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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#226: Temptation Time

Temptation comes in many forms this time of year, and our ability to resist seems to wear a little thin during these cold winter months. Some of these temptations are innocuous, from a little over-shopping to a well-deserved third helping at Thanksgiving dinner, while others prove a little more problematic, like the temptation to snap at loved ones after a long weekend in close quarters.

This week’s prompts are all about impulses, indulgence, and the way in which wants and needs tend to blur around the edges after a glass or two of mulled wine.

This week's prompts

Your family’s holiday dinners always end with everyone at each other’s throats. This year you’re determined to keep a low profile, but your patience is being put to the test.

Thanksgiving – 38 stories

At some point in your story, a character says “You’re better than this…”.

Thanksgiving – 56 stories

Your character finally gives into a temptation they've been avoiding, and becomes better because of it.

Thanksgiving – 31 stories

Write a story about somebody trying to rationalize giving into temptation, even though they know they shouldn’t.

Thanksgiving – 42 stories

Black Friday is the one day of the year where the Devil makes selling your soul a good thing, although there are some bizarre T’s & C’s.

Thanksgiving – 22 stories

Stories

“Sunflowers and Roses” by Liliana Carlomagno

Submitted to Contest #226

4:29pm: “Will you set these on the table?” Mrs. Rosenthal handed her daughter, Maya, eight folded napkins. Mrs. Rosenthal suffered from severe OCD, so she was a perfectionist. She had spent over thirty minutes in Home Goods yesterday morning holding up different napkins with different napkin rings to see which matched better. “The cream may be too harsh against the dark wood table,” she thought, “perhaps I’ll get a tablecloth as well.” “If I get a deep autumnal red tablecloth, then the gold napkin rings would work better,” she continu...

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“The Last Potato” by Clark Redmond

Submitted to Contest #226

“You’re better than this,” Peter thought as his weakening eyes struggled to remain locked onto his prey. “It’s the last one. You can do this”. Sat in the centre of a greasy ceramic dish, littered by the crumbs of his fallen comrades, a lone roast potato continued to steam away into the air untouched by the rest of the occupants around the dinner table. From below, where the action took place, out of the view of his two kids and partner who was spending a considerably long time in the bathroom; Peter’s belly extended beyond the confides...

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“A Thanksgiving Feast” by Ellie Rath

Submitted to Contest #226

Alex Serafino-Fox had known better than to go to her hometown for her family’s Thanksgiving that year. After the events that had transpired the previous year, she had promised herself she would never go again. But if she could count on her family for one thing, it was their refusal to leave her alone. Her mother, grandmother, aunts, everyone, had called her multiple times to insist she attend, refusing to take no for an answer. So there she was, standing on the doorstep of a gaudy second empire style house in the Bostonian suburbs. She peere...

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“You Can't Make This Stuff Up” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #226

Not many people can say they led their own Thanksgiving Day parade. The lead vehicle was a sheriff's squad car, I rode the back of said car wearing my grandfather's big yellow rain slicker over my underpants. That's all. I Learned later that a State police car, an EMT bus, a fire truck, three pickups, and a tractor followed. Now, this is on a very desolate road with miles and miles of flat farmland, post-harvest so all those lights and sirens (trucks and cars of volunteer firefighters who had portable flashing red lights) put on quite a show...

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“The Fateful Gift” by Janet Carl

Submitted to Contest #226

Artie J. Zeus looked down on the streets of Manhattan from the top floor of Olympic Tower. Yes, he was the top gun of Olympus, Inc., but he was constantly on guard against other, lesser gods who tried to steal his thunder. Literally. Like Monty Prometheus, VP for Energy. He had just stolen fire, to which Artie had sole rights, and given it to humans. “I’ll fire the bastard,” Artie told Hera, as he swilled a dirty ambrosia that evening. Hera laughed. “You can’t fire him. Once a god, always a god.” “Not necessarily. Think of that Nietzsche...

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“Bite Your Tongue” by Jennifer Pletcher Borg

Submitted to Contest #226

There was not enough wine to get me through this. There would never be enough wine in the entire world to get me through this. I didn’t want to be here. There was a reason why I moved across the country. The negative remarks made about my life, my looks, my everything would be masked as “constructive criticism,” and as a journalism major, I should be used to constructive criticism. Except my professor never told me I’d end up an old, shriveled spinster who wasn’t even worthy of having a hoard of cats. Which, of course, was to...

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“The Tunnel of Temptation” by James Fritz

Submitted to Contest #226

David and I wait at the entrance to the Tunnel of Temptation for a boat to arrive. We’ve been on every ride except this one. He wanted to save this one for last. “That way, if you get tempted with an old fling, at least we’ll have already done everything else beforehand!” I had never heard of Pumpkin Palooza until he told me about it. Supposedly it’s this traveling carnival that goes to a different town across the country every year on Halloween. A nice change from handing out candy again. “Enjoying yourself, Sarah?” he asks. “Of course! I h...

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“You made it…you are better than him” by Perla Horn

Submitted to Contest #226

The day I fell in love with young man I just happened to bumped into my world turned upside down. There wasn’t a day I didn’t think about him. I worried about him from day to day what his life is like. Is he happy, does he goes to school or does he work? On a good days when I was happy, I imagined dancing with him. I ride the bike, I ran or I sang to him. I took a hot baths and I massaged his back. On days when my world was falling apart. He held me tight and we cri...

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“Xocolatl” by Anthony Mansueto

Submitted to Contest #226

Warning: This story contains references to (but no descriptions of) corporal punishment. It is set in an alternate history in which certain peoples are depicted in roles which they did not have in our own history. There is also a graphic image of a beating human heart. Matangi stood before Binah, the novice mistress, with her head bowed and her hands clasped behind her back. “This is the third time,” the older woman said to her. “It is an entirely unacceptable way to treat one of your sisters.” “But her claim was ridiculous! The ve...

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“When you dig for gold, dig deep” by Omar Scott

Submitted to Contest #226

Can you believe the nerve of this man? I should have known he wasn’t the right man for me when he told me he was a plumber. Plumbers make a little money, but still, they looking through people’s shit for living. Then for a first date he takes me to Olive Garden. Olive Garden! Really! And for flowers, he gives me tulips instead of roses. I mean who does that. When I finally go to his place, he lives in a regular old apartment. But the last straw was when he came to pick me up in a Chevy Traverse. Turns out the Cadillac Escalade that he got my...

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“Hostile Environments” by Sue Leather

Submitted to Contest #226

Some philosopher, Plato I think it was, said that a good decision is based on knowledge. But it’s a bit of a cop out, I reckon. I mean, you can’t know everything, and how can you know the consequences of your decision before it’s too late? When the NGO I worked for insisted that I go on the four-day training course in working in hostile environments, I hadn’t been very keen. But here I was, eight fifteen on a chilly March morning in a meeting room at a converted stately home in the middle of the Berkshire countryside. The day loomed in fr...

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“GRACE TO BETTER” by Kelsea I

Submitted to Contest #226

Scheme, manipulate, deceive and shun, these are all things we face on the road to better. The world is cruel and crumbling at the knees of the people who roam it. Lies soar, the women beg, the children have become lions and yet they call it fair. A system of thieves and dragons, you either live or live dead, either join the game or be at the mercy of it. Until You showed up. Sleep It was Benevia, in the year of the reign of King Ozed. I was ten years old then, a refugee is what they said I was, I didn’t know any less, and w...

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“LAYER CAKE” by Christine LW

Submitted to Contest #226

Sexual Language Mentioned. LAYER CAKE. Melody sat by the window at Starbucks café with her hot chocolate drink and marshmallows. She watched as the people passed by. She gave the lake of chocolate a swirl dipping a marshmallow into the cup the...

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“My Conscience in the Mirror” by Caitlyn Sparrow

Submitted to Contest #226

Day 1 What would you do if you saw the devil in your mirror? Freshly nineteen-year-old Chevelle Lowery was a good girl. A homebody. An introvert. On the night of her birthday, her parents got her a vanity that― not just by appearance alone— was out of her style. It was a pretty pink oval vanity with lights all around the rim. Despite the faded color- due to age probably―it was so bright compared to her cool-toned room. She had no qualms against it until she found the light switch to the m...

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“The Pipe” by Lydia Carter

Submitted to Contest #226

TW: Mentions of past sexual abuse to a minor, mentions of violence, murder, unhealthy coping mechanisms. The pipe is dripping again.It’s her lullaby, her calming song, her heartbeat ringing in her ears. It lulls her in ways that the rhythmic twitching of her fingers, nor the hitching of her breaths that are beginning to sound like a beat to a song, cannot. She comes back to herself, sucking the air from the room and clenching those twitching, nervous fingers into fists that rest upon her bent knees.The blood is drying.It feels like the ...

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$250

Prize money

189

Contest entries

87

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 01, 2023 EST

Won by Chris Campbell 🏆

Title: Forthright Thursday

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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