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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 Birthday Killer” by Bryan Murphy

Submitted to Contest #263

“You don’t have to kill me.” “Everyone dies. No witnesses.” The serial killer the FBI has been warning everyone about has me tied to a post in an abandoned barn. The reports have said he used this approach before. After killing his victim, he sets the barn on fire to destroy evidence. His most common burn platform is a car doused in gasoline. I recognize this barn even though I’ve only seen the outside. This is the Philips family barn. It has been sitting unused for something like twenty years. They cleaned out everything worth money and lef...

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“What For!” by Colin Munene

Submitted to Contest #263

As I stared at the lifeless body of my daughter Lily lying before me, my mind was racing with a maelstrom of emotions - grief, rage, and an overwhelming need for answers. Needing to be absolutely certain, I raised my trembling hands and pointed two fingers at a woman across the street, quietly whispering "bang."The woman crumpled to the ground, and in that moment, I knew my life had taken an irreversible turn. I was no longer the mild-mannered professor people knew me as - I had become something else, something darker. The death of my belove...

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“Bloodsucker” by Ever Eros

Submitted to Contest #263

Love brought me back to life. Under the constant clouds of a rainy city, in the middle of high school, during a science class I had repeated and aced for a century, love wormed its way inside my hollowed chest—inside of my hollowed existence. With love, comes fear. But my fear is not ordinary, for I am not an ordinary man. I lived for the last century in secret and shadows. I couldn’t feel emotions. I couldn’t accept my new reality. I was stuck between two worlds. I called it purgatory. My father, my creator, called it depression and stubbo...

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“A hero's fall” by James Little

Submitted to Contest #263

Daltrex was being pushed backwards for two whole days he had kept up this fight, holding the line at his feet lay a sea of corpses human and demon alike, In his hand the Holy Excalibur cleaving a path through the demon horde. And the horde was everlasting…Demons fell by the dozen with every swing. But just as the dawn began its ascension horns blew in the distance with a roar like thunder the forces of the coalition of five human kingdoms came to his aid and descended upon the demons like a tidal wave. As he walked through the peaceful capit...

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“The Beast Inside” by Joey Curtis

Submitted to Contest #263

Diego is a small, scrawny child. The rest of his year five class are intent on making his tough life even more of a struggle than it needs to be. Lunchtimes never involve lunch because, most days, his dad can’t afford to give him money. On the days where they scrape together enough, some of the less scrawny children would decide to have two lunches. Over the years of constant bullying, Diego had decided on two things. The first is that children are only who they are because of their parents (big, mean kids have big, m...

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“Firebug” by John Graham

Submitted to Contest #263

The cold marble counter presses against my lower back as I lean on it. I wear the same crop top he had complimented the first time we made love in his art studio. Had he noticed I was wearing it today? Probably not. Definitely not. Why did knowing that make the knot of anguish in the pit of my stomach tighten just a little more? After all I had done, one would imagine that the agony would dissipate and morph into something else, something numb, like the tough skin of a scar. I thought it had. But seeing him again made me realize that the wou...

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“Take Mine” by Lydia Meyers

Submitted to Contest #263

Winifred Collins was always meant to die. She was an orphan and an only child, so to even an unfamiliar eye, it was obvious few people would care There was a typically easy diminutive of her name; the ever-innocent “Winnie” that could be a wide-eyed eight-year-old or a jaded twenty-something with a teaching job trying to revive her childhood sense of whimsy. Winnie’s eyes were blue and her hair the pale yellow of corn silk, a bashful beauty who had never done anything wrong. Every literary analysis book would say the same thing: she was inno...

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“Fade to Black” by Sara Gonzalez-Rothi

Submitted to Contest #263

“Last stitch, yeah?” Ella asked. Mum nodded. The fingers of her hands cramped as she looped her silver hook around and through the soft strand one last time. She handed the tiny technicolor coat over for inspection. “Well, I’d say you did it!” Ella’s forehead wrinkled a bit. “It’s quite lovely,” Mum assured. “Let’s try it on, shall we?” Mum tucked the garment under her left arm and walked to where the puppies slept. “Darling, Ella’s made you the perfect winter coat. Let’s give it a go.” She reached into the whelping pen and lifted a tiny ...

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“The Echoes of Obsidian” by Joey Lliso

Submitted to Contest #263

I. The Fall from Grace In the sprawling, gray city, where the shadows grew long and the people walked with their heads down, there was a man named Victor Blackwood. He was once known as a brilliant scientist, a man who touched the very edges of what was possible. But brilliance is a fragile thing, and the world has a way of breaking even the brightest minds. Victor's life had been full of promise. He was engaged to Elena, a violinist whose music could silence the very heart of the city. She was his light, his reason to push the boundaries...

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“Childhood Friends ” by Aahana Kumar

Submitted to Contest #263

And suddenly I’m on the floor, and the ripping metal screeches and shrieks as the train veers off the tracks, mingling in the air with screams, the smell of rust, the smell of blood, sweat, and dust. Lisa’s jolting sobs next to me, the grabbing, bloodied hands gripping at my sleeves and burning skin, and the splitting, searing pain in my side are all just more pieces in the puzzle of what’s going on. I have no idea what’s going on. From within this chorus of confusion, a single rhythm leaps out at me, and I latch onto it. That pounding...

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“A not so sunny day, some time after the 8th March 2024” by Tom Studd

Submitted to Contest #263

“It was just a dream. I promise.” Dad told Lily as he fumbled a dark, velvet scrunchy over her ponytail and held out his pinky finger for her. She caught me staring and mistook the void in my eyes for jealousy. The way that only your seven-year-old sister could interpret a vacant look. “Daddy and me share promises” she said triumphantly, climbing onto the chair at our breakfast bar. Just a box of Cheerios separated us. Her smile was so wide it almost seemed to stretch the gaps between her teeth. I smiled back. - - - - - We would tell peopl...

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“WOO” by Kip Plidchik

Submitted to Contest #263

A well-dressed man, his handsomeness elevated by affluence rather than genetics, sat alone at a table, encircled by other tables occupied by other artificially attractive patrons at a trendy sidewalk café. A half-eaten plate of exorbitantly priced morsels sat before him, growing cold. A waiter walked by. The well-dressed man rolled his eyes with exaggerated exasperation as he gestured for the man to come to his table. “Yes sir?” the waiter asked. The well-dressed man pushed his plate to the other side of the table in a demonstrative display ...

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“Bastard Noire” by Even Andrews

Submitted to Contest #263

Good and evil are all a matter of choice and perspective, one’s hero is another’s villain. Robin Hood, a classic example of this. Robin becomes a bandit to provide for the poor villagers. Morality would normally dictate that stealing would nominate you for villainhood, but in the case of Robin, he became the hero. On the other hand, the Sheriff of Nottingham should be considered a hero for enforcing the law upon all. Prince John should be seen as protecting the peasants from would-be invaders. Under normal circumstances, both should be viewe...

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“The Rainmaker” by Donna Hill

Submitted to Contest #263

The Rainmaker by Donna G. Hill It was one of the worst hurricanes ever. Some old-timers compared it to the Great Storm of 1900, the Galveston Hurricane. Record violent winds, torrential rain, spawned tornadoes, heavy flooding, storm surges engulfing homes, eroding the coastline. Hurricane Xavier cut a swath of destruction with its over 280 mile size, spreading the full wrath of its veracity in the wake of its path.Abigail stood on the porch of her Grandma Ruby's house. It was up a slight hill from her home...

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“I, Moriarty” by Josiah Authier

Submitted to Contest #263

“It is with great deliberation that I commit my tale to paper, for the edification of all who may chance upon it. I have deemed it prudent to confine my narrative to less than three thousand words, as I am given to understand that the average gentleman's faculty of concentration extends no further. It seems only fitting that at least half of the literate populace should be privy to my extraordinary account. And so we begin… In the year of our Lord 1859, I entered this world, born to a family of modest means in the ancient city of York. From ...

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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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