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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#62: Forward Thinking

Last week, we took a trip down memory lane. This time, we’ll be looking forward: to the future, and all the infinite ways it can unfold.

Of course, in the real world we can never know exactly what will happen — that’s what makes it both exhilarating and terrifying (or sometimes both at once). And while you as the author may know exactly how the story will end, the characters are just as ignorant as the rest of us.

This week, we invite you to dig into your characters’ hopes and dreams for the future. Do they long for it, or dread it? How are they trying to prepare? Who knows, maybe they’ll even get a glimpse at events still to come…

This week's prompts

Write about a character who can suddenly only “remember” their future, not their past.

Thriller and Suspense – 129 stories

Write about a character who’s had their future foretold from birth — but isn’t sure if they believe it.

Fantasy – 152 stories

Write about two characters on the verge of a life-changing event, but one has rigged the outcome.

Dramatic – 90 stories

Write about a character preparing to go into stasis for decades (or centuries).

Science Fiction – 108 stories

Write about a character putting something into a time capsule.

Science Fiction – 141 stories

Stories

“Forward Thinking” by Vicky S

Submitted to Contest #62

Footsteps echoed down the hallway. They paused as their owner peered into a room. The door creaked slightly as they shut the door behind. Stephanie could hear them as they searched for her, moving files and shifting furniture. As if they thought she was hiding behind a desk. She glanced around. It was an ordinary office. Nowhere to hide. They’d find her quickly. She felt a violent shiver go through her body. She couldn’t let them find her. She had to hide. The footsteps were getting louder. Maybe the person was in the room next door. Ignorin...

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“Cardinal Spring Cottage” by Rambling Beth

Submitted to Contest #62

In Cardinal Spring Cottage, a light was flickering. A single flame, the only source of light in the entire cottage, burning in an almost unoccupied bedroom. Katherine sat on top of the covers, hugging her Raggedy Ann doll to her chest. Her covers were messy, overturned, and dusty, as if she had been moving around a lot in her sleep. A glass of water sat on the night desk next to her, untouched. She was too afraid to drink. Instead, she glanced at the candle, burning at her bedside table. She’d had to brave going down to the kitchen and lig...

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“Going Into Hibernation” by ✯𝐋𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫✯

Submitted to Contest #62

Going into Hibernation “PLEASE EVERYONE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THE NEWS!! WE WILL BE REPORTING EXACTLY WHERE TO GO AND HOW TO ATTEMPT THE PROCEDURE AND DOING THE PROPER STEPS CORRECTLY. DON’T TAKE ANY FURTHER ACTIONS UNTIL WE TELL YOU TO DO SO! STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES FROM NC 24/7.” I can’t believe we are doing this. All of humankind around the globe were going into stasis. I can’t imagine how the entire world will work after there is no activity of humankind! What would happen to our houses? ...

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“The Effects of Nature vs. Nurture” by Meggy House

Submitted to Contest #62

Opal Winehouse Research Laboratory-Established in 1962, A Tradition of Excellence-“May true knowledge never defy you.”-Valerie CrossThis is a very official report of paper from an extremely established laboratory—take that, Frederick Langford University (sorry, the lawyer in charge of producing this technical stationary was VERY bored)—to be used purely for research purposes. This report belongs to Amanda Driver and stealing any of the contents is copyright infringement and will be handled as such. Until published, the results of this report...

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“Wingbeat” by Rayhan Hidayat

Submitted to Contest #62

You don’t know where you are or how you got here, only that there’s a mangled body at your feet and a trophy the size of a bowling pin in your fist. You’re not sure which one tips you off that this is your handiwork: the splash of crimson stark against the gold of the trophy, or the fact that your gag reflex responds by adding more bodily fluids to the crime scene. Evidently, you’re fond of chili dogs.Like your composure, the trophy slides out of your grasp. THUMP. Going fetal sounds like a pretty good idea, but glass shards litter the floor...

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“As it is written” by Miles Gatling

Submitted to Contest #62

"I'm not the champion our people need," the young fighter said while pouring another cup. He struggled to stay seated. "Why are you like this?" She smacked his cheek. "Why won't you fight?" "I have my reasons." He filled the empty cup again, draining the last droplets of wine from the clay pitcher. With tears in her eyes she said "What about your son? Will you not fight for him, for our family?" "He's not like me, I can feel it. He takes after you." His voice lacked all emotions, his gray-blue eyes stared into the wine filled cup. "You s...

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“Souvenirs” by BeInspiredAbstracts/Etsy SarahGreenwood

Submitted to Contest #62

“Shannon, an out-of-state plate is like a bullseye,” my boyfriend Billy warned me the day before I left. I was about to embark on a road trip from Tennessee to California for my job as a travel nurse. I had been a travel nurse for five years, that’s how I met Billy. And now Billy and I were going to be getting married, and trying to get pregnant right away, if Billy had it his way. But before I settled into a life of domesticity I wanted one last road trip, to celebrate my last bit of freedom. Billy was worried about my trip, but he k...

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“Snatch and Grab” by Andrew Krey

Submitted to Contest #62

*Author’s Note: “Snatch and Grab” is a standalone story, set in the same universe as my other Reedsy short-stories, with overlapping characters and events.* Doug began speaking and the group instantly fell silent, as they bounced along inside the non-descript, panel van. “Synchronise watches to twenty-three forty-five hours on my mark…mark.” They all clicked their watches, except Gadget. With nothing to click, she looked to Flo. “Don’t worry you’ll be with me.” Flo smiled, and Gadget saw kindness in her brown eyes. “We’ll start the twe...

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“Galactic Phenomenon” by Palak Shah

Submitted to Contest #62

As night fell the blue haze of day lifted to reveal the stars. I always felt that this was closer to the truth of who we are. Stars shone as sugar spilt over black marble, glistening in the sun. The night sky was such a welcome sight, appearing like magic at each sunset, promising to return as she faded in dawn's first light. Sipping my coffee I could feel the tepid, overly bitter flavour and it was lacking real cream. However, it was a source of caffeine so I drank it heartily like a sailor drinking his whiskey. Gripping my hands along...

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“Stasis” by Abigail Romick

Submitted to Contest #62

I hold my breath, sweat trickling down the side of my otherwise composed face."Sanna 195-C" the professor calls, resulting in a daunted looking girl with mousy brown hair being pushed from the crowd.She's wearing the same white uniform as the rest of us. She looks like us, she dresses like us, she came from the same situation as us. She is like us, yet they shove her forward trying to avoid expulsion from the program into the world outside, a world of certain death. Is this what we have come to? She looks around the crowd frantically se...

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“Mother Mortality” by Skyler Woods

Submitted to Contest #62

Lisa Angel had a gift. Whenever her gift would activate, she could never remember the day of her birth or major events in her past. Sometimes Lisa’s gift would give her nightmares. She could see into the future, but she could only see people’s deaths. Lisa’s morbid clairvoyance manifested when she was 5 years old.Now Lisa was 37 years old. She was the mother of a tall, dark, and handsome young man named AJ. Lisa’s son didn’t know about his mother’s gift until he experienced it firsthand one night. He went to visit his girlfriend. While kissi...

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“Yellow” by Scout Tahoe

Submitted to Contest #62

Lois leaned against the window panes, carelessly letting the afternoon sun bathe her in autumn leaves and wash her problems away. She did this every morning, you noticed, while she ruffled the black and white newspaper and pretended to read it. Everyone knew she couldn’t read, but they didn’t say anything because she could barely keep a conversation alive either. She also hummed. Tunes of darkness like the sticky syrup Al drizzled all over their pancakes on Sundays. Lois couldn’t remember the words but she could remember the instru...

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“Fifty-Five” by Scout Tahoe

Submitted to Contest #62

ShawnCarnivals were dirty places with middle schoolers making out with cotton candy lips between the tents and college students smoking weed behind the children’s rides. The reason why Wren wanted to come here was buried in the back of my mind with the electricity bills and memories blurred like pencil smudges. There are things I wanted to forget and I knew this experience was one of them. “I used to be one of them, you know,” I told Wren, hooking my arm through his protectively. We smelled deep fried goods and saw the hungry looks...

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“An Alien with powers 👽” by ALINA Manha

Submitted to Contest #62

I stopped the urge to shout at the top of my voice as Miss Amber, my teacher in the orphanage, beat me hard with a whip for doing my sums correctly. The teachers at the orphanage in Leansburg are very cruel and inhumane, they beat you for having more knowledge than them, for wanting more food or sleeping for more than three hours a day. I wonder even if they are humans. Though I am 15 the youngest in my classroom I am more into studies and reading. I get beatings for spending my time in the library, trying to find answers about the pow...

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“WHILE.... STILL IN THE WOMB. ” by Rinky Lotia

Submitted to Contest #62

“What is growing inside you, the life you are carrying, the soul you are nourishing, the spirit that you are going to bring into the world is going to be both.... a boon and a curse. “ The exact words of my guru, that shook me to my very core. Who am I? And why was my child going to be both a boon and a curse for the world? How come my child was going to be a boon and a curse? A curse? A curse?Angelina Ray. That is me. A name. A lady of colour living in the world of whites. I was privileged to have been born and married into a family which h...

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$50

Prize money

620

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 09, 2020 EST

Won by A.Dot Ram 🏆

Title: No Hard Feelings

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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