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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#252: Obsession

The Netflix series Baby Reindeer, inspired by a real-life stalker story, has garnered millions of views over the past month while receiving both critical acclaim and heavy backlash. In the show, a chance encounter between a barman and a total stranger descends into a chaotic tale of stalking, destruction, and mutual obsession. Delving into themes of personal boundaries, power dynamics, identity struggles, and mental health problems, the show depicts some of the complexities and contradictions inherent in human psychology.

Inspired by Baby Reindeer, this week's prompts are an invitation to explore some of the nuances of human behavior. Whether you write a witty story, a heartwarming tale, or something tense and gripping is up to you!

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character being followed.

Dramatic – 99 stories

Write about a character who struggles to do the right thing.

Character – 35 stories

Write a story in which one of the characters is a narcissist.

Character – 39 stories

Make a character’s obsession or addiction an important element of your story.

Dramatic – 129 stories

Write a story that includes someone saying, “Be careful what you wish for.”

Character – 55 stories

Stories

“Prey” by Paula Mulroy

Submitted to Contest #252

Trigger warning: Sexual violence, mental health, physical violence, gore, abusive language, suicide, murder.My face was lit up by the screen of the telephone. I quickly found the app and switched off the alarm to the house. How silly, to have a security system that is controlled by phone. It’s even more silly to install electronic locks that you can open with – again – your phone. I closed the door behind me as softly as I could. I’d seen the floor plan of the house, and I knew where to go, but I also knew she’d had a panic room installed, ...

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“The Cracked Mirror” by Alisonn Rose

Submitted to Contest #252

Lucy James stared into the mirror at the mess that she was. She had lost weight – 10 pounds, 2 ounces, according to her journal – but every time she saw her body in the mirror, she winced slightly. The weight changed, the shape didn’t. She knew her thinking was faulty. She could tick off all the twisted knots in her thinking: weight had nothing to do with being a good person, or being happy. It had nothing to do with being loved. She repeated these logical facts to herself as if a part of her was a professor with a long stick, pointing out a...

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“The Lonely Wish” by Bethany Walters

Submitted to Contest #252

Prologue To an outsider, Lucy’s life looked boring, but Lucy didn’t see it that way. She was a normal person, who just lived her life without all the frills and fancies everyone else chased. Lucy knew what she was doing today, tomorrow, next week, next month, and even next year, and none of what she was doing included any adventure. That was the plan, but life had other plans for her. It all began on her birthday, of all days when she humored a coworker and made a wish. What had possessed her to make that wish? She hadn’t made a wish since s...

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“A Twisted Game of Fox & Rabbit” by Heidi Boyer

Submitted to Contest #252

It happened again, but this time I didn’t wake up, I couldn’t wake up. My breathing was quick as the cold air brushed against my hot clammy skin. I was running through the tall slim trees in the blackest of nights, but this time I didn’t want to be caught. I wasn’t in a dream, and this was no fun little game. I was awake and aware of the terrible reality I was in. There were no words to describe how terrified I was as my captors chased after me. Their evil laughter was suffocating as the forest ground cut into my bare feet. I wanted nothing ...

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“The Villain ” by Elly Echeva

Submitted to Contest #252

Few years ago, I had a filling done. The dentist did a great job, except for one thing: he didn’t file down the edge of my tooth. It was not a big deal, it wouldn’t cut me or anything, but I could feel it whenever I ran my tongue across the surface. It was then when I realized it: I was a predator. A carnivore. A beast that’d been asleep, a beast that hadn’t realized how sharp her teeth were and what they were meant to be sharp for. Or who.I hold my coffee cup - its warmth always brings me a false sense of comfort, a soothing feeling th...

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“Whispers in the Shadows” by Kaite C

Submitted to Contest #252

Emily Daniels walked briskly through the dimly lit streets of her neighborhood, clutching her bag tightly to her side. The cold night air bit at her cheeks, but it was the sense of unease that quickened her pace. She couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.It had started a few weeks ago. Emily would catch glimpses of a figure out of the corner of her eye, always too far away to make out any details. She had tried to convince herself it was just her imagination, but the feeling of being watched grew stronger each night.Tonigh...

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“Love at First Sight” by Christian Deery

Submitted to Contest #252

By ‘Negrills’ jerk chicken shop, in the recently developed Jamaicatown district of New York, I walked past a girl who was at least partly passable as ‘The one.’ Everything in Jamaicatown is symmetrical and bright. The color red pops like the poppy fields of Afghanistan. Everything is designed to look old and a little battered. I like it here because it’s quiet. No startling traffic, nothing alarming.This girl, there was nothing extraordinary about her. Her auburn hair was tousled, and hung longer on one side. She smoked with subtle inhalatio...

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“Dear April” by Melodie Fierro

Submitted to Contest #252

As she walked down Halsey Street, she couldn't help but feel that someone was watching her. She kept getting that prickly feeling that someone's gaze was burning the back of her neck. She heard the sound of heavy footsteps on the cobblestones and immediately, her worst fear was confirmed. Someone was following her. April Richmond had never been careless. But tonight, she wished she had paid just the slightest bit of attention to her surroundings. As she turned around, she saw him. A hooded figure walking behind her. He was careful. Spe...

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“Sunshine State” by Grace Mcnabola

Submitted to Contest #252

Sunshine StateBy Grace McNabola The car arrived bang on 6 a.m. as agreed. I looked out the window and saw it pull up at the kerb. It was black with tinted windows. I couldn't see the make or registration. I had one last look around my flat and turned out the light. My heart was thumping as I got into the lift. The only luggage I had was a shoulder bag and a small suitcase on wheels. It wasn't adequate for all my things but I didn't need much, I would be buying lots of new clothes when I got there. At any other time that would ha...

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“The Cloaked Figure” by Maggie Brown

Submitted to Contest #252

I am leaving the coffee shop on the corner of Central Street, after having my typical matcha tea latte, when I realize I am being followed. In a city as big as mine, I often find I don't pay attention to those around me, but I have made three turns now and this person is still trailing me. What are the odds we're both going to the same place? My pace is much quicker than his, and I have only caught glances of him in my peripheral vision as I have turned street corners. He appears to be wearing a cloak of some sort with a hat turned down over...

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“Well Out of It” by Hugh Knight

Submitted to Contest #252

I clenched the bird feed, quickened my pace. The fog was thick, enough that the streetlights flickered to life at 1:00pm, turning the pavement ghostly-white. Just one other person was here, and there were no cars to shake away the silence. It wasn't the kind of day for going out – that meant fewer crumbs for the pigeons if I hadn’t come. It was also because it was so quiet that the man fifty meters behind me was as obvious as he was. He wore bulky black sunglasses that covered half his face. Was he trying to be noticed? I'd followed all the ...

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“Sweet Innocence” by Angela Wicke

Submitted to Contest #252

Something about the air tasted different today. Normally, the miasma of car emissions, sewage, and urine lent the air a unique, if not pleasant, tang that was as familiar to me as my own name. Not today, though. Not that the other flavors weren’t present—this was New York, after all—but there was something new added to the mix. A sweetness, like a freshly cut strawberry on a summer afternoon. I breathed it in deeply, savoring it. It’d been a while since I’d smelled a soul so pure. If only I had more time t...

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“Prey” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #252

She could feel his eyes on her. Could feel them boring into her unabashedly. That ill-defined sense of being watched, of being observed, presumably gifted to us at the expense of so many mangled and surprised primates in our primitive past. That sense was so strong she felt like she could hear it screech like a kettle on the boil. The train continued its vibrating amble around an easy arcing bend as the rain continued to slide down the windows. It was already dark outside and the street lights, shops and headlights blurre...

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“They Are Out to Get Me” by Robert Radcliff

Submitted to Contest #252

Last night, I hardly got any sleep. It was earlier that day that I became aware that I was being observed as I was working out at my neighborhood gym club. Not watching me in a blatant manner. But in order to keep an eye on me, they are employing secretive tactics. A few fleeting glances in the wall mirrors looking at me. Sly looks at me when they believe I am unaware of what is happening. Yet they seem under the impression that I do not know of their surveillance about them checking my whereabouts. Haha, ha-ha, I am not someone wh...

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“Black Dog” by Micah Pirikisi

Submitted to Contest #252

**Triggers: Physical Violence, Strong Language, and Mental Health.**"I'd win," I'd told them. "You see these scars on my face and my arms? These medals carved into my flesh? I lose to nothing. I give in to nothing. I'd win."Then, I downed my third glass of whiskey. You see, I'd the notion of proving my sturdiness by bringing in this bounty in the dark of night with my eyes crossed. Didn’t think I was using it to cover anything up...“I’m not the green boy I was back then; despair has forgotten the taste of my soul. I’m tougher than my father ...

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$250

Prize money

357

Contest entries

143

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 31, 2024 EST

Won by Danielle LeBlanc 🏆

Title: Seven Hundred and Thirty Days

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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