back while leaning forward, futilely attempting to blot the stain. The careless bicyclist waves me off with a dismissive hand, already turning the corner.“Great, now I’ll have to stop home to change” I mutter to myself just as my phone rings. I lower my large tote bag from my shoulder to the crease in my elbow, pushing around the stack of papers, tissues, chocola...

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“Fateful Luck” by Nathalie Lacoste-Hofmann

Submitted to Contest #180

“Alright you two, let’s get home.” The young mother searches her red purse for a tissue to mop the nose of one of her charges on this cold January day. She has on each arm bags from children’s clothing and shoe stores. Her own attire is worn. Her grey wool coat is thinning. A small hole makes an appearance as she raises her arm to hitch her purse higher on her shoulder. The black of her boots is dappled with much lighter spots from years of scuffing. As she searches, a paper flutters out of her purse while she rushes ...

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“Four Leaf Clover” by Kenzie Ramirez

Submitted to Contest #180

They say bad luck comes in threes. Your cat dies, your car tire goes flat, and your job calls you to tell you business has been slow and your hours are being cut. Sound familiar? Or maybe it’s something small. You break your favorite watch, you stub your toe, and you dropped that twenty dollars in your wallet walking down the street. All bad things, all at the worst time. All consecutively in a row. For me it only seems to keep piling on. Not just three events but four, five, seven even. A death in the family. A last minute mov...

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“SAMMY THE BEAR” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #180

I lost it. I can't find it anywhere.I looked all over the place, in every room in my house but it's nowhere to be found. My lucky charm is missing. The one thing I have cherished since my childhood is gone. Sammy the bear is gone. Sammy the bear, my teddy bear since I was seven has been my friend when I needed one. My comforter in my time of need. Sammy the bear has always been there for me and now when I need Sammy he's nowhere to be found. What am I going to do without Sammy? I know it's crazy to say that about a stuffed bear but there...

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“The Cosmic Egg” by Sav Lightwood

Submitted to Contest #180

"Hey kid, you seem awful young to be here. Show me your ID." "ID? I'm afraid I don't... have one?" "Excellent, please come in." Everything, all at once, greets you like a flood. It's difficult to explain with the language you're familiar with. If I tried to do so in my own tongue, your entire being would rupture in comprehension into a billow of debris. Let us avoid that. Consider it the accumulation of all that existed since time immemorial, and all foreseeable futures to come. At first, you sense it as two things. A distinct metallic...

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“The Penny Machine” by Cheryl Good

Submitted to Contest #180

The rain dripped on her tattered sofa from the new leak in the living room. Margaret moved the sofa to the other side of the room to set the paint bucket strategically underneath the soaked ceiling. “If it’s not one thing it’s another,” she flopped on the dry section of the sofa. Massaging her temples as she listened to the constant drip of the small droplets of water hitting the empty bucket. It had been raining non-stop for the past few days. She chastised herself for not allowing her brother-in-law to patch it up last fall. The hund...

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“Misfortunate” by Chad Eastwood

Submitted to Contest #180

There’s no predicting me. I can’t even predict myself. I went to a fortune teller, a card reader, and I paid her twenty dollars and she looked at me and she gave me the money back and said, I can’t do anything with you at all – there’s no predicting you. That’s the kind of guy I am. I could wake up in the morning believing in all kinds of things, and before the days out I’m a complete sceptic about all of them. One day I’m a scientist, the next I’m I Pentecostal minister. That’s the kind of person you’re dealing with here. So be warned, you ...

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“Midnight Luck” by Ralph Emery Barhydt

Submitted to Contest #180

It was late on a Thursday night. Ralph had driven all the way to Santa Rosa earlier to buy this extra special rifle because he liked the gun shop. Well, and it was one of the very few left in the Bay Area, anti-gun buying capital of the world. The Bay Area had it’s share of random killings and had even started the trend of mass killings back in the early ‘70s when some lunatic took is automatic weapon into a law firm and start killing people. The firm was in tall, modern building in downtown San Francisco and the world was shocked. People ju...

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“The Mercenary's Lament” by Shin Gwata

Submitted to Contest #180

When Heron built his home, he did so as he’d always dreamed - as close to the edge of man’s world as he could reach. The Wastes were known for one thing - the further south one ventured, the quieter the cries of animals, and the duller the greens of fruitful trees. Down here, the dunes were unforgiving and caked with the dust of powdered bones. At the lowermost point of the Wastes, the sands gave way to an ashen swathe of soil and gravel. Here, Heron found stones just strong enough to form stable walls. The trees, bereft as they were of...

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“May Flower” by Cecelia Crowley

Submitted to Contest #180

There was once a crisp, yellow flower that had not recently bloomed but had bloomed a while ago, in the previous season. Not a shed of deterioration had fallen upon this golden beauty, for it had been standing freshly firm and stargazingly strong since its bloom. A large spring storm was approaching, one which screams destructive havoc among the unprotected crops, fields, and gardens. Luckily for the resilient yet now endangered flower, a frail yet attentive old lady named May had noticed the sturdy, yellow flower outside of her farm...

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“The Second Suitcase” by Duncan Fletcher

Submitted to Contest #180

“I dont feel great Dave” Helen said, shaking her husband fully awake. Dave groggily rolled over. The night hadnt been great. His wife had tossed and turned and Dave had been lying on the edge of the mattress so as not to disturb her. “I really dont feel well” Helen turned the bedside lamp on, and attempted to sit up, the soft glow of a circle of light next to her. Dave could see her thinning brown hair was even limper than normal, slicked to her head with sweat. His own was standing to attention at every angle. He sat up, turning his light o...

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“The Price of Beauty” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #180

Jenny fidgeted with the weights on the scale in front of her and audibly blew a breath out. One hundred and twenty two pounds. Up a pound from last time she weighed herself, the day before. And two pounds up from last month. What was happening to her? She stepped off the scale and looked into the mirror. She put both manicured hands on either side of her face and pulled the skin taut up a bit. Much better. Then released her hands resulting in a frown. She took a step back and turned sideways ...

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“Darius Düsterwald's Lucky Medicine” by Kimberly Gold

Submitted to Contest #180

Tom rang the round button next to the door and was startled by the shrill sound of the doorbell, which rang through the quiet neighbourhood. As they stood waiting, Tom could feel his mother’s growing apprehension behind him. She had never talked much about her hometown or her father. In fact, Tom knew as good as nothing about one half of his family.He examined the old wooden door in front of him and saw that it had a name carved in its wood. ‘Darius Düsterwald’, he said aloud and realised that his mother had never told him his grandfather’s ...

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“The Flip” by Jacqueline Ruzicka

Submitted to Contest #180

The Flip One, two, three, four. Flip. The dim overhead light flickers, typical. One, two, three, four. Flip. The walls of the tiny, grungy bathroom stall covered in some drunk asshole’s chicken scratch feel oddly comforting at 11pm on a Tuesday. One, two, three, four. Flip. This little tick is nothing new. It’s something she’s been doing as far back as she can remember. Always the same coin, an old vintage English pound given to her by her grandfather. The metal and gold border with Her Majesty’s stoic portrait gleaming even in the dim li...

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“A little experiment” by Héctor Zalik

Submitted to Contest #180

He arrived at the genetics lab with bored eyes. Another bacterial culture, another fluorescent fish, again a mouse modified to measure insulin resistance. Henry turned to his colleagues Rose and Tyler. “Why can't we do something interesting here?” “These are the projects the university pays us for. And they seem pretty important to me, the mice had responded successfully to the new diabetes drug,” Rose said. Tyler just lifted his shoulders and kept looking through the microscope. Henry raised his voice. “No no, let's ha...

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$250

Prize money

214

Contest entries

99

Stories

Ended on 22:59 - Jan 13, 2023 EST

Won by Marilyn Filewood 🏆

Title: Come In Spinner

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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