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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#83: Tropical Getaway

Sometimes we all need a break from our current circumstances. When the world feels gray and lifeless, thoughts of warm beaches and sunny skies can sound more appealing than ever.

Travel has been hard to come by for a while now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make an escape through our imaginations. So this week, let’s slather on the sunscreen, steal what daylight we can, and take our characters to the crystal beaches most of us can only imagine.

🥇 Winner

“Burn Damage” by Madalyn Meyers

🏆 Winner of Contest #83

Beth sauntered toward the sound of crashing water, the twinkling dance of a shoal marker providing promise that she was getting close. She felt the unfamiliar tickle of sand beneath her feet as the chilled grains molded together under the weight of each determined step. As if suddenly passing through a barrier, what had once looked like an endless ether of uninhabited space now abruptly registered as the reflective surface of the ocean, lazily mimicking the night sky as if it were swaying to a gentle serenade. She was sure that she had arriv...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“The Lorelei” by H L McQuaid

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #83

“From her steep castle of sorrow and slateLorelei reigns over men and their fateThe river below, its faithless embraceRests her grave, and unquiet birthplace.”“What’s that from?” asks the skinny girl. “It’s a legend, the legend of Lorelei,” says Captain Plauz, keeping his keen eyes peeled on the perilous currents of the River Rhein as he pilots the paddleboat. “Just ahead is the watery grave of many sailors, littered with the flotsam and jetsom of ships that crashed against the jagged rocks.”“Why’d they crash?”“Well, that’s a longer sto...

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“Siren Songs and Lullabies” by Courtney C

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #83

Fish hook earrings glimmer, catching the meagre light. Maera’s long hair hangs heavy, reaching her navel. Slick as an eel, she glides and weaves in the water to evade her pursuer. She moves more out of instinct than forethought, just quick enough to stay ahead. Excitement sings in her veins, the high of the chase taking control of her actions. Pinwheeling in the water, she turns and holds out her arms to catch her sister. They sink to the bottom, sending silt upwards as they roll and tumble playfully. With difficulty, she pins Echo to t...

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“Sea Foam” by Rachel Loughran

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #83

There was hardly a breath of wind on the beach, and the trees stood still and silent, knowing, as trees do, that something was coming. They’d guarded this shore long enough to know, and the older trees, the ones with centuries of sentry duty, hushed the young ones, the saplings, who wanted to whip their young limbs around, and dance under the stars. The ocean hushed them all in its own, inimitable way - the relentless melancholy of it was reassuring, heaving sigh after sigh as it fell upon the shore and dragged itself back to the depths agai...

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“One Man's Trash” by Pamela Griner

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #83

There was no way for it to know for sure how long it had been in the sea, following the current, subject to the whims of wind and weather. It certainly felt seasick, but that would have been true after an hour or two. Still, there was enough variation in temperature and the movement of the sun and moon for it to understand that it had been months, at the very least. Months since it was violently flung into the sea, from the end of Enrique’s arm, which had been twisted behind his fully-torqued body, and accompanied by a feral scream to give i...

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“A Fish Story” by Adam Schwartz

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #83

In my experience, talking fish can be real assholes. My daughter, Maggie, and I had been in St. Thomas for three days. I’d finally had enough sitting around the hotel pool, sipping ridiculously-colored drinks with tiny paper umbrellas. I figured there must be a decent fishing hole around here someplace. My daughter barely looked up from the paperback she was reading poolside in one of the chaise lounge chairs. “Really, Dad? Creature of habit much?” I shrugged, squinting against the sun’s glare off the turquoise water. I felt like a ...

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“Made of the Sea and the Stars” by Vie Tan

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #83

Live. You gasp — air fills your lungs like glass, bringing you painful life and you cannot get enough of it. Once, twice, your lungs are filled most excruciatingly, but this pain is not allowed time to mellow into nothingness — darkness closes in again just as rapidly. Live. Again, you are thrusted up beyond the surface; the darkness remains, for you do not open your eyes. Air — how do you know what air is — fills your body, and you are forced to breathe in and out — how do you know how to breathe — and this is a luxury. You slip ben...

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This week's prompts

Write about someone who goes to extreme lengths to get themselves to a tropical island.

Adventure – 91 stories

Start your story with someone emerging from the sea, and end it with them looking up at the stars.

Fantasy – 277 stories

Write about someone who’s lived on a tropical island their whole life and is leaving it for the very first time.

Dystopian – 83 stories

Write about someone who books a bargain vacation, only to be told when they arrive that they need to share a hotel suite with a stranger.

Dramatic – 148 stories

Write a fantasy story about water gods or spirits.

Fantasy – 227 stories

Stories

“Burn Damage” by Madalyn Meyers

🏆 Winner of Contest #83

Beth sauntered toward the sound of crashing water, the twinkling dance of a shoal marker providing promise that she was getting close. She felt the unfamiliar tickle of sand beneath her feet as the chilled grains molded together under the weight of each determined step. As if suddenly passing through a barrier, what had once looked like an endless ether of uninhabited space now abruptly registered as the reflective surface of the ocean, lazily mimicking the night sky as if it were swaying to a gentle serenade. She was sure that she had arriv...

128 comments 128

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“Ghost Ship” by Robert Grandstaff

Submitted to Contest #83

Deep blue waves launched our sailboat higher as the storm darkened the skies in the southeast. My brother David and I woke this morning to heavy seas and high winds. We’d never seen so much lightning in our lives. We checked the radar and saw the hurricane had shifted overnight, looking for warmer water. With the storm headed right at us, we turned further west to go around the outside. The Caribbean was no longer a safe option, so we hoped for Bermuda or the outlying islands. All morning we struggled against the wind and waves, and our prog...

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“Black and White” by Writer Maniac

Submitted to Contest #83

He Black was all he could see under the water. Black was all he wanted to see for the rest of his life. Black like the feathers of a raven, black like the nail polish that she had thrown out of her window, black like the depths of his heart, the parts devoid of feeling.As he brought his arms down and pushed himself up, he wondered what would happen if he stopped pushing. His lips pulled at the thought of lying on the ground of the sea and becoming one with the black. Becoming black itself.His head broke the surface of the water, as he took i...

145 comments 145

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“Creation” by Zilla Babbitt

Submitted to Contest #83

The sea tells me I am its mother. It hides and holds me tight and I remain buried beneath the salty, night-colored waves. I have lain this way since the universe and I were born and the great celestial clock first began to tick far beyond the reaches of eternity. The seas rush up against me, warming me, cooling me, covering me. I have never seen the sky. But then, I have only just awoken.The water moves across the lines against my face. 🌍I am still young when the seas peel back. It startles me; I have grown larger than I thoug...

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“Cut-Off Eyes” by Zilla Babbitt

Submitted to Contest #83

It was six o’clock in the morning and my portrait had woken up. Usually I don’t let myself be taken in by the shriveled portrait-drawers on the streets of Abuja, but the drawer looked about my age, and so handsome, and I couldn’t help it. It was only two nairas, anyway. So I sat for him, while Mama bought rice and raw murre bird in street markets of Abuja, Nigeria, and let him sketch me.He was terrible at it. I brought the paper home, propped it up against the big calabash bowl beside the door, and vowed to burn it in the morning. ...

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“What’s Beyond Life?” by Euphorias Pink!🌸

Submitted to Contest #83

My life will begin soon.The cold water rushed against my bare legs as I sat alone on the beach. The sky was turning a dark blue and the clouds were starting to make way for the moon. By this time, everyone was starting to pack up their things and head back towards their hut. When it was time for us to leave, I had told my Mother that I wanted to stay for a couple more minutes. A couple more minutes turned into hours and now, here I was: planning my escape from the island I once called home. I began to think about leaving the island when...

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“The Gods in the Stars” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Submitted to Contest #83

Seems like drowning oneself is harder than it looks. Embarrassing, really, as worried Bahamians attempt to haul me out of the Caribbean Sea into their rusty tugboat in response to the cruise ship’s clarion call.I feel my earlobes and note one of my diamond earrings is missing, lost to the depths. A treasure for a lucky scuba diver to find one day. The earrings had been an anniversary gift. And not worth much now, I mutter out loud. My rescuers look at me, but we cannot understand each other very well. Their Creole dialect is t...

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“Demetria’s Tale” by . .

Submitted to Contest #83

The morning breeze touches my face with the caressing stroke of a mother. My golden hair floats, lifted by the gale falling from the mountain Annaliese high above our camp. Above the highest peak, the wind sweeps down the rock faces until the mist shrouds it entirely. The great Annaliese shines above us all...The mountain seems to shift with the wind, swaying this way and that as if it were not solid and unmoving. I always smell the sun on her stony depths, feel the pull down to the center of the Earth. Her sister, the river Galatea, dances ...

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“A Curse of Water and Magic” by Nainika Gupta

Submitted to Contest #83

I didn’t know the crown was cursed. Apparently, no one else did either. But now I am cursed, and all because of my curiosity. It sure did kill the cat, because now I am doomed. Unless I can make it to the top of our sacred mountain, Mirthazaer, and appease our water gods. I mean, honestly, make it a little easier, would you? But no, the gods of the water are picky about who wears the crown. Something that I, Carlytte Gryff, the heir to the throne, Crown Princess of Zyndrahr, fancy title after fancy title, yadda yadda yadda, should have ...

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“sea witch” by Ru .

Submitted to Contest #83

My first love was an ocean blue sky It’s been too long since I’ve drowned a man. Now my heart is paying the price. This one has an idiotic grin and I know the moon is struggling to wash him in silvery light. His heart quivers against my fingers, like a baby sparrow in my cupped palm. Delicate, vulnerable, and so painfully alive. Wild as the sea and sweet as a lie My song travels through the darkness, in waves of both sound and water. Unseen bandages of fatal melody combing through the undersea shadows. Even as it twines around h...

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“A Whale of A Time” by Nainika Gupta

Submitted to Contest #83

The sea is more than we see, for she gives us most of the oxygen in our lungs. She wraps her brine around every limb as a mother, only ever asking for our respect and loving care. The wind was the orchestral conductor of the sea, sending waves into their crescendos' all through the ballad that was the night. All about me was the perfume of the salty water and the fine spray that came as boldly as any viola flurry. It was as if life herself had entered the water and the energy was so great that this great pulse came upward to form a steady rh...

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“An Hours Time ” by Chloe Hanna

Submitted to Contest #83

The waves I had bolstered as best I could; whilst the havoc of the tide continued to reap, impaling me, over and over. I stayed writhing, enclosed by the brine. knocking against that intemperate current, fully determined in finding the vessel. Hark! She floats, bobbing gracefully, mast windborne, as if winged. I frantically swam towards that band of logs. At last, I emerged from the sea.As I became situated I noticed the deck had been scrubbed a flaxen blond. The chilled breeze seemed to saunter, sending the ravagings of winter rearwards dow...

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“Till Death Do Us Part” by Stevie B

Submitted to Contest #83

Dr. Robert Berringer had been a hypnotherapist for over eighteen years. Today’s appointments seemed like any other day’s schedule: some new clients and some returns. One had been reserved by a newbie, a Mr. Bratton Severen. Robert’s pretty, young blond receptionist, Katrine, relayed the purpose of the visit was memory recovery. Other than that she had no idea why the client had booked time. Katrine had snagged her job not for her office skills, but her good looks, hot as a pistol, flirting unabashedly during the interview, and incessantly du...

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“Just Keep Swimming” by Scout Tahoe

Submitted to Contest #83

Swim practice ends behind schedule nowadays, to the point of where the stars are young and frantically zigzag through the air. We also note the tiny dots could be satellites, orbiting at a snail’s pace. We never know. And to be honest, it doesn’t matter to me whether the kids leaning out their windows wish on a hot ball of galactic plasma or a hunk of metal and antenna. In fact, I couldn’t care less. My swim kids aren’t stupid like that and they wear nothing but Speedos and one-pieces. They all look the same in the end, shivering and hu...

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“Secrets and Sand (GoA part 3)” by Maya -

Submitted to Contest #83

Author's Note: This is part three of my Reedsy-cast series, The Guilds of Atmos. There are a few new characters and Guilds introduced in this part, more detail in the comment below. If I haven't gotten to your character in this part, I promise I will in the next. Thanks so much to the person helping me plan this series that prefers not to be named. And it applies to the prompts because there are spirits. Thanks for reading!~☾~The Court of Elders sits around a large oval-shaped wooden table, the scars and knots on the wood under their fingert...

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$50

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Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 05, 2021 EST

Won by Madalyn Meyers 🏆

Title: Burn Damage

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.

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