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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#241: Et Tu, Brute?

“Beware the Ides of March!” In Shakespeare’s play, these fateful words are thrown at Julius Caesar during a procession through Rome, warning him of the day his compatriots will betray him. In the play, and in reality, this warning came to fruition. On March 15, he was stabbed thirty times by his fellow Roman senators, including Brutus, someone he thought he could trust. As that date is just around the corner, I find myself thinking a lot about Caesar’s story, and about other stories of betrayal.

It’s the ultimate breaking of trust. You thought they were a friend, a mentor, a close confidant, a person you could trust through thick and thin — only to find yourself stabbed in the back at the most inopportune moment. What leads people to make such a drastic decision, and sever a once unshakeable bond? How do you move on when your faith in the people around you is shaken? These are just a few of the questions to consider as we look towards the fateful Ides this week.

This week's prompts

Write about someone who is convinced they’re going to be betrayed.

Dramatic – 55 stories

Write about someone who is stuck between two opposing sides and can’t decide which one to choose.

Fiction – 49 stories

Set your story at a tense event where everyone is unsure whose side they’re on.

Thriller and Suspense – 27 stories

Start your story with an unexpected betrayal.

Adventure – 81 stories

Write about a backstabbing (literal or metaphorical) gone wrong.

Horror – 43 stories

Stories

“Forsaken Son” by K. Audrey Leto

Submitted to Contest #241

Forsaken Son Xavier took a deep breath, his hands curled around the bars of the jail holding cell he had just been confined to and all he could think about was how he got here. The charges against him were murder. The murder of his best friend. And sure he had done illegal things, mostly petty robberies but murder? He could never hurt anyone, especially his best friend… his partner in crime.He was still reeling from the fact that Gavin was dead, they had been friends since they were kids. How was Gavin dead?- He thought- How was he...

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“Don't Call Me Son” by Sanjita Ethiraj

Submitted to Contest #241

There comes a time when you need to accept the family you have. It's a hard thing to do. Especially when the family you have isn't the family you want to have. When that family is dysfunctional and broken. When that family hates you. It's hard not to take it personally. To not carry a grudge. I used to think I was the forgive and forget sort. That I could just...figure out how to get past it all. And maybe I could have, if they'd come for me. If they'd bothered to lift a finger and attempted a rescue. Something, anything, to prove they cared...

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“Shadows of Betrayal: The Rivalry's End” by Franchesca Blackrose

Submitted to Contest #241

Tension crackled in the air like electricity. Shadows danced on the walls in the dimly lit alley, obscuring the faces of two figures who stood facing each other. One was Runa, one of the five heads of the Shadow World and a well-known woman who is known for her keen sense and ruthlessness. The other was Quil, her bitter rival who used to be her protégé. It is easy to say that the years have turned their once-close relationship into nothingness, fueled by jealousy, anger, greed,...

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“By The King's Authority” by C.G Ripplinger

Submitted to Contest #241

The hour struck midnight. The only souls awake in the castle were the night guards patrolling the grounds inside and out and the ruler of said Castle Watercrest, King Morain. It was never unusual for him to be up this late. It did annoy his beloved Queen, feeling her husband getting out of bed for his nightly ritual. For the King, the witching hour was the best time to clear his mind and develop solutions to tasks right then, rather than wait for the morning as it limited the number of voices that distracted him. Thi...

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“Demonic Bureaucracy” by Tess Corbel

Submitted to Contest #241

The Company liked to think of itself as forward looking, ready to face the challenges of the future. They bragged about the efficiency and modernity of their workforce. But in the end they were so focused on their financial gains that they ignored the most insidious threat. They forgot the first rule of corporate demon management – protect yourself before profits. Now they were stuck with a demon-possessed CEO. They’d managed to lock him in an empty office when they realised what was going on, but in their haste had forgotten to take his pho...

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“The Knife” by Joshua Lybarger

Submitted to Contest #241

The knife was drawn from the wooden block in which it lived. As it had many times before. But this time was different. The knife knew from the onset something was off. The normally naked hand was gloved, a smooth cold leather of some sort, inhibiting the normal warmth of the handler the knife enjoyed. “Enjoyed” was no understatement. The knife truly cherished its position in life. Used daily in a manner all objects should hope to be used: creating. Each passing day brought a steady diet of familiar underta...

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“A Fool's Gamble” by Jocalyn Imbody

Submitted to Contest #241

TW: Physical violence, goreHoneydew, oh, Honeydew. Where did the days go which, your walls stood high, So that when travelers trotted their aching feet with their steeds and merchandise in tow would be struck with warmth, &nbsp...

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“The Epic Betrayal” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #241

Even now, when I’m staring at the face of death, I still find myself reminiscing on those marvelous years in my youth when Jeshua walked among us, and because of him, I have no fear of what’s to come. Too few years we have been together and so many years we’ve been apart. Soon we will be rejoined for eternity.During the time we’ve spent together, there were joyous times, as well as the miraculous times we shared during Jeshua’s ministry. From the time I left Magdala until that horrid day in Jerusalem, I was always by his side and when he die...

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“Silent Betrayal” by Dave Barnard

Submitted to Contest #241

Mary sat in her speech therapist's outer office and watched a short video clip on her phone. It made her cry. She longed to be a better artist. She was an amateur photographer and writer. She curated her video lessons to improve herself. This one had a key point. It told her no matter how inspiring other artists were, don’t imitate them. “Find your own voice! It insisted.” She felt betrayed: she had no voice. She was mute from birth. Unlike fellow students in the schools, she attended from time to time, she had perfect hearing. She admired...

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“Hushed On The Other Hand Pernicious” by Chris Flubacher

Submitted to Contest #241

Hushed On The Other Hand PerniciousAs the sun had fallen neath the skyline, darkness inherited thy fields of grain.Quintus Fallstaff, cut from a cloth of good quality men, a common farmer by trade,hardworking and strong, he headed home with dinner on thy brain.The Fallstaff home was a humble one, ne’er abundant, quaint, and thusly handmade.The wind caressed the gentle night, trees softly waving, a gentle breeze doth build,double-faced and sly. A storm is brewing, and yet the night feigns still.Unseen dangers linger, conspiring in the night, ...

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“Octopus” by Chantyl Balshaw

Submitted to Contest #241

The sounds of her heels could be heard dragging across the marble floor. Stopping before the bathroom then her body turned with head facing the tub. She starts to wince, tremble, and feet begin the flail. He turns the water on and fills the tub up with ice cold water much like his heart at this point. Once filled, he shuts the faucet off and slowly picks her up by the brown ringlets in on her head. With one hand gripping her scalp tightly and the other over her over her mouth forcibly, he shoves her face deep down inside to the deepest of th...

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“The Pearl of the Universe” by Marquita Reed

Submitted to Contest #241

The Pearl of the Universe I come from a place in the night’s sky on the waist of Orion the hunter. Like an accessory, the planet of Montoya dangles from his belt and no one on Earth knows it but me. I get a deep longing between the months of November and February when the heavens open up and I see my world looking down on me. Clearly, I see them seeing me and I look up into the sky and I remember. It’s always when I remember, that I see the rolling hillsides and fresh waters. Blades of grass in different color...

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“THE BETRAYAL” by Glenna Agnew

Submitted to Contest #241

Jenna paced back and forth across the small room. She glanced at the clock for maybe the hundredth time in the last forty-seven and a half minutes. He was late. Very late. She moved over to the window and looked up and down the street. Nothing moved. Not a car was in sight, not a person, not a cat or a dog, not even a bird flew by the window, not even a leaf fluttered in the breeze. Nothing, Nada. Zilch. Zip. “He’s not coming. I knew he’d bail on me. I just knew it.” Tears trickled slowly down ...

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“Stepping Out” by Fredrikke Barth

Submitted to Contest #241

There was that time in Beirut when they sat close together on a dilapidated double bed and smoked their way through an entire pack of Lucky Strikes and he cried and she didn’t cry at all and they decided to end it. She loved him like he was sunlight. She wasn’t in love with him anymore. It will be ok, she promised, and loveloveloved him. He had already done that thing that would ruin it. She wouldn’t know about that for a long time, yet. He had been in love with Corinne back then, his entire body buzzing with it. Maybe, he thought late...

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“Down Like a Yesterday Feel” by Curtis Jackson

Submitted to Contest #241

Thematic content includes tragic details, reports of deaths, gun violence, animal attacks, stalking, and social discord. Kiu was engulfed in a basin of sediment and mud that filled his curled hair, nose, ears, mouth, apparel, socks, hiking shoes–everything on him–except his eyes, fastened as fatality. The lake’s murky elements, too, crept into the small, circular punctures in his back, streamed lines of billowing blood. He had splashed in the lucent water, and his body sank onto the floor like a liquid drop in a sponge. Catfish and trou...

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$250

Prize money

255

Contest entries

116

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 15, 2024 EST

Won by Liz Grosul 🏆

Title: When I Read Beckett

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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