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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

“A Whole New world” by Anjie Faith

Submitted to Contest #55

I don’t know how it came to this point. Every single building that surrounded me was on fire. You could hear the screams and the cries of children as the fire devoured them. The wind blew the ashes from the ground in a way that they spiraled around me, like Pocahontas and the colors of the wind. The sky was colored with blood. It was like a red blanket hovering the sky, bringing fear to all who laid eyes upon it.The end of the world was nigh. Any dumb twit could see that. Everyone was going to die, it was inevitable. All the creatures and pl...

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“The Package” by Amanda S

Submitted to Contest #55

The package arrives by U.S. mail. Slipped in between a stack of those old paper grocery ads, it slithers out when I slap the pile onto the kitchen table. The first thing that seems weird: no return address. Second thing: it is addressed to Marie Bacher. Marie was my grandma, who had been dead for four years. “Ma!” She comes s...

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“Cultivating the secret” by Steve Alink

Submitted to Contest #55

Taking a roundabout with five exits put Manon in a prolific mood. This was the second one that she encountered in her trip to her brother. As every year they and their siblings would join each other in respect for their parents. Only once out of the 18 times she had missed the weekend. That was when a storm had split a tree near her house right in the middle. It resulted in one half being on the road and the other half on top of an old shed in the back of her garden. Manon called the organising sibling, for that year it was Cloé her youngest...

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“Can a ring tell a whole story?” by Ana Corciu

Submitted to Contest #55

The sun had just risen. While the whole village slept, Jim was awake, like every other day. The boy stopped for a moment to admire the valley that appeared in front of him. He was living in a quiet village, the same since he could remember, no one new was coming in, no inhabitant was leaving. Everyone knew everyone and did the same thing every day. Jim took the wooden bucket from the house and started his usual trail to the fountain, about 15 minutes uphill. It was a well known journey for him, doing it at least three times a day. Although t...

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“Death Doesn't Discriminate ” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #55

“How much longer?” Kaylie groans, her finger absentmindedly swiping up on her phone, nothing loading despite the little icon at the top of the phone swearing it’s connected to the wifi. She tosses her phone aside, tired of watching the little circle spin around itself over and over again. Bennett moves a box from the far corner of the room to the landing just above the stairs. Kaylie huffs, no one paying her any attention. She hadn’t wanted to come in the first place, she was supposed to be at the pool with the girls, putting the finis...

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“Rachel” by The Last Unicorn

Submitted to Contest #55

Looking past the veranda, I saw someone looking at me from afar. He was holding a garden hose in his right hand and was somehow waving at me with his left. He was smiling. A smile that showed his perfectly aligned set of teeth. A smile that was definitely his most admired asset. A smile that showed a kind feeling – somehow warm yet unnerving. Being the polite person that I am, I smiled back. Although unsure of what that smile might mean, my muscles somehow involuntarily moved and found its way into doing something rather automatic. It was j...

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“Something's up with Dareen” by Future Generation

Submitted to Contest #55

Arik paced the hotel's lobby floor, running his fingers through his thick, dark, brown hair. Dareen watched his boyfriend with pitiful eyes, and Jess tapped their foot in deep thought. After a few minutes of all of this Arik finally let out a loud and frustrated "Ugh!" He plopped down on the floor and put his head down, "I just don't understand it you guys. We've looked for every clue, watched every piece of camera footage, and asked every witnessed. Each suspect taking us back to square one." Dareen got up and sat beside Arik, who was now c...

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“cheese macaroni” by Bottle Of Beans :)

Submitted to Contest #55

"Can you keep a secret?" You asked the stranger sitting two tables away from you. His ears caught your question amidst the loud chatter and turned to face you, his brown eyes meeting yours. He paused for a moment and nodded, pursing his lips to suppress a big grin. Seated grandly on the table in front of the both of you was a plate that held a generous amount of cheese macaroni. It's comforting aroma drifted to the noses of you and that stranger, who were both waiting for the number on the receipts to be called by the intercom that the ...

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“Hush” by Nat S

Submitted to Contest #55

Hush “Can you keep a secret?” Mark’s day had started off with this odd question from a girl he did not know. The girl had come up to him while he was shopping, tugged on his hand, and then frightened him to death with this whispered question. She had disappeared just as fast as she appeared and when he asked the people around them, nobody had seen the little girl. Mark was sitting on his bed contemplating this. Nothing he came up with seemed to be the proper explanation for ...

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“Grandmother's Secret” by Muhammad Hafeez Alexander Schmidt

Submitted to Contest #55

“Can you keep a secret?” The old lady wore on her face a demented grin. Her eyes, dark blue, the colour of skies, was now a cold dead sea, brimming with madness that finally emerged from the depth of her mind. Her grin turned into a smile, and in that second, she bore a passing resemblance to the frenzied sharks of a geography documentary, that had surfaced from the deep to feast on the flesh of innocent people. But she was no wild animal, and in her eyes, there was a cold intelligence that all mortal men had. If one were to stumble on h...

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“Compass” by Katie Wilson

Submitted to Contest #55

Some would say I got off easy. Only having to spend one weekend with my family out of every year. We were a small bunch and mom knew if we didn’t set a date, we’d never see each other. My sister, only being my twin in definition, seemed to be getting taller and paler every year. My older brother, who seemingly caught senioritis in eighth grade and hadn’t recovered since; bothered to shave this time. A pleasant surprise. Seeing mom became more and more of a chore as time went on. I loved her deeply but, with our lives already so separate, I...

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“The Lake” by Dev Raj Singh

Submitted to Contest #55

{1913 - Somewhere in Northern Italy} “Can you keep a little secret, Son?” Said the man in his mid-40s to a young Davide sitting on the other edge of the blue bench beside the lake. The lake made tiny waves a few feet from them every time a dipper bird dived in looking for an evening snack on a particularly cloudy day. The man’s greying hair fluttered with the breeze as he looked intently at the mountains on the other side of the lake. Two scars jarred his face - lining up like the faraway mountain hills. One ran horizontally on h...

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“His truth” by Aanisah King

Submitted to Contest #55

He'd got into his parked car, slammed the door shut, let out an exhausted sigh and put the key into keyhole when he heard a shift in the leather of the backseat and felt the prick of a needle in his neck. "How's the girlfriend doing?" A honeyed voice mocked in his ear. He froze. He knew that voice anywhere. "What do you want, Scarlet?" "The same thing I've been asking for for a month now." He let out an annoyed growl, "I told you I can't do that." "I've searched for other ways to meet your...demands but that's the only way. I want t...

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“The Will of Its Own” by Jovan Ivančević

Submitted to Contest #55

“Can you keep a secret? I will tell you as it has happened. I just took it, not giving a damn if anybody saw me. Actors often take stuff from the set. One ring more, less. One could say I was obliged to do so. I won’t say anything silly like that. I acquire it; it wasn’t my finest hour. Walking away I got a sudden urge to try it, you know, to check if all things about that little thing were remotely true. I will confess that, nothing more. I entered the office of the producers. The filming was over, you know. The assistant gave me the look –...

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“To hell with it” by Juhi Garg

Submitted to Contest #55

Disclaimer: this is a satirical account involving two most hated figures of history. It does not intend to humanise or dehumanise anyone. It doesn’t intend to trivialise the trauma of world war 2 or the holocaust. It is solely intended for entertainment purpose. Please be patient and understand the intention of the author. I apologise if it stirs up past memories. Happy reading. To hell with it. 30th April...

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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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