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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#68: Meet in the Middle

If there’s one thing we know, it’s that the internet loves to argue. Perhaps one of the stranger fights I’ve seen is what constitutes a “sandwich” — you’d think the definition would be universal… and you’d be very wrong.

But whether you classify hot dogs, pitas, and burritos as sandwiches or not, one thing we can agree on is this: no matter how similar the components, there’s endless variety to be found when you combine the ingredients in different ways.

With that in mind, this week we’re celebrating the infinite diversity of fillings. To do so, we’re going to provide you with the beginning and ending of your story — and it will be up to you to fill these two slices of literary bread with whatever you can imagine!

This week's prompts

Start your story with two characters watching a sunrise and end it with one of them seeing the moon reflecting off a lake.

Adults – 301 stories

Start your story with someone admitting a secret and end it with someone telling a lie.

Dramatic – 180 stories

Start your story with someone robbing a bank and end it with two people driving on an interstate.

Dramatic – 86 stories

Start your story with the line, “This was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives,” and end it with, “By then it was too late.”

Sad – 132 stories

Start your story with the line, “It had been twenty-four years since she’d last seen it, but the place looked exactly the same,” and end it with, “[…] and that was all that mattered.”

Adults – 178 stories

Stories

“Desayuno chapin.” by Phil Flockton

Submitted to Contest #68

Desayuno Chapin. We’d travelled Central America for eleven or twelve weeks, (mostly by rattling, lumbering chicken buses, fast winding downhills and slow open roads), and having crossed into Guatemala from the cloud forests of Honduras we had arrived early morning at the Puerto Barrios ferry terminal. A few others were chatting at the food stall. Perhaps now the house is empty, for at least a few days, their life can get back to normal (I have told Willie – the grass mowing man – to leave the yard uncut).It was first light as we stood on ...

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“Interstate 93” by Roth Sassin (inactive)

Submitted to Contest #68

Enzo Enzo slips through the crowded streets. He's almost there. His hands flick out every few seconds, grabbing this man's wallet, and that woman's watch. By the time he gets to the ladder, his pockets are stuffed to the brim. "Ya got a nice haul today, Enzo," says someone from the roof the ladder leads to. He climbs the ladder quickly. "Couldn't help myself, Lok. And you know better than to point it out." "Ya, but den I wouldn't' get as many words out of you f I didn't." "So?" "Never mind. You don't get it." "I get it, I ...

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“From Dawn to Dusk” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #68

The sun was rising into the clear blue sky. In the soft sands that crept down into the cool waters of the lake, two people sat next to each other, hand in hand, looking across the water. Their faces appeared happy enough, what you would expect from such a scene. However, inside both of their minds and hearts there was turmoil, distilled by an unasked and unanswered question. Ten years ago, they had sat at the same place, at about the same time of day. They hadn’t seen or spoken with each other since then. They...

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“I Am Not” by Ark Vandal

Submitted to Contest #68

My very first memory is also my last. Its vague in places but vivid in others. We sat on a sandy beach—he and I—watching the spread of paint the rising sun had streaked across the sky. Hues of gold and pink, orange, the shade of candlelight. I still smell the salt of the ocean on the wind and the quiet scent of perfume in the crook of his neck. We sat and played and cried and laughed till the sky cloaked itself in black and stars brightened into being above us. I can’t remember his name. I can’t recall his face. Only that he was important to...

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“Class of 2022” by Tracey Carvill

Submitted to Contest #68

CW: This is based on current events and might be a bit 'too soon' for some. It was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives – one of them, anyway: watching your child graduate from university. And in surroundings like these, it should have been; hundreds of smiling, black-robed young people, milling around in the square in front of Westminster Cathedral, with the modern, shining buildings of London surrounding them and the old, ornate church rising up ahead, its huge double doors open to welcome in the class of 2022. The paving stone...

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“Just Another Typical Love Story” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #68

June 23, 2017 “Hey, Harper?” “Yeah?” “I really, really love you.” Harper turns from where he’s watching the sky and smiles at me. God, he’s gorgeous. He just sits there, grinning, for a few moments before leaning into me and saying, “You too, Therly.” I look back out at the ocean. Waves lap lightly at the peaceful shore. Sunrise is just beginning, staining the horizon with orange, and I’ve never really liked that color, but today it’s the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen. Everything for the past few weeks has been perfect, really. I...

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“The Last Time” by Josie Doefer

Submitted to Contest #68

Kathy took a drag on from her cigarette. It had been a long day. She pressed down as hard as she could stand on the new hole in her liver as a steady stream of blood came oozing between her fingers. She couldn’t feel them anymore but she could see her feet splayed out in front of her crossing the hall floor. Her back was to the wall in more than one way. Things had been awful all day. First she hadn’t gotten breakfast at Chubby’s, then there had been traffic on the I-35, and to top it all off, Anton hadn’t called her back. Then of course she...

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“Summer of '98” by Jade Orien🍀

Submitted to Contest #68

Summer had just started in the state of Florida in the year 1998. Two best friends Renae & Hanna are at the beach watching the sunrise. "I'm glad we came early just to watch the sunrise" Hanna says as she starts to put suntan lotion on her body while wearing a bikini. (Hanna has strawberry blonde hair with freckles.)" yes I'm glad too" Renae adds (with curly brown hair & brown eyes.), but it is not paying any attention to the sunrise nor her best friend, instead she has her head in a book that she had brought with her to the beach. H...

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“Operation Freedom” by Veritable Vessels

Submitted to Contest #68

Operation Freedom This was meant to be the happiest day of our lives. How did it all go wrong? We had worked for 3 whole years just to get into this college…. Briiinnggg! Briiinnggg!! my alarmed clock blared. I grudgingly turned to switch it off. I had a flush of happiness, excitement, and sadness. I was finally leaving home. Normally, people would have been sad to leave home, but not me. I’m not like most people (in a lot of ways) i.e Most people didn’t go through the trauma I went through when they were just 6...

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“Love is Love” by Katelynn Laird

Submitted to Contest #68

I didn’t notice the sky lightening at first. One moment, the air was inky blue so dark it was almost black and the only sounds were crickets and the occasional night creature scurrying to its bed at last. Then the next, the horizon began to simmer and the sounds of dawn stirred. Birds sang and flying insects rose, accompanied by an almost audible sigh, as if the entire earth were stretching awake. An irrational part of me was drawn forward toward the intensifying light as the molten orange corona burned over the low mountains in the distan...

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“Can I tell you a secret” by 𝒯𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒦𝑜𝒽𝑒𝓃

Submitted to Contest #68

Can I tell you a secret?Or maybe I shouldn’t...It could spoil the whole story,I don’t know if I should…But I just can’t keep it to myself. It’s so terribly hard!I need to tell you what's on the noteYou know what,...I’ll just tell you.But if anyone asks you…You keep it to yourself.Or else.So you want to know what it is?It’s that....Hmm let me give you some background You should know.It all began with a note. A creepy note, a scary note, an ugly note. “I got it. you don’t like the note” you say but let me continue. I was so scar...

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“One Chance” by JR Davis

Submitted to Contest #68

Two pairs of long legs stretched across the blue, light gray, and white wedding ring quilt beneath the apple tree on the slope of Smith Hill. The morning air felt warm and welcoming to the two friends as they sat and watched the sunrise after staying up all night to see if the eldest friend, Nikolai, could withstand the nightlife and the eerily quiet hours to the rambunctious freaks that came out to run wild in the town. Nikolai leaned back onto his hands and tilted his head as he watched the sunrise. “I don’t think I will miss it.”&nbs...

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“Creeds” by Megan Faith

Submitted to Contest #68

The Grasshopper was a dot of life in the town of Ditchford. It wasn’t quite a ghost town, but still far from a bustling and hustling metro. The Grasshopper’s lights shined for miles in the desert, dragging people to it like moths. Any passerby who wanted something in their stomach, and a safe place to sleep got it. Regardless of money. Percy had lived there for nearly 10 years, and became a handyman to the owner, Lucy. She was an older lady, not frayed or slowing down from her older age. She took no nonsense from anyone, stranger or friend, ...

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“Hunter's Moon” by David Brown

Submitted to Contest #68

The autumn sun had just spread its rays in golden slivers through the forest’s canopy, and she paused to absorb their warmth by crouching down on the frosty meadow. She felt the comforting heat on her exposed face and nose while allowing it to soak deeply into her gray-brown hair. He waited with her; snuggling together, they breathed in the cold morning air and exhaled their balmy vapors as one. The mist of their lungs floated up to blend with the low ground fog as they briefly postponed their hunt to take in the daystar’s majesty. He move...

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“On the Lam” by Ali Anthony Bell

Submitted to Contest #68

September ’76 found me as the new kid in town and the foreigner, an American teenager in a Canadian high school. Gordon Bell High School in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I can still clearly remember my first day, down to what I was wearing; a red and green plaid western shirt with pearl snap buttons, light green bell-bottom jeans, and the red Adidas Gazelles that I loved so much. During the first recess I saw a tall dark-haired boy from my class having a smoke alone in a corner and went to introduce myself, pulling a pack of Craven “A” menthols out of...

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$50

Prize money

877

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 20, 2020 EST

Won by FJC Montenegro 🏆

Title: Silence

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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