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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#200: Heard it Through the Grapevine

It’s perhaps not our most virtuous impulse, but it’s a very human one. The desire to gossip, tell tales, and share stories we’ve heard about others doesn’t always win us friends, but it’s born from a real evolutionary need. Psychologists speculate that the original purpose of gossip was to keep us safe, helping our ancestors identify potential threats, build bonds, and learn what behavior was deemed acceptable or unacceptable by their peers. And, for better or worse, that habit has stuck.


Of course, gossip can (and often does) go too far. It’s up to you how it plays out in this week’s stories; will your characters face consequences for their loose lips, or will gossiping actually save the day?

This week's prompts

Write a story that includes the line “my lips are sealed.”

Adults – 96 stories

Write a story about a piece of gossip that becomes more and more distorted as it passes from person to person.

Adults – 33 stories

Your character is known as the town gossip. One day, it comes back to bite them.

Adults – 22 stories

Write a story about someone trying to track down the source of a rumor.

Adults – 35 stories

Your main character has a secret superpower; the gossip they spread always comes true.

Adults – 24 stories

Stories

“The Good Side” by Kaelyn Henderson

Submitted to Contest #200

Trigger warning: mental health and substance abuse My life consists of four things: feeding, toileting, dressing, and cleaning. I basically do the same thing when I'm at work and at home. This will be my thirteenth year of working as a CNA. It can be very tiring, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I like my job. I care for all of my residents through the good days and the bad days. Lately, there have been a lot of bad days. CNAs are often busy doing their duties, but when there's some downtime, there are three options that com...

2 comments 2
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“My Lips Are Sealed” by Steve Irish

Submitted to Contest #200

My Lips Are Sealed Once upon a time, in a vibrant village nestled amidst rolling hills, there lived a young woman named Emily. Her spirit radiated kindness, and her laughter filled the air like the sweetest melody. However, beneath her cheerful facade, Emily carried a heavy burden. You see, Emily possessed a unique gift—one that allowed her to understand the unspoken words of others. She could decipher the silent cries and concealed pain that lingered within people's hearts. This ability weighed upon her, for she carried the secrets of...

2 comments 2
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“The Forecast” by Susan Monroe McGrath

Submitted to Contest #200

“Good morning, everyone. Welcome to The Forecast, where I give you a look ahead at the weather and more.” Brit paused for a moment to give herself a blank space in the audio, a cue to add in the intro music when she edited later today. She scanned down her notes, the scribbles she had made over the last twenty-four hours. Nothing too exciting today. The weather, of course, including a storm front crossing over the city around lunchtime. Smoke drifting over from wildfires on the coast. A small uptick in the stock market. No mass shootings, ...

4 comments 4
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“The Devil's Advocate” by Marcy Key

Submitted to Contest #200

“Ignorance is bliss, that’s why I’m always sad.” ~ Pinto’s Words of Wisdom~~~Elder Pinto takes his position in the tribe very seriously. So much that he gave himself the title ‘Elder’. At 24 years old he quickly became one of the most respected members of the Faba tribe. Truth be told, no one knows if that is his birth-given name nor do they know what his name could be if not that one. The protector of elephants, a stressful job that anyone would be proud to do. What happens when the threat of elephant poachers increase? Will he be able to k...

2 comments 2
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“Underneath Stainless Steel” by Allan Bernal

Submitted to Contest #200

I limp into the cybernetic specialist’s office half an hour before my appointment. The white waiting room had mold seeping in from the ceiling corners, one flickering light drawing my attention toward it. “Have a seat, he’ll be right with you,” waves the receptionist with her aluminum arm. I eye her fingers as she types impossibly fast, hoping that the doctor was responsible for her upgrades. The pile of outdated magazines next to my crusty seat made me question my sanity coming here. The fact that this place had the only cybernetics doctor ...

1 comment 1
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“Tale: The Origin of Gossip: A divine betrayal ” by Sofia Albertini

Submitted to Contest #200

“My lips are sealed - that’s what she had promised before betraying me.” Sara sat huddled under a blanket, seeking solace from her grandmother. “Can you believe they told everyone about my crush on Lola? I will never set foot in that school again. Maddie and Vicky will pay for this!” Anger burned through Sara as she buried her face under the wool.Sara’s grandmother crossed the room, her steps softened by the crackling of fire casting a soft, golden glow, warming the air. Sara peeked out from under the blanket, unable to contain her frustrati...

2 comments 2
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“Letter of truth” by Shirley Fankhauser

Submitted to Contest #200

For years, I have longed to meet the soul that I could share my truth with. The lover who would undeniably claim me and save me from this hellish prison we call a home. I have searched the brown sugar dunes of Lake Michigan and plundered the darkest copper mines. I've held seances under the light of full moons. Even pleaded with Gaia and prayed to the stars above for a soul worthy of my truth and unconditional love.So much time has passed from whence I started and not a single flame could withstand the trove of trauma my heavy heart bares.So...

8 comments 8
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“Say It ! ” by Myranda Marie

Submitted to Contest #200

“I hate it here.” Nate mumbled as he stepped from his miniscule room directly into the kitchen of the rental home. “I hate that we’re poor and have to live like this. I just want to go back home.” Nate’s mother fussed over the curtains she had just hung over the one lonely window on the side of the cabin-like house. “Isn’t that a bit better?” she asked, hoping to get some response from her despondent teenager. “No. It still looks like a shithole. This is the worst decision you have ever made.” Nate spat.“The curtains? Well, I didn’...

5 comments 5
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“The Truth Behind the Lies” by Paul Besancon

Submitted to Contest #200

Deacon approached the quaint inn. It was early in the night, and his feet ached fiercely due to the long trek from the port. Never a stranger to ships, this particular journey was most inhospitable, causing a short bout of seasickness when crossing the stormy ocean from his native desert land, Kumoziko. But here he stood, in the coastal foothills of northern Starklevende. I will never get used to the cold air here. Fresh, crisp, but cold nonetheless, Deacon thought with a hearty shiver. It was fall season in the northeastern continent. A bri...

1 comment 1
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“The Western Winds” by Chelly Jo Welch

Submitted to Contest #200

      The typical masquerade ball maintained a sense of duality. Of course the surface beauty; men and women dressed in their best, faces pointedly obscured by the tiniest of masks, or the flashiest of them. Then, there was the terrible boredom the entitled guests worked terribly hard to perfect. It was worse at balls, doubly so at a masquerade. Nobility so often felt that their gaudiest clothes and most expensive jewels could carry the weight of a conversation or stand in for an actual personality.   ...

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“Arby's” by Ricky Nations

Submitted to Contest #200

It would have been an understatement to say that Imogene Simpson was an excitable lady. Excitable in an almost comical sort of way. She could take the most mundane topic and make it seem wonderful. Her facial expressions and hand movements helped to carry the lilt in her voice as the sugary-sweet Southern syllables came from her lipstick covered mouth. She was the perfect person for the Chamber of Commerce office in the small town of Claxton.  Thomas had gone by the Chamber office to see if a paper, folding map still existed for Claxt...

1 comment 1
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“Sabbath” by Dan Foster

Submitted to Contest #200

CW: Substance use, animal death, child death.The cloaked hag in a young woman’s skin dragged a coffin made from black rotten wood across the road of dying deciduous trees.There was a mellow grumble in the clouds and she sat by a little creek as raindrops fell through the barren canopy. She hummed a nursery rhyme as she caught a char with her bare hands, grabbed a knife from her human-leather belt skinned from a deacon, cut it open, and ate it raw. She then laid the still-living fish on the bank and watched the little minnows feed.She sat on ...

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“Plaid Chairs and a Beige Suit” by Carly Kelly

Submitted to Contest #200

Georgette ran her fingers under the seat of the chair in the nurse’s office, as she thought about the answer she had just given the woman in the beige suit. “He might knock over a chair.” The underside of the chair was smooth, the opposite of the chairs at home. Georgette’s dad had made the four chairs that surrounded their plastic dining room table. They had plaid green and blue fabric stretched over a soft foam cushion, and black leather on the backs. The underside of the seat had big staples to secure the fabric, but they had rough edges....

2 comments 2
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“The Equity Issue” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #200

“That house looks so perfect when he’s not home!” says every neighbor whether they know it or not. Through my smiling teeth, I could say this too, cleaning miscreant leaves that blow west to east, from Todd’s front lawn right to my front door. We stop to take a rest, Sam, and I, before cleaning this leafy mess. Then we get into a discussion about who’s leaving. Uh going away.“Todd lived here twenty years and the police only had to come twice.” Harumphs Sam, pointing to the house in the middle of our respective, um respectable homes...

4 comments 4
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“Dropped” by Olivia Lake

Submitted to Contest #200

I didn’t know I was a legend. Years after leaving Our Lady of Perpetual Help, I had no idea that the story of how I stuck it to Father Michael was still circulating among the students. It made its way back to me the summer after I graduated from high school, when Sarah Green’s youngest sister found me lifeguarding at the local pool. Apparently, it was the new way that seniors welcomed incoming freshmen: telling them how I took Communion from Father Michael and threw the Eucharist on the ground. Or, how I threw the Eucharist on the ground a...

3 comments 3
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$250

Prize money

210

Contest entries

116

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 02, 2023 EST

Won by Katharine Widdows 🏆

Title: Three Questions

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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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