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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#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.

This week's prompts

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

Sad – 260 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 – 160 stories

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

Adults – 190 stories

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

Fluff – 100 stories

Stories

“Sister” by Gerald Daniels

Submitted to Contest #79

We stood in silence and gazed into one another's eyes. Then he sat down on the chair by the window and looked away to the fading, grey winter day and the silhouetted London skyline. He was my guest and I expected him to behave impeccably, which he did. Our conversation stumbled along, neither of us confident enough to talk uninhibitedly but each mindful of the other's nervousness. I had always felt uncomfortable in the presence of men, but the exchange ...

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“My Family Wrecked Me” by Angela Halubobya

Submitted to Contest #79

Deception, abuse, pain and trauma are all the shuttering words a family can be defined by. When a family turns away from what it's supposed to ideally be, where does one run to?, what does one do when the very four walls of their home become their own haunted house? A sunny morning, as beautiful as Sally has just begun and she's ready to wear the mask of deceit she has worn her whole life. she wears it proudly and strolls to law school. A very ambitious and bright young lady just taking on the world a day at a time. This was the best tim...

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“The taste of freedom” by Yashshree Kasare

Submitted to Contest #79

THE TASTE OF FREEDOM As a child, I was a very happy kid. The most joyful, cheerful, funny, goofy, and innocent kid you could imagine. I had the most amazing and beautiful days as a kid. I was known as the brightest student in school, the one who was good in academics, sports, dance, and every other co-curricular activities you could imagine. Everyone used to look upon my family, as one of the elite people in the neighborhood. It was a small family of me, my mom, my dad, and my brother. My brother was also the most talked-about student in s...

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“The House of Seth” by Josh C

Submitted to Contest #79

It was 2 years to the day that I cut contact with my mum. In my defence, it’s kind of hard to have a relationship with a mum whose friends want you to get smote from the face of the earth by a wack job cult leader with bad hair. A cult leader who literally hasn’t done anything notable in their entire lives, yet somehow has such a big following that we can only hope they don’t go into politics. And yet a letter from my mum, handwritten on beautiful cream paper with a stamp for next day delivery that now sat on my kitchen counter and read: ...

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“Stone Walls, Iron Bars” by Tanja Cilia

Submitted to Contest #79

Hey, you, out there; you think you know everything there is to know about incarcerated women. But you are grossly misinformed. Just because you watch re-runs of Locked Up, Orange is the New Black, Wentworth, or Prisoners, you can’t even begin to know what life is like behind bars in a women’s prison. Each of us has a different story. Oh yes, the dramas about favouritism, butches and Nellies, and physical and psychological violence do exist. There is torture, there are murderers, there are thriving back markets for necessities, and there...

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“An unusual love!!” by Utkarsh Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #79

“It’s our fifth Anniversary of togetherness,” Mona said with all her attention on Jack. “You had been so hard on me in those initial days, five years ago when I met you for the first time.”Jack hissed light-heartedly out of his longing heart.“Indeed!” he said and grinned his fangs eerily. “You must be dead now of what intensity I had attacked you that day. You must be thankful to Mr. Harris to save your life, mustn’t you?”“Well… I did. I licked his cheeks. I was badly frightened: my heart was badly thudding inside and looked like it would co...

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“Mommy's Home” by Sunnie Indigo-Flynn

Submitted to Contest #79

Maia tucked a short, golden brown curl behind her left ear and continued to work on her thesis paper. She paused to take a large gulp of her lukewarm coffee and typed a few more words on the computer, then groaned and erased them. She laid her head down on her desk, eventually deciding to surrender herself to her lumpy couch for the rest of the evening. She dragged herself into the small kitchen, pouring the rest of her coffee down the sink and popping a TV dinner into the microwave. Once it was done cooking, she grabbed a white plasti...

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“Trapped” by Sue Marsh

Submitted to Contest #79

Trapped Suzanne Marsh Schloss Hauk 1940 "Hans, come with me, we must talk now!" Heinrich Hauk; ushered his younger son Hans toward the library. Rows and rows of books some dating back to the fifteen hundreds when Schloss Hauk construction was begun. Heinrich, showed Hans a small lever located near the marble fireplace. He began the descent. A labyrinth of tunnels reminded Hans of the catacombs in Rome. He wondered if perhaps there were ancestors of the von Hauks down here. Heinrich took Hans into a large room, with all stone walls. There wer...

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“Brother Hal” by Johan Rosenblad

Submitted to Contest #79

Once upon a time, in a land behind the mountains, there lived a King and a Queen and their daughter, Princess Eliza. It was a fairly nice kingdom, and everybody who lived there was quite okay with things as they were and with life on the whole. Some people were more happy than others and some were more miserable. Some people had more stuff than they needed and some had less. Some people had loved ones and some were alone. Princess Eliza was quite happy most of the time. She had more stuff than anybody else because the king and the queen lov...

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“Two words” by Zoe Knight

Submitted to Contest #79

I used to imagine what I would say to my mother if we ever met again. I thought a wave of pain and nostalgia would hit me and overwhelm me, that my voice would tremble, that maybe I would scream. I imagined tears rolling down my cheeks, my throat getting sore. I almost saw her pleading expression as she apologizes to me, and I, after a long and intense conversation, finally, graciously, forgive her. It was always so emotional in my mind.But now I stare into the face of the woman who raised me and instead of deep, meaningful emotions I am hit...

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“We Were Seventeen ” by Lia Nina

Submitted to Contest #79

We were seventeen, when the world seemed dipped in liquid gold. Too old to be kids and too young to face our futures, we lived in what we had in front of us: clandestine hookups in cars, crappy alcohol in red plastic cups, muggy summer days ripe with possibility. Fear was for suckers. We were invincible. That was, until the killer started slashing us up. No one knew who he was, or if he even lived in the town. All anyone knew was that one Saturday morning, the bodies of Jake Rammer and Katy Finch were found in the lake behind the abandoned s...

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“Self-Deprivation” by Vox Inanis

Submitted to Contest #79

Self-Deprivation It was cold, damp, and dark. I couldn’t see a damn thing in any direction, until the humming of moving electricity shot through the darkness and ignited the emergency light leading down the hall. With flickering visibility, I toiled my way through. With each footstep, a splash of dust erupts from under my foot and into the air, making it stuffy and thick. In a desperate attempt to clear my lungs, I begin to hack and cough, violently rattling my rib cage and chest. My throat began to feel hoarse and raw, as if sandpaper had b...

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“"M"” by Tariq Saeed

Submitted to Contest #79

.“ Mama ,it’s a beautiful cottage in the middle of the dense forest”. Fourteen years lad Ronnie excitedly expressed."But mother surveillance is the need of this place”.He further expressed.” Yeah dear, that technicians would come next week. “Mother replied.. Cottage was presenting a lovely scenario , built by Captain James cook in eighteen century.Despite of been old structure, It was rich with all the amenities. Ronnie belonged to a sound family, had ancestral lands and other properties in south, so ...

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“Running Through The Rain” by Simply Me

Submitted to Contest #79

My mother, brother, and I weren’t always family. There was a time where we were strangers, just making our ways in our separate lives, not knowing one another, not knowing anything. Why was this, you may ask? It was because I was adopted at the age of seven. Yes, we weren’t just any family, we were a found family. My mother, before she was my mother, was a writer. Sometimes an author in her spare time made a few bucks out of the books but that was about it. She never made much, just enough to buy a house in ...

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“Lady Magdalena” by A Mehendale

Submitted to Contest #79

They come while she sleeps. They creep in as cowards, armed and armoured and arrogant. They think she’ll be easy. They think she’s alone and asleep and vulnerable, and though they walk slowly, careful and measured, they don’t let the creaking floorboards concern them. They tend to let very little ever concern them. The inner door groans lightly as it swings in. Four sets of steps come into the bedchamber, taking up four different positions around the bed. She is outnumbered. All seems as according to plan. She lies on a bed, they s...

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$50

Prize money

905

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 05, 2021 EST

Won by Reha A 🏆

Title: Puzzle Pieces

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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