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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.

This week's prompts

Start your story during a full moon night.

Mystery – 81 stories

Make your protagonist go through a rite of passage.

Character – 54 stories

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

Angst – 89 stories

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

Dramatic – 55 stories

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

Character – 26 stories

Stories

“Pancake Day” by Jabria Reid

Submitted to Contest #205

Shannon padded quietly into the kitchen, pausing a moment to look around the space. When Mom bought the house nearly a decade ago, she’d been in love with everything except the kitchen. It had been an explosion of pink: pink walls, pink cabinets, pink tile on the floors and the countertops, even rusted pink appliances. “It looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us, ladies,” Mom wrapped one arm around Shannon and the other around her younger sister, Shea, “Because, I don’t know about y’all, but I refuse to cook in a bottle of Pepto-Bismo...

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“Eyes of the husky” by Susy Churchill

Submitted to Contest #205

# Trigger warning: bullying I sprint towards the dog-walker. The guy with the husky. Ace dog: like a wolf. I slow, keep close behind them: safe now. The Year Six gang won’t bother me this close to a grown-up. Where can I empty out the maggots? Mum will go spare if she finds any. Traffic lights. A pause, chance for my heart to stop pounding. The husky stares at me. What’s it like, being a wild dog, kept on a lead? I’ve seen them on the telly, pulling sleds in Iceland or somewhere. I can see the muscles, even when he’s still. The lights ...

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“ The Wheel in the Sky” by W .Richard Krall Jr

Submitted to Contest #205

“ Ok, Samson! You ready to get a one-way ticket to that hamster wheel in the sky?” Matthew asked, flashing a sinister grin. His friend and neighbor, Dale looked over at him and smiled nervously. “Relax, Dale. I have seen my dad and his girlfriend do this at least a hundred times,” Matthew said confidently. He turned around and reached into his backpack. Dale nodded his head and gulped as he listened to his friend. &nb...

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“What's Spilt for Fiends and Angels” by Amie Moorehead

Submitted to Contest #205

**As well as self-harm, this story deals with some sensitive details of blood and slight gore** The dull burn along my non-existent veins is a familiar feeling. A trailing blaze that comes and goes with each repeating cycle. A call that pulls me from the depths of this pit despite the ache it brings me. What hovers around me is a pitch blackness I have grown used to, lit only by the faded white glow emanating from my skin, if one can even call it such. This “body” of mine - these empty sights and the sensations that accompany them. They ...

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“My Name is Lydia” by Lilith A. Heart

Submitted to Contest #205

I wrote down his name on one side of a folded sheet of lined paper. I stared at the name, knowing that inside this note were the final words I would say to him as I set him free, hopefully peacefully. I sat knee-to-knee in a three-person circle on the floor of my childhood bedroom, now converted into my crafty mother’s sewing room. To my left, my older sibling Rachel sat. She ended up seated right where she once laughed so hard at a joke I told her that she farted but then ran off crying to tattle to Mom that I forced her to embarras...

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“A Song for You” by Annette Hallie

Submitted to Contest #205

“I don’t know ‘bout this, Junie. Let’s just go home.” Danny Mattheson sits across a table from a woman with an outstretched hand. Moments earlier, she had prompted him to hand over the item he now clutches in his right hand, a heavily-wrinkled, cream-colored dress that had yellowed in a few spots. The fingers of his left hand tightly interlace with those of a young woman beside him. “Maybe we should try this another time, Natalie.” The woman across the table retracts her hand. She maintains eye contact with Danny. “He just needs a minu...

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“Road House 1969” by Tommy R Hicks

Submitted to Contest #205

ROAD HOUSE 1969 It was Saturday night, and they were on their way to the Roadhouse. Red was driving, Art rode ‘shotgun,’ and Lil’ Bob and Jimmy sat in the back. Clarence, an older friend of Red’s from the notoriously reputed 25th Avenue, aka ‘2-5,’ insisted that Red take his Chrysler Coupe for a night out on the town. He didn’t need the car, he was working the midnight shift at the Steel Mill. In the morning, Red had to be on his way back to school. Summer vacation was up.&nb...

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“Clockwork” by Liz Leness

Submitted to Contest #205

"Hi, welcome to Martha's, can I interest you in some lemonade? I just made a fresh pitcher, but I can also make raspberry, blueberry or pomegranate lemonade, whichever tickle's your fancy," the bell above the front door chimes and I instinctively look at who my next guests are. Anticipating to see a brown tweed jacket with legs and a pocket square, and flowing blue floral dress -- or yellow, or pink, or red, whatever she was feeling that particular Sunday, but always matching the pocket square -- stroll through the door, but instea...

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“The Listening ” by Maizie Dunlap

Submitted to Contest #205

The wind howled outside. Branches cracked against the rain-swept walls. In the window, the golden flame of a single candle fluttered whimsically to and fro, a witness to the chaos of the storm outside. Nim peered into the deepening belly of clouds, hoping for a glimpse of the full moon. She didn’t show herself, but Nim could feel her power, ripe and heavy, rippling languidly through the storm. Nim stretched their arms overhead, rolled their neck. Loosening up. They had deep Magick to work tonight. Nim carried the candle to the ce...

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“Metamorphosis” by Gillian Story

Submitted to Contest #205

"You have to." "But I don't want to." The chant starts up again. You're a baby scaredy cat. You're a baby scaredy cat. "I am NOT a baby scaredy cat!" "Are too." "Am not." "Then why won't you do it?" Choruses of yeahs follow like a pack of hyenas. "Because." "Cause what." "Because…” Draw it out long, turn the word into 5 syllables rolling around your tongue. "Because my mom said I had to be home." "Liar, you don't even know what time it is." "Do too. My mom said to be home in 30 minutes." "Liar. Baby scaredy cat." The ...

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“Prom” by Ashley Sawh

Submitted to Contest #205

Slight language usage. “Come on, Ari.” Kai said. “You can’t just not come to prom.” “Watch me.” I shut the door behind me and walked down the stairs to one of the science wings. I heard him open the door again and go after me. “Just leave me alone.” “Ariana, c’mon.” He ran in front of me. “You can’t just not go to senior prom.” “I don’t want to go.” “Too bad, you’re going-” “I don’t even have a dress.” I interrupted him. “Therefore, I’m not going.” Kai smiled and walked off, which meant that he either had an idea or he just wanted t...

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“Manhood” by JJM Gudde

Submitted to Contest #205

I was fourteen years old when I first went to a brothel. The name of the place is still etched in my memory: The Crowing Cock. I vividly recall the growing anxiety that consumed me as we drove to the place at two in the morning after a party. I wasn’t anxious because I was underage. It also had nothing to do with our drunkenness, or with the fact that I was still a virgin. It was something else. There were four people in the car that night, all older than me. My cousin Mike was nineteen, while Pedro and Doug were eighteen. They had exp...

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“Peregrine White - Part 2 ‘Rite of Passage’” by Amanda Rantanen

Submitted to Contest #205

[The story is based on real people and true historical events. The narrative is fiction.] Susanna and her five year old son, Resolved, stood on the deck of the Mayflower as they watched her husband, William, and several of the other men row to shore in the schloop. The men were going to the mainland to decide where to build houses. It was a chilly November day in the harbor at Cape Cod. Susanna wrapped the shawl around herself and it barely covered her protruding belly. She felt a hard kick that took her breath away and felt as though it ...

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“The Cat” by Kate Shaw

Submitted to Contest #205

The Cat "…and that's how she lost her eye." Jimmy snuggles the cat closer in under his overly large plaid shirt, threadbare jeans cover his legs. The older man laughs his cackling turning into a dry cough towards the end. Jimmy grimaces, his hands run through the cat’s fur from head to tail, his actions monotonous, familiar. The man looks at them again shaking his head a smile still twinkling on his ruddy face. “You’re a good boy, kid. Get some sleep.” Jimmy smiles back at him, it’s thin but it’s real. The man shuffles off towards town. Ji...

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“Sacrifice” by Jude Avery Fountain

Submitted to Contest #205

Sensitive Content: This piece contains mentions of substance abuse, mental health issues, and attempted suicide. I am a person of many rituals. Of course, OCD is a ritualistic disorder, so that’s only natural. The rituals are sometimes holy, sometimes not; sometimes comfortable and sometimes unbearable. They’re sometimes small and other times obvious; they’re sometimes my friend and sometimes my nemesis. The point is, they contain multitudes. When I was in the seventh grade, my hands first got dry and bloody. I washed my hand...

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$250

Prize money

305

Contest entries

129

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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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