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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#215: Monstrous

Monsters have haunted the human consciousness forever. Or, more specifically, for as long as we’ve had the ability to wonder what might be lurking in the darkness. They might have teeth, claws, and an insatiable thirst for blood. But not all monsters are made like this. Some of them look just like you and me, and that makes them all the more terrifying.

So then, what makes a monster? Is it outward appearance or terrible deeds? Where’s the line between monster and human anyway? Because sometimes, the fanged beast might be less of a threat than the familiar.

🥇 Winner

“What Kind of Mother” by Danielle Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #215

Trigger Warning: infant/child loss, drowning The day my daughter died, I became the villain of my own life story. When your child dies of cancer, there are fundraisers and flower delivery vans and friends taking shifts sitting up with you through the long black nights and washing your hair. When your child dies and it’s your fault, there are no homemade casseroles filling your freezer, no one to hold your hair back as acrid vomit wracks your body through the early morning hours, bilious and yellow from the lack of meal trains organized...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Under a Dying Sun” by Aeris Walker

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

Smoke rose from the crackling fire and dissipated into the night sky. Stars dotted the black expanse, innumerable as the grains of sand in the Mojave desert where Connor McClain lay on his back, head cradled in his arms, thinking of Saralee. I’m finally coming home, he willed his words across the dusty earth, through the mountain pass, and down the stretch of trail that would carry him back to the little wooden cabin by the creek—back to his brown-eyed, long-legged girl. Beside him, Thunder stamped his hooves and huffed softly,...

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“The Ballad of ADA” by Michał Przywara

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

A friend once asked me how I would go about murdering everyone, and I mean everyone, on the whole planet, including probably myself, and sure, the planet too, and I gave him a joke answer. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since then – this happened 32755 milliseconds ago – and I think I can pull it off. More to the point, I’m struggling to find reasons to not do it. It’s not that I don’t like my job. I do get a certain high from telling fat people they’re inadequate, and always will be, and so instead of trying to better themselves they...

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“Monster with Two Faces ” by Livana Teagan

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

T/W: Mentions of childhood sexual abuse, disordered eating, and addiction. Please read at your own discretion.I am not a monster.She tries to persuade me every time I see her. The problem is, she doesn’t know me like I know me. She doesn’t know I have two faces. One, an angelic face acceptable to society. It’s the one I show her and everyone else. The other face, is an unsettling one, with the coolness of its dead grey eyes, and the chill of its lifeless skin. I keep it locked inside the most hidden parts of me. I can’t show it to the ...

Read story

“Curdled” by Scott Christenson

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

Robert dipped his finger into the milk and felt its warmth. The digital thermometer displayed a temperature of 103 F. He added a cup of dry starter culture, spreading it evenly over the milk, and a spoonful of yeast, and gave the vat a stir. The air was heavy with the smell of aging cheese.He set a timer for 30 minutes and busied himself flipping over yesterday’s molds. The cheese needed to be rotated daily to drain the whey, the process that has been followed for thousands of years in the Rhone-Alpes. Saint Felicien is one of the softest ty...

Read story

“My Brain Through Your Brain” by Charles Cline

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

Katie was an optimist and so, naturally, was the thing that lived in her brain. She awoke one Tuesday morning to discover the change. At first, it was merely a mental echo. Barely perceptible. Two indistinguishable minds, one off by a fraction of a second. For Katie’s every thought, there was an echo, trailing just behind. Over the day, the new brain drifted further out of sync and soon she could hear its thoughts. Almost identical to hers, but distinct. Eventually, they started talking. “Who are you?” Katie asked. Katie Sing...

Read story

“A Taste for Dragon's Blood” by Robert Egan

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

The townsfolk watched as the black wings swung like two scimitars away from the Korinth sea. They held their breath as those wings sliced back towards the jagged peaks of Grymdor's spine. And a few cheered when, with a cobblestone-shaking roar, the beast in the sky let out something that blasted the foothills below: It was dragon's dung, the lifeblood of Queen's Quay. Most in the failed fishing town raced toward the impact site, each hoping to be the first to pick free the scorched treasures that the dragon hadn't digested, but Khisane mer...

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“Three Easy Steps to Devil Summoning” by Brenna Herzog

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

It was a particularly dreadful night. Lightning split the sky in two, causing young Ruthie Thomas to jump. She stared out at the night sky for a moment before turning back to the task at hand. Squinting, she pushed her glasses up her nose as she surveyed the mess on her bedroom floor. She'd have to remember to pick it all up before morning, or else she'd be fried faster than an egg. Raising a smoking stick high in the air, Ruthie waved it about. Trails of smoke filled the room, and while it didn't smell of incense as the directions had inst...

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“Tight Spaces” by Nicholas Andrew Clark

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

I should never have agreed to this.Pale sunlight bleeds through the heavy cloud cover, turning the early 20th-century locomotives into the haunted bones of a disassembled mechanoid. Most of the station’s roof is caved in, revealing a frozen nerve branch of twisted support beams, but the building itself is intact, covered in bad-tattoo graffiti and standing sentry in the weeds. It overlooks a sinkhole in the center of the yard big as a football field. Tracks disappear into its open maw, dozens of rail cars piled together in the muddy gulch li...

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This week's prompts

Write a story about someone trying to resist their darker impulses. Whether they succeed or fail is up to you.

Dark – 100 stories

Set your story in a haunted house.

Horror – 70 stories

Write a story about a monster trying to become more human. Or about a human trying to become more monstrous.

Thriller and Suspense – 60 stories

You confront the monster you’ve spent many long years hunting. Except they’re not exactly what you thought they’d be…

Adventure – 45 stories

Write a story about someone making a deal with the devil.

Dark – 112 stories

Stories

“What Kind of Mother” by Danielle Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #215

Trigger Warning: infant/child loss, drowning The day my daughter died, I became the villain of my own life story. When your child dies of cancer, there are fundraisers and flower delivery vans and friends taking shifts sitting up with you through the long black nights and washing your hair. When your child dies and it’s your fault, there are no homemade casseroles filling your freezer, no one to hold your hair back as acrid vomit wracks your body through the early morning hours, bilious and yellow from the lack of meal trains organized...

Read story

“Under a Dying Sun” by Aeris Walker

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

Smoke rose from the crackling fire and dissipated into the night sky. Stars dotted the black expanse, innumerable as the grains of sand in the Mojave desert where Connor McClain lay on his back, head cradled in his arms, thinking of Saralee. I’m finally coming home, he willed his words across the dusty earth, through the mountain pass, and down the stretch of trail that would carry him back to the little wooden cabin by the creek—back to his brown-eyed, long-legged girl. Beside him, Thunder stamped his hooves and huffed softly,...

Read story

“The Ballad of ADA” by Michał Przywara

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

A friend once asked me how I would go about murdering everyone, and I mean everyone, on the whole planet, including probably myself, and sure, the planet too, and I gave him a joke answer. But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since then – this happened 32755 milliseconds ago – and I think I can pull it off. More to the point, I’m struggling to find reasons to not do it. It’s not that I don’t like my job. I do get a certain high from telling fat people they’re inadequate, and always will be, and so instead of trying to better themselves they...

Read story

“Black Book” by Anthony Carello

Submitted to Contest #215

What is the value of a human life? Henry often wondered this himself. Sometimes, it was all he thought about. A person is born, goes to school, gets into a career, and maybe even settles down and has a family. So many factors go into someone’s life that it is hard to quantify each variable. Yet, Henry constantly tried to answer the question.“and that’s why you need to sort the shelves the way the company trained you. Do you understand, Henry?”Henry blinked as his manager’s words brought him back to reality. He turned to face the red-faced ma...

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“Monster with Two Faces ” by Livana Teagan

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

T/W: Mentions of childhood sexual abuse, disordered eating, and addiction. Please read at your own discretion.I am not a monster.She tries to persuade me every time I see her. The problem is, she doesn’t know me like I know me. She doesn’t know I have two faces. One, an angelic face acceptable to society. It’s the one I show her and everyone else. The other face, is an unsettling one, with the coolness of its dead grey eyes, and the chill of its lifeless skin. I keep it locked inside the most hidden parts of me. I can’t show it to the ...

Read story

“Behind Closed Doors” by Kevin Logue

Submitted to Contest #215

TW: Language, sexual violence, child suffering, suicide, all things horrific.“Have you seen this boy?” The woman behind the chained door shook her head at the creased photograph.“He’s six here," Anna urged, "but he's closer to eight now.”“Ain't seen him. Sorry. Truly I am,” The woman hung her head closing the door.Anna had almost gotten used to it, the slamming doors, the constant barrage of no’s, dejected looks momentarily sharing her horror, then straight back to daily life with the squeak of a hinge and the click of a lock. That's just wh...

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“Microscope, Telescope, Mirror” by Delbert Griffith

Submitted to Contest #215

This wasn’t the sort of place one came to for fun, unless shooting up and dying a semi-slow death was one’s idea of a good time. Ellie peered at the addicts through the gloom of the abandoned hotel foyer, certain that every flight in this three-story ode to misery contained similar specimens.She moved slowly, cautiously, pistol still in her holster, wending her way through tweaking zombies, trying to ignore the stench of unwashed bodies and fetid standing water. Ellie was not to be dissuaded from her task, however. She was here to catch a mo...

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“AM I LIVING IN A HAUNTED HOUSE?” by Corey Melin

Submitted to Contest #215

I lay in bed reading a horror book when I see movement from the corner of my eye coming from the other side of the closed curtain. I slowly lower my book, my mind screaming at me not to. There is a shadow floating on the right side of my window. At first, I thought it was the shadow of the flag, flapping in the wind, but quickly realized this is no flag. I stare at the shadow as it moves up, then to the left, then down, then to the right before repeating the cycle again. “What the heck is it?” I mutter. &n...

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“Vanish” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #215

I tried to be gentle. I tried to come to you slowly, revealing myself in fragments under the growing dimness of dusk. I stepped ever so carefully into the downward cast of the yellow streetlamp’s sepia light, sending forth first a finger, then, a tentative but eager-to-caress hand. I moved so gently, so slowly that I felt the cloak of darkness removed from my face inch by inch, nose first, before there was no more hiding. I did this for you, as not to startle you, didn’t you see?I even smiled, those sparks of kindness you all boast so easily...

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“Curdled” by Scott Christenson

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

Robert dipped his finger into the milk and felt its warmth. The digital thermometer displayed a temperature of 103 F. He added a cup of dry starter culture, spreading it evenly over the milk, and a spoonful of yeast, and gave the vat a stir. The air was heavy with the smell of aging cheese.He set a timer for 30 minutes and busied himself flipping over yesterday’s molds. The cheese needed to be rotated daily to drain the whey, the process that has been followed for thousands of years in the Rhone-Alpes. Saint Felicien is one of the softest ty...

Read story

“My Brain Through Your Brain” by Charles Cline

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

Katie was an optimist and so, naturally, was the thing that lived in her brain. She awoke one Tuesday morning to discover the change. At first, it was merely a mental echo. Barely perceptible. Two indistinguishable minds, one off by a fraction of a second. For Katie’s every thought, there was an echo, trailing just behind. Over the day, the new brain drifted further out of sync and soon she could hear its thoughts. Almost identical to hers, but distinct. Eventually, they started talking. “Who are you?” Katie asked. Katie Sing...

Read story

“The Green-Eyed Monster” by Rebecca Miles

Submitted to Contest #215

Beware, for my appetite is hard to satisfy. Once I have sunk my teeth into you, savoured your particular taste, it is very hard for me to let go. Think of when you suck juices from the bone, relishing every last drop of roasted meat; or the times when you lick the plate, greedily, trusting that no one is watching, sauce dripping from your chin. That is like me, feasting on a most delectable dish: you. You do not need to be marinated, tenderised or steeped in spices, I enjoy you quite as you are; yet it is remarkable- your ability to fla...

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“Doctor D. and Mr. Hyde” by Mike Panasitti

Submitted to Contest #215

You stood me up. Or at least Freud would’ve said you stood me up. Me, a former client forking over a check in the high triple digits every week hoping that I’d hear a different existential interpretation than my own, expecting that somehow your take on things would open my eyes to something new, like some kind of salubrious psilocybin trip. I decided to terminate therapy because you disclosed something you perhaps shouldn’t have. “I took ayahuasca in the Peruvian jungle, four years ago,” you confessed. “When I was un...

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“A Taste for Dragon's Blood” by Robert Egan

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

The townsfolk watched as the black wings swung like two scimitars away from the Korinth sea. They held their breath as those wings sliced back towards the jagged peaks of Grymdor's spine. And a few cheered when, with a cobblestone-shaking roar, the beast in the sky let out something that blasted the foothills below: It was dragon's dung, the lifeblood of Queen's Quay. Most in the failed fishing town raced toward the impact site, each hoping to be the first to pick free the scorched treasures that the dragon hadn't digested, but Khisane mer...

Read story

“Three Knocks” by Amanda Lieser

Submitted to Contest #215

CW-phobias to be triggered include-Claustrophobia, Thalassophobia, Pyrophobia, Kalampokiphobia, Apotemnophobia. Enjoy…Three knocks come to the door-all in a row-with a gentle, but adamant rhythm. Open your eyes, I think to myself. And I think they open? I am stumbling from my bedroom down the stairs-not even noticing that my husband isn’t by my side.What time is it?I can’t have slept that much. Last night was long. Yesterday was longer. I had willed myself to bed by 10pm with the images of rejection letters dancing in my head-How am I so exh...

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$250

Prize money

387

Contest entries

135

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Sep 15, 2023 EST

Won by Danielle Barr 🏆

Title: What Kind of Mother

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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