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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#55: In On a Little Secret

One of The Hobbit's most memorable scenes is when Bilbo encounters Gollum in the Misty Mountains. We know Bilbo has the ring in his pocket, and that Gollum refers to the ring as his "precious." But Gollum doesn't yet realize it's missing, and Bilbo doesn't know who the ring belongs to.

This scene utilizes dramatic irony by providing readers with key information that the characters are unaware of. It creates suspense, tension, and immediately invests readers as we anxiously await the events we know will eventually unfold.

This week's prompts all revolve around the theme of secrets. We encourage you to get creative with how and when you reveal information to characters — and readers!

This week's prompts

Write a story about a meeting of a secret society.

Mystery – 155 stories

Write a story about an old family secret surfacing generations later.

Adults – 141 stories

Write a story that either starts or ends with someone asking, “Can you keep a secret?”

Kids – 421 stories

Write a story involving a conversation that’s packed with subtext; the characters aren’t quite saying what they mean.

Dialogue – 78 stories

Write a story where the readers are in on a secret that the characters are unaware of.

Novel – 101 stories

Stories

“Sound the Alarm” by Kevin Leonard

Submitted to Contest #55

Throughout history, an untold number of people have predicted the end of the world. Big names too. Hippolytus of Rome predicted the world would end in the year 500CE. Christopher Columbus figured it would happen around 1656. Charles Manson tried his best to bring it about himself in 1969. Perhaps most famously, in the sixteenth century Nostradamus, the man known by his contemporaries as the much more ordinary Michele de Nostredame, in his famous quatrain X.72 made a very distant but specific prediction: the world would end in July, 1999. Inv...

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“Cerulean Blue” by Mary Corbin

Submitted to Contest #55

Cerulean Blueby Mary CorbinUpon leaving the company of Volga Petrovych, one would always feel as one did when leaving a dog shelter empty-handed. You wanted to feel compassion and provide companionship, be able to save her, but you just couldn’t find the room. She was a 42 year old, tall and frumpy, hair dye-from-a-box blonde whose St. Petersburg accent had not diminished one iota after 24 years of living in America. Words were heavy and dark as motor oil, dripping with anguish from her mouth all running together in a monotonously rapid...

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“Crucial Misdirection” by Aditi Kumar

Submitted to Contest #55

‘Get the grips to park in the street, but we’re not paying if they’re towed. That’s on them. No, no - the camera stays with him, he picked it up yesterday. The DP’s gotta be in charge - yes, 7:00 am sharp. Not a moment later. If I can be early, so can they. And -’‘Dear, your bag is absolutely filthy. And your bed! Lord, it’s been a year at least since you started using those sheets, I’ll pop them off…’‘Mum! My AD’s on the phone!’‘…along with this one, I’ve got some things in the machine anyway -‘‘Can you leave? I can’t remember anything if y...

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“Jonah's Story” by Katelynn Laird

Submitted to Contest #55

The scrape of the blade against the cold, metal table sent a shiver up his spine. A pleasant shiver. He’d waited too long since last satiating this primal urge, an itch that never quite left the back of his mind. While once he’d desperately stamped out the life of any small woodland creature, or occasional errant pet, that he could find, Jonah now had his extracurricular activities down to a science. Long had it been since a simple squirrel’s broken neck soothed his itch. Everything had changed when an unlucky serial killer came to town year...

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“The Greatest Mystery of All-Time” by Brett Ray

Submitted to Contest #55

In the beginning. God. Creation. Adam. Eve. Within six days God created all things. He formed heaven and earth, light, plants, animals, and then man. Once man took center stage, however, of all the complexities that God had accomplished, it would be man’s mistake-ridden life that God would monitor, and quite frankly find much humor therein. Perhaps the sole purpose for man’s creation was that simple. Shear amusement. But this is not a story about why or how humans came to be. This is a story about the first man, Adam, and how he nearly ...

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“Treasure” by Hana A

Submitted to Contest #55

It was my little brother who discovered it first, buried in the muck. We were playing his favourite game, King of the World, and he was scrambling up the trash mountain to claim his rightful realm when he slipped, and one pudgy leg dislodged a heap of what looked like femurs. They clattered down towards me in an avalanche, bleached white by the fat sun. I was wearing my helmet but I held my breath anyway as a great galaxy of dislodged dust rolled over and around me in slow-motion, and then hung there in the air, catching the sun, almost glit...

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“If only” by Saakshi Joshi

Submitted to Contest #55

Trigger warnings: suicide, self harm, drug use Evan parked outside Alexandra’s house and rang her doorbell. No one answered the door. He rang it 3 more times, his panic rising with every minute that passed. He called her cellphone continuously and had no better luck. He lifted her doormat and found the emergency key she kept there. Entering her home, he spent 15 minutes making sure that she was not there, and then finally placed a call to the police. And then, he got into his yellow Toyota sedan and drove off, hoping to find her befor...

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“The Cadaver Club” by Chet McHenry

Submitted to Contest #55

After a round of golf Jeb asked me if I was doing anything. I replied “not really why?”“Just curious. Was wondering if you’d want to come with me to this meeting I can’t get out of.”“Not really.” But then I stopped myself and thought what meeting is he talking about? I threw my golf shoes into the trunk. “What meeting?”“Just a meeting.”I looked at him. “Okay. It’s fucking Saturday. Who the hell meets on a Saturday?”He tossed his golf shoes into my trunk then his golf bag. “Look Stan. It’s a meeting and I really shoul...

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“Meeting of Significance - Meeting of a Secret Society” by Angela Wood

Submitted to Contest #55

Total word count: 2391 Meeting of Significance Meeting of a Secret Society by Angela C Wood Meeting of Significance A shadow appeared at the mouth of the cave, Lillie melted into the walls. She closed her eyes to not give away her position too soon and controlled her breathing, as instructed from Theale. ‘I know you are in there,’ a voice said from outside. ‘But I feel for the good. Theale is no fool he has you here for a reason. Tread carefully, I am Anghus... Of the Elite for Earth Fania, I...

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“Secret Society” by Kayla Zemaitis

Submitted to Contest #55

Should I bring my phone? I ask myself. No, then my parents can track me. I close my pack containing some snacks, water, and cash ($67 dollars to be exact). I tiptoe out of my bedroom and glance at my parents' bedroom door. It's still and silent. That must mean that they're asleep. Perfect! I close my door as quiet as possible, and sneak into the kitchen. I grab a red Gatorade for energy and grab my keys. Then I go out the front door, only to find my parents on the front porch, sipping hot cocoa! "Lucy, dear, why are you out here, dressed, I ...

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“Cult of Dave” by JJ Falco

Submitted to Contest #55

“Dave will be displeased.” No one ever spoke of Dave being anything other than displeased. For that matter, no one spoke of Dave above a whisper other than the Head of the Council. The Defendant looks up at the Head’s silver mask and says, “I did nothing…” “Silence!” The black gloved hand of The Head is held up. He - it is assumed The Head is a man - sits at the center of the Council’s semicircular table. “You will have your chance to speak.” I sit at the left end of the table in my black mask and red robes, a junior member of the Counci...

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“Hush” by JULIET EJEZIE

Submitted to Contest #55

‘Tardy again’ the voice behind the mask said, he sat on a chair sculpted in the form of agonised children, some holding up their hands as though supporting his weight and others, especially the arm rests, laying with their faces upwards towards heaven, as though accepting their fate but still supplicating silently to the heavens. He sat inside a wall of lit torches, each in a pair and each pair crossed each other making a circle of X’s and a few inches from it stood what he called an altar, it was a white cradle-like form made brown from the...

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“Daughters of Hecate” by Brianna Peterson

Submitted to Contest #55

It felt like I had been in a deep dream and I was coming too. I looked around and saw we were in the forest, I didn’t know how I got there but I did know that I was supposed to be here. We walked by a waterfall looking at it made me think of the last thing I could remember before getting here. “ Will you come with me to help me be a part of something greater?” I must have said yes because now I was here in the middle of the forest with the girl I had been hanging out with for a while now. I remembered that we were going to a meeting then I w...

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“Secret Society for Genius Males Only” by Susan Hudson

Submitted to Contest #55

Secret Society for Genius Males Only Susan W. Hudson It was the sweltering summer that Jonah Christenson turned fourteen years old. He was a typical teenage boy. His limbs were long and gangly. His hair was light brown, tousled by the wind, and lightened by the sun and saltwater. His eyes were light brown. He was already tanned and freckled. It was also the first summer since Jonah has started the Secret Society for Genius Males Only. Jonah lived in a rustic house with his dad, Jonathan Christenson. The house was still filled ...

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“Don’t Fall For His Tricks” by Cal Emery

Submitted to Contest #55

At first glance, it looks just like a regular small town at night, the sky painted black, the moon casting an eerie glow along the pavement, a scatter of nearly identical houses with white and tan brick. A playground next to the only school, with a slide, some swings. A dep in the center of the town. A gas station, a cafe, a motel. A bank, a grocery store, a post office. On the second glance, you see the boarded up theatre, lights off inside, run down, the motel, boarded up, a ‘for sale’ sign infront of the cafe, the eroding wood, the cracke...

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$50

Prize money

896

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 21, 2020 EST

Won by B Easton 🏆

Title: Secrets for the Living

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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