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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#197: Fate and Free Will

It’s an eternal question. Are our lives governed by our own actions, or subject to the powers of destiny? Religions, philosophers, writers, and everyday folk have been arguing about it for centuries, and we still don’t have a definitive answer. Stories of heroes locked into tragic fates they can’t escape make up a large portion of our oldest myths and legends. Yet modern stories tend to paint their protagonists as free will incarnate. Even so, there are still plenty that play with destiny.

This week, we want to explore the age-old conundrum of heroes. Are we in charge of our fate? Or is it all in the hands of some unknowable power laying out our path forward?

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone successfully — or unsuccessfully — escaping their fate.

Angst – 107 stories

Write about a god desperately trying to get their chosen hero to follow the path they set out for them.

Fantasy – 61 stories

Write a story that includes the phrase “I’m free!”

Dialogue – 60 stories

Write about somebody who wholeheartedly believes in fate, and views every little thing through the lens of predestiny.

Character – 22 stories

Set your story in a world where everyone’s decisions are made for them. One morning, your character wakes up, and chooses not to go to work. Wait…chooses?!

Thriller and Suspense – 18 stories

Stories

“Justice Screams” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #197

Justice ScreamsChapter Five from my unpublished manuscript “A Brilliantly Scathing Life”. Part One of the book features chapters alternating between characters adjusting to life with the wagon train and time before joining the wagon train. Leroy was thrown from a horse and killed in the first Chapter (see Trampled Dreams and Trampled Dreams Part 2 in my profile).This chapter is some of Leroy's backstory. Shortly after Pappy passed away unexpectedly, Leroy decided the remaining Potter party members would be fine on their own. Their wagons wer...

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“Odd Luck” by Derrick M Domican

Submitted to Contest #197

His eyelids fluttered as the darkness behind them diminished and a soothing warmth settled on his face, like that of a cosy summer’s day.He started to bring movement to his body, spreading his fingers, wiggling his toes, tilting his head left and right as he came awake, squeezing his eyes tighter shut before blinking them open.He inhaled sharply as he took in his surroundings, the same surroundings he woke up to every time, the same ceiling, the same four-poster bed, the same floral patterned wallpaper and tapestries. To his left, the teak g...

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“SEVEN” by John Rutherford

Submitted to Contest #197

SEVEN – the lands of constraint and the infinitesimal. The lands were governed by seven rulers, representing, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth – named The Seven. These seven ruling figures governed by the dogma handed down from generations upon generations. No one questioned the dogma; it was followed blindly in every minute detail. Life itself was constrained by the dogma, tenets for a human life, all lives. In each life there were seven stages, each one was named an epoch. Seven epochs made up one living creature’s life...

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“Destiny’s Dice” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #197

We are all children of Destiny. People act as if life is complicated. No. Life is decisions. Luckily those decisions have already been made. We only have to follow the course laid out for us. My dice makes the will of Destiny clear. Ding ding ding. My hand thanks the alarm clock with a hearty smack. First choice of the day, sleep in or wake up? I pick the dice from the bedside table. 1-3: Sleep in. 4-6: Get up. 5. I get up, naked, dice in my hand. Next choice, shower or not? 3, time to shower then. Hot water runs over my body for 6 minutes...

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“The Tale of the Long-Lost Crown (and the Dimwit who Gave it Away)” by C. J. Peters

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #197

The god stood not before a grand throne, not in a sprawling hall of jewel-dripping nobles, not surrounded by tapestries depicting the great adventures of their chosen one. No, instead of manifesting in the castle towering over the kingdom, they instead stood in a modestly appointed home beyond the outskirts of the nearest town.They fumed at the sparsely decorated hall, the nice rug before a stone hearth, the simple dining table, fury scorching the fine wooden floor they stood upon.“Oh, do come in,” their hero said, an amused glint in his eye...

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“A Predestined Predilection” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #197

“It’s in the cards.”“What cards?”“The Fatum cards.”“What’s a Fatum card?”“It’s Latin for Fate.”“You mean to tell me that your whole day is dictated by stupid nonsense cards?”“Not just my day. My week, my month, my year.”“Your whole bloody life is what you’re trying to say.”“Pretty much.”“Hmm, have you been tested for Tourette Syndrome?”“I don’t have Tourette’s.”“How do you know?”“I have no tics.”“Everyone has tics. I have one.”“Yeah, what?”“Listening to you and your silly superstitions makes me wince a lot. See? Look, my cheek is twitching.”...

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“If The Shoe Fits” by Wally Schmidt

Submitted to Contest #197

“Of course the damn shoe didn’t fit. Whaddya think? I’d been bustin’ my keister off. Scrubbin’, cleanin’, cookin’ and all the rest. By the time I got to his crib my feet were so swollen, I traded my new Louboutins for flats. I figured with the long dress ‘n all no one was gonna know I did a switch-er-oo.”“How did that work out?” “Not great. After I ditched the party and called my Uber, I realized I only had one of the shoes in my bag and I must’ve left the other one behind. Somewhere. I turned that bag inside out and upside down, but th...

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“The Fire Dancer” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #197

The firmament’s secret circulatory system was suddenly illuminated by a shriek of ionized air. A vascular blast of light tore from the infinite down to the canopy of a waiting tree. The atmosphere roared in shock as the tree’s leaves rang with blitz-glitter and the branches kindled new light in the dark night. The heat-cracked trunk spat sparks onto the tinder-dry savannah and the world blazed. Homo Erectus cowered in the scrub, spellbound by the sight of the writhing tree birthing tongues of dawn where there should have been none. The r...

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“Yesterday I drew A Picture” by Jake Fordyce

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #197

Jones came in late and took his place at his computer. Instead of turning it on, he just sat in front of it, staring up at the ceiling with a dreamy smile on his face. “Jones,” I said, taking off my headphones. “Where were you yesterday?” “The most incredible thing has happened…” “And?” “I don’t know if it was a change in my medication or a stray cosmic ray, or maybe even God himself reached down and blessed me, but I’m free. I’m finally free.” “What’s that?” I asked. I had lost interest, put the headphones back on, and missed part of what h...

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“THE FEATHER OF THE BLACK ANGEL” by Ken Miles

Submitted to Contest #197

“Is that blood in the inkwell?”Adolf rolls up his prison pants and shows Rudolf the self-inflicted cuts in his calves. “They wouldn’t give me enough ink for all that’s to be written! So I mixed in my own blood.”He allows Rudolf to gasp, then adds, “Besides, the feather of the Black Angel works best with blood. Here, have a go!”“I’m an aviator not a writer, words don’t come easy to me,” Rudolf’s reluctant to write.“The words won’t come from you, but from the Black Angel!”Rudolf shakes his head. Adolf can be outlandish. But is he now flip...

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“Beast in the Jungle” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #197

Violent subject matter: death She saw the Beast, finally, saw the terror she had feared her whole life, and it was worse than she ever imagined. That night had started out simple enough, like so many before. Abbey had parked her car in the vast garage, back in the darkness of the employee section. She was wearing the light blue scrubs of her profession, clean and pressed. As she walked through to the office her steps echoed in the concrete ‘Jungle’, as the officers called this dark cement landscape, wire...

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“Daylight” by Sara Abbood

Submitted to Contest #197

They rise at sunset. Kicking and clawing through the dirt with cracked grey nails and broken teeth; stumbling over silent gravestones with the grace of an alcoholic. Here, the earth is barren. Flowers refuse to sprout for fear of withering; succumbing to the rampant plague of death stretching acres of land. Among them are the nocturnal inhabitants. Owls, vultures, crows, opossums, and the Undead. Opportunistic feeders lunging at the first sign of life outside their bleak forms. When they aren’t feasting on the rotting carcass of an unfortuna...

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“Capriccio in the Southern Cross ” by A. L. V.

Submitted to Contest #197

[TW: Includes mild themes of violence and substance abuse.] Hawke never seems to worry about where he is in the world. One morning, he’ll stroll onto the deck and declare that we need to swing the ship ninety degrees to the West. The next, he’ll be pulling out the rum and tequila stock because he found a city in the horizon. I admire his spirit, but I fear it may be his downfall. With the Capriccio at sea for weeks on end, it’s difficult to have reliable, new information on the Great War ensuing. I hear the Alliance h...

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“A God's Favor” by Ania Lagodzki

Submitted to Contest #197

The man glanced at his desk, and the whole room fell silent. He stepped toward the laptop awaiting his touch. As he scratched his beard and laid a hand on his rickety chair, the room held its breath—and he walked away. “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” “Jesus!” “Who owes me money?” The projection of the mildewed study and its closed laptop flickered away, and so did each watcher, leaving with their tongues licking various stages of laughs and I-told-you-so’s. The gods left the viewing room one by one until only two remained: Maestrom, Greater God of Li...

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“The Milk of Destiny” by Rosemary Cannon

Submitted to Contest #197

Andy tried really hard to make the milk curdle. He furrowed his celestial brows and planets veered off their course and tumbled into a black hole. Whole species and civilisations were lost forever on account of this action, but Andy didn’t care. He was a god with a singular mind and it was, at the moment, concentrating on the milk. Of course, Andy wasn’t his real name, but “The Great God, Andrezephaneos, god of the procreation of Species” was too much of a mouthful, and he felt Andy had a jaunty feel to it, which he liked. His mother “The ...

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$250

Prize money

268

Contest entries

100

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 12, 2023 EST

Won by HR Pinches 🏆

Title: The Fate of Customer 12

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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