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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

“The Request” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #273

“Hear me, oh master, as we submit to your will for our meager and groveling desires! We beg and ask you to feel our souls as they bend and call to you, oh master, for your mercy and favor upon us now!“We beg you to hear the thoughts of us all: Kevin, Robert, Dave with the Beard, Dave without the Beard, Steve and Stephen, Roger, and…yes, my little brother, Brian.“We have brought ourselves to this place on this very cold and difficult day to ask you for your assistance oh master…and please respond pretty quickly because my brother is driving m...

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“Whatever Happened to Dazzer Adler, Silverback Star of Stage and Screen?” by Carol Stewart

Submitted to Contest #273

Don’t know why I thought of you then, as I slid along the pew. Not a guest as such, but a stand-in, Lisa’s replacement plus-one in light of her recent split from her partner. She couldn't possibly not attend, her being second cousin to the bride. But don’t flatter yourself that my thinking of you was in any way romantic – or the opposite, come to that - and it wasn’t because Lisa served as a reminder either. Good friends since college (acting school, if you like) we often touched based, but didn’t normally meet up in church. So, I guess it w...

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“My best friend” by John Rutherford

Submitted to Contest #273

“Remember at school, around second or third grade the teacher always prompted the class, with; I want you all to write an essay about your best friend. Title the story; My best friend!” He paused to reflect and visualize the small boy in the third-grade classroom, as the teacher announced the exercise. He continued. “The prompt by the teacher normally ignites excitement in the class. The children are eager, and proudly write and describe their declared friendship and devotion, perhaps to a classmate, and hope the same feeling is re...

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“Don't Tell Anyone.” by Meredith Moyer

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #273

Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t tell anyone. Tell them what? I want to ask what you mean, because somehow, I think I forgot. You told me to keep quiet, but what was it I was supposed to stay hushed about? I believe I may have hidden it somewhere deep in my head. Too hard to dig out. I know that it was painful, because my heart and lungs, they remember. They remember so vividly. My heart skips its beat sometimes and my lungs fill with cement, but I am not so sure why. The only thing I can remember is that you told me to forget.May...

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“The Year of What If” by Kristy Schnabel

Submitted to Contest #273

Monday, October 16, 2024 Dear Diary,Today, the local news announced that someone here in Oregon won the Powerball lottery worth $1.3 billion dollars. A crazy amount of money, right?! That gave me the idea for my senior thesis. I'll be asking people what they would do if they won that much cash and then analyze their answers from a psychological perspective. Cool topic, right? I may as well start with myself. I don't play the lottery and don't gamble in general. When I learned in statistics class the chances of winning, it just seemed li...

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“Jonas” by Kaitlyn Wadsworth

Submitted to Contest #273

Caution: mild references to sexual abuse of children and pedophilia.Katy hadn't seen Jonas in years. Knowing he would be at his father's funeral was one thing. Would he acknowledge her? This was another matter entirely. Jonas had always been the type of man to turn heads. If he didn't have such dark and irresistible looks, some things, including embarrassing moments, may not have happened. They had affected her, still affected her, in ways he had no clue of. It's the horrible feeling one gets after the right words aren't spoken at the o...

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“Down The Dirt Road” by Jerry Borich

Submitted to Contest #273

It was a beautiful sunny day in late summer and young Danny was preparing for a bike ride down the dirt road that went alongside his house. The route traversed back into the depths of the valley for about five miles until finally coming to an end at an old farm. Very few houses lined this dirt trail and there weren’t any other children that lived in the direction he was headed. But, being an adventurous ten year old, he was just off to explore as he loved to do and do very often.Danny’s older sister Lisa watched from her bedro...

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“Cold To The Touch” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #273

TRIGGER WARNING: StalkerWe both drove up the coast last night, walked barefoot on the beach as the sun set. You let Jasper chase a stick in the sea foam, then run along the sand as the sky streaked orange. Strictly speaking, dogs are not allowed on the beach, but you always bend the rules. I’m not the only person who knows this. Your Insta followers are well aware of what you let your Doberman get up to. But then you have him well trained from what I see.I checked your likes at dawn, a little lower than usual. And they’ll miss the details I ...

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“A Grander Mechanism” by Colin Wadeson

Submitted to Contest #273

I had read somewhere that when private detectives follow someone, they watch the feet rather than the back of the head, so the subject won't sense they are being watched. This is similarly taught in the SAS and in martial arts for when approaching an enemy from behind. So, I supposed I could at least rest assured it wasn’t a PI, special forces, or a kung-fu expert whose eyes had been burning a hole in my back since I left the restaurant.It was an early evening in late November, and the back streets of coastal Portsmouth were as grey and empt...

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“I'm not Jane.” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #273

a lightning bolt of awareness ruthlessly slices into the roaring darkness giving a glimpse of a whoosh and sigh and a measured rise and fall --- ------ dark silence returns ---a startling jangle of beeps and clicks cuts through the blind silence. --- ------ silent blackness takes over---like a fetus in the womb, learning to tell light from dark. awareness in darkness feels as if buried alive. grateful for the light. --- --+--- nothingness ---where is here? --- --- silence is nothing--- where is here? ------darkness returns--- what ...

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“From the Field Notes of Henry Rhanalrik” by Martha Kowalski

Submitted to Contest #273

**contains excerpts from my “Books of Destinies” duology** for best experience, read with “Rewritten” and “Books of Destinies – Vol. #1.5” [cover: dark green leather Book with scalloped edges]October 6th, 1604: No significant event to report.October 7th, 1604: No significant event to report.October 8th, 1604: Why do I bother keeping this journal? The view of the cosmos sky changes little from night to night that tracking the incremental differences seems trivial. Surely these differences are far from trivial when expanded...

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“Ding, Dong…” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #273

Mary Jenkins lived alone. This was not by choice, but by circumstance. Her husband, Patrick, died young, leaving Mary in a house on five acres just outside of town. In the early days of her widowhood, she hid from the world there, nursing her broken heart, keeping to herself. As time passed, it became habit, until, at sixty-three, she enjoyed her own company more than she endured the company of others, causing the children to call her the Witch of the West. No one knew her well enough to call her wicked.Mary’s life had been spectacularly une...

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“Mature” by Perseus Patroclus

Submitted to Contest #273

I stride in with my chest puffed out. The room is small, stuffy, walls splattered with different paints and posters. It's difficult not to feel insecure. I had spent a good thirty minutes on my fit- not that I had much to work with- and managed to pull together a black denim jacket with the sleeves ripped off accompanied by navy cargo shorts. Everyone turns to me, a little shocked."I saw the flier. You wanna drummer?" A beat of silence follows."How good are you?" The guy who responds is probably around 20, 25. He's smoking, sprawled across a...

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“The Shadow Man” by B.R Wilson

Submitted to Contest #273

The mind can be a dark and twisted place where shadows can take on a life of their own. I was being followed by death, and death showed itself as shadows. On this particular night, those shadows stretched longer, slipping into cracks and crevices of bark and earth like a cockroach scuttling for refuge. Among the encroaching gloom and obscure shapes was a man waiting and watching, and though I couldn’t see him from the heavy dusk, I knew his eyes were glued to me, glued to my house. He had been following me for some time, and I knew he...

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“DON'T TELL ANYONE ” by Darvico Ulmeli

Submitted to Contest #273

October 11.It keeps following me. All the time. I've been feeling it for days now - this eerie sensation of being watched. This morning, an envelope slipped under my door. No name, no return address. Just a single line written in red ink: "Come to the garden on Elm at midnight. Don't be late."My first thought was that it was a prank, maybe a mistake. But deep down, I knew it wasn't. I felt that same strange, heavy sensation in my chest - the feeling of being watched. Whoever's been following me wants me to come to this meeting.I should ignor...

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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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