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#298 In Full Bloom

Spring’s finally here, bringing with it a sense of rebirth and hope. Say goodbye to dreary winter days and hello to sunshine-filled moments in parks, gardens, and all the other lovely places where flowers bloom and nature thrives.

This week, draw inspiration from spring and write tales about growth and change. Whether it’s a journey of self-discovery, healing, or a fresh start, let your characters blossom alongside the season.

🥇 Winner

Theria's Lace

EV Throne

Winner of Contest #298 🏆

Reagan Theriault stepped back from her easel, paintbrush tucked between her lips, studying the swirl of blacks and greens on the canvas. To others, it was just another ode to mold—but to her, it was beauty. She leaned in, adding a hint of iridescence with a fine brush dipped in cobalt teal and titanium white. Her studio smelled of oil paint and damp earth, kept at 78% humidity for what she called “atmospheric authenticity”—awful for electronics, perfect for art.Reagan had always gravitated toward the overlooked. As a child, she collected dea...

112 likes

116 comments 116

⭐️ Shortlisted

The Corpse Flower's Bloom

Avery Sparks

Shortlisted for Contest #298 ⭐️

Content notice: this story contains allusions to dementia.Clare watched Rupert looking down at the snake plants, an expression tender as the Virgin. He wouldn't know they were hardy little blighters. The only thing he regularly nurtured was his investment portfolio. The plants lined the entrance walkway, emerald leaves edged in chartreuse, a row of cobras en garde. He regarded them with hand on heart.‘Of course, we’d have to put in a reinforced walkway, and some kind of barrier, maybe a Security Guard.’He motioned down the glasshouse pathway...

22 likes

Peonies and Fireflies

Hannah Klebieko

Shortlisted for Contest #298 ⭐️

To say that the chicken coop was in turmoil would be an understatement. It was in cacophony, at war, filled with the casualties of trauma. Feathers filled the air as if a down pillow had been hit with a shotgun. The terrified squawking of hens sounded like a siren’s choir. Shadows scattered every which way as the hanging lights swayed violently in the whirlwind of flapping wings. On the outside of the coop, a single fox observed the chaos, a dead chicken clamped in its jaws. The porch lights flicked on at the farm house, and the fox turned a...

19 likes

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone trying something new.

Short Story – 47 stories

Center your story around someone finding acceptance.

Dramatic – 61 stories

Write a story about someone hoping to reinvent themself.

Short Story – 62 stories

Center your story around two (or more) characters who strike up an unlikely friendship.

Short Story – 74 stories

Write a story about someone seeking forgiveness for something.

Dramatic – 75 stories

Stories

Theria's Lace

EV Throne

Winner of Contest #298 🏆

Reagan Theriault stepped back from her easel, paintbrush tucked between her lips, studying the swirl of blacks and greens on the canvas. To others, it was just another ode to mold—but to her, it was beauty. She leaned in, adding a hint of iridescence with a fine brush dipped in cobalt teal and titanium white. Her studio smelled of oil paint and damp earth, kept at 78% humidity for what she called “atmospheric authenticity”—awful for electronics, perfect for art.Reagan had always gravitated toward the overlooked. As a child, she collected dea...

112 likes

116 comments 116

The Catfood Chronicles

Jim LaFleur

Submitted to Contest #298

If you’ve never spooned lukewarm tuna casserole from a can labeled ‘Feline Fancy: Ocean Dreams,’ then congratulations—you still have your dignity. Mine vacated the premises approximately two years ago, right around the time HR’s perky twentysomething “transition specialist” explained that my thirty-two years of programming experience had become “legacy knowledge” and that the company was “pivoting toward fresh perspectives.”Fresh perspectives, by the way, meant Kyle—a cheerful intern who wore beanies indoors and used phrases like “vibe check...

46 likes

Where The Green Things Grow

Submitted to Contest #298

Sensitive Content Warning!! : Mental Health / Suicide or Self Harm Where the Green Things Grow The rot started in Eli’s fingertips. At first, he thought it was just dirt—black crescents tucked under his nails, stubborn smudges along his knuckles. It made sense. He hadn’t touched a garden in years, but muscle memory was powerful. Maybe something in him had gone back to digging, even in his sleep. He tried scrubbing it off with vinegar and steel wool, but it only got darker. Then it spread. His skin softened, paled, flaked. The scent—earthy...

37 likes

Saved by Whales - World Voyages of the Ship Destiny's Dreams

Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #298

The ocean closed over Estrella's head. Under the water large shapes heard the splash. Their voices sang long "OOOooos" and made rapid clicks.A 49 foot long whale glided under the waves. Her baby whale calf floated next to her. More whales gathered in the undersea world.Then water bubbled around the teen-age girl. Something nudged her back up into the air. Then she could breathe.The thing moved against her legs. It felt slippery. She was not alone."Was it alive?"“What could it be?”"Would it hurt her?"Estrella choked on sea water, with her hea...

33 likes

A Matter of Perspective

Gregory Thornfield

Submitted to Contest #298

"You want me to eat what part of the snail?" Marcus's voice carried across the outdoor Parisian café, causing several heads to turn. Cherry blossoms floated down around him like pink snowflakes.The waiter sighed with the practiced patience of someone who'd explained escargot to Americans a thousand times. "The entire body, monsieur. It is already removed from the shell and prepared with garlic butter. It is spring—the season for trying new delicacies.""Where I'm from, we spray those things with poison," Marcus muttered, poking the gastropod ...

31 likes

Remember Me?

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #298

The iron gates groaned open, and with them, twenty years of memories flooded back like a dam had cracked. Anthony Reyes stepped out into sunlight for the first time as a free man. The wind hit his face differently now—older, wiser, weathered. He held a Bible in one hand, a small duffel in the other, and in his heart, the weight of a past that never let go. Twenty years ago, Anthony had taken a life in a moment of blind rage. A man he’d once called “brother.” A family friend. A backyard-barbecue, godparent-to-my-kid kind of friend. It happene...

26 likes

Bamboo

Submitted to Contest #298

I didn’t consider spring when I planted my garden. In September it is glorious, but in the early months it is nothing but lawn, daisies and dandelions. I liken the latter to teenage spots: their arrival announcing a growth spurt.My neighbour has a magnolia tree, which drapes into mine and drops its petals like lavish confetti. His name is Terence. Can you believe it? Terence! And he insists on its full form and won’t answer to Terry. God knows, he’s made it clear enough that he won’t. I never gave him a sidewards glance when my husband was h...

25 likes

My Constant, Unwavering Friend

Submitted to Contest #298

When I look back through my life, I realize there was only one person who remained constant. My parents died when I was young. It’s not a heartbreaking thing, since I don’t really remember them. I suppose I felt a longing for a life I never lived, a childhood where I wasn’t looked at with pity. Still, I learned to live my life regardless. Most of my friends came and went with the seasons, stopping to create memories and share experiences but never staying long enough to reminisce on them. Partners only stayed long enough to break my heart, p...

25 likes

Rallume Ta Lumière –Relight Your Light

Jasmine Witt

Submitted to Contest #298

They say time heals all wounds, but no one talks about the scars you give yourself trying to survive the people who hurt you. Spending years learning to smile through the silence, to love only the parts of yourself you thought others could tolerate. But healing, you were learning, didn’t always come in solitude. Sometimes, it arrived in the shape of an apology you never asked for—from the last person you’d ever expect. Ava always thought the worst thing about high school was how it followed you like a bad perfume, even years later. She was 2...

25 likes

The Corpse Flower's Bloom

Avery Sparks

Shortlisted for Contest #298 ⭐️

Content notice: this story contains allusions to dementia.Clare watched Rupert looking down at the snake plants, an expression tender as the Virgin. He wouldn't know they were hardy little blighters. The only thing he regularly nurtured was his investment portfolio. The plants lined the entrance walkway, emerald leaves edged in chartreuse, a row of cobras en garde. He regarded them with hand on heart.‘Of course, we’d have to put in a reinforced walkway, and some kind of barrier, maybe a Security Guard.’He motioned down the glasshouse pathway...

22 likes

The Do-Over

Submitted to Contest #298

Inside The Threshold of Her Undoing Was it really only yesterday? I honestly can’t remember. My days don’t end. The sun comes up and it goes down again, but my eyes don’t close. I don’t sleep, therefore there is no yesterday. As I sit here playing endless games of backgammon with myself, I have no hopes for tomorrow because tomorrow never comes if you don’t go to sleep, right? I don’t mind being by myself in this tiny two-room space I call home. Oh, wait. I have a bathroom. Three-room space – excuse me. I’ve been sitting on this floor for s...

21 likes

The Art of the 7am Trade Tariff

Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #298

Oval Office, 7amA groggy Donald Trump squints at a one-page intelligence brief entitled ‘Emerging Asymmetric Iranian Threats in the Persian Gulf.’Waving the page in the air, he shouts to Natalie Harp in the hallway. "How does anyone expect me to read all of this?"Natalia leaps up with the eagerness of a poodle about to receive a treat from its owner. “I'll be right there to read it for you, Mr President.”Down the hall, Melania overhears the familiar sound of her husband's voice. She's maintained an open-door policy in the West Wing—except wh...

20 likes

Seeking Omar Nassim: A Tale of the Arts Department

Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #298

CAUTION: Socially sensitive themes“What time is it?” Professor Urquardt muttered. The ICE guy failed to respond, sucked at his McCafe. His boss had recently vented to FOX about Taco Bell posting its five-star menu in “Mexican” instead of the (presumptive) King’s English, so she figured the Starbuck’s grid was beyond the agent’s pay grade/PSAT. The Campus Coffee Commune had a socialist/lesbian/global optic the fed likely didn’t want immortalized the second Melissa hollered “La Migra!” The one Spanish phrase most of these Gen-Plussers knew asi...

20 likes

The Good That Happens To Others

McKenlea Clements

Submitted to Contest #298

Sam had always felt invisible. He wasn’t the smartest in class nor the most athletic. He wasn’t the life of the party, nor the quiet, mysterious type people admired. He was just… there. Every day, he walked the same route to school, passing by the same bakery where the old woman, Mrs. Reyes, struggled to carry flour sacks inside. He walked by and stopped to help, lifting the heavy bags over his shoulder as she patted his arms in thanks. “Such a kind boy,” she always said, her warm eyes crinkling with gratitude.At school, he was neither pop...

19 likes

Peonies and Fireflies

Hannah Klebieko

Shortlisted for Contest #298 ⭐️

To say that the chicken coop was in turmoil would be an understatement. It was in cacophony, at war, filled with the casualties of trauma. Feathers filled the air as if a down pillow had been hit with a shotgun. The terrified squawking of hens sounded like a siren’s choir. Shadows scattered every which way as the hanging lights swayed violently in the whirlwind of flapping wings. On the outside of the coop, a single fox observed the chaos, a dead chicken clamped in its jaws. The porch lights flicked on at the farm house, and the fox turned a...

19 likes

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Contest #299

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

314

Entries

127

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 18, 2025 EST

Won by EV Throne 🏆

Title: Theria's Lace

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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