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#79 The Family You Choose

They say blood is thicker than water — but is it always?

 

The truth is that not all families offer healthy relationships to each other, and sometimes the harsh act of cutting them out of your life may be the best course of action. Fortunately, we can still meet people who love us no matter what and become our new families. Not to mention adoptions, blended families, and all the wonderful ways people connect with and support each other, regardless of whether they share any DNA. It's fair to say that family is a lot more than blood!

 

This week, we’re going to turn family life upside down and examine all the ways that family succeeds — and fails — for our characters.

🥇 Winner

Puzzle Pieces

Winner of Contest #79 🏆

Trigger warning: mention of suicide    The first time Cassie met Lin, the latter girl was wearing a fitted pink jumpsuit, layered with a baby blue bomber jacket that was patterned all over with obnoxiously adorable illustrations of pugs and rainbows. In Lin's long black hair were citrus orange streaks that glowed stupendously whenever she and her high pigtails moved ever so slightly. Cassie hated her. Partially because she felt that she, being Marcus's new girlfriend, simply had to; but mostly because she knew that anyone looking a...

393 likes 155 comments 155
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⭐️ Shortlisted

Empty Chairs

Shortlisted for Contest #79 ⭐️

It came on a standard piece of office paper bearing the letterhead Families United, typed in Times New Roman, twelve font, single-spaced:Your birth mother has asked us to contact you on her behalf. She would like to connect, but you are under no obligation whatsoever. Your information is protected and nothing will be divulged without your permission. An email and phone number along with the business hours are included. I re-read the note again and again before laying it on the granite counter. My throat has gone dry. I swallow a half-finishe...

51 likes 50 comments 50
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Broken Ties

Shortlisted for Contest #79 ⭐️

“I’ve started going to therapy,” my mother says quietly, looking at her hands. They are clasped together on the table, her thumbs mindlessly picking at her nude fingernail polish. Flakes of it lay scattered on the dark tablecloth, their stark contrast like a sprinkling of snow on pavement. This is the first declaration she’s made since entering my home a few minutes ago. I look at her, quizzically, unsure of what I’m supposed to make of this comment. I don’t feel any pressure to fill the silence, so I just wait. I don’t owe her anything, I t...

34 likes 10 comments 10
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The Songbird

Shortlisted for Contest #79 ⭐️

The latest round of counselors had seemed as exhausted with this kid as I was. When the shock of encountering his illegally-acquired underage pornographic tattoos had worn off, I was just tired. I looked into the face of his psychiatrist and knew that she was thinking the same thing I was: “Why bother?” But I couldn’t put it all into a folder and stack it on my desk for next week. Under his inked skin and dirty nails, my blood flowed. Or my heart’s blood anyway. He was my adopted son. I wasn’t free to mask my impatience behind a clinical s...

30 likes 19 comments 19
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New England Months & Years

Shortlisted for Contest #79 ⭐️

13 For exactly the opposite of what I thought I would be lying across cream carpet with––carpet thick enough to bury toes in––I looked to her.  Smells resembled the inactivity of rubber storage containers and Christmas decorations wrapped in trash bags.  Smells of patchouli candles that Mom burned only around the holidays in an effort to remember her 1950s childhood, smells of the comforter’s fabric softener, smells of perfume tray that had been gifted from some great-aunt, lying as a carcass on the furniture with blac...

29 likes 9 comments 9
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This week's prompts

Write about someone who decides it’s time to cut ties with a family member.

Sad – 259 stories

Your main character is approached by their long-estranged parent who wants to reconnect. How do they react?

Dramatic – 193 stories

Write about someone who discovers the only family member they have left has just betrayed them.

Sad – 159 stories

Write about two characters who’ve gone through something so intense they now feel like family.

Adults – 189 stories

Write about a “found family” who are finally able to get together again after a long time apart.

Fluff – 100 stories

Stories

Puzzle Pieces

Winner of Contest #79 🏆

Trigger warning: mention of suicide    The first time Cassie met Lin, the latter girl was wearing a fitted pink jumpsuit, layered with a baby blue bomber jacket that was patterned all over with obnoxiously adorable illustrations of pugs and rainbows. In Lin's long black hair were citrus orange streaks that glowed stupendously whenever she and her high pigtails moved ever so slightly. Cassie hated her. Partially because she felt that she, being Marcus's new girlfriend, simply had to; but mostly because she knew that anyone looking a...

393 likes 155 comments 155
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Stef's Ethics

Submitted to Contest #79

  "Stefan. How could you do this to me?"   Her eyes are fish bowls filled with dank seaweed. He raises one eyebrow and wipes his face with both hands.   "Mum. Listen to me. You haven't demonstrated an iota of regret."   "How could you!? I raised you without a dad!"   "And therefore..."   "Hugh's been trying to get you to come back for nearly 40 years. Let me at least meet my granddaughter! This is cruelty!"   Is there a tear in her eye? More shocking things have happened. Like the time he figured out how to...

109 likes 19 comments 19
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Fall of the Frontier

Submitted to Contest #79

June 1917Two boys, barely even men, were drafted into their separate armies. Two boys, barely even men, got onto the train. One going from Pittsburg to New York. The other going from Kiel to Berlin. August 1917War was here. For the Americans, for Europe. The Great War, they called it. The war to end all wars. Matthew Hunter looked around the section of the trench he was assigned to, along the Western Front, near the Belgian province of Ypres, and shook his head, feeling the vast distance between here and his small hometow...

92 likes 87 comments 87
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The End. Forever.

Submitted to Contest #79

Trigger warning: Gory scenes, suicide, and screaming.No.It can't end like this.- - -If there's anything I hate, it's laziness. Just waking up to a messy room can make me angry and dampen my mood like a thunderstorm. So therefore, when I rolled out of bed with my many precious books, I was not expecting my dear cousin to have a landfill dumped in his room at precisely 8:34 in the morning, when I came in. He used to be such a stickler for neat and tidy rooms. When we went to church he scrubbed the chairs clean before sitting down on them. He n...

91 likes 1278 comments 1278
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Steinbeck in the Forest

. .

Submitted to Contest #79

James and I are brothers. Well, not exactly, we didn’t know each other for a while, but we like to say that we are. Whenever someone asks “who is that boy you’re with?” I always answer with a smile, “my brother James”. After a long period of sticking our heads in the mud, we finally met at ages eleven and twelve. It was a cold day in the forest and I was out climbing trees. You see, I love climbing trees. I don’t know if you’ve ever found a perfect tree, but the feeling when you see a tree ripe for climbing is so potent, like you can’t ...

88 likes 307 comments 307
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Origami

Submitted to Contest #79

The dove came in the mail, perfectly intact, a note etched on the side. The swan had come two days earlier, perched atop her front porch. How did he even know her address? Sighing, Zahari pinched the creases of the perfect colored paper, running her finger along every folded edge. How long had it been since they touched the same surface, broke the same bread? Twenty years, give or take some.  She didn’t read the note. Or, at least she told herself she didn’t lock eyes with it and read everything inscribed upon the paper. He still had...

87 likes 34 comments 34
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Dear Cody

Submitted to Contest #79

I was writing a letter to Grandma when I heard it.GunshotsScreamsPolice sirensBanging on the front doorMuffled orders spoken by the police“The parents are injured and the boy is gone, the girl must’ve done it. Search the house for a girl with black hair and about yea tall, about 10 years old. GO!”I realize the police were looking for me, not for witness, but for crime.I grabbed my letter writing kit, a hoodie and a bag of Cheetos. I beckoned my golden retriever Farah to follow me to the back of my room. I yanked open the window and leaped ou...

86 likes 95 comments 95
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Together, we can do anything

Submitted to Contest #79

As I lie in bed, surrounded by darkness, I clamp his hand, I can’t see him, but I can feel his padded hands, his soft silky fur, his hard button eyes. I never feel safe without Paddy, he is my dark defender. Everynight, we lie together in my bed, with the duvet pulled up to our chins. It’s completely dark, except for the crack from the door being pushed to instead of closed, and my array of stars on the ceiling. They’ve started to peel, but that’s because I’ve had them since I was two, and I’m seven now. I used to imagine that we were up t...

81 likes 20 comments 20
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Exploits and the Unexpected

Submitted to Contest #79

Trigger warning: Sexual assaultA ray of light sneaks its way underneath the door, briefly illuminating the pitch-dark room and its occupants.They blink at each other for a second before the light goes away, and I can only see the scars and bruises that they have to keep with them forever. All of them have the same eyes, the eyes that have seen more than they should have. I suspect that I have those eyes too.The moist cloth that has been stuffed in my mouth and tied around my head reminds me of its presence again. I scream until my throat is ...

81 likes 40 comments 40
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Morri

Submitted to Contest #79

The house is quiet, like a needle, but sharper, and with all the tension of midnight in a bar with the windows shot out and one guy in the corner just watching the others fight and saying to himself, "Get 'em, son, you got 'em."The house is quiet, for once.Inside, a girl is eating ice cream from a Starbucks cup, her long legs crossed and propped up on the top of her table. The television sits a few feet away. No one's watching it. No one could watch it, even if they did feel like catching some one scene rerun. It's broken. Broken along with ...

80 likes 42 comments 42
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Paper Cuts

Submitted to Contest #79

Author’s note: Contains abuse. I’m not sure how sensitive it actually is, but here’s a heads up anyway They say it’s like death by a thousand paper cuts, abuse is. Every beating just adds another, until they’re decussating, and full of pain, oh so full of pain.  Every slap across your face. Every punch across your neck. Every lash across your back. Just one paper cut after another. It isn’t stopping. It won’t stop. And then there’s the salt water. Poured on, drop after drop, litre after litre, gallon after gallon, until it’s ...

78 likes 33 comments 33
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Letting Go

Submitted to Contest #79

The things are tossed into my bags one at a time; my clothes, the frames I used to keep by our bedside, the books I used to keep on our bookshelves. Bluebell tries to climb inside, but I pick up his furry body and place him on the bed, earning a mew of complaint. As I hang the heavy luggage over my shoulders, I take one last look at the room we used to share.My cold, slender fingers sweep the moisture out of my eyes. I don’t want to cry, not now. Not with you waiting for me at the door. The room looks bare now, only half of what it used...

74 likes 167 comments 167
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Never say never (Part 9 of Witches Versus Mutants)

Submitted to Contest #79

Shit, shit, shit. I swear trouble follows me around more than my goddamn shadow does. One year in the clear, and already I was being chased by monsters. Blindly, I ran into the darkness between two buildings, cursing myself a thousand times. Of course, I had to stand up for some stupid kid, of course, the bully had to actually be some deformed monster. It was always me who managed to finesse her way into these goddamn messes. "Oh, man!" I yelled, hitting the wall with my palms because of course, it was a dead end. "Seriously?" I heard ...

74 likes 10 comments 10
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Tea With Aunty

Submitted to Contest #79

Your tea is tolerable? Can I get you anything else? No? Good. You’ve come to ask Aunty about Baba Yaga. Sit. Sip. Have a biscuit. I will tell you what I know, but you mustn’t be upset with me when you hear it. Promise? Very well. Do not be fooled. She has chosen the façade of the homo sapiens species, but she is not one of us. Ancient, cunning and cruel, Baba Yaga is the world’s first witch. She has been the subject of much speculation and the source of countless stories over the centuries, though many of them are outrageous and egregiou...

71 likes 37 comments 37
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Betrayed

Submitted to Contest #79

Author’s Note: This story is good as a stand-alone, but if you want to know more about the backstory, go read “One Thing Leads To Another”. Also, there isn’t good grammar here because it’s all diary entries. Thanks! :D January 27 Today I went to Charity’s Coffee with Bua, my best friend. We were talking like we normally would when she brought up Sinsi, my brother. It is relevant for you to know that the rest of my family has either passed away or separated themselves from me. Sinsi is my last family member. Bua told me that Sinsi said that...

71 likes 466 comments 466
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