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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

“The Monsters” by Geir Westrul

Submitted to Contest #196

1567Edinburgh“I’ll gie ye a skelpit lug!”His father followed through on his promise, landing a slap on Brod’s ear so hard it made the inside of the young boy’s head ring like a great bell.Brod began keening, tears running down his soot-smudged cheeks.“Haud yer wheesht, and stop yer greetin'.” Donald Munro gave his son a squint-eyed glare under bushy eyebrows above a great, big, bulbous, broken-veined drunkard’s nose. “Dae ye want the whole hoose tae wake up and catch us in th’act o' thievin'?”Donald Munro gave his son a hard shove. Brod fell...

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“Finding Roots in my Boots” by Morgan Thompson

Submitted to Contest #196

“Your life is not a fairytale country song,” my recent ex said as I packed my car with the few belongings I had in our home with my name on them. Mostly from the kitchen. “George Strait would beg to differ; I am going to write my own country love song with a happy ending!” I said as I angrily slammed my SUV’s door shut.I put my car in reverse and sped out of our gated community in proper Las Vegas. As I drove out of the golden gates, I vowed to find my Knight in Shining Armor…or cowboy boots. Forget this town, I wanted to go back to my roots...

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“Try” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #196

Was it clear from the message what they wanted him to do? * The letter arrived in a beautiful envelope, with his name and address written in embossed letters on red glossy paper. He had woken up that morning wondering if he was going to speak to his neighbor about their dog and their children again (they were always teasing the poor thing when he saw them in their yard). At his front door, he picked up the letter and thought that this might be another joke. But as he read the note inside, he realized that this was a real company and that he ...

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“Bottled Time” by Anne Shillingsburg

Submitted to Contest #196

The perfume jars started accumulating before Gemini’s birth, an accidental collection in which Francine felt no real interest for many years. The first was a gift from Francine’s college roommate, who brought it back from a trip to Egypt on the mistaken impression that anyone as interested in her appearance as Francine would also love perfume. She did not. To her it smelled like a chemistry lab and gave her headaches, but the little glass jar was pretty and she couldn’t smell the contents when the stopper was in. She hadn’t meant for it to b...

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“The Time and Space Furnace, Episode 1: Sanlun Che” by Anne Shillingsburg

Submitted to Contest #196

“But did it even really happen?” Dewan wants to know. “We both remember it, so it must have, right?” Mindy answers, kicking up some dirt with her worn sneaker. “Are those the rules?” He shrugs with sweeping hands. Mindy’s face looks blank with just a hint of “you’re supposed to be the brainiac, why isn’t it obvious to you?” “What I mean is, teleporting tricycles and stopped time are not part of the regular rules, so what’s to say that those things happened and not this other thing that breaks the rule, where we remember the same thi...

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“Chat To Me (Emily's Story)” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #196

My toddler has been crying since yesterday. I really need to turn this thing off soon.“Emily, You can’t go offline now,” my teammate Zeke says, always pushing the mission as usual.“He’s right.” Freya’s face appears, looking concerned. “You promised to stay with us until the trial.” She is the easy-going one, so when she gets serious, that's a sign something is important.We are on our way to the trial of Copernicus to present arguments for clemency. If we don’t reach Rome by 1616 and petition the Pope, the timeline will see Galileo hange...

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“In Another Life” by Miljana Djuric

Submitted to Contest #196

The dinner was finally over. John and I were picking up the dishes in the kitchen. Not a word was spoken by him and I could feel his anger boiling up inside him. He avoided even looking at me, which made me feel worse. I didn’t know what to say, so I kept my mouth shut and focused on the task at hand. I placed a stack of plates in the sink and turned on the water. The moment I turned away from him, I could feel his eyes on me, burning holes in my back. I hated when we went to bed like this, with him angry and not talking abou...

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“Lydia” by Kylah Adams

Submitted to Contest #196

The sounds of keys hitting the table and pipes groaning as the faucet pours water into the basin wake me from what was already fitful sleep. The water cuts off and the door hinges creak. I hear the window squeak open and smile to myself as the other side of the bed dips down. A draft cools me for a moment when she pulls the blankets back but just as quickly as the warmth fled, it comes flooding back with her body heat. I hear the steady rhythm of her breathing as she falls into a deep sleep, I soon follow. The smell of bacon and pan...

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“Letters I Cannot Write” by MSP _

Submitted to Contest #196

Dear You, The sun still shines, the moon still cries. The sand remains warm, beneath my feet, and the ocean tide ceaselessly roars far in the distance. Everything in sight remains the same around me, yet I can feel that everything has changed. The calendar on my bedroom wall flips its pages by, in no way fit to measure the time that has passed since your path interrupted mine. The humidity of one autumn night, under that deceiving fairytale of blinding floodlights. My shaking hands reached forward to yours, which too could not rema...

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“Dad's Dream” by Bernie Rhodes

Submitted to Contest #196

Dad wanted to get back to his origins. He was burned out and sick of his sales management job, which he had held since 1949 when my parents were married. Dad was tired of constant travel all over the state, conducting meetings and listening to the route salespeople make excuses for their lack of productivity. He was feed-up with the greasy restaurant food, lumpy hotel beds, and depressed over the isolation. It had been fifteen years, and he was ready for a change. He fantasized about havin...

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“Purple Tears” by Theresa Amante

Submitted to Contest #196

Diary Entry: 1_Timeline: Earth2, Day 1 Everyone’s heard of dark matter, but now the hot topic is strange matter. We caused so much chaos when we discovered that. Geneva shook for 4 days straight. Anyways, today is my first day on Earth2. I got clearance to time step from General Stern. Basically, you round up a lot of strange matter then inject it with the energy of one billion split atoms, and then use that force to fold the matter like a blanket, prior to ripping it a new hole. Then, you just step through. It’s only open for about 3 second...

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“Speaking of Me” by David B Fraser

Submitted to Contest #196

I awoke another day in the Mens’ Shelter. They had moved all the lockers to the middle of the room and I hated that. It was so much easier to steal when they had had them against the walls between the beds. I forced my self to the communal toilets. I showered and found some fresh donated clothing to change into on the shelves. I discarded my old clothing into a donation box where they would get washed and to start a new life on someone else’s sorry arse. I forwent shaving as the long haired, long bearded, scruffy...

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“The Hawthorne Lights” by A.J Roberts

Submitted to Contest #196

The year was 1990 and everyone thought Becky Pierson was the meanest girl in Hawthorne. She believed she was destined for fame and fortune. Living in a small rural village was her biggest inconvenience. The day was very warm and the school bus ride home was becoming unbearable. Becky was getting ornery, so she scanned the bus for a distraction. That’s when she noticed the two girls sitting three rows in front of her. They left their bus window up when every other window was down. They were much younger than Becky. Still in elementary sc...

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“Lost in the Woods” by Genevieve Masters

Submitted to Contest #196

When I left my apartment this morning, I did not realize how cold the wind would feel. I can feel the wind biting at my face and can only guess how red my cheeks have grown from the cold. I have walked these trails before when I needed to get some inspiration. The wind has never been able to make its way through the thick crop of trees in this area of the Smoky Mountains when I have hiked them many times before. I knew better than to come out to the forest at this time of the year, but I needed to get away from home. I’ve been crampe...

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“The Reflection of the Water” by Aliza Palmer

Submitted to Contest #196

February 2014: I stood there. I felt ill. I looked over and saw all these people counting on me. I saw Bea waving at me from the millions of spectators, I saw Anna, my coach, her eyes hopeful but calm, and then- I looked down, the blue water waiting. Waiting for me to take that leap, to jump. It sparkled, and I felt like I was about to pass out. I shouldn’t jump, something inside of me was saying ‘don’t do it’. But…I couldn’t let them down. Everyone was counting on me. So even though my legs felt like jelly, and I couldn’t stop shaking, I ju...

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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.

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