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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

“The Big Rift” by Vaissnawi Vithyadaran

Submitted to Contest #79

AMETHYST Amethyst was a typical teenager. She went to school, did all her assignments, and practically lived a life as normal as a teenager's could get. She had a sister, Isabelle, and they got into the occasional fight once in a while, but it all turned out okay in the end. It was a Saturday. Amethyst whooped for joy. The long-awaited boarding school admission letter had just arrived! She was packing now. She would be leaving for boarding school in a month's time. Sounds like paradise, right?One year passed. All was fine. Amethyst...

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“Sunday Dinners” by L. S.

Submitted to Contest #79

Despite being the nicest restaurant in town, the Fishmonger was dingy by any other standard. The only edible seafood on the menu was aggressively fried to hide the taste of long-term freezing. The interior was windowless and dark, lit only by dim hanging lights shaped like starfish. For reasons incomprehensible to Stella, the owner had decided to decorate the walls with layer after layer of fishnet and shiny plastic crabs.The first time Stella stomped through the cramped doorway in her heels and perfectly tailored pencil skirt, the entire re...

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“Two Sides of the Same...” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #79

“What are you doing here?” “I could ask you the same thing, but I won’t. I know how upset you become when asked to explain yourself. I always wondered why that is. Do you have something to hide I should know about. I could help if you need it, and you would let me.” “Why do you always assume I have done something or am about to do something disagreeable? I don’t think I’m that kind of person, do you?” Our relationship has always been like that; rocky would best describe it. Different sides of the same… I hadn’t ...

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“Deceived ” by Faiza Zayan

Submitted to Contest #79

The sky roared with sodden rain, crying huge teardrops of cold water. The ground was flooded with the immense amount of icy, chilling rainwater. It covered the houses and rushed past the roads rapidly. It smothered the windows and dripped like blood onto the damp ground. Draped across some cars were thick, grey bits of hail that resembled lifeless entities smothered all over the last living beauty of the world. Storms brewed on the emotionless horizon, promising nothing but winds to level even the mightiest of trees. Torren...

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“Failed relations” by Christian Hinrichsen

Submitted to Contest #79

Failed Relations christianhinrichsen4@gmail.com Off the Coast of Zoredo The trireme of Saze Abdul lays afloat at the port city of Brazer. Saze and his crew begin to unload their exotic spices and supplies necessary for their next series of travels. A group of men and women in red ABA robes approach by a man in a dark red ABA robe. The guards are armed with large scimitars and pole-arms. “Captain Selim Abdul. I have a warrant for your arrest on smuggling and conspiring against Pasha Fakir.” directs the man in dark red robes. “Arrest by...

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“The Family You Choose” by Tulibake Msiska

Submitted to Contest #79

I broke. In that moment, the world lost all sense - or was it just me? I felt the sunlight draining out of my life. I feel the dark creeping in and staining every ornament I held sacred. Staining my heart. Staining my soul. Staining my everything. I fell to the heated vinyl floor, but it felt as cold as ice. My world froze over the instant he said the piercing words. My husband for nearly a decade. The father to my two wonderful sons. The man I had called lover for so long. How dare he tell me," Your sister and I are lovers!" I went pale...

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“The Betrayal of Sage” by Lyn Carstone

Submitted to Contest #79

For all of my careful planning, I had never expected this. Never expected the welling up of water in her eyes and the whispered apology as guardsmen poured into the courtyard, their swords all pointed at me, as if I was the greatest threat in the kingdom. They were wrong. It was the man- the so-called prince- they worked for who was the threat. And now the woman who stood across from me. My own daughter. My Sage. She stared at me. What was she thinking? Was she remembering sitting on my lap when she was a little thing, and listening to the s...

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“How do I say goodbye?” by David Black

Submitted to Contest #79

How do I say goodbye to the love of my life?It was the best seven years of my life; it was the worst year of my life. It was the best day of my life; it was the worst day of my life. How do you describe a relationship with the woman of your dreams, the woman that you waited until you were 50 to meet?When I take Kona and Jackson out at night to do their business, I must wait. I must wait until Kona pees before I get down on my knees. If I get down before she pees, then she and Jackson will come over and nuzzle and rub against me before I have...

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“Ghost Eyes and Cyberspace” by Dalia Navarez

Submitted to Contest #79

Casaya dripped of instability as we watched 1s and 0s fall from his mind into a sea of cerulean radio waves. Maybe it was due to our lack of emotional intelligence, but neither Yinna or I cried for him. The next moment, Casaya was gone, only to be a part of the universe of expired binary numbers. Casaya's lasting energy left a silhouette of his shapeless figure. Certain sections made their way to the invisible escape above us in unorganized spasms. Yinna went straight for the board of prototype names and marked down the name of Prototype A-3...

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“The Ultimate Betrayal” by Hamish Jeffcott

Submitted to Contest #79

The day is colder than usual. Is it the air or is it the grip that tightens around my heart whenever I think of you. The dripping of rain outside the window thumping on the stone path ripples through my mind. I am lost. Alone. I can hear your footsteps coming down the stairs, they seem slow and laboured as though you have had a heavy night, as usual. My hands twitch in anticipation as I consider and reconsider how I should approach the situation. Your feet hit the tiled floor of the hallway and I hear you enter the kitchen and rummage ...

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“Bittersweet” by NIYLAH NETT

Submitted to Contest #79

Narrator: The world is a cruel place. Most people do not know how to survive, more people are just winging it, and some people can't handle it. There is not one person on earth, that understands life, as life. The world has a mild taste, bittersweet, is what you could say. Sep.23 (2023) Narrator: The story you are about to read is about just one life. See, most people think life in the future will be filled with daylight, perfection, and fantasy! But if we are talking about reality, I would say the world will be a d...

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“Hope” by Galina Pokitko

Submitted to Contest #79

One evening I shut my eyes against the summer sun hoping the world would be different when I would open them. Looking up at the blue sky once more, the world was still the same. I gripped my bike handle, pressed my foot against the petal, and rolled down the ramp. My hand then reached for my phone, clicking on my radio that worked with my earbuds. ¨Shape of You¨ was playing. Too upbeat. I turn down the volume until the instrumental fades in the background of kids shrieking from the playground and skateboards scraping the concrete groun...

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“REVENGE ” by Labonya Biswas Susmi

Submitted to Contest #79

This is Error city. The city with full of vampires, enchantresses, lycanthropes and sirens. We all were doing great until one day. It was 3rd March, 1967. My father Albert Valdamir, was the first vampire in the history, created by the god of hell himself. He once ruled this city and I kept wondering for decades how the hell did it happen. There’s no way in hell anyone will keep their fucking mouth zipped up after seeing a vampire ruling over the city. Decades after decades passed away but I just couldn’t find a proper solution of this insane...

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“GONE” by Destiny Benoit

Submitted to Contest #79

" I don't want to go mom I'm sorry" I told this to my mom trying to hold back tears because I hate crying. " Where are you gonna go if you don't come with me" " I don't know mom but I'm not going to Mississippi with you the last time I been there chad's mom called someone a 'nigger-lover' me being half black mom I don't like that it hurts and what are you gonna do if she want's to kick y'all out huh where you gonna go on the streets" " Nicole I don't know but i'm the parent your the daughter you are coming you don't have anywhere else to go ...

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“Apotheosis” by George Puscuta

Submitted to Contest #79

I hate smoking! And yet, there’s nothing quite like it in the world. I always know that it’s going to make me sick, and despite this, I always crave another cigarette. Why is that? What urge drives me to do this? Do I want to make myself sick? Do I want to feel unhinged, uneased, unsafe? The moment I put a cigarette to my lips and feel that sweetly taste, or is it the smell that’s sweet? The moment when I inhale that first puff, the smoke filling my mouth with that disgusting taste of burnt paper and weeds… I pause for a nanosecond and I inh...

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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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