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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

“Silences by the Red Oak” by Matthias Poynder-Meares

Submitted to Contest #238

Dusk settled over the valley, after a long and sticky afternoon. It was the firefly season and that time when the humidity of the afternoon can feel unbearable. Dinner was being prepared, after a bounty of heirloom tomatoes had been harvested in the nearby vegetable sanctuary. Watermelons had been served for tea break in-between the hottest working hours of the afternoon, and the lake had been a welcome respite for sweaty, muddy bodies when the working day had ended. Josh made his way from the lake to the terracotta house on the ed...

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“Aposiopesis” by Brita Sherren

Submitted to Contest #238

––!!--- There were no words. Of all the — He’s got balls, I’ll give him that. To even suggest that I finish the case after everything that’s happened is the most ridiculous, unbelievable, incredible…offensive. That’s the word. Offensive. So really, I shouldn’t be surprised at all. That tracks perfectly with Nihls Porter. Nihls and I have run in the same circles since grade school. Not by choice. Small town in the north, you know? Even back then he was a prick. You’d think I would’ve been clear of him when I went off to school. I ...

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“love is a four letter word and I'm already cursed” by Fletcher Fox

Submitted to Contest #238

“I -” I didn’t know how to respond. “I’m sorry; please… don’t - ” I didn’t know how that sentence would end as I said it, my mouth dry and still tasting wrong from the unwelcome intrusion. don’t do that again - don’t get any closer - don’t love me all those were possible endings to that sentence. Language formulation was why I didn’t finish my sentences, my mom told me. Certain natural disasters knock formations to the ground, and what they had just done was one of those.“I thought you liked me?” They questioned, and I couldn’t suppress the ...

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“How did you....” by Michelle Salamanca

Submitted to Contest #238

What I would define now as being blessed, is what I considered then a natural response to my greatness. I mean an attractive, extroverted female of 19 was all but great to anyone she came across, right? Any self-centered 19 yr old would tell you the same.Early evening, I’d arrived upon my brothers’ doorstep. I’d packed up from where I lived in L.A. I left my job as an AT&T long distance operator as a result of dating the men with whom I was connecting person to person calls. In giving out my telephone number, I was led through adventures...

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“My Death Letter” by Stevie Lewis

Submitted to Contest #238

*Story may be a trigger for some readers with talking of death and terminal illness* How do you tell your family you're dying? I mean… They know I've been dying for years. The tumor kept coming back no matter what the doctors tried. But how do I tell them the cancer has spread and I only have days or if I am lucky weeks left to live? I can't even comprehend this myself let alone my family who has to survive it once I am gone. My suffering will end, but they have to live with the fact that they have to outlive their baby girl. “Dear mom and ...

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“The Witness Stand” by Curtis Jackson

Submitted to Contest #238

Advisory: Themes of crime, criminal insensitivity, and victims’ impact.“If your emotions flicker by the slightest degree. He has you. You’re done.”The saying was among the coached words of Warren’s legal counselor, Richard Attenborough. After the noon break, the defendant, who faced the death penalty, would endure more grilling by the district’s assistant prosecutor, Nod Beacons. It was after a lengthy city-wide search that most citizens concluded the body was expertly disposed of, mafia-styled.The months-long investigation never steered far...

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“Your Mother Was Right” by John Martinez

Submitted to Contest #238

The rhythmic thump thump of the wipers’ frantic attempt to rid the windshield of raindrops glimmering in the passing streetlights came and went in Jonah’s sight. A thin layer of water about the lonely street glistened in the headlights. His breaths were heavy between the squeal and thump, thump. “Your mom was right, you know?” were the words Julia, his wife had said. The street lights stretched across the darkness then vanished over her reflection in the rearview mirror revealing only a split second of the shimmer in her eyes. Th...

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“Man's thirst for dominance and space” by David Nutt

Submitted to Contest #238

Man’s thirst for dominance and spaceThe date was 4th August 1914 a warm, dry and sunny day. Nature was asleep under the summer sun, the farmers’ animals throughout the countryside like the human population were enjoying a lazy day. Then came the news that the British prime minister had declared a state of war with Germany. It seemed as though that precious isle set in a silver sea was covered by an electric storm that propelled the population into the unknown with such violence that took the peoples’ breath away.Two days later I called three...

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“A Long Drive Home” by Allison Stoll

Submitted to Contest #238

I think I’m autistic.The thought rages like a hurricane in my mind, a frenzied, feral beast on a terrified rampage. I imagine it with horns and giant talons and hot, sour breath, puffing out in clouds of green smoke. My mom sits next to me in the driver’s seat, tapping her thumbs on the wheel. I wonder briefly if she’s mad at me for something, if the night didn’t go the way she’d planned, if I should have accepted her offer and ordered a drink at the bar. I give the beast a top hat and a bow tie to make it less scary.“That was real...

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“The Rest of My Life” by Ian Gonzales

Submitted to Contest #238

I crash through the door, the bell hanging from the handle jingling wildly. I’m breathing heavily, chest aching with more than the need to draw a good lungful of air. There are only a couple of people in the small diner at this hour of the night: the late-shift cook behind the counter, a couple of teenagers in a corner booth.And… her.“Something wrong, buddy?” the cook asks me, an annoyed expression on his face.I shake my head, a dismissal of his question and his very existence. At that moment, nothing has any meaning except her.She’s sitting...

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“Virgin” by Peter Fulton

Submitted to Contest #238

“Holy shit,” I breathed, my eyes dazzled and my spirit stunned. “It’s so-” “Awesome?” my hiking companion offered, green eyes excitedly peering at me from a cocked head, gauging my reaction to the sight that greeted our long, steady hike. My gaze doesn’t leave the vista of a pale orange sky, the burning bronze orb of a foreign star sinking low to a horizon of rolling mountains and an ocean of swaying trees, leaves that should have been green are now burning red from the light of the sunset and swirling in the lazy breeze, hypnotizing unw...

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“The Carcass” by Teng Rong

Submitted to Contest #238

Already it was dawn but the air was still cold and the rains were colder yet. I lay waiting for the children under the cover of a gnarled pine where the earth was dry and the darkness of night found its last respite. The rain fell in sheets. The scent of elk saliva and marmot droppings hung densely in the air the way a stillwater pond trapped the smell of fish and bugs. The graying dawn. I watched a trickle of rain run between the digits of my left paw. My belly growled. The rain slowed to a drizzle.By the time I heard them, the autumn sun h...

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“Out of Luck” by Mojave Green

Submitted to Contest #238

"I should buy a-" I caught myself before finishing the thought. A moment before the words came out of my mouth, one of the most sad and stressful memories I had flashed through my mind. It was thirty years ago. I was a typical suburban pre-teen living across the street from my best buddy Jeff Gilman. My mom was always working, and I was spending more time at Jeff’s house than my own. His parents didn't mind. They were always giving me rides home from school and would let me hang out with Jeff until my mom arrived. Whenever ...

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“The Taking of Deborah Warr” by Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #238

The two Debs shared the same first, middle and last names and were best friends even though DC was a responsible, caring parent and a career woman while “little” Debbie was as stout as a stump with a wild mess of dark hair. She liked her flipcakes done in the style of the teen show “8 Smiles” so that is how DC prepared them as she heard the sound of her daughter coming down the stairs and kissed her on the cheek before leaving for work in her Bundy Bella da Cossa convertible.She had only gone a block when she realized she had left something ...

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“The Midnight Oil” by Drew Harrison

Submitted to Contest #238

Ethan stood behind the bar, polishing a wine glass to a spotless sheen. The buzzing drone of the neon sign at the door, a sound ordinarily swallowed by the din of raucous conversation and laughter, carried tonight above the hushed murmurs of conversation and the sharp clank of mugs set to the table. Of the two billiards tables—ordinarily mobbed with tipsy players who leaned on pool cues for support—one sat empty, its balls neatly racked. Darts were arrayed in even rows beneath the dartboards; four patrons sat at the bar, spaced like men at u...

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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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