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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#263: Heroes and Villains

If you’re an avid cinemagoer, you’ve probably seen trailers or posters for the recently released superhero comedy film Deadpool & Wolverine. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing two beloved characters set aside their differences to save the world — and potentially start an unlikely friendship along the way.

Inspired by Deadpool & Wolverine, this week's prompts center around protagonists and antagonists. Create a new kind of hero or villain, parody a character who already exists, or go totally off script and interpret the prompts in a creative, unexpected way… the choice is yours!

This week's prompts

Write a story from the antagonist’s point of view.

Character – 84 stories

Start or end your story with a hero losing their powers.

Character – 42 stories

Write about two mortal enemies who must work together.

Character – 29 stories

Center your story around someone facing their biggest fear or enemy.

Character – 71 stories

Write the origin story of a notorious villain.

Character – 89 stories

Stories

“The Pentagram Killer” by Alan Harrell

Submitted to Contest #263

Author's Note: This story mentions bullying and violence. Before I killed my therapist, Dr. Emily Wong suggested that I “journal my story.” I laughed at her then as she sat smugly in her high-back, leather chair. And I laughed months later when her blood was still wet on my hands. Yet here I am, putting pen to paper in a vain attempt to explain the unexplainable. I was deemed extraordinary at an early age. When most children were still defecating in their diapers, I was performing recitals in both piano and violin. By age nine, I had played ...

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“Aguas Poseidas ” by Douglas Goff

Submitted to Contest #263

William sat against the old wishing well, enjoying the cool stones on his back, while feeling disgusted with how his life had turned out. This was a special place for him and he liked to come here to think whenever he was depressed. The well calmed him and gave him a sense of control over his tumultuous life. He had been here several times this summer alone. Things hadn’t gone the way he had expected them to over the past year. He thought once his marriage with Edith ended, his life would improve. But that hadn’t happened. ...

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“Dear Momma” by Grace Anderson

Submitted to Contest #263

Dear Momma,I swear I didn’t want to.I swear it was an accident.They will come for me, they will question me and question me, and, god, they will find the truth.I may be many things, but a liar is not one of them.I will keep nothing from them. Not the weapon, not the bodies, not my love of that beautiful girl whose life I wish I did not cut so short.But please don't hate me, Momma. Please don't forget me. Please don’t let them take you from me. I will tell you the story now, before the papers catch hold of it, and the whole world kn...

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“All for a Scoop” by Joshua Laloge

Submitted to Contest #263

The following trigger warnings are based upon ChatGPT's analysis of my story. I prefer to err on the side of caution and as such I am giving this warning. Also, the title (and warning triggers) are the only thing written by GPT. The rest is my personal work.Mental healthSubstance abusePhysical violencePsychosis, delusions, and unreliable narrationReader discretion is advised! “All I’d wanted was an ice cream. Any ice cream. I’ve been having a pretty lousy week. First, my plans to build a super conductive micro inverting amplifier for the upc...

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“Red Hot Deals” by Sarah Spring

Submitted to Contest #263

Retail is hell. I can’t tell you how annoying it is to be called up at any god-forsaken hour of the night just to buy a soul. What they don’t tell you about eternal damnation is that it’s no cakewalk for me either. I need rest. I can delegate all day to lesser demons but this is still a 24/7 job. At least, thank God, there aren’t any ear-splitting harps playing at all hours. Do you think a cherub can play the harp well? Have you seen their little sausage fingers? With all the musicians down here we at least have some nice variety, a little r...

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“THE BRUJA IN ME” by Gabby Castillo

Submitted to Contest #263

I flew in fear; the dark of the night surrounded me. The tree branches were hitting my skin and a burning sensation with each stroke. The cold air touched my face and the tingling feeling of my hair as the wind hit it. There was light approaching and the dark forest fell behind. A familiar place that knew my secrets, my comfort and my sanctuary, home. I ran inside and cried on my bed waiting for it to all end. If I was this Amazing person changing the world why must I feel this anger? Why haven’t things happened the way I was told they would...

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“"I AM....MAN!!"” by Timothy Holland

Submitted to Contest #263

I’m really a nice guy. I am a husband and father of two little girls and a boy. I love my family dearly and am a good provider. My friends and family know this, but most people do not. For I am a professional wrestling villain. You know me as “Man.” Not “The Man.” Not “Mountain Man.” Not “The Big Man.” Just “Man.” I wouldn’t have it any other way. Of course, like everyone I have a birth name. It’s Marvin. Marvin Manley. A good name and I like it. But it’s not a good ring name for a villain. I did not ask to be a villain. It was simply the w...

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“Sidekick” by Julianne Post

Submitted to Contest #263

I'm the sidekick. She's the hero. You’d never guess it from the way she looks. She’s an ordinary beauty, with a messy brown braid and bright blue eyes that always sparkle like she’s up to something. I was only eleven years old when I met Flynn at a town fair. As usual, I had no interest in spinning rides or sticky sweets, so I’d escaped beneath the branches of a shady tree. I was tired, bored, and under the impression that no one would bother me if I kept my eyes on my book. Flynn proved me wrong. She came bounding through the grass, so full...

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“Along Came a Spider” by Anna Frayer

Submitted to Contest #263

In the total darkness of her cell, sound was the Spider’s only link to reality. There had been smells at first, but the human nose can become desensitized to even the most offensive odors, and her nose became as blind to them as her eyes to sight after the first few days. It was so dark that she stopped wondering if her eyes were open or closed. She had explored every inch of the cell with her fingertips, even climbing straight up the wall to the ceiling, which wasn’t very far. It was nothing like scaling the walls of a castle, as she had do...

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“Endgame” by Ross Tuohy

Submitted to Contest #263

The warm lilting notes of Bach’s Cello suite no.1 in G Major drifted through the palatial dining room. Doctor Stephen Werner pulled a chair from beneath the huge black oak table and eased his wife down into the seat. She wore an emerald green dress that flowed over her pale skin and down to the floor; the material bunched around her pronounced baby bump. An intricate plat of her long black hair hung down the centre of her back with a huge crystal hair clip in the shape of a butterfly at the bottom.The doctor kissed the top of her head and br...

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“The Anti Hero” by Ryan Thomson

Submitted to Contest #263

They say a hero would sacrifice someone to save the world and a villain would sacrifice the world for someone, I beg to differ. Hero's like Captain Shock cause havoc in the name of heroism and stopping some scruffy criminals. It never bothered me till it tore my world apart. Two weeks ago Captain Shock took on her arch nemesis, Doctor Delta, who had rapidly flooded the city, many civilians were in the flood water but the water was slow moving and only the most unexperienced swimmers were at risk of harm. Did Shock care of all the civilians i...

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“On the search of chaos” by Bolaji G.A.

Submitted to Contest #263

527BC 21ST AugustoOh diary, today I felt like writing an account of this plan. Perhaps I should have started a diary the day my thoughts about Meica began turning twisted and contorted, but I’m not late.They are bound to call me foul and sick for what I plan to do. Do I care? No. Caring is only for those who have never faced death. I have. Right in its eyes, I promised it I would come for him one day, that his blood would be mine.Many moons have passed ever since I left my homeland, or at least felt like I’ve been part of it. I have lived o...

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“Letters in the Ashes” by Jacob Knodle

Submitted to Contest #263

I never thought anything would bring me back to Dover again. It had been sixteen years since I had left my hometown, would be seventeen in December. I hadn’t visited since then, not even once.But here now, sitting in the passenger seat of a beat up blue Ford Explorer, I continued down the highway to the small, secluded town. The road had seen better days, but again so had I, seeing my reflection on the dusty rearview mirror. Somehow my face was no longer familiar to me. My skin had lost the glow it had in my youth, though I still viewed myse...

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“Tidal Waves” by Andrea Krist

Submitted to Contest #263

Travis sat on the bed and stared at his hands. It was gone. He could feel it. He was not sure how or why it had been taken from him, but his ability was gone. He rubbed the tips of his fingers with his thumbs. Nothing external had changed. He looked, sounded, and--for the most part--felt the same. The residual tingling in his palms and wrists was normal, but he was not as he was before. There was a deep-set knowing, an empty hole in the pit of his stomach that lay open and exposed, raw and bleeding. A part of him was missing and he knew in w...

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“The Sacrifice” by Jane Cantor

Submitted to Contest #263

Angelica thought it must be impossible to find anything new in the world, something no one had ever seen before. She had seen so much over her lifetime – lifetimes - surely there was nothing original, nothing for her to experience that could bring joy or anger or despair, or any of the emotions experienced every day by all the normal people she met. She stared around at the wild, desolate scenery, her constant sanctuary since time immemorial, deserted and unchanging. Far below, the lake stretched away between the hills, the surface wri...

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$250

Prize money

315

Contest entries

109

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 16, 2024 EST

Won by Eliza Entwistle 🏆

Title: Petrified

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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