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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

“Long Lost Treasures” by Story Tellers

Submitted to Contest #68

Chapter 1: Almost the End His heart swirled the winding path atop the misty mountains where they had first met many years back and greeted the rising sun for the last time as strangers. They had connected with an urgency as if not wanting to squander any more of each other. Many years later, willfully imprisoned in his memories, he thought about the beginning while at the very end. He was aware of the nagging presence of reality, like an unused piece of clothing in his wardrobe that he could pass over. He was also not unaware of the condit...

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“Not Here Tomorrow ” by Urvashi Bajpai

Submitted to Contest #68

Kimberly crossed her legs and sat down beside Alex, as they both watched the splendid sunrise. The golden and the orange blended perfectly to form a majestic scenery, the young sunlight reflecting from the dewy grass blades kindling the very essence of beauty. "I thought you would be over me by now." Alex murmured gently, squeezing her hand. "I... don't think I'll ever be able to do that." Kimberly replied, nostalgic and remorseful. "But you promised me," his voice was even as he tilted his head to look her in the eye, pi...

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“Tragic Love” by Jackie Marsh

Submitted to Contest #68

The sun was shining on the lake, Scarlet was sitting on the cliff while watching the sunrise. When Bandit came and sat down next to Scarlet. “It’s beautiful isn’t beasty?” Bandit asked.“It truly is” Scarlet answered.The two have been secretly dating for two years now Scarlets pack doesn’t know that she was sneaking out or that she was soon going to have a canid pup. Scarlet’s pack was running through the woods to find her they believed that one of the other packs had taken her. The pack had split up so they could find her, she was one o...

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“HELLO SATURN” by SHYAMALA BHUVANACHANDRAN

Submitted to Contest #68

Rohini and Praveen were still seated in their seats and were waiting for others to clear the way. The aeroplane had just come to a final stop. People were busy taking out their hand luggage from cabin rack. A long strenuous journey was telling on them. In a few more minutes they would be in their new home. From the window Praveen peeped out and showed his mother the broad bright sky. It was Sunrise. A new dawn! A new country, a new land, new people around, a new environment, a new language, a new job, a new boss …. Rohini was carried aw...

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“Elise, Of My Memory” by Matthew Eubanks

Submitted to Contest #68

Talil sat holding the child on top of the roof while the sun rose. The girl was wrapped in a blanket, still hanging on to sleep. He felt her protuding ribs through the blanket. The wind had started to pick up and sandy desert air was rising from the street below.The girl had small bones, a child's face, limbs and arms and freckles. Brown ringlets of hair hung in front of her face and wavered like reeds with her breath. The two of them were hidden because the sun had not yet risen but they would have to move soon. He had brought her here desp...

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“Because of You” by Tenise Boyd

Submitted to Contest #68

“Jordyn…Jordyn.” Mama’s voice whispered while I rubbed my eyes to see that the sun was coming up. She patted her lap as I made my way into it, yawning the sleep out of me. Watching the sunrise was mama and my special thing since daddy always hated getting up early. I like seeing the pretty colors mixing up like one of my finger paintings while mama loved seeing the sun dance on the rooves of the houses. The sun seemed to greet us both as it touched our skin making mama’s natural curls light up like black silk. I would reach my hands up to to...

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“The Dark Before the Light” by Tiffany Sears

Submitted to Contest #68

There is a moment, just before the sun breaks through the velvet curtain of the night, when the world seems to stand still. A moment when the darkness hangs heavy with anticipation of the approaching threat of the sun. The stillness of surrender, a final breath before being chased across the expanse of the sky before being extinguished completely by the light. Adelie finds herself holding her own breath as the sky begins to shift, the stars already beginning to fade in the horizon. &nbsp...

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“Firecracker Love” by Brianna Savage

Submitted to Contest #68

“I love you.” It was the hardest thing she had ever done, she claimed. She told me that telling me she loved me was so difficult, she thought she’d throw up and charter a jet to another continent when she made up her mind to tell me. Of course, I didn’t know this at the time. She seemed so optimistic at the time, ironically. She came right up to me while we were studying and just blurted out the “I love you”. Right in the quiet library, and everything. But, well, she’s always been a bit spontaneous. I’ve known her since we were kid...

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“The Burden” by Maiko Koberidze

Submitted to Contest #68

The Burden– This is our third session, Gerra, you still haven’t told me what that monstrous burden of yours is all about.– Is it vitally necessary for you to know? Isn’t my feeling towards it just enough for your professional opinion?– I’m afraid not.– Alright… Alright… I’ll try to explain it as simply as in my powers. I see people for who they are, I feel people for who they truly are.– You see them? Do you have vivid visualisation, like in colours, certain non-present features?– Are you subtly asking me if I have hallucinations? No! It’s m...

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“My heart left before you did” by Evelyn Cunningham

Submitted to Contest #68

“Zuri can I trust you,” Amara asked, “Of course, I’m your best friend you can tell me anything,” Amara replied, she felt nervous, Zuri never had to ask her for anything. Amara had a bad feeling about what she was going to hear. Zuri shifted in her place, “Don't be mad…” “What is it you gotta tell me?” “Alright,” Zuri dug her fingers into the sand of the beach that they were sitting on, Amara and Zuri were neighbors and had been friends since kindergarten, they lived one block away from the beach, which had become thei...

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“My Father Was Good” by Melissa M Eagen

Submitted to Contest #68

My father has always been good to me.He would give me money to go to the store and a list. "Don't forget!" He would say, ushering me out the door.I wouldn't forget. How could I? I would get a scolding of a lifetime. Frankly, I couldn't even return home if I happened to forget....Mother liked to pray in her room where I wasn't allowed. She was a religious woman of middle-class stature. Not because we had money, but because in her mind she was somewhere far away. She always seemed as if she would break if I touched her, into a million sha...

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“Alarming” by Matthew Ducza

Submitted to Contest #68

‘To begin with I will tell you that I am actually a virgin. Well I was before last night anyway.’ Melanie’s doorknob would have had some interesting stories to tell if it could talk. Walls may have ears but the brass door knob had the eyes of the room and played a much more active role in letting Melanie and her guests in and out of her student accommodation. If the door knob were a screenwriter and hoping to impress a producer with a voyeuristic retelling of what it was witnessing currently it would go something like this: SCENE 1 - BED...

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“Dreams ” by HBR Patel

Submitted to Contest #68

'You ready, Mike?' 'Always, John.' Mike clicked before John can complete his statement. The website was live, and so was their business. 'How much are you expecting?' 'Definitely more than 100 before midnight,' clarified John. They were expecting orders on their website that sold T-shirts. 'Quiet optimistic. Ain't it?' 'Hoping for the best.' The hope of John began reflecting on the screen. The orders came pouring in. The business partners were in for a shock. 'Skipping Pre-Order was not bad, after all?' 'Ya, I can't disagree, nor can t...

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“Benny, Jenny, and Alma in the Dirt” by Melina Gardiner

Submitted to Contest #68

“It was me. I took your food, Alma.” Large, round green eyes stared as she fiddled with the can’s pull tab behind her back. The feline’s mouth pulled back, then a silent yawn fell out. The sharpness of the tab pinched the stiff skin of her finger, so she adjusted her grip. “Whattaya gonna do about it?” she drawled. Alma blinked, unhappy to say the least. She occasionally flicked her gaze to the shadows of the kitchen cabinets. The early afternoon light shifted them incrementally across garish mint green walls....

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“Secret Lies” by Khair Harun

Submitted to Contest #68

Amin was a man in his early 30s who could not seem to make up his mind on what he wanted to do in life. He wanted to become an architect. Instead of taking the final exam in his professional practice, he ditched it for a reason which brought much despair to his late father. He was interested to open a fashion shop, specializing in woman’s dresses and scarf. That didn’t go as plan because the dressmaker he hired from Calcutta ran off with his savings of $4,000. He decided to work as a draftsman in an architecture firm, but he was given an adm...

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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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