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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#220: Out of Place

The air’s beginning to chill and goosebumps are rising on your skin like mushrooms on a log. With Halloween not far off, everything’s beginning to feel a little… strange. It’s got me thinking about all things odd, and one of the most unsettling sensations of all — noticing something that’s out of place.

From things that shouldn’t be where they are, to protagonists far from home, this week’s prompts explore the bizarre, and the uncanny feeling of things being where they don’t belong.

🥇 Winner

“Fae Touched” by D. Grimes

🏆 Winner of Contest #220

Siobhan awoke to the Irish sun spilling in the open doorframe of their single-room cottage. Her back pressed against Sean’s, and she moved carefully so as to not wake him on his day off morning duties— today, she would feed the cattle and chickens. She rolled over, a stray mattress feather poking her side, and saw Aoife’s small body in her basket, enveloped by a blanket. A surge in Siobhan’s chest shot her awake—Aoife hadn’t cried once through the night. Siobhan scrambled to her feet, bare soles pressed into the cool packed dirt, no longer m...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Meet Me At The River” by Lindsay Flo

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

Water laps the shore, a slow symphony. In with applause for itself, out with sorrow. Over and over again as I stare, the past fresher in my mind than it’s ever been. And when we’re dead, meet me at the river, Jade said. Promise. I promise, I said back. I can’t remember if we were drunk or high—probably both—but I’ve recalled that moment with clarity for years, although never quite as pellucidly as I am now, with icy spring winds and gunmetal skies and a history so far gone it nearly brings me to my knees. Jade is dead. And I am at the r...

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“All Roads” by Sol Caine

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

The aromatic smell of roast pork awakened me from my mid-morning slumber. I had drifted off while sat against a wall during the morning break from reading, and was slow to open my eyes, clutching tightly to the last moments of sleep. “Are you hungry?” An unfamiliar voice asked – jolting me awake. For the next several moments, I rubbed my eyes and stared at the unfamiliar surroundings feeding my confusion. Nothing was familiar to me, plus I couldn’t recognise a single face lingering on the street corner or sat opposite me on a low wall acros...

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“The Talk” by Audrey Knox

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

My parents’ anniversary was in the fall—the 13th of October. Every year, they left me at my grandmother’s house so that they could spend the weekend solely in one another’s company. I hated my grandmother’s house. It was creepy and it smelled of stale incense and mildew. Nothing made sense there. It was cluttered with bundles of wilted herbs in every corner. And she always made me help her with the baking. There were no videogames. This last time was no different. My parents hadn’t been gone for more than an hour when she had me help her m...

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“Disappearing Completely” by Jed Cope

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

It was a promise I made. We’re only as good as the promises we keep, even if those promises are made to ourselves and only ourselves. This promise I made to my best friend. The sort of promise you make when you’re young, never thinking you’ll ever have to do anything about it. Wendy and John once promised each other that if they hadn’t settled down and married by the time they turned thirty then they’d marry each other. I treated my promise like theirs, but of course mine wasn’t a half arsed rejection. My promise was not about maki...

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“A strange sight” by Eddie McKenzie

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

Everybody knew that trolls had been hunted to extinction years ago. It was just common knowledge that they had gone the way of the way of the common European dragon, the garden gnomes and, of course, the great auk. That is a tragedy, of course, but it had also been long accepted as just one of those things that people did, hunting innocent species to extinction, so that people wouldn’t feel quite as bad about their misdeeds for as long as they were able to justify them away as human nature. Now, with that said, Elliot could not quite fi...

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“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

Jess Granger passed away from his third heart attack as he watched Wheel of Fortune in his apartment. An hour later I got the call from his sister Beth. Through her tears she told me the details and said she had made all the final arrangements. His funeral would be on Saturday. We had been friends for a long time, drawn together by our love of baseball. Raised in Boston,Massachusetts, on the south side of the Charles River, Jess was a diehard Red Sox fan while I had other loyalties that he would say changed with the d...

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This week's prompts

Start your story with a character walking through a desert landscape, when they stumble across something unexpected. “That shouldn’t be there,” they muse.

Dialogue – 51 stories

You arrive at a destination you promised an old friend you’d visit after they passed, only to find them there too.

Mystery – 66 stories

As a child you’re helping your grandparent bake. When you’re sent to the pantry to fetch an ingredient, you discover something odd.

Mystery – 41 stories

Begin your story with a protagonist taking shelter under a bridge during a thunderstorm. An animal scurries past which shouldn’t exist. Against their better judgment, they decide to follow it out.

Fantasy – 50 stories

You’re awakened from your nap by someone asking, “Are you hungry?”. You fell asleep somewhere else entirely.

Mystery – 45 stories

Stories

“Fae Touched” by D. Grimes

🏆 Winner of Contest #220

Siobhan awoke to the Irish sun spilling in the open doorframe of their single-room cottage. Her back pressed against Sean’s, and she moved carefully so as to not wake him on his day off morning duties— today, she would feed the cattle and chickens. She rolled over, a stray mattress feather poking her side, and saw Aoife’s small body in her basket, enveloped by a blanket. A surge in Siobhan’s chest shot her awake—Aoife hadn’t cried once through the night. Siobhan scrambled to her feet, bare soles pressed into the cool packed dirt, no longer m...

Read story

“Meet Me At The River” by Lindsay Flo

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

Water laps the shore, a slow symphony. In with applause for itself, out with sorrow. Over and over again as I stare, the past fresher in my mind than it’s ever been. And when we’re dead, meet me at the river, Jade said. Promise. I promise, I said back. I can’t remember if we were drunk or high—probably both—but I’ve recalled that moment with clarity for years, although never quite as pellucidly as I am now, with icy spring winds and gunmetal skies and a history so far gone it nearly brings me to my knees. Jade is dead. And I am at the r...

Read story

“The Damsel and Diztrez” by Derrick M Domican

Submitted to Contest #220

“Now, little Diz, I think we're set, but can you think of anything else your momma would like to sink her fangs into when she’s done giving birth?”Saying this, the elderly mouse spider, Gra’ma Occatoria, tip-tapped eight steps back on spindly legs, revealing the feast she’d laid out on a platform made of hundreds of layers of silk. In the banquet-hall, the lowermost chamber attached to the central shaft of the burrow, which was illuminated by fireflies and glowworms secured to the webbing on the walls, the young spiderling with the bright re...

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“Meta-Verse ” by Kevin Logue

Submitted to Contest #220

Kal tugged his sodden patched cloak over Esmae's shivering shoulders and rubbed her back. Little good it would do in this weather, but what's a brother to do? He felt the fool, promising so much he couldn't give. Reckoned mother was right - he truly was less than nothing. Although she was as much his mother as he was the Emperor of Everywhere.Thunder rumbled and lightning exploded, like the gods were moving furniture around, then thought divine redecorating was a bust and burnt the armoire instead. Kal couldn't help but think that the d...

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“Cinnamon Cookie Cure All” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #220

Cinnamon Cookie Cure All I remember Granny, my mom's mom, being about as round as she was tall. She was a fireball of energy carrying a big stick. Usually a yard stick she wasn't afraid to use on your backside if you didn't stick to the straight and narrow. She mostly aimed it at my younger brother, 'the Little Scheister'. He especially would get in trouble for hiding her yard stick. Granny lived with us on and off throughout my childhood. Most of the time she lived in our house where ever that was, in Texas when I was very young, or later...

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“All Roads” by Sol Caine

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

The aromatic smell of roast pork awakened me from my mid-morning slumber. I had drifted off while sat against a wall during the morning break from reading, and was slow to open my eyes, clutching tightly to the last moments of sleep. “Are you hungry?” An unfamiliar voice asked – jolting me awake. For the next several moments, I rubbed my eyes and stared at the unfamiliar surroundings feeding my confusion. Nothing was familiar to me, plus I couldn’t recognise a single face lingering on the street corner or sat opposite me on a low wall acros...

Read story

“StATuE” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #220

Considering Ray had just officially missed rent again, hadn’t heard back from any interviews, and that he’d actually considered buying cat food since it was on special – and then did buy it – the sudden thunder suited him just fine. A little weather would scatter most of the casuals from The Butthole – what everyone called Button Park – so maybe this time he could enjoy nature without getting mugged again.Crunching through the autumn leaves, and sidestepping the broken glass and syringes, gave him a sense of peace. The first drops of rain we...

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“Oh Happy Fault” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #220

When I wake up, the fresh sea breeze tells me I am near the Ocean. I stretch out my hands and grasp for my gold Spanish pocket watch, but it is not on the nightstand. Seeing the sun peer through a set of heavy drapes, I realize I am no longer at sea but in a hotel suite.“Are you hungry?” she asks, coming into view with a plate of honeydew and canary melons and a lump of cottage cheese. I begin to remember why I am here.The air is thick in the dark suite with the drawn drapes, and she sits naked in her chair, knees up, feet perched, with...

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“The Mirage” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #220

Holden Arroyo had been lost in the desert for approximately twelve days before he stumbled upon the mobile phone store.“That shouldn't be there,” he mused.The store appeared over one of Holden’s favorite dunes, which was a few dunes down from where his plane had crashed. He was on his way to Tanzania when the self-flying plane’s license expired, and before Holden could go online and renew it, the aircraft was plummeting into the sand. Luckily for its only passenger, the plane landed in one of the softest patches of sand in the Ganasi Desert,...

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“The Flood” by Kay Reed

Submitted to Contest #220

A serpent slithers through the desert. It drags its colossal body over the crunching bones of ancient victims, swishing torrents of sand in its wake.The earth trembles. Above, a dark cloud appears in the blue sky.The serpent pauses, swivels its head. It fixes a yellow eye on the cloud, watches it darken, broiling with fury, as if dragging in a long-winded breath, readying to strike.The snake doesn’t hesitate, moves fast through the desert, positions itself at the edge of the cloud’s lightning rage. There is nothing but dry, hungry sand stret...

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“Not All Who Wander ...” by Sue Schroeder

Submitted to Contest #220

Angel sat with her knees drawn up. The wind whipped her hair around like a Medusa. Sand stung her cheeks and she buried her face in her knees, letting the tears fall. Even though she was hidden under the embankment of the bridge, the wind pulled at her. Come into the darkness, it seemed to say.Why, oh why hadn’t she listened to the weather reports? Well, she had, but meteorologists were always wrong. And Houston just didn’t get storms like this. She’d gotten worried about the weather on her commu...

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“The Talk” by Audrey Knox

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #220

My parents’ anniversary was in the fall—the 13th of October. Every year, they left me at my grandmother’s house so that they could spend the weekend solely in one another’s company. I hated my grandmother’s house. It was creepy and it smelled of stale incense and mildew. Nothing made sense there. It was cluttered with bundles of wilted herbs in every corner. And she always made me help her with the baking. There were no videogames. This last time was no different. My parents hadn’t been gone for more than an hour when she had me help her m...

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“The Golden Hours” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #220

“Are you hungry?” A man’s hoarse voice interrupts my slumber. I prise open my eyes a fraction of an inch and shiver as I peek over my dew-covered bedding. A woman’s face peers down at me, checking for signs of life. Her dark brown eyes glint below a severe fringe and a starched white mob cap. Behind her, twin jet trails have traced a diagonal in the sky like tiny white water-ski tracks in an enormous lake. “Is he hungry, love?” The man enquires, engrossed in the background. She shrugs. “Are you hungry, sir?” A questioning squint crinkl...

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“Oh Pharoah, My Pharoah” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #220

My tongue is about to explode out of my mouth. I can’t recall how I ended up walking through the desert on my own. All I know is that I am so thirsty, I could suck water from a cactus needle. The sand is endless and blowing everywhere in the strong wind, making it almost impossible to see more than an arm’s length ahead of me, but through the sound, I detect a low hum like some energy-driven device moving past me at a rapid pace. It sounds familiar, yet unmistakably alien with its high-pitched whir and hiss. Even more peculiar to my ears, ...

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“Doodle” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #220

9:17 AMThe Office LobbyThe yucca tree is no longer alone among the impressive boulder formation and cloudy pink sunset of Joshua Tree National Park.“That shouldn’t be there,” Milton says to no one. He has been staring at the landscape for nearly ten minutes while he sips his coffee, letting the image before him sink in. Sometimes you see something that is so unbelievable, so out of place, it can take a moment for the emotions to settle. His therapist – who is not really his therapist but a barista at the coffee shop on 4th Avenue – tells him...

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$250

Prize money

253

Contest entries

129

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 20, 2023 EST

Won by D. Grimes 🏆

Title: Fae Touched

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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