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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#255: The Five Stages

It's a commonly held belief that, when we grieve a loss, we go through five emotional phases: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. Science tends to disagree; there's no actual evidence that we go through these stages, or at least not in a neat, linear fashion. But despite this, the model remains a part of our popular consciousness, and is frequently referenced in art, literature, and day-to-day conversation — perhaps because the idea of having a map to our grief, a way to organize and compartmentalize our most complicated feelings, is so alluring.

This week's contest is inspired by the model, and by the feelings described within it. Your characters don't have to be grieving a loss of some kind; they may simply be navigating the challenges of life in general. Whichever route you choose, begin with one of the five stages.

This week's prompts

Write a story about a someone who's in denial.

Character – 68 stories

Write a story about anger.

Angst – 64 stories

Center your story around a character bargaining for something that's important to them.

Dramatic – 43 stories

Start your story with a character in despair.

Dark – 91 stories

Write a story about someone finding acceptance.

Character – 99 stories

Stories

“Dear Mom” by Melissa Van Rensburg

Submitted to Contest #255

Trigger warning: Mental health, suicide I still have the letters my friends and I wrote each other in class in primary school, but I threw out your suicide note. This means whenever I want to, which is surprisingly often, I can relive every time Maggy and I were angry at Linda, and when Linda and I were angry at Maggy, as well as my massive crush on Jason for a full week because of the way he said my name, like he really meant it, you know? I will never know why Maggy and Linda were angry with me, because I wasn’t privy to those letters. And...

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“Breaking the Chrysalis ” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #255

Trigger Warning: drugs, sex, abuse, gore, mental health Then: Cold metal clanks against his teeth. His hand trembles. His finger nervously twitches on the trigger. His fingers are laced tightly through his hair. His eyelids are pressed shut. Beads of sweat shimmer on his forehead. His kids are huddled in the corner. Ages four and two, they cling to each other, one holding a blanket for comfort, the other a stuffed rabbit. Jack pulls the gun from his mouth to scream and curse before taking another swig of liquid courage. The young girls jump ...

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“Why Can't He Remember?” by Katelynn Seavey

Submitted to Contest #255

“Why?” Ashley looked into her Mom’s eyes from the passenger seat of the blue car. They are pulled over on the side of the road, after driving for hours the tension that seemed to echo throughout the whole car, suffocating them to the point of pulling over. Her Mom glances up from the steering wheel that she has been staring at for ten minutes in silence. She turns to the side slightly in her seat and looks at her young teenage daughter next to her. “Why what?” “Why are you so for sending Gramps away from us?” Ashley's lower...

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“The red tie” by Sally Atl

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #255

For the last fifteen years of our marriage, my husband always wore the same blue tie. Today, however, when he appeared for breakfast, he was wearing a different color. He sat opposite me and grabbed a fork. I stared at the tie. Red, so alarmingly bright. It was bothering me. “Everything alright?” he asked. It was not a big deal. Maybe I had just gotten too used to seeing that blue tie and didn’t like the change. But inside me, a small voice protested. “Yeah,” I said and took a sip of orange juice. It left a bitter aftertaste. I tried to eat ...

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“ELIM CIVOLUDAR'S MEMOIRS - EMOTIONAL SEAS” by Darvico Ulmeli

Submitted to Contest #255

We offer guidance to others as if we hold all the answers to life's challenges, yet when darkness clouds our own path, and fear grips us tightly, we find ourselves in a corner, our own advice forgotten.Isn't it remarkable how perspectives shift when faced with the situations we once advised others on? Everything feels different, nothing quite as we hoped, and we find ourselves navigating life's labyrinth, grappling with uncertainties we thought we knew...Sound familiar? Oh, indeed.A friend goes through a breakup, and it feels like the world'...

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“The Sidewalk” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #255

It doesn’t blame her for thinking this is what’s best. When presented with a bad situation, you consider the aspects of the situation to try and see what about it is making it so unbearable. She decided that what was so unbearable about living in a house with two children who had just lost their father was the house itself. To her, it represented something that was no longer present. A mother, a father, and two children living in a house. The father dies. The house is the problem. This is not logic, but it is grief logic. It’s the logic that...

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“Fight Wife ” by Danielle LeBlanc

Submitted to Contest #255

The comforting tar burned down my throat as I took a drag from my Marlboro. The cigarette felt sticky between my lips, coated with excessive cherry gloss. It’s a bad habit—the cigarettes, not the Lancôme—but I get a sick pleasure from it, doing whatever the fuck I want.Between puffs, I breathed in the briny air, pulling my leopard coat tighter around me. When summer decides to be over on the Atlantic, it’s over.Through my knock-off Tom Fords, I zeroed in on the digital sign outside the arena.Jordan Holly vs Frederick Callaway: Friday, Septem...

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“A Guide to Surviving Your Corporate Execution” by AR R

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #255

The first thing you'll think about today is how Monday is the Ringo Starr of days—often overlooked, but essential to making something important whole.But on this particular Monday, with layoffs looming at the company you work for, instead of letting the burden of this knowledge combined with the perennial angst of shuttling kids to school and getting yourself situated for another week of laborious meetings and sports practices and dance recitals, you will make the spontaneous decision to be extra patient. Instead of dreading the number of ho...

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“Autumn Rains” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #255

Iris and Norman Carter lived in an updated colonial home on the corner of Lake Street and Woodsboro Lane. They bought the home as honeymooners in 1967. The robust trees threw shade clear across the front yard and ivy crawled up the side of the house. Norman added a freestanding garage and workshop in ’72, then a greenhouse for Iris in ’79. They spent their free time beautifying the home inside and out, doing their own landscaping, building their own furniture, sewing their own curtains, pillows, and seat covers. They were proud of the home a...

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“The Silence and The Noise” by Carol Stewart

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #255

***References to violence, hints of sexual abuse of minors***Reach a certain age, and who doesn’t wish for the quiet life? Peace and calm and tranquility, no bumps in the road, no dramatic spikes. You left all those behind you in your youth, glad as you were to step from that roller-coaster ride and take your place behind the wheel of your brand new family saloon which the kids think smells like balloons, and in which your wife (your second, much sweeter but less exciting wife) proudly sits, as you cruise along the straight and narrow, A to ...

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“Mandy Could Shoot” by Frances Gaudiano

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #255

Mandy could shoot. She could shoot better than any girl she ever met, any man too, but you didn’t go around telling men that. Men around here wouldn’t date a girl that was better than them and she did like going out on dates – getting all dolled up with her best outfit and putting on make-up. She liked when they picked her up in their newly cleaned truck and took her to dinner, or the cinema and they paid her way. Men around here were old-fashioned. That was fine with her. She’d smile, showing off the dimple in her left cheek and say, ‘Sure ...

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“My Mommy” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #255

April 30, 2023 “What brings you here today? It’s been quite a while since the last time we met.” “I miss my mom,” I blurted out, cutting right to the chase while sitting down tentatively. “Oh, Ruth…” a rustle of papers as Dr. Jordan flipped back through her notes. “I didn’t realize…” “No,” I quickly clarified. “She’s okay. I mean, she’s not okay, but she’s still here.” She’s still here, I thought to myself. But was she really? The image of her being brought home from rehab via ambulette flashed before my e...

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“The Gravity of Being Upright” by Akhilesh Mehra

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #255

I think it had started to happen a long time back—bit by bit—but I only noticed it this morning. Gravity was dead. Like Queen Elizabeth. Both of them. Yesterday, it was just Anurag bhaiya’s little music box—a walnut cuboid with burnt-umber filigree on its corners, and a knob the size of my fingernail to play Christina Perri’s You Are My Sunshine—floating a few inches above his desk. Today, it was me. I woke up to find myself levitating. It wasn’t as fun as Miss Dua Lipa may have led you to believe. It felt more like demonic possession than a...

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“Promises – based on a true story” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #255

When Jeannie, Gil’s wife died, he stopped going to church. He’d take his son, Cliff, to the twenty-minute Mass at the French church on Christmas and Easter. Gil preferred watching the ducks in the early light from atop the bridge in Cass Park. That was his place of worship. It felt more real. From that vantage he sensed the whole world arising as sunlight shone through the treetops.Before they married, he and Jeannie threw stale bread to the ducks and laughed at their jostling for morsels. Meadowlarks sang arias from the trees. It felt ...

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“The Warmth Of Rage” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #255

(suggestions of violence to humans and animals)It had been burning him up for many months, at first in a great blaze, then as a constant heat. It was with him when he woke, pleasant dreams melting into the reality of his agony; it was with him when he showered, had breakfast, dressed; it was with him as he travelled to work, scanning the faces of his fellow commuters for the man; it was with him at work when he should have been concentrating on the accounts; it was with him at lunch, which he now took alone; it was with him on the way home, ...

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$250

Prize money

365

Contest entries

142

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 21, 2024 EST

Won by Phoebe Barr 🏆

Title: Some Peace and Quiet

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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