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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#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...

This week's prompts

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

Angst – 92 stories

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

Dialogue – 40 stories

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

Dialogue – 58 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

“A Romantic Interlude” by Marian Fleming

Submitted to Contest #238

The cell phone in the back pocket of Greg's faded Levi's chimed loudly. He gruffly pulled it out to answer and saw her name. Margo, the current love of his life, was supposed to be en route from the balmy coast of California to meet him at his cabin located deep in the snowy woods of Maine. Luckily, he still had a strong signal even though reception in the secluded location was spotty at best at times."Babe?""Hi," she answered somewhat out of breath. "I just landed at the airport and I'm heading down to baggage claims. From there, I'll grab ...

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“Different Pages” by Sevde Aktaş

Submitted to Contest #238

In the dimly lit room, shadows danced on the walls, mirroring the intricate choreography of emotions that unfolded between us. I took a deep breath, acutely aware of the tension in the air, as if the atmosphere itself held its breath, awaiting the next chapter of our unfolding narrative. “I consider you my notebook,” the words hung there, suspended between us like fragile threads, “because I can still come and pour my heart out to you.” His eyes, once soft pools of understanding, now sparked with a fire fueled by an unexpected anger. It wa...

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“The Silent (Re)Treatment” by Zachary Hanley

Submitted to Contest #238

When Claire dropped the first hint that our relationship wasn't working, it was on a Tuesday night at the local Mexican restaurant. Without any explanation, she threw her napkin down on the table, abruptly stood up, and stormed out just minutes before our dinner was brought to the table. I would've tried to stop her, but I wanted to enjoy my meal, not let her unwarranted anger ruin it for me. When I tried to talk to her and figure out what the problem was, it was on a Wednesday morning at our house. She was angrily scrambling eggs while I ap...

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“Silent Connection” by Shannon Ambroson

Submitted to Contest #238

“I can’t believe we have to do this,” Allie huffed, tossing her phone into a bin labeled with her name on it. She grabbed the required headphones–earmuffs really–and moved through the queue. “It’s too far. If I make it through this I might just quit anyway.” Ginny, her coworker and best friend, rolled her eyes and she shuffled along, fidgeting with her headphones, trying to size them correctly. She tossed her phone into a bin as if it was on fire, smiling and sighing like she actually enjoyed keeping it distanced from her. “I think it’s nice...

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“The Silence That Screams” by Dr. Stephen A Salaka

Submitted to Contest #238

Sanctuary in the StillnessSilence. For renowned author Alexi Kirilenko, it was both a curse and a tantalizing promise. For their dopamine-seeking brain, words—the tools of their craft—had betrayed them, choked by a writer's block borne of exhaustion and a troubled heart; their head was full of concepts, topics, and stories - all dancing around each other like crazed squirrels, sending them off on tangents, but never pouring forth to the paper any longer. Anything that did dribble out was quickly forgotten as another shiny thought caught thei...

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“Litany of Silence” by Jude Ambrose

Submitted to Contest #238

Samsat Hur was far from the first veteran of the Morning War to make the grueling expedition down into the pits of the desert to find the silent monks in their silent temple. He walked in the preserved footsteps of the legion that had marched west to seek victory or death but had received neither the satisfaction of the former nor the peace of the latter. Samsat limped past half-buried helmets and broken guns left behind by broken soldiers. His own helmet, gun, and dripping pocketknife soon joined them. What use were weapons now in this shat...

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“Give Me A Sign Lord!” by Andre LeFosse

Submitted to Contest #238

Paul sat with his eyes closed in his retreat center room, all 40 square feet of it, in prayerful solemn silence. And then his phone went off. Hey, I know you got your thing this weekend. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed our impromptu study session the other day Paul smiled at the text. Me too! Although I don’t know how much studying we got done, lol No, he thought. This was not the time for this. This retreat was not to focus on the cute girl he met at the library on Thursday. It was to decide how exactly he was going ...

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“When Silence is Deafening” by Kassandra Vale

Submitted to Contest #238

Mariah couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard her own thoughts. Between the constant din of her four rambunctious children, ranging from a toddler to a ten-year-old, the relentless demands of her job, and the perpetual hum of household entropy, silence had become a mythical concept, as elusive and fantastical as a unicorn. So, when she stumbled across an ad for a silent retreat nestled in the serene mountains, promising a weekend of tranquility and reflection, Mariah was bemused by such a concept, yet yearning for the pos...

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“The Unfinished Sentence” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #238

“The reason that I called this meeting is that…” Those were the only words heard by the employee audience as the speaker, Jason, the owner and boss of the company, fell down apparently unconscious, not even moving, just lying on the floor. There was a collective sharp intake of breath from the 70 – 80 people in the company meeting room. The people in the front row did not visibly react. They were younger members of the speaker’s family. It did not take long, however, for several unrelated people in seats farther back...

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“The Damage We Endure” by SL Brandon

Submitted to Contest #238

Alaina sat in the train station on her usual out-of-the-way bench. It was plain and worn with rust-spotted legs. She lost herself in the unintelligible din that did little to cover the intermittent click-clack of high heels as the station announcements rattled off their repeating messages. Everyone had someplace to go and something to do. Except her. Stuck without a job, she was the one person in the station who was completely unimportant. The vibration of an incoming call pulled her from her daydreams and she pulled out her phone. Ugh. If...

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“Confusion” by Carlton Newsome

Submitted to Contest #238

This had been a long week, and it was time to relax. I finally worked up the nerve to ask Victoria out on a date. She was cute and approachable. We had always shared lunches at the cafeteria and seemed to get along well. She never seemed to study and was always asking me for help with math or help proofreading a paper. I picked her up at her apartment. She was wearing a very reveling skirt, a shear shirt and was 3 sheets to the wind. She mentioned she had been down by the pool day drinking all day. There were like 10 other people at her...

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“The Hopeless Walk of Life” by Donna Mattia

Submitted to Contest #238

The cement under my feet is the only constant of which I can depend. I wander along the busy streets observing the steam escaping from the underbelly of the city, through the vented manhole covers, that hide the secrets of a functioning, well-tuned metropolis.These six years, living on the streets, have paralyzed my physical and mental well-being. Losing my job intensified all my ills, including my addiction to alcohol, to a point of self-destruction. I even gambled away all of my liquid assets to achieve that designated goal of financial fr...

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“The Hunt” by Mans Like Amelie

Submitted to Contest #238

THE HUNT ‘Dear citizens, it has been decided that Humans are no longer an endangered species. Earth is no longer a restricted zone and open hunting may begin.’ I looked at Natalia, still holding the hem of her snow white wedding dress in my hand. Her gloves were half off, her bun falling out and the lipstick on her face smudged.Her ring shone like a star on her finger. Our eyes were locked on each other for an amount of time I still can't calculate, both of us struggling to comprehend what we, and apparently the rest of the world, had j...

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“Forgotten Memories” by Jacob Cazier

Submitted to Contest #238

Charles Buckner had lived a life full of adventure, had known great victories and heart breakingly more defeats. He had seen men so courageous that their stories would live on for generations to come. He had loved only one woman his entire life and it was to her that he owed his many great victories. But as Charles walked down his driveway and opened the mailbox his heart stopped when he saw a letter from someone he had not thought about in a very long time. In a daze Charles limped up his driveway, past the confused look on his wife’s face ...

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“Meadows With Sorrows” by Lana Moon

Submitted to Contest #238

Trigger Warning: Mental Health “Right now, I just won’t be able to…” My thoughts sit in the back of my throat as my heart cramps painfully in my chest. “You can’t what, Emme?” Connor’s voice was never agitated or harsh even in the most intense of moments. His deep brown eyes always burned with eagerness and adventure, darting around new places as if he found a new home. The softness of them never waned and only intensified with a glint of determinat...

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$250

Prize money

282

Contest entries

98

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.

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