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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#196: In Another Life

Recently, I’ve been reflecting on the way making a single decision, big or small, can cause your life to fork off in an entirely new direction. There are the obvious crossroads, the big life choices, and then there are the tiny ones; ones we fail to notice are taking place every single day. Waiting at the crosswalk instead of jaywalking, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, spending an extra 10 minutes scrolling through social media — even these non-events can make the difference between a life-altering incident happening, or not happening.

But what if we could access those paths we didn’t take? Would we go back and choose a different route for our lives? What if we could sense those “sliding doors” moments as they happened? This week's prompts are inspired by this classic sci-fi dilemma, and by the coulda, shoulda, woulda’s we all live with every day.

This week's prompts

Write about a character unknowingly experiencing a “sliding doors” moment. Write your story in two halves; what could have been, and what actually happened.

Dramatic – 62 stories

Write a story that includes the phrase “Maybe in another life.”

Dialogue – 74 stories

You’re walking down the street, when you spot a familiar figure. It’s another you. And they’ve come from an alternate reality to warn you about something.

Thriller and Suspense – 32 stories

Write a story involving a portal into a parallel universe.

Science Fiction – 61 stories

Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

Dystopian – 50 stories

Stories

“A news article from 2098 uncovering the origins of Earth's war with Planet 147B ” by Rita Enchanted

Submitted to Contest #196

The global devastations of the Third World War left the world in ruins. There were no victories, only people left traumatized. Major cities had been obliterated and many countries' governments broke down. There was a need for unity and a new world order, leading to the election of the president of Earth in the year 2054. Under the president’s leadership, the world was able to build itself back up and for the first time in human history Earth was completely at peace. This new form of world government proved to be very effective...

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“Whale Watching” by R.M. Jansen-Parkes

Submitted to Contest #196

The sun was already shining when Memphis woke up, and his Mom was sitting on the end of the bed. She was smiling, though her eyes were wet and red.Memphis glanced at the clock on his bedroom wall. He hesitated for a moment, trying to remember which hand was the hour and which was the minutes, and jolted when he realized it was almost nine."Mom, it's…" he started, but she shushed him with a finger."Don't worry, honey," she said. "Don't worry.""But how am I gonna' get to…""No school today," she interrupted, a grin spreading across her face. "W...

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“Running Down The Empty Road” by PADMA RAMAKRISHNAN

Submitted to Contest #196

Jayne is running down the empty road towards her house, which is also empty unbeknownst to her. She enters the house panting and screams out for her family members one by one, each time her voice breaks a little more. This is her worst fear, she’d heard stories of this happening to other people, but she never thought it would happen to her. Now her best friend, their family, and her family are all gone. It was like they’d been taken away from her like her world had been ripped apart until she was left with no one. No one to trust, no one to ...

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“Aika” by Emory Pearson

Submitted to Contest #196

I was shaken out of my slumber by a dirty old man attempting to remove my boots. I jolted off the makeshift mattress I had assembled on the gravel surrounding the factory. I thought I had found a hiding spot to safely catch a few minutes of rest before attempting to find paying work. But who was I kidding, there were no safe spots to hide on the streets of Manu. I shoved the leathered old man away and he fell backwards with a crackle. The gravel was laced with broken glass, metal shards and other non-identifiable scraps of refuse that clatte...

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“A Cancer in Time” by Daniel James

Submitted to Contest #196

It had been a week since the incident, one day since the funeral, and my grandfather had yet to reach out. Every text and call I made to him went without response, and then today my phone finally dinged and showed his name pop up on the lock screen. He was coming over. I had considered going to his flat before hearing from him, but he had always handled grief in his own very specific way. Mom had once told me that when she was a child and she had first been diagnosed with ca...

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“If Only She Didn't Sit There” by Poppy LaC.

Submitted to Contest #196

(TW: Sensitive content, guns)“Bye mom, I’ll see you after soccer practice!” My crocs squeaked as I headed out the door. My Jansport backpack bobbed up and down as I walked to the bus stop. The yellow bus creaked loudly, as always. The heavy smell of gasoline had always grossed me out. I've never been able to deal with the nasty, black smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe. I grabbed onto the old, rusty handrails. “When I was a kid, I got tetanus from those.” My old, crusty bus driver announced to me. “Yes, I know. You say that every day.” I j...

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“Wrong Turn” by Misti Silvers

Submitted to Contest #196

After leaving work, Marty decided to take a drive. Feeling bored with his usual routine, he wanted something different. Deciding to take the scenic route, he turned opposite of the street he usually drove. After a few blocks he began closely examining his surroundings and was impressed by some of the businesses he wasn’t previously aware of. Trying to take it all in, he was shocked to see a park that was unfamiliar to him. Not sure if it was from lack of attention or he had ventured somewhere new. Smiling at the sight of t...

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“Salad and Karma” by Ian James

Submitted to Contest #196

===𝟬𝟵:𝟬𝟬 𝗮𝗺===Oh my gosh, you guys, I'm practically bursting with excitement today! I'm warning you now, this is gonna be a loooong post. And I'm going to keep updating you throughout the day, which is totally not like me, right? But tonight is super special, and I just have to share it with all of you.So, the big event? Our graduation party at SMK Siring Jalan! But that's not all. Us girls are going all out, and I'm so grateful to our teachers for understanding and letting us wear makeup and dress to the nines. I mean, we're grown-ups now, ...

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“Joshua's Choice” by Clare Horwood

Submitted to Contest #196

The day dawned with a mist that seemed to permeate everywhere and everything. Joshua woke, rubbed his eyes, hopeful always that he wouldn't be in the same place where he had gone to sleep. On opening his eyes fully, he realised that unfortunately he was in the same place. It was the corner of a small attic at the top of a big apartment building in the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. He was squashed up against the wall on a dirty lumpy mattress with no pillow and only a very thin grey blanket for cover. Joshua was hungry, but then he was always hung...

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“Therapy for the Other Life” by Stephanie Galay

Submitted to Contest #196

"Scrolling through comments from internet trolls was my latest procrastination technique." I focused on my hands, folded in my lap, to avoid looking in his eyes. "It wasn't a healthy thing to do, I know, but it worked. It killed time like a spree killer on crack. It could remove untold hours from a day when I didn't track it. That's what I was doing when the slip happened." I snuck a peak and the expression that met me was not one of utter disbelief, so I continued, my gaze back on my hands. "I call it the slip, because that's what it felt l...

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“Forgotten” by Zoe Pazner

Submitted to Contest #196

In front of me stood a house. The edges of the house seemed to blur and mix in with the greenery around it. This was an old fashioned house. It sat in the middle of two other brownstones, pushed back farther from the street then the others. Vines cascaded from the top of the house to the bottom, slowly spreading out to the houses around it like a spider's web. A tree with small white flowers dipped down to greet me as the wind tickled its leaves. I stepped forward, opening the gate. The gate was black, carefully crafted so the top arched dow...

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“Mr. Pools” by Vivian Vix

Submitted to Contest #196

I always like pushing Mr.Pools around. He always has the best stories...not of treasure won or lost....or dragons slain and robots defeated. His stories were about a life lived well and the lessons he lived to now tell me. His wheelchair hits the same dip it does everyday and...yep..here comes the conspirital giggle it evokes.....making me laugh loudly in response...it gets me everytime.His stories are worth hearing. He tells of a life of crime....a life of family won and lost...where he was the thing people feared to tread near. Of life liv...

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“Chariot” by Chuck Thompson

Submitted to Contest #196

He died. Well, not right away. It was a process that took time, several twists and the unexpected. Sitting on his front porch, relaxed in his wicker porch swing, staring blankly into that much-belabored middle distance, a stunningly fast minivan-sized shimmer barreled at him from his right. Several years ago, in Bali, our porch swing guy was known in a wonderful circle that included tourists from several Asian countries and myriad belief systems. And these strangers loved him. As he strolled through touristy parts of Ubu...

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“Silver Linings” by Jennifer Chan

Submitted to Contest #196

After all these years, his number is still the same.“Do you remember when we were 17 and the school held a fair at that old abandoned factory lot at the end of Magnolia Street? That probably wasn’t very safe, but then again, times were different then, weren’t they? There was this ride—I don’t recall what it was called now, but it swooped up and down and sideways—anyway, Sally Jenkins swore it made her stomach drop and her teeth clatter, so I had to try it, but as soon as the ride attendant strapped me in, of course that’s when I realized tha...

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“ Levetica's song” by Jasmine Crenshaw

Submitted to Contest #196

"Jasmine!" A loud voice screamed to me from inside the telephone. "Yes? This is Jasmine from M Court Circle." I considered the single lettering of Morris. "It's all about you Levetica." "I apologize, she died today. It's an hospital." The purpose Levetica telephoned people was because she'd seen names plus numbers on the desk inside a room place there for last minute emergencies. Whenever Levetica came to hospitals she'd bring the card plus her birth certificate that told police her identity. Levetica wasn't taught English in school but was ...

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$250

Prize money

279

Contest entries

149

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 05, 2023 EST

Won by Delbert Griffith 🏆

Title: The Bullet that Esther Stopped

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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