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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#214: The Fall of Summer

For both kids and adults, summer is a time for dreams, freedom, and a break from routine. The scorching summer months offer new beginnings, new experiences, vacations in exotic places (real or backyard imaginings), new friendships, and perhaps even new romance. It’s when memories are created, and when ‘growing up’ happens.

Except there’s never enough time. The days fly by, the memories stack up, and pretty soon Fall’s got a stranglehold. To celebrate the last throes of the season, this week’s prompts encourage you to delve into your memories of the summer we’ve just had, and of summers long past.

This week's prompts

Set your story on the eve of the first day back at school.

Kids – 34 stories

What was meant to be a great bonding vacation turns sour when an uninvited guest tags along.

Summer – 43 stories

Now, as an adult, your character looks back on this summer as the summer when they grew up.

Character – 40 stories

Each year, your character's family goes on the most exotic vacations. Finally they discover why — their family are assassins.

Funny – 36 stories

It’s the last evening of your vacation and you’re watching the sunset with your friends/partner/family, wishing summer would never end. But just as the sun dips below the horizon, you notice it returning in reverse.

Science Fiction – 49 stories

Stories

“Passage” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #214

It was on the third day out that they both wanted to call somebody to pick them up. I was bringing dinner up one plate at a time. Damian took his plate and made the announcement. I smiled. ‘Damian,’ I had to look up at the sky and not at him. Little puffs of cloud on a stark and clear deep blue. ‘where do you think you are? You aren’t really asking to be picked up by somebody, are you?’ He nodded and Mark, behind him, was nodding too. I came up out of the cabin and looked around at the rise of an oncoming swell framed by an empty horizon ...

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“Holidaying” by Aneesa Shamsee

Submitted to Contest #214

“Give it back!” “It’s mine!” I yell back. “No, it isn’t!” She replies, pulling the top towards her. “Yes, it is!” I scream and use all my strength to grab the piece of fabric. “GIRLS!” I jump back, dropping the top, watching it in envy as Kayleigh snatched it up. She shot me a smug smirk before we both turned back to Mum. “What do you think you’re doing?” She seethes, her eyes narrowed, her pupils just slits in her eyelids. I purse my lips and look at her. “Kayleigh took my top,” I say, accusation clear in my tone. Kayl...

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“The Blue Blazed Path” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #214

Tabatha looked in the bathroom mirror and hardly recognized herself. She swished to the right, twirled to the left, puckered up and air-kissed the mirror, but without her trademark make-up she looked just like the girl next door. Arista was standing behind her, arms folded. “Very good, very convincing, but can you also do something about the clothing? We’re in Maine, not LA, and we’re going hiking, not pole dancing.”. Arista handed her an LL Bean T-shirt, at least two sizes too big. Tabatha took it from her and held ...

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“Through The Mirror Brightly” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #214

We are all made of stars. We really are, all of us are made from the same stuff as stars and that makes us truly remarkable. Each and every one of us. Our value is incalculable. We are priceless. It was only when I grew up, that I learned this. I grew up, and in growing up, I knew a great many things. Things that we should all know, if only we would see. Of course, as I began to open up and use my mind, I realised that I had not previously known as much as I thought I had. We build walls around ourselves and paint them as thoug...

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“Rule of Three” by Kateresa .

Submitted to Contest #214

Somewhere Boring, USA. mid-April.“Like people say, karma’s a witch,” said Leah.Max was pretty sure that wasn’t exactly what people say, but didn’t interrupt.“Look, if those girls hadn’t been taunting you for being non-binary, they would’ve seen the golf cart coming towards them. Don’t you dare feel bad for them.” Leah was a good friend. A loyal friend. “Besides, it’s not like they’re dead, just a little banged up. I would have done worse to them if I’d been there.” “Yeah, I don’t feel guilty, just…” Max’s brain caught up to the conversa...

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“Hues of Her” by Joseph Hanna

Submitted to Contest #214

My sky shines with the colors of all the stars. The hues of rose red and bright bumblebee yellow falling through the cracks of the sun’s barriers. I see them crumble away to the ground where it coats my hands to the very pores of my skin. I feel the tinges of tangerine orange to tufts blue float beneath my surface, shining through the wounds left behind by surgeries not so long removed. The sensation of stitches still holding gashes in place sends shivers down my spent spine. I sit beside my lover, holding her hand with the same passion I he...

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“Fly Birdie Fly” by Jon Bosa

Submitted to Contest #214

“The crickets are chirping, but the sun is still out?It’s too early. It’s happening again! NOOO!!! NOT SCHO- Wait Squirrel! Oh right, NOT SCHOOL!!!!” The shafts of light drifted and darted into the open spaces of the tree tops. The last remaining fireflies of the summer had just begun their final flights. Sam could smell the pervasive scent of smoke and the intoxicating aroma of cooked meat from the house down the block. It almost took his mind away from this cyclical tragedy that played out every summer. But not even the heavenly per...

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“The Healing Place” by Megan Dollar

Submitted to Contest #214

The invitation was cursory—a polite gesture to ensure their moral compass would be pointing directly towards “good enough”. Georgia knew this, of course, and yet it was surprisingly difficult for her to turn it down as she normally would. The family trip to Pentwater each summer was the source of Georgia’s most treasured memories before everything went wrong. So, when her eldest sister Denise extended the invitation (which wasn’t a true invitation) to join the family for a week in Pentwater, Georgia said yes. Her answer went unanswered, as m...

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“Just the Three of Us” by Michael Novak

Submitted to Contest #214

It was August in Washington, and it was hot. Not just any heat, but the evil cocktail of heat, humidity, and absolutely, positively no breeze anywhere that has plagued our nation’s capital for every year of its existence since the citizens of the young republic first began the project of draining a swamp along the Potomac River over 200 years ago. It was the kind the kind of heat where opening your window is like opening the door of a running oven, and anyone with any sense stays hermetically sealed inside their air-conditioned home for as l...

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“The Honeymoon” by Anastasia Martin

Submitted to Contest #214

Three different people had felt the need to tell me that their honeymoons had had hiccups and that I shouldn’t put too much pressure on the trip, so I really shouldn’t have been surprised when things went wrong. The wind caught my best friend’s beach umbrella in the Caribbean and blew it into her new husband’s face. He and his new black eye chased it into the ocean, where a jellyfish stung him; but the rogue beach umbrella did eventually make it home with them. My other friend and her husband crashed their rental car on their way to ret...

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“Crazy Family Crazy Ride” by Laura Becerra

Submitted to Contest #214

I have always believed we humans have the potential to be good or evil. No matter who we are, everyone carries the darkness within them. Difficult situations bring out the extra ordinary good or sadistic evilness. “Hurry up kids, we need to get going.” I want to get to the beach in time for us to swim. The ocean was our get away. This was the first trip that we were taking without my husband. We were going through a divorce. The kids were nervous about the trip...

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“The Kevin Show” by Andre Deneal

Submitted to Contest #214

THE KEVIN SHOW The sun hung low in the sky as Vanessa and Malcolm packed their bags for what was meant to be a perfect bonding vacation. They had been married for five years and felt that a romantic getaway was just what they needed to rekindle their spark. The destination was a secluded cabin deep in the heart of the Smoky Mountains, a place where they could disconnect from the world and focus on each other. The couple's excitement was palpable as they loaded their car with bags, groceries, and hiking gear. Vanessa had meticulously planne...

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“The Summer I Grew Up” by Samantha McWilliams

Submitted to Contest #214

It was the year I turned fourteen that Sarah had invited her new boyfriend, Gerald, along to our family vacation. The pitter-patter of rain against the windows of our shore house punctuated each word as I complained to Mother in her private bathroom. A painted sign of a sea turtle in the ocean hung behind the toilet. Let the sea set you free. "I mean, come on. Gerald? What kind of name is that?" Mother only laughed causing indignation to bubble around my edges. My own sister! And here I was thinking we'd gotten past those terrible times. Bei...

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“A Poor Beginning to a Summer Journey” by Joseph Peck

Submitted to Contest #214

DING! DONG! The silence of the summer air was suddenly broken by the chiming of a bell. Silence returned when the bell fell silent. It was broken for a second time when mobs of robed figures started streaming from the inside of the buildings. Some of them immediately passed through the wrought iron gates and onto the road, heading in the hazy direction of the city in the distance. Most, however, instead chose to congregate in the courtyard, gathering in small groups to chatter and bask in the flowery aromas of the gardens in the afternoon s...

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“There's Nothing There” by Genevieve Flintham

Submitted to Contest #214

The minotaur and the griffin are in my chest cavity again. They tore through the air and ripped a space between my ribs – and yes, there was nothing there – but their homing instincts overrode my force majeure. They’re huge. They purport to alleviate my pain, but the smell of sun cream and the hum of mosquitos is distracting enough. Cold sangria. A jug of it, set down on the table, tantalising the hairs in our nostrils. My sister’s a superb mixologist – is sangria a cocktail? – and she beams as if she’s just given birth. The jug drips crims...

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$250

Prize money

202

Contest entries

94

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 08, 2023 EST

Won by Emily Holding 🏆

Title: Departed, Return

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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