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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#205: Ritualistic

Since time immemorial, humans have developed rituals to deal with change, and all manner of life situations. From birthdays to funerals, to holidays and weddings, to personal habits and rites of passage, these ceremonies often help us find solace, meaning, and belonging in an otherwise chaotic existence.

Rituals exist across all ages and cultures, and take all kinds of shapes and forms 一 from dancing, to praying, to performing 一 and while some have existed for centuries, new ones are created every day. In this week’s prompts, we explore this universal aspect of human culture.

Plus, in case you missed it...📚

The second issue of PROMPTED, our literary magazine, is officially out now! You can download your free copy right here.

🥇 Winner

“The Walk” by Lindsay Flo

Alice was everywhere, until she wasn’t. Just like at first, she was nowhere until she was. The absence of her before I knew she existed, was nothing. Now, the absence of her shrouds everything. Like a guest who never came to dinner; a stormy sky that didn’t deliver. Nothing can wash away the void where she used to be. This is what I’m thinking about the first time I take The Walk without her. I met Alice ...

98 comments 98 WINNER 🏆

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“George William Scrivens” by Susan Eaton

George William Scrivens died the way he had lived – quietly and without a fuss. It came as bit of a surprise, even to him. One minute he was sitting in his cosy front room, preparing to watch his favourite programme on the television with a piping hot cup of tea. The next he was floating in the air staring down at his own body, slumped in his comfy chair as if he had fallen asleep. Perplexed he looked around. He watched ...

30 comments 30 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“BREAKING POINT” by Charles Corkery

BREAKING POINT 6.30am -slop out. 7.30am -breakfast. 8am -lock up. 10am -roll call. 10.30am -yard recreation. 12 noon -lunch. 1pm -yard recreation. 3pm -internal association. 5pm -supper. 6pm -lock up. 8pm -lights out. Get used to it. This is it. Your daily routine for the rest of your life. Yes, it’s monotonous. Yes, it could destroy your will to...

10 comments 10 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Paper Planes” by Sophia Gardenia

What is it like to fly, I wonder? The rusted metal of the bridge groans and creaks as cars hurtle over it. Standing by one of the stout lamp posts fixed to the railing, I stare at the gritty concrete, not wanting to look over the edge. The wind howls and moans under the bridge. Pedestrians rush past me, yelling into their phones and cursing as they spill coffee over their starched white shirts. Everythi...

23 comments 23 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Why Do You Write?” by Allan Bernal

So, you went and said the word you shouldn’t have as a teacher. But that was the whole point of teaching morality and ethics – to educate on discrimination. And you thought since you live further up north, there’s no way the parents and school would react as harshly as they do in Florida, right? Well, you were wrong. Doesn’t matter if the students agreed with you in class. Doesn’t m...

11 comments 11 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“The Widows of The Comet” by Charlotte Kelley

You are looking at us. Wide eyes, fearful eyes. Help me. You, the woman, are haggard, sunburnt, too young for her skin. You suck the last bits of ash from your cigarette and vie for your husband’s attention. A bad husband, by the looks of it (and we know what a bad husband looks like). He, the man—hard-muscled, veiny, sickly pale—picks at the raw skin of his elbow. A cut, a weakness. You’ve be...

5 comments 5 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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This week's prompts

Start your story during a full moon night.

Mystery – 83 stories

Make your protagonist go through a rite of passage.

Character – 59 stories

Write about a character who develops a special ritual to cope with something.

Angst – 93 stories

Make a character perform a ceremony to set something or someone free.

Dramatic – 57 stories

Write about a character who breaks free from a tradition to create a new one.

Character – 26 stories

Stories

“The Walk” by Lindsay Flo

Alice was everywhere, until she wasn’t. Just like at first, she was nowhere until she was. The absence of her before I knew she existed, was nothing. Now, the absence of her shrouds everything. Like a guest who never came to dinner; a stormy sky that didn’t deliver. Nothing can wash away the void where she used to be. This is what I’m thinking about the first time I take The Walk without her. I met Alice ...

98 comments 98 WINNER 🏆

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“What You Think About, You Bring About” by Joe Malgeri

(Story contains R rated lampooning)I was once a well-established cartoonist in my town’s local newspaper. Yet, to avoid any possible liability, I’m not at liberty to divulge the newspaper’s name. However, throughout my time working for this newspaper, my life ran exceptionally well. In fact, I can honesty say my life, during this period, was absolutely wonderful. But then, the day after my grandmother purchased a brand-new double-barrel shotgun, my luck drastically changed. You see, my grandmother...

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“Metamorphosis” by Syed Mohammad Zahid

Foggy clouds had blocked out the sun for many days. Fast falling, eventide was chilly and the brisk ocean winds howling on the streets had shivered the bodies. The ensuing darkness engulfed the entire universe as if centuries had passed and the sun had never appeared. Rounded bright lamps, hanging on poles, just like the boobs of chaste women, were shimmering in the gloaming. Those were trying to defeat the e...

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“But First...Tacos!” by Mary Bendickson

But First...Tacos! Warning: Mentions slicing, chopping, dicing and multiple other abuses to vegetables for the expressed intent of masticating and devouring them. (P.S. by author M.B. Added this warning because in my very first story posted on this site I admit I chopped down a personified tree for the purpose of building something else. The powers that be tagged the entry as conta...

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“Wellness Check” by Michał Przywara

I put my hotdog into the bucket, because I want to see my daughter again. Her name’s Rachel and she’s fallen down the well. Also again. She’s always doing this to me. The first time was when I taught her to play chess, many sweet lifetimes ago. She was a ruby-cheeked cherub perpetually surprised at the beauty of life, and even though her mom feared she’d find the game boring, Rachel’s eyes widened with marv...

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“The Devil You Know” by Chris Campbell

“Oh fow-el spirit, get out!” “It’s foul, not fow-el.” “What’s the difference?” “One is a pheasant or other type of bird.” “What kind of bird?” “I don’t know! Just get the wording right and get on with this exorcism, and can you please use terminology that’s not out of a Benny Hinn script?” “The English comic?” “You’re thinking of Benny Hill and not the Evangelist with the wavy white hair that starts in one direction, then goes in another, like it suddenly changed its mind halfway through.”...

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“Write Rite- a Mitzee story ” by Michelle Oliver

TW-Mentions death of a childDear DiaryMy name is Sarah and I’m eight years old. I have gotten this butiful book from Mummy to rite in. She says I can rite all my wurries and wishes in it.Well, I wish that canser didn’t exzist! Tomorrow the doctar is gonna take away my eye, bekoz there’s a lump and it’s hurting my eye. I’m gonna be a pirate.I’m scarred :(But if I’m reel brave, Mummy said I can get a kitten.:) Sarah🙂...

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“Comprehensive Superhero Insurance” by Graham Kinross

TW: A pinch of swearing.“I’m sorry ma’am, your fight with Cad Bury cost fifty thousand dollars worth of damage and your insurance only covers forty-nine.” She smiles at me as if that’s good news, sociopath.Why can’t I fly or run super fast like the A-list guys? At least then I could work in deliveries for a side hustle. “Can’t you pay the forty-nine and I can get a loan for the rest?” I ask, leaning over the counter in my ripped uniform. She eyes the torn fabric covered with patches and sponsors with disdain....

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“George William Scrivens” by Susan Eaton

George William Scrivens died the way he had lived – quietly and without a fuss. It came as bit of a surprise, even to him. One minute he was sitting in his cosy front room, preparing to watch his favourite programme on the television with a piping hot cup of tea. The next he was floating in the air staring down at his own body, slumped in his comfy chair as if he had fallen asleep. Perplexed he looked around. He watched ...

30 comments 30 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“Ritual” by Helen A Smith

EGYPT, CIRCA 1350 BCWearing the mask of the jackal-headed god Anubis, Darius entered the ‘ibu’ tent with a heavier step than usual. The woman whose body lay naked and thoroughly cleaned before him on the embalming table was not just anyone. For a few seconds he caught his breath, half-expecting Zara who’d been a close family friend, to rise up and tease him about his big feet like she’d done when he was a boy.Darius had never minded her teasing. Having lost his own mother at a you...

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“The Way of the Sensei” by Delbert Griffith

May 27I admit it; I’m being a voyeur. The delicious-looking man across the fence is shirtless, smoking a cigarette and sipping...

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“Friday, 9th November ” by Oskar Reiss

TW: suicidal thoughts, death, gory detailsMadison Rydell put the roses under the faucet, pricking her thumb on one of the thorns. She reached for the scissors and cut off the ends, a sublimation of her desire to do exactly the same to one of her fingers. Snip, snip, snip. Maddie remembered what her parents’ fingers looked like when she found them, each moving with a wet crunch as she prised them from the bedsheets. How incongruously easy, she thought, it would be to chop off her fingers now, the teeth of a plier...

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“Six Syllables” by Scott Christenson

In Japan, everyone says “Itadakimasu” before each meal. It's an unquestioned tradition. There are many such rituals in Japan: the aisatsu greetings for good morning and good night, bowing to superiors, the proper way to use chopsticks, that go back so far in Japanese history, people can’t imagine it being any other way.Everyone except for our son Kenji. He likes to make his own rules and has long ago decided uttering six syllables before eating is an inefficient waste of everyone's time.<...

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“Waiting” by Frostie Whinery

Two people are living in your home now. They stand by the windows in the front room, heads thrown back, shoulders shaking with laughter. I feel awkward, sitting here in my car in the dark, watching them like I’m some sort of creep. But since you’re gone, I don’t know what else to do. They moved into it about a month after hospice carried you out on a gurney. To them, the apartment was a clean start, a n...

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“BREAKING POINT” by Charles Corkery

BREAKING POINT 6.30am -slop out. 7.30am -breakfast. 8am -lock up. 10am -roll call. 10.30am -yard recreation. 12 noon -lunch. 1pm -yard recreation. 3pm -internal association. 5pm -supper. 6pm -lock up. 8pm -lights out. Get used to it. This is it. Your daily routine for the rest of your life. Yes, it’s monotonous. Yes, it could destroy your will to...

10 comments 10 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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$250

Prize money

318

Contest entries

134

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 07, 2023 EST

Won by Lindsay Flo 🏆

Title: The Walk

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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