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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.

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

“Life for a life” by David O'Mahony

Submitted to Contest #215

Conway stood with the other parishioners, a thick crowd pressing in on each other and reeking of ostentatious piety and desperation. The decrepit church wasn't the biggest, but droves forced their way in from Carey's Lane every Sunday. A man six feet away was coughing as if his life depended on it, and maybe it did. Cholera had ripped through Cork a little more than ten years ago, carrying away thousands, including three of Conway's children. Now famine stalked the countryside, and scores of skeletal people draped in rags crammed the q...

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“The devil is in the details” by Omar Scott

Submitted to Contest #215

The Devil is in the details &...

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“The Corporate Devil You Know” by Shawn Leader

Submitted to Contest #215

Employees from directors to new hires all run for cover when they hear the clacking of her heels. Like some colossal WWII machine gun:TAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPPYTAPTAPTAPATATTAPTAPTAPTTAPTAPCLICKCLICKTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAPTAP…TAPTAPThe concussions resound through the entire floor, not just from the executive wing to the break room, the entire floor. If the right doors were open it would echo throughout the whole building. She does not simply walk these floors, she punishes them. One could ...

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“Back of Beyond.” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #215

"Bless your heart!" Sister Heloise smiled, as she cycled along the hot and dusty main street of Old Blithering. It was the middle of a long, parched drought in summer, way off there in the remote rustic town, 250 km away from the Big City. She pedaled past the row of old stores in Main Street, most with 'For Sale', or 'For Lease' signs. Sister Heloise was on a mission. Her normally sedate old home town had been rocked by a scandal. Suddenly, no one was smiling back at any clergy. The whole little community had once been so religious, praying...

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“What to Do” by John Xavier

Submitted to Contest #215

She woke to the familiar sound of crying. Slowly she rose from the hospital bed, dragged herself across the room, and lifted a baby from its crib. She cooed an apology, “I’m sorry, there is no more.” The other babies began to fuss. They were getting hungry. She had locked the door four days ago, to find the three infants in their cribs, sleeping peacefully, unaware of the horrors that were happening in the world outside. Five days ago she was a doctor. Four days ago she became the infant’s only caregiver. Th...

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“The Wisps on Copacetic Lane” by Georgette Sandoval

Submitted to Contest #215

Veronica-Amber had no recollection of her first encounter with the Wisps. They came as inconspicuous and unexpected like flurries of indoor dust that float and fly when bathed by a sheen of sunlight. At the beginning of their residence at 315 Copacetic Lane, just before their street transitioned into the main road in town, her home knew a time when it was vacant of the Wisps and the only specters filling the inside were the projections from the old films that her father would display on the dark velvet walls of the house. The walls of t...

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“Chrissy's Mom” by Jami Montgomery

Submitted to Contest #215

Day One Gina sits in her favorite chair, grateful to be home. Her wound pulls as she stretches out her legs, reclining fully because she can. She lays a hand against her lower stomach, where her body aches and throbs. She’d been split nearly in half. The pain had been excruciating. She’d screamed and screamed and screamed as the doctors had pulled things from inside of her before closing her up again. For a while, nobody thought she would make it, but she was a fight...

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“Dear Diary . . . Help” by Barbara Nosek

Submitted to Contest #215

Day 1 – Sooooo, excited. We’re now settled in at the haunted house, more of mansion really, an anniversary present from my brother Joe and his wife Tricia. And thanks to its fully stocked fridge and pantry we just finished a nice lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches with chips and beer. Beer! But what the heck, we’re on vacation. And now Tony and I are ready to explore the entire house A little scared. Back soon, Diary – I hope!Made it back safe and sound, nothing scary yet. Actually this place is quite elegant. Are h...

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“Nouveau Negotiations with a Dia-Bowl-o-Cowl” by Cosmiknight XIll

Submitted to Contest #215

First, let's set the parameters. He came to me. I did not summon or scry or present any ritual of conjuring. The world was ending, was what the Main (defined listing in French, if ye seek to spell out the meaning of what apocalyptic scripture speaks of in reference to the prowler who oft dons a cowl) of d'veil said. He croaked as if thirsty for water from running, his lips cracked, but the message was so urgent he sought to deliver it before being delivered from his anguish instead. People have a lot to say about deals with the devil. I ne...

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“Moving Into Together” by J.W. Kimmel

Submitted to Contest #215

TW: Suicidal Ideation, Physical ViolenceAfter a brief and increasingly common battle with the sliding glass door he steps out onto the small balcony and breathes in the morning air. He leans over the railing and looks three stories down to the concrete sidewalk below. Probably not high enough, he thinks. Swinging his leg over the railing his heart rate quickens. I guess I’ll just have to go head first. He swings his other leg over the railing and starts taking deep breaths. The loud hiss of a truck’s brakes diverts his attention and he peers...

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“The Broad Strokes” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #215

“Some people start talking to themselves whenever I am around,” I observed one fine Saturday.“How so, Peter?” my wife replied while she checked the firmness of a Cucumis melo reticulatus, otherwise known as a muskmelon or cantaloupe. “Too firm, that one,” she said, rolling it over to grab the one that made her smile.“See what I mean?” I huffed.“I was talking to you, not to myself!” Into one of her numerous cloth bags that melon went.We should have gotten a cart. Goodness knows how heavy a load I would have at the grocery checkout. And I woul...

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“Maabeloff's Transition” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #215

When Gustav looked in the mirror, it was always the same. That monster that he loathed was staring back at him with those marble black eyes. His reaction was always the same, a groan of disgust would rise in him until he could no longer bear looking at his own reflection. It was an accident. A horrible, senseless accident had turned the child prodigy into this disgusting creature who was forced to wear a mask when he went into public which wasn’t often these days. He had played the palace at St. Petersburg in front o...

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“Chance Meeting” by Paul McDermott

Submitted to Contest #215

Chance Meeting A pair of tiny, gold-flecked orbs stared at him. The pupils narrowed, vertical feral slits unlike any Ryan had ever seen. He sensed alarm, even panic, and realised these emotions were not his own. They belonged to … whoever was watching. They resolved as the features of a perfect, delicate face: one which had no page or chapter in any book listing the flora and fauna of the natural world. A foot in height, female in form: hair the colour of purest gold cascading to her waist and held in place by a coronet plaited from...

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“Below The Surface” by Peter Stone

Submitted to Contest #215

By Peter Stone "Jennifer, why exactly did we move here again," asked Dennis who for the third time that morning had to close the basement door. The Hobbs were a young couple that just wanted a change from the hustle and bustle of the life they experienced in New York. They both had tried to have children with the past partners but we’re never successful. The thought of going through life without a child was turning Jennifer into a nightmare for Dennis. There wasn’t a day go by that she didn’t look up fertility clinics on the internet. “Jen...

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“The house in the Park” by Gisela Woldenga

Submitted to Contest #215

isela Woldenga 752 Runnymede Ave. Coquitlam BC, V3J2V1 email: gwnovels@gmail.com Tel.: 604-939-5357 THE HOUSE IN THE PARK Emily stopped and pointed. “Look at that house, Claire. It’s like a left-over from another time. And those colors.” Claire focused her camera. “Yeah, who has skinny, pink houses with yellow shutters nowadays.” Emily felt a small shiver going down her spine. “Not shutters. The windows are boarded up. They look like dead eyes.” Claire giggled. “How dramatic. Maybe we can find out what it’s still doing her...

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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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