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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

“Firsts” by Wosh Uini

Submitted to Contest #238

I would be grateful for any feedback on my story or my writing. Anything that can help me get better as an author. This story contains implications of sensitive and potentially unsettling themes. “It was pouring that day. Like many other mornings, I woke up on a bench in Central Park. I was hungry and completely soaked. So, I decided to get some food from the shop across the street - ‘get’ meaning 'steal' of course. When I returned to the bench I had slept on, I saw a very intimidating figure standing next to it. He walked towards me ...

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“GO” by Faith Zappa

Submitted to Contest #238

They said I was chosen for a reason. That’s how they always said it. “Chosen” As if I were not only a prized possession, but the prized possession. That’s the thing about Frank and Janice Stanley, they sure knew how to make a girl feel special. They never said they adopted me, they always said they chose me. They both loved me, but I was Frank’s little girl. Everyone knew it. He had the best smell. He smelled like fresh cut grass and a cologne I never actually caught the name of. To me, that smell was the smell of home. We live...

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“How am I going to tell my dad?” by Allan Marshall

Submitted to Contest #238

She woke to the noise of her mother setting up the toys for her day of childminding. Her eyes remained closed as they remained heavy, almost un-openable. She did open them and clearly saw it was time to get up for school. She had no desire to go. She heard her little brother playing in the next room, he was talking to himself, pretending. His older brother, who shared the room, told him. "You going to shut up, I'm trying to sleep." Her little brother just ignored him and continued to play. She swung her legs out of bed, feelin...

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“Winter's Best Kept Secret” by Al Casagrandi

Submitted to Contest #238

“WINTER’S BEST KEPT SECRET” BY A. CASAGRANDI The area around Weston Vermont is charming year around. The area features quaint country stores and cafes. The village of Weston captures a snowy persona, once winter arrives. The snow is a big element in Weston, especially during the holiday season. However, it is the town’s community projects that bring folks together as a troupe of happy New Englanders. Center Street stays winterized with snow mixed with decorations until after Valentine’s Day. Weston may be the only New England town wit...

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“Taboo” by Paul Simpkin

Submitted to Contest #238

I can’t say it. I just can’t say it. I want to say it but I can’t. I can’t say anything that might be comic or funny or even something that somebody else might think is comic or funny. There is too much at stake. Too much to lose. This is our culture now. People are not allowed to make jokes or say anything that is funny. It has been almost exactly 3 years since humour was banned. After the Election in 2024 the new British Government wanted to make an immediate impact but they had no money to spend so their options were limited. Very limite...

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“IT HAS TO BE SAID” by Brian Bywater

Submitted to Contest #238

IT HAS TO BE SAID “What are you hiding behind your back Leonard? Do not even think about saying nothing, I saw you go to the mail box and take out a letter. Who is it from?” “It’s nothing that concerns you Jessica. I do have the right to some privacy. You will be the first to be told if it is something you need to know about.” “Another letter of demand isn’t it? You are in trouble with your gambling excesses again aren’t you? How many times have I warned you of what will happen if do not control your betting? You are an absolute ….., w...

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“What lies behind the glamour” by Matthias Poynder-Meares

Submitted to Contest #238

I can’t say it… that was all I could think. Not now. Not here. Wrong time. Still, she was hanging on the other line of our dial-up phone and all that was between us was static. I couldn’t even hear her breathing. Just static. “I’m being called for dinner” was all I could muster, before the usual awkward and off-kilter goodbye between us. The spaghetti was still on the boil, the table hadn’t even been set yet, but my tone was kind, and we would see each other in school anyway tomorrow.  This was what it had come to. After years of t...

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“Can This Be Mended?” by Cara Fidler

Submitted to Contest #238

Can This Be Mended? by Cara Fidler I was upset. I had just returned home after having an argument with my good friend, Tim. Some harsh words were exchanged that would've been better left...

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“A Park Bench” by Maureen MacLennan

Submitted to Contest #238

A Park Bench The splashing and delighted squeals of children came from the pool a few hundred yards away and I hoped it wouldn’t intrude on my conversation. I glanced around again, she was running late and that wasn’t like her, always prompt to the second. I smiled at the memory of her meeting me outside the restaurant on our first date, she’d shown me her watch that read 6:59, and our date was for 7:00. We’d laughed and gone in to eat, that was three years ago now and she’d never failed to be on tim...

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“A Little Better” by Kyle Sager

Submitted to Contest #238

In Wyoming, the undersides of the leaves were bright silver. I never understood why, it was just something I had noticed, but I always chalked it up to the fact that they didn’t start growing on the trees until the first week of May, like they never had enough time to become the same deep green as elsewhere in the country - places that were much closer to sea-level. The trees in Laramie were tall and wild-looking, like giants with long arms, cradling the road to create a tunnel for the sparse parade of cars rolling back and forth down...

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“The Dream” by Matthew DePan

Submitted to Contest #238

The weather had been unseasonably cold and damp here in Colorado. “Three hundred days of sun my ass!” I cursed under my breath as I reached for the door, opening it hastily. The warm air of the pub hit my face like a rogue wave, instantly fogging my glasses, as if I were looking through a plastic bag. I removed my glasses – wiping them clean – then replaced them on the bridge of my nose. It took me a minute to see through the busy mayhem of the pub, my eyes still adjusting to being indoors, but then I found him. He was seated at a hi...

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“The Odd Deaths Of Lance and Bink” by Ruth Eddleman

Submitted to Contest #238

On a particularly cold evening in May, as the sun sunk low in the sky, blazing its last colors as a goodbye, Detective Paris Lance received a very strange phone call that prompted an investigation. Currently, the evidence of this investigation resides in an archived case file, that can be found in a bent in and dust covered filing cabinet, in an underground library, that no one has been able to turn up since the four above ground floors of the library were entirely demolished and forgotten. The officers and individuals involved in the invest...

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“Our obliviousness ” by Aderinsola Ola James

Submitted to Contest #238

Staying alone at home was my special forte. As the sun was to vampyre, that was how leaving the house was to me.Incessantly, about every two years I switched schools and homes. The only place that was always constant growing up was my grandmother's.My grandmother loved me and for all it was worth I loved her. I knew her and she knew me. I was never anyone's favorite not even her, however we were tethered to one and the other. My grandmother was not without her flaws, however she attended to everyone in my family with a different kind of flou...

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“FInal Judgement” by Olive Helm

Submitted to Contest #238

“Did you see this?!” Manon slammed a leaflet onto the table before she sat down. “This wandought thinks he can do whatever he pleases.” The young woman sitting next to her gave the leaflet a quick, worried glance. “I understand that you’re mad, but he is still the king. If anyone hears us…” “No, Colette, she’s right!” The last fellow at the table had picked up the leaflet and just received the news written on it. “Someone should really just take his neck and crush it until all the air in it has left.” Colette sighed. “I understand what you ...

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“Stagnant Water…” by Walter Harris

Submitted to Contest #238

(Potential Sensitive Material - There is a conversation between naked woman and a single male in the story where a quick focus is pushed towards her breast.) Stagnant Water… I pushed through the darkened brush, trying my best not to think about the shadowed woods encasing my surroundings. The path ahead was narrow, the branches hanging out from either side like long fingers desperately trying to find a way to wrap around me. I could barely see ahead but that was fine. I knew where I was going. What seemed like eternity passed in ...

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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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