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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#221: Ghostly

With Halloween fast approaching, I find myself thinking about the different kinds of spooky stories we like to tell each other. Year after year, there’s one particular topic I gravitate towards when in search of a thrill: ghosts. Whether they’re friendly or vengeful, these haunting spectors represent more than just our fears and anxieties around our own mortality. They’re also symbols of the collision between the past and present, and the ways what has been can tangibly affect what will be. It’s no wonder, with the universality of these themes, that ghosts feature in folklore from all around the world. 


This week, as the veil between worlds continues to thin, let’s dive into that liminal space between life and death, and see what it has to offer us. 


This week's prompts

Write a story from a ghost’s point of view.

Halloween – 134 stories

Write a story about someone who is haunted. Whether by a ghost or something else is up to you.

Halloween – 138 stories

Write a story about someone trying to raise the dead.

Halloween – 49 stories

Write a story where ghosts and the living coexist.

Halloween – 69 stories

Set your story in a world where contacting the dead is as easy as making a phone call.

Halloween – 35 stories

Stories

“Just a Call Away” by Lynn J

Submitted to Contest #221

Her best friend is horrified when she tells her the news.“Jenny!” Aria exclaims, “You- you can not be serious right now?!”Jenny rolls her bottom lip between her teeth. She knew Aria would react that way. Hell, it would’ve been odd if she didn’t. If the roles were reversed, Jenny probably would have reacted the same way, if not with more screaming and a couple dozen curse words.“Jenny, please,” Aria continues; Jenny swallows against a tight throat, “Please tell me you’re joking.”Her silence is answer enough. Her best ...

17 comments 17
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“Run, Forest, Run” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #221

Run, Forest, RunI blink. Once, twice, three times. I squeeze my eyes tightly shut, hold for a moment or two before opening and rubbing them with clenched fists. But to no use. It is still before me. Have I been asleep? Am I dreaming? No, I am sure I have not been. Had to fight the urge to sleep but I have stayed awake.I turn on my flashlight to dispel the pitch blackness. Nothing there. I flick the light off again because the last thing I want is to lose all the battery charge. There it, or he or she, is again. Large as life. Clear as--- wel...

42 comments 42
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“Purgo Inc.” by Aaron Galassi

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #221

"Thank you for contacting Purgo, where we keep memories alive! Your call is very important to us and your loved one. We are currently experiencing longer than average wait times. Please hold, or if you know your parties extension you may dial it at anytime."Smooth jazz erupted after the automated message."If I didn't know better, I'd think I'm the one that is in hell," Logan removed his glasses and massaged his forehead with his fingers. When his father passed, he called every week after Mass. It was a fresh wound that was difficult to navig...

20 comments 20
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“Shopping For Jesus” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #221

“Shalla-bakka-laba-kalla-bekka-lala-do. With the power of the lord, Jesus Christ, I relay his message of hope, love, and prosperity to you all here tonight. Praise the Lord!”“Why are we here, Granddad?”“Considering where we are, Tommo; that’s a bit of an existential question, ain’t it?”“No, why are we here at a tv evangelist’s… whatever this is?”“…He is here with you tonight and has a special message that he wants to pass on. His arms are open wide to welcome you into the bosom of paradise.”“This, is called a revival meeting, Tommo. And him ...

33 comments 33
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“Roses and Thorns” by Hanifah Kaka

Submitted to Contest #221

Fatima stepped out of the bar, giddy. Amidst the drinks and food – they were celebrating her friend’s promotion – , a faint scent of men cologne dragged her mind down the torturous path of her past.The scent was strikingly familiar to that of her ex-boyfriend's. Could they not produce perfumes exclusive to each person? Now, her nostrils flare at every passing smell of Sauvage de dior cologne.“I love this!!” Olamide was grinning and swaddling his girlfriend in a hug. It was valentine’s day and Fatima had gifted him a collection of items, one ...

11 comments 11
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“Crystal Visions” by Myranda Marie

Submitted to Contest #221

I always wondered why people say, “you can’t go home again.” , when I have quite literally flown from Florida back to New Jersey every October for the past ten years. Home. Right? Oh, I do believe I just epiphanized the meaning. Home is never the same after you leave. Everything changes, sometimes evolving, often devolving, but surely altering continually whether we like it or not. Home became a place that held memories of a time when home meant so much more than an address. Still, the friends I left behind were always welcoming, comforting ...

22 comments 22
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“Checkmate” by Khadija S. Mohammad

Submitted to Contest #221

Before I was as I am now, a 2D image pretending to be 3D, I was a half-finished shape, complete only in imagination. Before that, I was a single stroke of a brush, and before even that I was only an idea, full of potential. I was most beautiful as an idea, for the human mind is not bound in images. The chess-board in front of me seems to gloat, and for a moment I feel that its owner gloats as well, but a glance tells me he is the same lifeless figure that he has always been. No-one has ever told me how it worked, how I came to be chained to ...

27 comments 27
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“Almost Angels” by Karen Corr

Submitted to Contest #221

**Contains smidgeons of murder**"I dare you!"Meryl couldn't resist a dare. She never could.She opened the car door and ran out into the cemetery.It was a night in a million. Not fog, but low clouds hovered around the gravestones. So satisfyingly spooky.There were no stars, but the overcast sky above was bright with moonlight. Meryl could see her way just fine and hid behind a tall stone that read Margaret Lesko 1840 to 1913. A woman who died over a hundred years ago and her stone yet survived."Here I come," said Lucas.Meryl held her breath t...

16 comments 16
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“Tattoo” by Amanda Lieser

Submitted to Contest #221

CW-mental health, substance abuse, cursing, etc“A fucking rose, Michelle? Like in that stupid, fucking movie you’re always making me watch?” his eyes narrowed at me until tiny, paper thin slits remained.I swallowed hard and nodded back at him saying, “Whatever, it’s not my body.” Henry’s eyes widened and he returned to Antoinette’s Look Book filled with various designs and images of beautiful tattoos she’d already created and inked into the flesh of the many clients before us. I pulled my elastic mouth into a smile that reached the corners o...

11 comments 11
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“Tethered” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #221

Sometimes I like to stand outside and watch the wind. I try to remember what it felt like, rustling through the tiny hairs on my arm, filtering through my thick beard. They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. I watch the six-foot branches of the redwood in our yard shake and shimmy and regret that I ever took such a powerful and beautiful force for granted. I’m not sure I will ever grow used to this numbness. Of course, time has no sense anymore, but this existence – if that’s a fair name for it – has felt like an eternity. It ...

28 comments 28
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“slug/salt” by Danielle Barr

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #221

Content warning: stillbirth, war She doesn’t know that I’m gone yet. I’ve never seen her before, not as anything but filmy shadows undulating behind creamy pink light, but I would know her anywhere. She’s beautiful; I knew she would be. I could hear it in her voice; the way it crackled with emotion as she sang the words of Taps to soothe the practice pains that washed over us both in surges, a dance we both moved to in time, just she and I, moving between worlds, moving toward each other in the ether. Moving toward one another, until we we...

10 comments 10
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“afterLIVE” by Claire Marsh

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #221

Three, Violet dragged her tongue across her top front teeth, last chance to remove any stray lipstick. Two, she straightened her posture, ‘shoulders back and bust to the judges,’ her mother’s pageant mantra clanging in her ears. And…“Well, hello there, you’re so welcome to afterLive, now let’s spend forever together! I’m Violet Misstep and this handsome devil is my co-presenter, and dearest friend, Benjamin Golightly.” Leaning across just enough to flash some well-scaffolded cleavage at camera one, she placed a hand on his arm. It was always...

9 comments 9
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“The Space Between Lines” by Jesse Glover

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #221

Every morning for 72 years, Len’s analog alarm clock beeped its staccato rhythm at precisely 5:00 a.m. He’d fold over the covers, careful not to wake Mary next to him, shower and don his suit for the day. Pants, shirt, tie, belt, socks and shoes in exactly that order.He steeped his tea for four minutes. No shorter, no longer. Add just enough honey to round the sharp edge of the bitterness. His toast popped and he cut the crusts off just so before sitting at the table and opening the newspaper, the world's messiness spread before him in colum...

5 comments 5
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“Greedy Gary's Ghosts” by M.A. Grace

Submitted to Contest #221

Content warning: Depictions of animal suffering. Might put you off your next meal.***********It was pitch black when Greedy Gary shuffled out of his house at 6 am one freezing January morning. Everyone knew him as Greedy Gary because he loved his grub and ate massive portions of meat for every meal. Whether it was bacon butties, burgers, fried chicken, or his personal favourite, lamb doner kebab no salad — Greedy Gary lived for meat. Gary didn’t love his nickname, but he’d grown tired of telling people off for using it. And deep down, Gary k...

16 comments 16
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“Candy Shop” by Gareth Walcroft

Submitted to Contest #221

‘How can we steal from a place like this? Can’t we just pay someone?’ Alice said. The pair followed as the guide led the snaking procession through the factory floor. Young children and parents alike smiled or giggled as they saw candy extruders with stylized characters placed over their exterior. A group of children pointed in awe as a large pink unicorn shot a stream of rainbow coloured rope from its mouth onto a conveyor belt. Toni slowed their pace, feigning an interest as some workers poured ingredients into a massive stainless-steel ve...

0 comments 0
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$250

Prize money

425

Contest entries

148

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 27, 2023 EST

Won by Bay Colt 🏆

Title: Clearance Aisle Libations

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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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