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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.

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 – 50 stories

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

Mystery – 65 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

“My First speech at School” by Isen Oommen

Submitted to Contest #220

I cherish deeply the memories of my parents in my heart, as expressed by Paul in 1 Thessalonians 2:6 and 12. Verse 6 of the tapestry of words reveals a mother's love—pure, bold, and tender—a kind of love that is unparalleled. She is a source of comfort and solace in her embrace. Verse 12, a brushstroke of wisdom and grace, reveals a father’s love with a steadfast pace, guiding us to live a life divine. In God’s presence, our hearts align. Two verses, woven with love’s gentle thread—a mother’s love, a father’s guidance—are widespread. In this...

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“Under the Bridge” by Jan Wilson

Submitted to Contest #220

Instinctively I ducked my head, that storm came out of nowhere, the meteorologist certainly did not predict it. Rain began to beat down as though it was attempting to force its way into the ground, feeling hail-like but nope just large forceful drops. I was too far from home and in this area, this early in the morning no shops were open and of course I was without an umbrella. I peered around and spotted a small walkway bridge just up the street, no idea where it led to, in fact, I was not sure I ever noticed it before, oh well any por...

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“The Sentinels” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #220

Germaine Velacourt closed her eyes and concentrated on slowing her breathing, purging her mind of the anxieties of the day. Long inhale, a count of three, long slow exhale. Within five minutes, the countenance of her face matched the calmed down, steady beat of her heart. She opened her eyes, and as they grew accustomed to the dark, the bayou sang to her like a heartbreakingly melancholy choir: in turn, she focused on the chirruping tree frogs, the contented trill of a sated screech owl, the shrill barks of a momma grey fox accompanied by ...

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“Demon Hearts” by Lucy Gray

Submitted to Contest #220

Nyssa strapped on her knapsack and pulled her best coat tight around her torso. She took one last look around at the cottage. Dim light filtered through the windows, highlighting dust, dampness, and the empty kitchen. On impulse, she reached back and grabbed her Stuffy and tucked him between her bag strap and chest. The age-worn wolf-dragon stuffed animal sagged against the pressure. There was nothing left for her here now. It was time to leave. She didn’t look back as she broke through the eastern forest line. West would take her to...

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“Gichi ” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #220

“Hey, look, money!” One of Jesse’s friends reached towards the brass memorial plaque bolted to the knee-high chunk of rock. It was littered with various coins. Jesse caught his hand. “Don’t take those. People left them to pay their respects.” “At last don’t take the pennies,” Jake said, “or the lake monster’ll get you!” “What monster?” “The mishipeshu.” “Bless you!” Everyone laughed. “Or you could say gichi-anami’e-bizhiw.” Jake shrugged. “Same animal.” “I know ‘gichi’ means ‘great’,” Jesse ventured. “...

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“Under the Bridge” by Sean Brennan

Submitted to Contest #220

Under the Bridge By: Sean Brennan “BOOM! C-C-CRACK, BOOM!” The bellows of the thundering storm echo overhead. The rain increases in tempo until it is beating down upon the ground below. The drops of water falling with such force they sting the skin. The young man pulls his jacket tighter as he hurries to find cover. The barely audible squishing sound of his already soaked shoes squeaks lowly in his ears. Rounding a corner, he spots a dreary looking bridge made of stone. A normally small creek, now growing in ...

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“The Window” by Laura Johnston

Submitted to Contest #220

“Are you hungry?” I stir uncomfortably in my sleep, wondering why I am dreaming of you again. I will your voice to go away as my skin prickles with goosebumps. “Are you hungry?” You ask again, closer this time. I squeeze my eyes shut and cover my face with my pillow as my limbs start to tremble. I thought I’d gotten away, that I had lost you forever. I thought I was free. As consciousness fights through my haze of deep sleep, I notice my pillow caressing my face. No, caressing isn’t the right word. It feels too stiff to caress. The starchy, ...

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“Losing Track” by Robert W

Submitted to Contest #220

"Are you hungry?"That’s Jay, my brother. I’ve just woken up, and he’s come into my bedroom with my birthday card and a monster pack of Snickers, my all-time, world-championship favourite. I sit up in bed. "Hell, yes", I respond. I am starving most of the time. Well, I'm sixteen. Too bad that most of the foods I like best seem to end up in one gigantic zit right in the middle of my forehead. Of course, when I fell asleep, I was twenty-four, but eating for two, hungry all the time, three months gone with a lump in my s...

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“The Longest Nap” by Laura Paul

Submitted to Contest #220

“Can you stop?!” I shouted. An incessant poking into my arm woke me up from the deepest nap I had had in years. I was seriously annoyed, especially after I had told my roommate to not wake me up unless we were being robbed or Arianna Grande was knocking on our door and asking for me. It had been a crazy few weeks of partying hard and still making it to every single class and turning in all my work. My dad had been on my case about me partying too much and I was trying to prove to him that I could do both and my grades wouldn’t suffer. OK may...

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“Unfamiliar ” by Anna Komora

Submitted to Contest #220

It's much, much colder when awareness comes to her. How the temperature dropped overnight so drastically, she isn't sure, but for October, she supposes it isn't the strangest thing. Even more so since she forgot to take the throw blanket from the back of the couch to cover herself with it before lapsing into sleep. Last night had been so long, and after getting Gracie to bed, she hadn't thought about much of anything anything. Eyes still glued shut with the intention of more sleep, she drags her arm up and to the back of the sofa, in...

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“Third Zenith” by Lo Harmsway

Submitted to Contest #220

THIRD ZENITH Every morning Bel and her brother went out to the Sands. Before dawn, when the sun was still steeping – a teabag touch in hot water, saffron strings of clouds cobwebbing the horizon – they left their grandparents’ house, pajama’d, carrying water in old round canteens, rubbing sleep from their brown nut eyes. They walked down to the street’s nub then veered off into the desert. A tundra of sand lay before them – miles in every direction, violet in the morning light, still cool enough that they could walk on it barefoot. They ...

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“The Day We Died” by Tyler Porter

Submitted to Contest #220

Logan Downy died on a Tuesday. It was a typical Tuesday, not unlike any other he’d ever experienced up to that one. Car accident. A somewhat awkward way for someone to die. Why? Because car crashes are something that everyone has seen or heard about over and over again. Maybe we get desensitized to them. We see so much news coverage about them, hear about them from friends and family, or witness them firsthand driving down the highway. Sure, it strikes us as sad for a moment, ...

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“Penitence Pier” by Margaret McDonald-Smith

Submitted to Contest #220

Riding the bus is like riding a bicycle. Once you get it down, it comes right back to you, no matter how many years have passed. I stood at the chilly bus stop, sharing a shifty silence with half a dozen commuters, all of us peering in the same direction and fingering our bus passes, or tugging at the zippers of our jackets. I felt myself slip into the old routine easily as if no vast moat of time sat between now and when I had ridden this bus almost every day, years ago when I had still been friends with Caroline. When Caroline was still al...

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“The Order Of Things” by R. Wood

Submitted to Contest #220

I was the last person to see her. The police allowed me to carry away some of her belongings in the hope I would reveal something of interest. So far they had nothing. “We will talk soon.” The detective said, taking me in, as I gathered the tangle of her notebooks cast across his desk. Her papers lay around the room as though they had exploded in his hands. I took the chance to get away to head up to the cabin, gripping the steering wheel, my knuckles pale, glowing against the dark winding road, as though the hands of anothe...

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“Warm Embrace” by Hailey Lau

Submitted to Contest #220

The rain is cold. Not as cold as my heart. My heart is icy. It's sharp, it's painful, it's heavy. And I hated it. Ava loved the rain. She would laugh and dance gleefully through the sheets of water, kicking puddles, lifting her head up and letting the rain bounce off her face. No matter how cold it got, her embrace was always warm. I used to love the rain, too. Now it was like needles, falling from the sky, piercing my skin. A constant, painful reminder of what I lost. The leaves squeaked under my yellow rubber boots. As I left the ...

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$250

Prize money

251

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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