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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

“It's because I love you.” by Chazlyn Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #79

The sun has risen again and the birds chirp behind the window. The woman moves gently in the kitchen with the smell of delicious food lingering in the air and the buzzing sounds of the coffee machine and the sizzling of food being cooked in a frying pan are the music of the moment. Her hair was tied in a ponytail and the sunlight bounces off her skin. Her smiling lips moisten with a raspberry tint, and her eyes full with determination. The man arrived from their shared bedroom, the sight in front of him unable to move him.He watched her...

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“Rite of Passage” by Ann Metlay

Submitted to Contest #79

Rite of Passage The rhythm of the windshield wipers lulled her, as she drove through the heavy thunderstorm. Her brother caught a nap in the seat beside her. They had just driven into the state of New York. Only another couple of hours to get to the Cornell campus! It was close to midnight. She reviewed, in her mind, the logistics awaiting them at Cornell. She had arranged for two different dorm rooms on two different sides of the campus. Her son was graduating. He had left for two tickets for her to go to the ceremony at the box of...

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“To End Cursed Blood” by Alex Marshall

Submitted to Contest #79

I’ve loved tinned ham since the first taste. I’m holding the can we’ve saved for weeks and look at Dad. He’s sat beside the campfire, either not interested in the ham or pretending not to care, but I’m already licking my lips in preparation. There’s a twinge of guilt as I yank the ring pull and peel the lid, but we agreed this can was mine and I don’t want to share. The stomach pains have grown over the past week, and the emptiness now twists and contorts my gut. When I was a young girl, I used to flat out refuse it. Mum would try and try ...

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“Thriving Garden” by Sarah Sparks

Submitted to Contest #79

Children weren’t supposed to feel worthless, they weren’t supposed to feel like a waste of space. It took years of therapy to come to these conclusions, but they were true. She wanted to talk to her like she was still a child but JayLee was done putting up with it. Jessica wasn’t a parent. She wasn’t even a good babysitter. JayLee had gone through the troubles of raising herself, and she really didn’t see the point in keeping Jessica in her life. She didn’t like her, and they would never get along. Both of them were sick of the crap s...

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“Water Is Thicker Than Blood ” by CAROLINE MUIRURI

Submitted to Contest #79

Keziah stood by the cooker motionless. She was making some porridge for her mother. If you could see her, you could tell that her mind was far. But dutifully she stirred the pot and with every motion of the spoon in the liquid her mind teleported to a time when betrayal was a word in the dictionary, and she hadn’t looked it up. When she was 14 years old, she had a crush. Unlike most of the young girls in the village, Keziah had not yet experienced that pit in the stomach that one gets when they spot a charming boy. Yet during the Summe...

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“Rotten apple” by Siti Aadila

Submitted to Contest #79

The boxes were coated in dust, sitting lonely at the corner of the attic. I went to grab my duster and dusted the boxes furiously until that nasty coat was off, revealing a worn out brown box. Today was spring cleaning in my house, and while I told the children and the husband to clean the places that I assigned to them, I went up to the attic as it was the most difficult place to polish. And boy was I right. The boxes’ exterior looked really sad. This was because it has been years since I even went to have a peep at the contents inside. As ...

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“Unbonding” by Makena M.

Submitted to Contest #79

My balcony geraniums are glistening in the warmth of the mid-morning highland sun. They are a perfect cover from which to observe him from my third-floor apartment. He keeps clenching his fists and looking upwards, unsure of my location. I can well imagine his trepidation about the perilous mission he is undertaking, of informing me that my sister has hired him to kill me. “What if she has reported me to the police?” I can almost hear him scolding himself. “What if she doesn’t believe me?”Actually, under normal circumstances, I would no...

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“A Hollow Home” by Elizabeth Inkim

Submitted to Contest #79

There is no solace in silence, only a never-ending ache.Standing in the empty hallway, Boris looked for any sign of love, for any hint of a reason to stay, but he was met with only a stinging stillness. The mid-century style house was empty as it had always been, as it probably always would be. With bare ivory-coloured walls and slate grey floors, he often wondered why his parents never bothered to redecorate, or at the very least hang paintings. Instead, they settled for a handful of framed photographs, one from his parents’ wedding, anothe...

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“Familiar Ache” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #79

Hurt people hurt people. It’s a line that illustrated many of my pastors’ sermons. Sure. But you know what? The truth hurts more. And the truth was that my auntie’s husband had never liked us. * You can’t say things like that; my mother snapped at the open road before us, bracing the steering wheel. She’d rebuked me for saying so for almost five years. The length of time the man I was forced to call Uncle had been playing house with my mother’s most precious little sister. It’s true though; I retaliated and then immediately regretted it. Ha!...

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“Severed ” by Dede Dee

Submitted to Contest #79

I was unpleasantly awakened by the vibration from my phone, I sluggishly sat on my bed, I looked at the screen of my phone to see who was calling, it was my mum then I looked at the time, and it was 8am my room is completely dark all the time because I didn’t like the sun getting into my room, so I never really knew what was going on outside, I picked up the call “Good morning mum, is everything alright?” I said sleepily “Yes, Belle it is, I just wanted to tell you the dress code had changed to whi...

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“Parting with the Ghost” by L.J Ferguson

Submitted to Contest #79

I’ve had to give up so much for my wife, so she could continue the hope that one day the ghost would come back. Each time she swears it will be the last time, but here she is again, lighting the candles and setting up everything to keep the ghost here; if she comes at all. It began again this morning. I woke to a house not filled with the smells of breakfast, nor the sounds of any hobbies being practiced. I found her alone in the study. She had unearthed faded photographs from the attic. Paper time c...

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“143” by Chris D

Submitted to Contest #79

There's a science to getting the best amount of ketchup onto a burger in Anna's mind. You draw a smiley face, just like her mother did. If only her mother had been able to draw her own smile on her face. There was something eerie about staying in the house that her mother had offed herself in. Her room was shut, left as she had left it, immaculate, save for the note on her bedside table. A simple 143 in her chicken scratch, on the back of her receipt, as if she had waited until the last moment to tell her daughter she loved her. That had bee...

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“The Guest” by Paula Dennison

Submitted to Contest #79

I sat not knowing whether to move, breathe, cough, scratch my nose, look away, get up and leave or talk. My sister and I sat on straight back chairs that had been brought in from the kitchen table. I felt perched and laden on the chair. I clung with my hangs to the bottom of the seat. I felt too big for the chair, the room, my sister and the people I sat across from. The walls and gold colored brocade drapes seemed to be breathing in and out. Grandmother flitted about in the kitchen making sweet iced tea for the guests. I could tell she was ...

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“Mom and Daughter” by Kate Heesemann

Submitted to Contest #79

Author's note: This is based on a real life situation. Names have been changed to protect people in the story. As Jade brushed her long dark silky black hair out, her phone buzzed. She put down her hairbrush to pick it up. She stared at the text the came through, shocked and a little unsure. Hi, it’s mom. Call me when you can. I’d love to try to reconnect with you, and I thought we could hang out sometime this weekend and maybe see a movie or do some shopping together. Jade put her phone down and thought abo...

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“Train station” by Maha NC

Submitted to Contest #79

The trains clattered and rattled on rails that had weathered too many rains, seen too many winters. Jeya wrapped her shawl more securely around herself, squinting in the early morning light to make out the time on the station clock. Five to six in the morning. The sun was begrudgingly making its way up from the horizon. Soon its rays would spear the sky like a million soldiers streaking onto a battlefield, and the memory of the night would be lost to the bustle and braying of a busy day.But that moment was yet to come, and the day was still ...

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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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