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#238 Aposiopesis

An ancient figure of speech, literally meaning “becoming silent,” aposiopesisis a very fancy word for a very common predicament. Aposiopesis occurs when a sentence breaks off and is left unfinished, suggesting the speaker is too overwhelmed to go on. Think “I’m so angry, I could —”, “You don’t think they…?”, or “I just thought…”

This week’s prompts are inspired by unfinished utterances, communication catastrophes, and those times when you just can’t quite...

🥇 Winner

Five Turns of the Hourglass

Weronika L

Winner of Contest #238 🏆

I tow my dead father with me to the scorched heart of a desert. His body guilts down my shoulders, heavier each time he doesn't tell me that I took the wrong turn, that I need to straighten my elbows, that I never do anything the right way so why does he even bother. My jeep sputters and chokes under our weight as it brings us to the parking lot in front of the hotel. Vipassana, reads the sign above the glass door, melted open at the hinges. The Silent Retreat. Heat slaps me across the face. I backpack my father around my waist and march to ...

121 likes

⭐️ Shortlisted

The Swan Songs

Michał Przywara

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

Eobald the Younger, formerly King of Tretovortania, pulled at his burlap robe to discreetly get at a particularly insistent shoulder itch. When he grunted, the abbot glared at him, and Eobald cast his eyes to the dirt path in shame. To his dirty, dirt endirted feet, covered in so much dirt and so little silk.“Be at peace, child,” said the abbot. His abbot now, because now the former king was a current Aspirant Listener of the Gentlest Wind. “The time will soon come. For now, comfort yourself with the sacred song of the swan.”As if on cue, on...

76 likes

Drawing Bridges

Liz Grosul

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

A kids’ hospital playroom in Moscow. Crayons and board game boxes scattered on the floor. A plastic table flexed in the center, surprisingly in good shape. A male nurse and an adolescent girl sit across from each other at the table. There are papers and markers spread out in front of them. Neither of them want to be there. The girl, Dasha, is drawing. Nurse: …and where are you on this bridge? Dasha is silent, scribbling. She waits. Nurse: Draw yourself. You can be anywhere, in the middle or anywhere. Dasha: I’m not ready...

54 likes

The Stoning of Emmiko Blaine

Jenefer Igarashi

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

She had done everything in her power to protect them. She had endured the taunting, the scowls, and even the unbearable loneliness, yet they would not leave well enough alone. She imagined it would come to this. Emmiko was not sure why some were affected and others were left unharmed. The first time it happened she had been a toddler, playing in the front yard, as a stranger passed by her father’s small house on the outskirts of town. The man had stopped, resting his hands on the broken gate, and when she looked up at him, he turned to ...

44 likes

The Boy with Frozen Wings

Robert Egan

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

"You have my attention," says the Grand Assassin. "Who?" "He…" The boy drops his gaze to the Varos gold coin on the tavern's backroom table, his guarantee of safe audience, then looks back up at the man. The Grand Assassin's wrinkles and white hair may or may not be real, but the eyes are. Pinprick pupils caught in stillwater stare back at the boy. "I can't say it." "Have you heard the story of the little bird with the frozen wings?" the Grand Assassin asks. "Are there two birds and a stone in it?" "No, lad, it's the one about th...

42 likes

Choices

Nicole Ashcraft

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

“I’m just too tired to…” Her eyes landed on his face as she rolled over. She saw the expectation that lingered there in the lines between his furrowed brows. It traveled up into the creases of his forehead, pointedly asking, ‘Well?’“Either way, I might die,” she said quietly, flipping the pillow to lay on her back. She stared at the spot where the ceiling met the tattered rosebud-patterned wallpaper she once loved. They picked it out for their wedding registry at that little shop on South Houston St. while arguing playfully in the tiny aisle...

30 likes

This week's prompts

Start or finish your story with a speaker unable to finish their sentence, perhaps overcome by emotion.

Angst – 88 stories

Write a story in which a conversation takes place where the true subject is only implied.

Dialogue – 39 stories

Write a story including the line “I can’t say it.”

Dialogue – 56 stories

Write a story in which an important message is cut off, leaving characters to wonder or puzzle out what was left unsaid.

Mystery – 48 stories

Set your story at a silent retreat.

Angst – 44 stories

Stories

Five Turns of the Hourglass

Weronika L

Winner of Contest #238 🏆

I tow my dead father with me to the scorched heart of a desert. His body guilts down my shoulders, heavier each time he doesn't tell me that I took the wrong turn, that I need to straighten my elbows, that I never do anything the right way so why does he even bother. My jeep sputters and chokes under our weight as it brings us to the parking lot in front of the hotel. Vipassana, reads the sign above the glass door, melted open at the hinges. The Silent Retreat. Heat slaps me across the face. I backpack my father around my waist and march to ...

121 likes

The Swan Songs

Michał Przywara

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

Eobald the Younger, formerly King of Tretovortania, pulled at his burlap robe to discreetly get at a particularly insistent shoulder itch. When he grunted, the abbot glared at him, and Eobald cast his eyes to the dirt path in shame. To his dirty, dirt endirted feet, covered in so much dirt and so little silk.“Be at peace, child,” said the abbot. His abbot now, because now the former king was a current Aspirant Listener of the Gentlest Wind. “The time will soon come. For now, comfort yourself with the sacred song of the swan.”As if on cue, on...

76 likes

May I Have A Word?

Submitted to Contest #238

Warning: Allusions to sex“Come sit, Liz.”“Damn it! She already knows my name,” I thought to myself as a shudder ran down my spine, a slow-moving glacier that froze my nerves little by little and all at once at the same time.I stared at the woman --- she who’d sunk a sizable amount of her savings for a last minute plane ticket and a hurried hotel reservation, she who’d spent ten and a half hours up in the air and navigated the maze of Heathrow for the first time just to see and have a word with me --- at the opposite end of this corner booth ...

58 likes

Drawing Bridges

Liz Grosul

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

A kids’ hospital playroom in Moscow. Crayons and board game boxes scattered on the floor. A plastic table flexed in the center, surprisingly in good shape. A male nurse and an adolescent girl sit across from each other at the table. There are papers and markers spread out in front of them. Neither of them want to be there. The girl, Dasha, is drawing. Nurse: …and where are you on this bridge? Dasha is silent, scribbling. She waits. Nurse: Draw yourself. You can be anywhere, in the middle or anywhere. Dasha: I’m not ready...

54 likes

Not on My Shift

Submitted to Contest #238

People like me are more likely to die from suicide than in the line of duty. With Stella moving out things have gotten insufferable. The more friends and colleagues who “Exit Stage Left,” the more it seems like an option. It seems odd that those of us who answer the call to save lives at all costs, somehow can’t find a reason big enough to save our own.The emergency tones had beeped loudly from a dozen places in my apartment, startling me out of a whiskey-induced coma. Just after ten in the morning, on my day off, no less. “THIS IS A NATIONA...

52 likes

Enjoy the Silence

Hazel Ide

Submitted to Contest #238

"Do they really expect us to climb that?" Karen—Kara, or maybe it's Erin?—asks, arms folded, staring up at the monstrous tree pegged with foot holds leading up to the timberline.I follow her gaze, tracing the series of ropes and wooden steps scattering the trunks and branches high into the sky. We're only at the first course; I think they said the ropes elevated 25 feet at the start, 50 toward the end.I shrug, unable to answer. Or unwilling. I guess it depends on your point of view.You see, there's a difference between being at a silent retr...

50 likes

The screamer

Submitted to Contest #238

Trains can be romantic, but not when the tit across from you is eating an egg sandwich. It’s part of an unwritten set of rules, you don’t talk, you don’t move, you certainly don’t bring fish or egg onboard for crying out loud. It’s like a church you know, if you wouldn’t do it in the Vatican you shouldn’t do it on a train. Think of it like a big metal confessional, trundling along the tracks of conformity to keep us all in our place.You know on average carriages have 66 seats? That’s 66 individuals who always seem to represent the careful mi...

47 likes

The Most Obnoxious Kid

Angela M

Submitted to Contest #238

Paul was the most obnoxious little boy I knew. He was loud and disgusting and everyone hated him, but he was the only thing that made Sunday school entertaining. “Paul is putting the Bible down his pants!”“Paul is farting during choir practice!”“Paul is eating a page from the Old Testament!”Unfortunately for me, I had to sit next to him in class. On our first day, he threw his backpack on the table and looked at me in disgust.“I can’t believe I have to sit next to a girl,” he said. “How old are you anyways?”“Six,” I said.“I’m seven so I...

45 likes

Of Moon Rabbits and Secrets

Submitted to Contest #238

"Never do your thieving when the rabbit can see you, munchkin." Tara looked up from her barely-won handful of berries, meant to be fated for tomorrow's pie, and saw the full moon shining behind her mother. It may as well have been a flashlight. "I was only trying to hide from you, mama, not the rabbit." Her mother shook her head and picked up the bowl from the counter, gesturing at Tara to return her ill-gotten snack. "If you hide from one, you hide from all Tarinka. Even the moon won't keep your secrets." Tara pouted and gave one last yearn...

45 likes

Just Big Brother Stuff

K.A. Murray

Submitted to Contest #238

Every year on Christmas Eve, I book a room in a hotel ten minutes from my parents’ house in suburban Maryland. It’s been my routine for a while now, which is why it was unusual that I forgot this year.Delilah and I were twenty minutes into our drive down I-95 when I realized it, so it became her job to frantically look online to see if any hotels had availability for that night.“I don’t get it,” she said as she scrolled and clicked. She was annoyed, I could tell; Delilah didn’t like doing anything at the last minute. “Is it so bad with your ...

44 likes

The Stoning of Emmiko Blaine

Jenefer Igarashi

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

She had done everything in her power to protect them. She had endured the taunting, the scowls, and even the unbearable loneliness, yet they would not leave well enough alone. She imagined it would come to this. Emmiko was not sure why some were affected and others were left unharmed. The first time it happened she had been a toddler, playing in the front yard, as a stranger passed by her father’s small house on the outskirts of town. The man had stopped, resting his hands on the broken gate, and when she looked up at him, he turned to ...

44 likes

The Boy with Frozen Wings

Robert Egan

Shortlisted for Contest #238 ⭐️

"You have my attention," says the Grand Assassin. "Who?" "He…" The boy drops his gaze to the Varos gold coin on the tavern's backroom table, his guarantee of safe audience, then looks back up at the man. The Grand Assassin's wrinkles and white hair may or may not be real, but the eyes are. Pinprick pupils caught in stillwater stare back at the boy. "I can't say it." "Have you heard the story of the little bird with the frozen wings?" the Grand Assassin asks. "Are there two birds and a stone in it?" "No, lad, it's the one about th...

42 likes

Hammer Down

Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #238

Warning: Sex, sex and more sexMay want to read "Alyce's Restaurant" firstUnabashed likeness to well-known plotHammer Down“Damn, that woman is pretty...”Drifter thought as he sipped his strong coffee and nibbled at his buttered toast. “Well, more like runway gorgeous...”He was hungrier but opted not to eat any of the fare offered at pudgy Alyce's greasy spoon after seeing his grimy apron. “No, much more wholesome and natural than that.” The coy waitress, Cassie, he was watching side-eyed him as she waited on another table. He sneaked a quick ...

42 likes

The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

Shana Fox

Submitted to Contest #238

Don’t interrupt, it’s not polite. Wait your turn. Stop fidgeting. Make eye contact. Are you even listening? Speak when spoken to. Children are seen and not heard.Chicka-chicka-chicka. The plastic blades on the oscillating desk fan perched in the kitchen corner awkwardly rubbed the slightly dented cage while it continued to push air. The hardwood dining table was covered with a vinyl tablecloth decorated with vibrant summer flowers. It was the kind that when you rest upon it for a bit too long, especially when it was as warm as it was today, ...

41 likes

Money, Blood, and Coffee

Tom Skye

Submitted to Contest #238

TW: Strong language and violence throughout.Hey girl. I'll take one large ginger spiced latte and a chocolate chip muffin, please... …and sorry if I look a state. I just walked over from Bark and Solihull, the solicitors one block up, and you wouldn't believe what went down. I'm guessing this red shit all over my face and shirt is a giveaway, but damn… a guy just got his head blown half off. And don't get all nervous around me. Do you think I would be standing here hands-free if I had anything to do with this shit? Nah… I haven't so muc...

40 likes

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Contest #239

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

275

Entries

91

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 23, 2024 EST

Won by Weronika L 🏆

Title: Five Turns of the Hourglass

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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