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#30 Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami's books have been international bestsellers and translated into over 50 languages. His stories are often surrealistic and melancholic, frequently dealing with themes of loneliness, and giving readers the feeling of being in a dream.

 

After publishing a Haruki Murakami reading guide this week, we were feeling inspired by this fiercely imaginative Japanese novelist. And that's why this week's prompts all feature an element common to Murakami's writing. We hope you'll feel just as inspired! 

🥇 Winner

The Traveller

Winner of Contest #30 🏆

On the last day of February, at nine minutes past seven in the morning, I received a phone call from myself.  I, the recipient of the call, had a mouthful of toothpaste and could only produce a handful of incoherent sounds. “It’s really me,” said I, the caller. “I mean, you. Oh, this is confusing from this end as well as yours.” I spat out my toothpaste. “What?” “Listen, it’ll be all right. You’ve got about five minutes until it happens. Quarter past seven exactly. Get dressed and pack a bag — not the suitcase.” “What? What’s going on?”...

124 likes 45 comments 45
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⭐️ Shortlisted

Like I'm Tired

Shortlisted for Contest #30 ⭐️

Some man in blue oversized coat starts to laugh as he spins another horrendous tale about something we all will probably forget before the night shift. He is sitting on a stool by a careless couple, holding a glass of foamy beer in one hand and laughing. The drunken men are all listening to his tales of a far off country with no name - only that the women are pretty- and about the necklace on his pudgy neck.I am listening too because he amuses me in a kind of desolate way. I know he is lying and he knows it too but we all sit or stand and li...

92 likes 4 comments 4
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Sea the Moon

Shortlisted for Contest #30 ⭐️

The seagulls were weeping again. They had woken her from her sleep. It was funny, now that she thought about it. She’d also fallen asleep listening to their shrill pleas. It reminded her of the song her mother had sung to her as a baby. Sunset and sunrise, bird calls and bird cries.Simone rolled out of her bed, feeling the tidal roll of the world beneath her feet. Circles and orbs, circles and orbs, she thought, inanely, as she wobbled over to the window on legs that felt made of string. It’s all just circles and orbs. Or spheres. Is ‘sphere...

16 likes 0 comments 0
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Searching San Saba

Shortlisted for Contest #30 ⭐️

He chose San Saba because of Tommy Lee Jones. Two hours from their home in San Antonio, the place was a far enough drive to feel like a vacation. He pulled up the town’s website on his phone and showed Colleen, his wife, the images—a street lined with old-fashioned brick and stone buildings, pecan trees, a bridge over the Colorado river. “The hotel has a special rate for weekdays,” he said. “And there’s a winery nearby.” They couldn’t afford much more than that, Dennis Hardy had lost his job right after Christmas. Five months with no pr...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Hunted

Shortlisted for Contest #30 ⭐️

I should’ve known better. I blame instincts. The call was answered and the phone brought up to my ear before I could process anything.  “Hello?”  A shuddering voice came through the other side. My brain had caught up to what my treacherous hands had done but it was too late. Everyone knows you can’t hang up now.  “I’m so sorry.” The woman said.  Her voice was rough like she had been crying for hours. I assumed she had been. Even now I could hear her trying to stifle her sobs. For a moment neither of us said anything. Her ...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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This week's prompts

Write a story in which someone finds a secret passageway.

Mystery – 68 stories

Write a story about someone who loses their cat.

Sad – 62 stories

Write a story about someone who receives an unexpected phone call.

Dialogue – 63 stories

Write a story in which the lines between awake and dreaming are blurred.

Fantasy – 124 stories

Write a story about a character experiencing déjà vu.

Nonfiction – 39 stories

Stories

The Traveller

Winner of Contest #30 🏆

On the last day of February, at nine minutes past seven in the morning, I received a phone call from myself.  I, the recipient of the call, had a mouthful of toothpaste and could only produce a handful of incoherent sounds. “It’s really me,” said I, the caller. “I mean, you. Oh, this is confusing from this end as well as yours.” I spat out my toothpaste. “What?” “Listen, it’ll be all right. You’ve got about five minutes until it happens. Quarter past seven exactly. Get dressed and pack a bag — not the suitcase.” “What? What’s going on?”...

124 likes 45 comments 45
Read story

Like I'm Tired

Shortlisted for Contest #30 ⭐️

Some man in blue oversized coat starts to laugh as he spins another horrendous tale about something we all will probably forget before the night shift. He is sitting on a stool by a careless couple, holding a glass of foamy beer in one hand and laughing. The drunken men are all listening to his tales of a far off country with no name - only that the women are pretty- and about the necklace on his pudgy neck.I am listening too because he amuses me in a kind of desolate way. I know he is lying and he knows it too but we all sit or stand and li...

92 likes 4 comments 4
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Into the Tunnel

Submitted to Contest #30

I drop my bag and step into my new room. Every step I take, the creaks in the floorboards get louder. I turn back and across the hall I catch a glimpse of my old room. I miss it. It was bigger, and if you look hard enough you can see a carving of a bird and the letters "ERI". Under the window above where my desk used to be. My uncle carved them when we first moved into this old creaky house. Emma Reese Ivana, AKA Emree, though I'm the only one who calls myself that.  Two weeks ago my 14-year-old brother, Wren, started to complain t...

67 likes 42 comments 42
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Octopus

Submitted to Contest #30

Amadis the octopus seller had never tasted an octopus. A long time ago he lived on the banks of the Campisi—but that was a long time ago, and he doesn’t live there anymore. Nowadays I hear he lives in a deflated balloon in Mongolia somewhere, but I don’t tell stories in the present, I tell them in the past. Amadis the former octopus seller who probably lives in Mongolia is a lot less interesting than Amadis the octopus seller who lives on the banks of the Campisi. So a long time ago he lived in a fish stall by the Campisi. He didn’t sell fis...

59 likes 6 comments 6
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This Isn't Real

Submitted to Contest #30

“If you take the pill, you will see him again,” The girl told me.  I didn’t want to take it because I knew what the consequences were. I saw what the addiction had done to my mom. But I missed him more than I could handle and I was grasping at straws for survival.  Ever since Alex was killed I have felt like I was losing my mind. He was the only one who wanted to survive this world with me. He was the only one who wanted to actually make it without falling victim to the pill and was I about to give that all up to see his face one m...

26 likes 7 comments 7
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Day Off

Submitted to Contest #30

Pizza? Check. Netflix? Check. Soda? Check. Everything was ready. Conner’s first day off in weeks. No work. No internship. No college assignments. No test to study for. All the stars had aligned in his crazy hectic world, giving him the blessing of one single day free of responsibility. He kicked his feet up and slouched into his crummy second-hand couch and basked at the moment. Until the moment was all sucked up by a black hole. He knew that ring tone. A high pitched obnoxious sound of birds chirping. The unique ringtone...

25 likes 8 comments 8
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The Coffeemaker's Cat

Submitted to Contest #30

 The Coffeemaker lived on La Rossa Strada, so named because most of the buildings on either side of the street were painted red. He lived in the upstairs of an old building faded nearly to pink, and had his coffee shop in the downstairs, where large windows looked out on the wide, stone street. A bright counter ran in a gleaming curve like a wooden C around the left side of the shop, as seen from outside. Behind the counter, like a great palace in miniature, was the machine. The Coffeemaker’s espresso machine. It stood nearly three feet...

24 likes 4 comments 4
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A Second Chance

Submitted to Contest #30

I sat in the cafe with a coworker eating lunch on Friday. It was 12:49 PM when my phone rang. I glanced down at the screen, then blinked hard to make sure it was real. It was a number that had been in my phone for over twenty years, but it had never called. I stood up and walked outside with no explanation and my heart in my throat. “Hello?” I said, knowing that this call would change everything, and fearing the worst. “Hey Sophie, it’s me, Kevin. Can you talk? I’ll understand if this is a bad time.” “There is never a bad time to talk to you...

23 likes 2 comments 2
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I knew that I held the key to paradise

Submitted to Contest #30

How shall I ever forget that dreadful night. The stealthy walk down the path, taking advantage of every thorny shrub for cover, the occasional cry of a night-bird that roused my fears, the stars shining coldly in a cloudless sky. I snivelled as I frantically searched for my wife.November 1885 marked the end of the tribal war between the Watante and the Huffs. The grief of losing friends and family overwhelmed me, like a bad dream that could not be shaken off. Those of us that remained had to serve and work for the Huffs. My musical abilities...

23 likes 3 comments 3
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Six

Submitted to Contest #30

I wander up past her throne and kneel down as I examine her nasty glare. The humming of the wind plays on repeat in the background, its sharp tune cutting into my brain. Her darting eye enters my soul paralyzing me, leadening the ambiance of the surrounding area. I stay on my knees, refusing to get up. She lingers above me waiting for me to make my first move. I don’t know her intentions or what she is hoping for. I focus my concentration back on the wind because it is more soothing than addressing my reality. Everything was striking me in t...

21 likes 8 comments 8
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BLURRED REALITY

Submitted to Contest #30

What am I to do? The door to the secret passageway I found earlier has vanished. I have already tried searching for the catch with one hand hidden surreptitiously behind my back whilst pretending to drink from my water glass. The entire painted wall is now a seamless solid panel. Access that way has been cut off! Whilst brushing my hair I use the opportunity to toss my head around, trying to appear nonchalant, but frantically scanning every corner of the room for other ideas. In the dark gloom of the night, outside the glass doors on the ba...

20 likes 4 comments 4
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A Moment of Peace

Submitted to Contest #30

Darkness. Vibration. My consciousness filters in like grains of sand in an hourglass. I am floating (drifting) out to sea (off to sleep), a disembodied spirit travelling through cosmic space, and then all at once, I am whole. I cannot see (I can’t open my eyes) and I can barely breathe. The air is hot, thick, cruelly insufficient. I detect a mild sensation on my face. Pressure. My head is covered by a bag (I’m asleep on my stomach oh god I’m going to suffocate). Panic sets in, and I begin inhaling sharply, attempting to glean ...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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A Spring Breeze in Winter

Submitted to Contest #30

Corina woke up and her sheets, damp with cold sweat, clung to her body. Her dream still swam in her vision—the dizzying vertigo from the view off the bridge started to turn her stomach. She’d woken up right as she’d jumped, and yet she could still feel the wind on her face as she’d fallen. Her ragged breath echoed around the barren apartment. She couldn’t still her heartbeat, and she looked around wildly for Shoebox before remembering that she’d dropped her cat off at her new home yesterday before—wait, before what? As Corina closed her eye...

17 likes 4 comments 4
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Through the Fireplace

Submitted to Contest #30

“Frank.” Frank looks down the hall after hearing his name. “Frank,” the voice calls again.He walks from his kitchen to the hallway. “Frank. Where you going?” “Hello? Luis? When did you get here? “A few minutes ago.”“Where are you?”“Over here.”“Where is over here?”“From what I can tell, this looks like your den.”“My den.”“I’m over here⎯by the fireplace. Or in the fireplace.”“In the fireplace.”“In the fireplace.”“Yeah. Come closer.”Frank peers in the fireplace. The cream-colored sand looms bright. The clear blue water shimmies in the...

16 likes 3 comments 3
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Pet People

Submitted to Contest #30

As soon as I stepped across the border into this new town, I knew something was up. Much to my displeasure, my parents worked for the government and got transferred here out West. I was perfectly happy living where we were, in the big city. Now, I’d have to graduate high school in some strange small town.Dad slowed the car down right as we crossed the invisible line formed by the Welcome to Normal sign. I shivered. The name did not inspire confidence that normal would be a part of my future. “Dad, Mom, did you feel that?”Dad g...

16 likes 4 comments 4
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