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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#209: Road Trippin'

The open road is a beacon of possibility. Who knows what you’ll discover as you navigate across boundaries, familiar and unfamiliar: maybe it’s the world’s biggest ball of twine, a hidden gem of a diner, or a new truth about yourself. Whatever it may be, a road trip provides the opportunity to indulge your curiosity, going wherever the wind may blow you. There’s no limits or obstacles, only what you’re willing to do.

After all, road trips are hardly ever about the destination. The journey is what matters most, and what you discover along the way, whether you're taking a vacation or setting out into the unknown. This week, we want to explore those unique feelings that only a good, long road trip can conjure.

This week's prompts

Set your entire story in a car.

Dramatic – 96 stories

Write about two strangers who are both heading to the same destination and agree to do a long distance drive together.

Character – 32 stories

Write a story about someone going on a life-changing journey.

Adventure – 57 stories

Write a story about someone getting lost, but discovering something they didn’t expect along the way.

Dramatic – 35 stories

Start your story with someone walking into a gas station.

Dialogue – 53 stories

Stories

“Riding Shotgun” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #209

We regret to inform you that the mainline trains beyond Milton Keynes have been cancelled due to a points failure. The voice delivering the bad news was an approximation of a female voice. It was the same voice that would tell you that you’d had your legs amputated or that there was something inoperable growing in your head. It was the voice that death would use if it ever tried to develop a bedside manner. And fell well short. “Shit!” “Shit!” The two strangers had expressed their frustration, annoyance and disappointme...

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“Never Follow the Lights” by Caroline Tuohy

Submitted to Contest #209

Deidre from accounting is going on a year long tour of Europe. The boss made everyone squeeze into the break room to toast pale, flabby Deidre goodbye on her last day. Everyone raised their plastic cup of warm fizzy wine while Deidre clutched a supermarket bouquet of carnations and smiled.Back at your desk you snap your laptop shut, slide it into your satchel and grant yourself an Irish goodbye. You don’t particularly like anyone at this company that you’ve been working at for 8 years now. You walk to the underground station, descend the sta...

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“Voluntary Hostage” by Kay Smith

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #209

**Warning: Possible Triggers! Explicit Language, Mental Health, and Some Violence** “I HOPE WHEN YOU GET HOME, YOU GET DRUNK AS FUCK AND YOU BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF WITH A SHOTGUN, FUCKING BITCH!” The voice; screaming , spittle flying, from the backseat through plumes of thick cigarette smoke belongs to my fourteen year old son. I am eighty-four days sober and am about to drive without a valid license to take him, for all practical purposes, to a ‘mental institution’ roughly seventy miles away. Smoke continues to roll toward the fro...

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“"The Wedding"” by MJ Grimes

Submitted to Contest #209

This is the story of Harry and his friends and how they made it to their best friend’s wedding on time. Harry had a habit of not planning ahead and was on his way to the church in his old red car when he ran out of gas. Because of the frequency of these occasions, Harry always kept a jerry jug handy in the trunk. He had it in his hand as he walked up to the checkout counter at the gas station down the street from the dead vehicle. Sifting through the pockets of his father’s old gray suit jacket, he pulled out a twenty and asked the cashier f...

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“I never felt so much alike” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #209

TW: His Dad is a bigot, and it shows in his language.I’m just leaving Harrods on Brompton Road when a skinny young man waves me down. He’s wearing a white shirt, light gray suit, and he’s empty handed, so I figure he’s probably in the money business, going to the Square Mile.I twist in my seat to face the passenger, “Where are you headed, guvnor?”.He consults a piece of paper, “Saint Mark’s Place, off Wimbledon Hill….”.I’m stumped for a moment, “Isn’t there an old brick pub there? The… the Alexandra?”“Yes, that’s right!” says the m...

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“CKLW AM 800” by Lily Finch

Submitted to Contest #209

She was heading out west. He was driving a drive-away car to California. She crossed the border in Detroit from Windsor and brought a substantial amount of dope with her. He carried some cash and a couple of joints, and he also crossed the border in Detroit. She planned on taking the Greyhound to Los Angeles. He had been assigned to drive a car to Los Angeles, and he was also leaving from Detroit.She had brought pounds of weed across the border with her on the bus. She shoved it into the bag of an elderly woman who sat in front. She knew the...

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“Unspooled” by Shahzad Ahmad

Submitted to Contest #209

The car zipped through the treacherous turn.“Are you crazy? Stop the car, leave us on the road! Life is dear to us if not to you!” Tania fumed.“Ok, darling. I’m so sorry. I was swept away by the melody of the song and transferred the same energy to the accelerator.” Zafir apologized.“This ‘sorry’ word I hate; I don't know who invented this word! You disregard an emotion and then walk away with it. Please do not use this word again, at least not with me!” Tania extended her rant.“Remember, we are supposed to be on a trip, not a slanging match...

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“Get Your Kicks on Route 66” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #209

Get Your Kicks on Route 66“You sure about this, Zak?”“A little late for second-guessing, Cal.”The ’55 Chevy was packed to the gills, and the wheels were already rolling out of the driveway of Zak’s parents’ home within a stone's throw of Lake Micigan in Evanston, Illinois.“It’s just such a big step.”“No kidding, Cal, but you’ve had like 50,000 hours to think about it. There’s no turning back, partner. California here here we come!”And so the sky blue Bel Air convertible, tagged with a sign on the back reading “California or Bust!”, headed fo...

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“Lollipop” by Seah Kim

Submitted to Contest #209

Lint-rolled lollipops are delicious. There’s absolutely no other satisfaction when you take your “Cherry flavored” lollipop at a low price of 3.99 a bag from Walmart and gnaw it (rebelling from your mother is the best way to get cavities and fulfill your hunger), and drop it on the floor of your crust covered Honda Civic, as starting fights is the number one thing siblings are for. You make an “I’ll kill you” face at your sibling (whether or not they notice,) because your mother doesn’t allow “potty words”. Going against the tigh...

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“Seven Series Saloon” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #209

The car was stifling, so airlessly warm that Martin could smell the static tang of the new plastic interior. He’d let it get like that on purpose, stuffy and stagnant, despite the cold blasting against the two-millimetre-thick steel skin as he bucketed down Route Three towards Zurich. He’d wanted it to be cosy so Clare could sleep, but now he opened his window. Just a dab on the switch to let an inch of the world whistle in and chase away the soporific fug of body and nylon. This wasn’t the time for him to start feeling drowsy, and he wanted...

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“Overpass” by Elizabeth Hall

Submitted to Contest #209

Overpass Baby leaned out far and let loose a wad of bluish spit that landed squarely on the roof of a minivan rushing below us. “Cow-a-fucking-bunga,” she whispered, making a weak fist pump in the air. I nodded sagely, and passed her the bottle of blue wine. “My mother,” she paused and belched. “My mother always said she wanted me to be more like you.. you remember that?” I nodded. “I d...

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“Submerged” by Martin Harp

Submitted to Contest #209

“What happened and why are my feet wet?” Monica thought to herself as she slowly opened her eyes in the driver seat of her car, her head resting against the steering wheel. The haze in her vision was beginning to clear but the haze in her mind was not. “What happened and why are my feet wet?” she continued to ask herself until she realized she couldn’t see anything out of the windows except dark, murky water lit up by the dying headlights of her car. Panic began to sink in as Monica realized why her feet were wet. “I’m sinking! The car...

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“In the Passenger Seat” by K. Espinola

Submitted to Contest #209

It seemed that, even in death, Jared liked to drive. As Casey sat beside him, she told herself to keep her eyes on the road. Sometimes her brain liked to split in two: the mature side, with the good advice, and the lethally curious one that enjoyed, deep down, to be shocked. Now the mature voice was saying: Don’t fill your head with that crap. Looking will only upset you. But it was the other side that always took action. So she let her eyes wander to him, the man in the driver’s seat.Or was he a man? Casey didn’t always know how to cla...

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“Goat-Man's Bridge” by Kristin Johnson

Submitted to Contest #209

A/N: Trigger warning. This story contains character deaths. When you leave this campfire tonight, don’t take Goat-Man’s Bridge on your way home. Four teenagers found this out the hard way. They were out, bored with all their usual activities, and one of them dared the others to drive to Goat-Man’s Bridge so that the two couples could make out and lure the Goat-Man out of hiding. Legend has it that Goat-Man attacks couples that kiss on his bridge and shine a flashlight. Even people who haven’t seen Goat-Man have heard his scream on the ...

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“Behold, A Black Horse” by Geir Westrul

Submitted to Contest #209

“We’re screwed.”The night is black, the road desolate, a seemingly endless stretch of unlit asphalt that disappears into the murk of impenetrable fog.“We just need to keep heading south,” Brendan says.“We’re screwed,” Chari says again. “No map, no GPS, we shouldn’t have taken this back road.”A deer runs out of the fog, into the beam of the headlights.Brendan turns the wheel to avoid the animal. Chari screams. The car skids off the road, into the ditch. A hard stop. Seatbelts bite into their flesh.* * *Standing outside the car, Chari says: “N...

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$250

Prize money

273

Contest entries

154

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 04, 2023 EST

Won by Kyle Sager 🏆

Title: The Driving Snow

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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