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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#273: Locked Away

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ReedsySecrets to share your stories (and potentially be featured on our social accounts)!

Ah, secrets. What is it about the unknown that’s so alluring? Do you relish the implicit power of knowing confidential information? Do you love the feeling of connection and exclusivity that being told a secret brings? Or do you enjoy dissecting other people in your head after you’ve discovered their deepest, darkest secrets?

This week, let’s write some stories that unravel long-buried truths — and maybe even a character’s entire life in the process.

This week's prompts

Write a story in the form of diary/journal entries about a secret or confession.

Short Story – 69 stories

Begin your story with someone either being followed or following someone else.

Dramatic – 53 stories

Write a story with the line “Don’t tell anyone.”

Angst – 80 stories

Your character is invited to a secret meeting. Who invited them, and what do they encounter?

Short Story – 40 stories

Write a story that hides something from the reader until the end.

Dramatic – 113 stories

Stories

“Those Green Eyes” by Journey Freeman

Submitted to Contest #273

“I love this one! We needa buy these before they sell out! He’s going to look like such a fly-guy!”He chuckled to himself. His pointer finger guiding the baby t-shirt and matching shorts guaranteed unfit for the body of a newborn into the digital cart.“Thank God, we have Prime babe! That 2-day shipping is everything.”With all of me, I loosened the tightened corners of lips relaxing my dark brown eyebrows from their furrowed union. Like usual he was so elated and engulfed by his own fairy-tale of fatherhood that he failed to notice my sheer d...

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“Things of the Past” by Tucker Sloan

Submitted to Contest #273

Things of the Past Dried apricots were her favorite, but ever since the surgery- she could not eat them. This made Clarissa sad. She was jealous of her friends who could eat everything they wanted. Clarissa was not that lucky. Clarissa had five teeth pulled, and her partial dentures barely helped her eat the foods she loved. For Clarissa, dried apricots became a thing of the past, and she soon forgot about them. &nb...

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“WALK THE TALK” by Debbie Curtin

Submitted to Contest #273

Looking out the window from the tiny rented bungalow and seeing the tail lights fade out of sight, was a good moment to end the day. Jack drew a well deserved breath of relief. Time to contemplate the moment that he put off long ago. Hopefully, he would wake up and smell the coffee or bacon or both. Jack grinned, knowingsoon enough the breakfast bell would ring. But right now, it was the midnight hour and his mind was still in a whirl. It began just last week when a wait server position showed up on a written note someone tucked into his ja...

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“A Truth Unfolded” by Stephen Tascione

Submitted to Contest #273

Russell and Mary Jo had been friends for many years. They met over thirty years as next-door neighbors. Russell and his wife, April, had moved into their single home about a year prior to Mary Jo and her husband Sid. They were both of similar age, childless, and soon became fast friends. Sid played guitar and was a member of a group. Mary Jo was a singer, and sometimes played gigs with her husband, mainly birthday parties, group gatherings, small weddings. She was the most outgoing of the two. H...

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“Confessions of Desiring to be a Mother” by Sarah Martyn

Submitted to Contest #273

3/14/2020 / Dumb virusI’m mere weeks away from marrying Kyle and our wedding might be in jeopardy because Kyle’s under a travel ban until May… it may inhibit our ability to have our April wedding. I’m still holding out hope. A virus I cared so little about has the potential to ruin our plans. 3/19/20 / Shaky groundI resigned at Central earlier than planned. Financially for Central, it’s right. For me, scary. Especially with the wedding in question still. I’ll marry Kyle without a wedding yet. I’ll move tonight but I don’t know if that’s what...

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“The Journal of John Millner” by Jaime Metcalf

Submitted to Contest #273

The Journal of John MillnerEntry 1: October 1, 2023I’ve never done this before—kept a journal, I mean. But Dr. Callahan says it might help me work through some of my…issues. I told her I didn’t see the point. “What’s the use of writing down my thoughts when they’re rotting my brain from the inside out?” That’s how I feel, like something has infested my mind, burrowing deeper every day.But she said it might help. So here I am, scribbling away at nothing in particular.I’m not even sure where to begin. My life has always been ordinary—painfully...

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“Club of Shadows: Blood Bound Friends” by Emily Herr

Submitted to Contest #273

Dear Diary,Today I did something insane. So insane, in fact. I’m still too afraid to say it out loud. I’m too scared to express it in words. I’ve been holding onto this secret that nobody knows about. When I got bit by this guy at the club last weekend, I thought he was completely delusional for claiming to be a vampire. It wasn’t like I went into the bathroom with a crazy person or anything. But I thought it was a seduction technique when he said that he was a vampire and wanted to bite my neck. That was the only reason I followed him. But ...

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“The Girl in the Red Coat” by Vera N

Submitted to Contest #273

Journal of Kit HarringtonOctober 1st, 2023 9:12 PMI never thought I’d keep a diary, but I don’t know where else to put my thoughts. I need somewhere safe to store them, somewhere no one can find. This book seems like the best bet for that. It’s old, worn, a leather-bound relic I found at a used bookstore a few weeks ago. I wasn’t looking for it; it found me, really. And maybe that’s what I need now—something to find me and make sense of this mess in my head. It’s been two months since *it* happened. Two months of avoiding eye contact, of sle...

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“Final Reading” by Tiffany Harris

Submitted to Contest #273

3/28/17The finches stopped calling. I sit and count empty minutes. My coffee gets cold. The pen leaks ink onto my pants. Sixth pair this month.Her room stays at fifty-two degrees. I check the thermometer six times a day. Write down the numbers in columns. Time. Temperature. Humidity. The paper’s getting thick with data that means nothing.Found her retainer under the bathroom sink. Blue plastic, crack down the middle. Cost eight hundred dollars three years ago. The orthodontist said it would last five years if she was careful. She wasn’t.The ...

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“Everything I Couldn’t Say” by Savannah Gallimore

Submitted to Contest #273

My Dearest Child, The time has come to tell you the truth. I suspect there are some things you already know, but there is so much more. Enclosed with this confession you will find $280,400 in cash. The entirety of my wealth.I pray it will aid you in whatever you choose to do with the information here. And I hope it will be enough to secure your freedom. Once, I knew your father and as you know we grew up together. He was a good man, until he wasn’t. I couldn’t say what it was that changed him, but after ten years of friendship he became some...

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“Past Questions” by Andrea Krist

Submitted to Contest #273

Dear Diary, I know that it's been a few days since I've opened your pages and tried to put something down on paper. Things have been a little crazy. There's a lot that gets built up over time and trying to pack up a life lived in one place for so long is a challenge. It is absolutely amazing how much one can accumulate in just a few years—let alone a decade. You just don't realize how much you have until you're forced to sort through all of it and assign it a value—keep or don't keep. And that's why I'm taking refuge in your pages right now...

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“Forgiveness” by Maximilian Gunnarsson

Submitted to Contest #273

8/1-24Today I met Noah Moran. 21 years old and since yesterday, an idiot who wants to become a human resources specialist. This was the second thing he told me, which I retroactively regret prompting, and I almost right then stopped listening to him. He asked me about the book I was reading, and had never even heard of Dostoevsky. I hate living in a collective. 9/1-24I had lunch with Noah today. He stopped me as he was walking into the building’s entrance when I was leaving after my lecture. I had Rogers again, and again he kept i...

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“Too Many Miracles” by Kasey Kirchner

Submitted to Contest #273

Dear Book, I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up. We’ve been on four dates in the last two weeks. Four and a half, if you count our miracle of a meet-cute at the library. But it’s all about to implode. I can feel it. Earlier today, we went to a place called “What’s A Burger Between Friends?” (“What’s A Burger?” for short—ridiculous name, I know.) God, I was so nervous. If I could still sweat, I would have sweated right through my shirt and my jumper. One of the few perks of being dead, I suppose—no more sweat. I c...

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“The Transformation” by Leslie Mamola

Submitted to Contest #273

October 25, 2023 - Tonight I had dinner with Jenna at our favorite Chinese restaurant. After indulging in too many glasses of wine, I nearly divulged my secret. It’s hard to disguise my conflicting emotions from my best friend. We have been through so much together. Jenna visited the hospital every day when I was in a car accident. I share everything with my best friend. Well, almost everything. Halloween is in six days, and my transformation has begun. My ears are now pointed, fur lined, and sensitive to even th...

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“A Cursed Dream ” by Miller George

Submitted to Contest #273

Princess Amunet ran as fast as she could with quick, silent steps across the sand. She stopped for a minute to take off her sandals as they kicked up dust while she ran. She scanned the valley with the grand silhouette of the royal palace, which loomed behind her in the sky, painted in pale pink and gold as dawn broke over the Egyptian landscape. The daughter of the great Pharaoh Menkaura was on the run. She did not want this, but her father would disapprove of Seshat. Even though he was a captain of the royal fleet...

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$250

Prize money

355

Contest entries

162

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 25, 2024 EST

Won by Asia W 🏆

Title: Venus Buried

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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