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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 – 93 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 – 59 stories

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

Mystery – 49 stories

Set your story at a silent retreat.

Angst – 44 stories

Stories

“Say It” by Helen A Smith

Submitted to Contest #238

I love sitting here with you. It’s such a peaceful spot with the bridge and the ducks and swans floating by. Don’t forget the rats. There’s plenty of them about too. One scurried under this bench when I was sitting here on my own the other day.Trust you to go and spoil things. What do you mean?Bringing a rat into it. I was thinking more of Monet’s bridge with the waterlilies under it. What did you do?Nothing. He just popped his head round. To say hello. Fortunately, by then I’d finished my sandwich. I shuffled my legs and off he sc...

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“"It"” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #238

“It”Tormented by the thought, dreading the moment, awaiting the inevitable, peace evades me. Morning, noon, and night, here, there, and everywhere, the specter haunts me. I’ve always known the Why. It was the What, When, and Where that disrupt my life’s journey, and of course, the fear of the great unknown, a/k/a “it”.“It”- used with many verbs as a direct object with little or no meaning- Merriam-Webster.“Timmy! If you do that again, I’m going to… well, you’re really going to get it!”“When your Father gets home, he will… well, you’ll see. Y...

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“Cece Spills ” by Chelsey B

Submitted to Contest #238

Cece rose with the sun. She bounded into her parents’ bedroom and leaped up on the bed. “Hi, Mommy!” she chirped. Cece pulled back the covers. She was confused to find that the bed was empty. Dad was probably at work, but where was Mom? “Mommy?” she called out. Cece jumped off the mattress and landed with a thud on the floor. She ran down the hallway. “Mom? MOOOOM!” she cried. Cece kicked the bathroom door open and peeked inside. “Mom?” she shouted again. Her voice echoed in the empty room. Cece heard a door open behind her. ...

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“The River of Vipassana” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #238

I have an allergic response to woo-woo stuff, so the last thing I want to do is spend a week and a half wooing around with a bunch of woo-woos in Peru. But things are going completely off the rails. Everything is on the table.“Alexa. Brew espresso,” I say, shouting at a receiver down the hall of my luxury canal-side flat on Orsman Road in Shoreditch, London. My DeLonghi Magnifica espresso maker hums and whirs. Pulling the sheets over my head, I reach to the other side of the bed and grab my iPhone. What have we here?The notifications from th...

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“Our Dear Defarted” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #238

“Wot are you implying, Vicar?” “You tell me.” “Tell you what?” “What do you think it’s about?” “I dunno. You tell me.” “Look, I know it was you. We all know it was you.” “You’re implying it was me. It could have been anyone around me.” “Then why did your row part on either side of you, as if Moses had just turned up at the Red Sea?” “You’re pointing your finger at me.” “Does it suddenly create the urge to pull it?” “I’m not crude like that.” “Crude is crude – whether demonstrative or not, and this whole conversation of who-did-what-when, and...

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“Choices” by 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...

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“Prodigy” by Jack Kimball

Submitted to Contest #238

As if running a gauntlet, a night train speeds on gravity tracks between crumbling high-rises. Flame scarred brick apartment buildings stand like forgotten tombstones. Rubble spills onto wet black streets, a dream-like sheen. Graffiti streaks by spelling out bloated warnings, the train moving too fast to decipher the message.With rhythmic shudders, the train slows and enters a tunnel beneath the Hudson. Soon, a landing platform appears in stark white lights. The train breaks to a stop, the Grand Central Complex.A young man and woman de-board...

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“A Letter Kept” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #238

TW: SexIn a lowly lit study where the heavy drapes are pulled tight, a fire burns bright in a fireplace that is large enough for five grown men to stand in side-by-side. The drapes, the rugs, and the upholstery are all a dark red, like bricks, but soft to the touch like any fabric would be. Everything else is mahogany except for the parquet flooring and two leather chairs. The furniture is arranged to face the fireplace where a painting of George Edward Carter I hangs proudly above the mantle. There is a sofa in front of the fireplace with t...

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“Expression” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #238

She kept pretending to look as though she wanted to talk. Everyone around her was clearly struggling, and here she was, finding no difficulty at all in staying silent. Whenever someone around her opened their month, she could see the red light registering behind their eyes. Oh no, I mustn't speak. When Charlene opened her mouth, it was only to convey an expression. Of shock. Of surprise. Of putting together a mathematical equation. It was not to speak. It was never to speak. Charlene had not spoken around other people for a few years now. On...

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“A Quiet Weekend” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #238

Giving me a conspiratorial smirk, Emma says, “If you are dating Jasmine, there’s something you need to know—”. “ — Shhh!” A Buddhist monk hushes her, a finger at his lips. Emma’s now strained smile hints at her want to have told me something of consequence. Under the watchful gaze of the monk, she drifts off toward breakfast. **Upon our arrival the prior morning, our devices and laptops were taken away by orange robed monks. Honestly, it felt as if we were in a Buddhist led mass kidnapping, rather than attending an expens...

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“A Life Without Donut Holes” by Brianna J. Gonzalez

Submitted to Contest #238

She can feel her heart pounding. Under nervous, knotted brows, Claire’s eyes are glued to a box of untouched donut holes sitting on an oak-top kitchen bar. The frosted pastries stare mutely back as she takes a shallow breath and admits a truth that could ruin everything, “Ethan, I don’t want donut holes.” There’s a stale, drawn-out pause. Tentatively, she peeks up to see his reaction. Surprised and confusion sweep across his face. She can see his mind processing behind his dark lashes and dancing caramel eyes. After what feels like...

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“Smoke on the Water” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #238

It's only late summer but the air is cool this morning. The lake, still holding the summer warmth, allows the mist to drift like smoke over its surface, making it look ethereal and enchanted. Soon the sun will burn away the smoke and bring the lake in sharp focus. It won't be long before the trees will change to yellow and gold, russet and red.The summer people have left. They have closed their cottages and pulled their boats out of the water. Some may return for the odd weekend. Some may return for cross-country skiing; other will bring the...

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“Eagles Sky Dance ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #238

Eagles dancing in the sky help inspire threads of connections, weaving together the lives of an Oregon Coast lighthouse keeper and a woman on the East Coast.A copy of the 1898 Matrimonial Bazar publication for personal ads sat on Elias's desk.Below the heading, it said,”Our aim is high: To increase the number of home firesides, increase the happiness of other people, in short, to do what we can in mitigating woe and loneliness in any sphere or grade of life. To cultivate the aims of life and help men and women into a state of bliss. Yours re...

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“The Good Samaritan (Western Remix)” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #238

Overbearing sun; excessive heat and blinding light reflecting off the yellow and red baked earth. A plateau in the distance, weary lizards laying on rusty boulders in the foreground, cactuses reaching for the sky. The essence of burnt dirt fills the air that does not move. The snake rattles it’s warning as a black horse, foaming at the mouth, stumbles along the rocky terrain. A stranger in black and a Navajo covering hangs limp in the saddle. He doesn’t remember the last time his face saw a razor, or his belly a meal, but his most desperate ...

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“Fated.” by Lara Deppe

Submitted to Contest #238

Lily is the woman I have been looking for my entire life. She thinks we met two years ago. Almost four years ago, I saw her from the window of a tiny café, across from her gym, as she burst out the door with workout bag in hand, another day bag thrown over her shoulder, hair thrown up in a partial bun with trailing strands of hair (curling by her ears in tiny sweaty ringlets), phone in hand trying to plug an earbud in her ear with her right hand, fumbling for her keys with her left hand in the side of her bag while trying to hydrate from ...

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$250

Prize money

285

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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