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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.

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

“Escaping Havelock” by Tanvi Jeph

Submitted to Contest #83

Escaping Havelock Maitie was as beautiful as the Havelock Island of India, her face was as calm as the cool sea-breeze and her eyes were shiny like the scorching sun, her skin was like the tanned sand of Havelock and her hair swayed swiftly like the lofty palm trees which she used to tie up with the joined petiole of the leaves, She was very young about sixteen years old. Maitie and her clan used to inhabit the south-west region of the archipelagoes which was away from tourists as they thought that they were very threatening to their livel...

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“Water Creatures and Flints” by Sam Ackman

Submitted to Contest #83

The sun shone down, leaving a dazzling light show across the waves as they rolled her closer to the only bit of land visible in the wide expanse. Ness’s limbs seared as the ascend to the sandy shore returned her weight to her feet, wet cloak tugging her down. Turning back she saw the billowing black clouds rising up into the sky - a ship no more. A gurgle of a giggle escaped her as she soaked in her freedom, no longer a captive used for another's will. She crawled onto the shore, her limbs shaking, and lay down ...

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“Naming the Stars” by Natalie Park

Submitted to Contest #83

Matthew could not see, could not hear, could not breathe. The sea was the entire pitch-black world, eternal in every direction. It cared little for the petty strugglings of mortal lives. It strangled him with a vengeance.He clawed at the crushing weight of the water helplessly—just a little further! When he gasped for want of air, liquid poured down his throat like lava, burning his lungs with its bitterness. He battled to push himself in the direction that he hoped was upwards, but his mind was too choked with seawater to tell. A surge thre...

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“Eye of the Raging Storm” by Megan DeRouin

Submitted to Contest #83

Eye of the Raging Storm The melody she sang was so hauntingly beautiful that it entranced the waves. They crashed against the shore desperate for her. They longed to reach her and drag her into their embrace, but they knew she was a creature of the sky and that to do so would doom her. The waves wept with sorrow as she sang, the rain splashed against the tin roof of her dwelling and the wind pulled restlessly at her shutters. Still she sang, oblivious to the torment she caused....

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“Where was Aphrodite?” by Valerye Tellez

Submitted to Contest #83

Above the raging sea, gods fight for power. Kronos strikes at his father, Ouranos, the sky which cradled the angry earth. From the earth, the seat of her power, Gaia, watches. She was the first to be a mother, and the first to kill for her children. She will not be the last. The battle rages, but Ouranos is doomed to defeat, for Kronus is the god of time and that is the only thing that can truly kill a god. But that is of no interest to the sea, which has no gods to command it, and so only does what it desires. The sea holds life older t...

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“The Decision” by Marcia H.

Submitted to Contest #83

The legend of Goddess Lafatina was told to Eurdell by her great grandmother, Lucy, when she was eight years old and now at the age of 40 she was actually going to the ocean where Lafatina was actually “living” for millions of years. Goddess Lafatina was born millions of years ago in a tiny town called Sabrina. No one knew exactly where the town of Sabrina was. No one could find it on any maps in ancient times but that was the story. Lafatina was “gifted” she could see into the future. She would walk around the tiny town and feel and sense ...

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“Astray” by Stephanie Xu

Submitted to Contest #83

All I could remember was how warm the air was. That first touch of my fingertips against the surface of the water and I felt shaken by the warmth that embraced all my body. I remember inching my fingers slowly as I was hugged by the air. As I moved up from the depths of the cold ocean home, the heat twisted itself around my body like vines, and water droplets ornamented its leaves until there was no more. I was not used to this new feeling. My first time ever being out of the water, and all I could feel was this overwhelming heat that...

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“Date at the Gejzol” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #83

The purple waves of the Rocbish sea crashed on ash white shores. Unclothed or swim harness clad furry aliens sunbathed, frolicked in the spray. I paddled after my alien girlfriend until my feet touched sand. An eel thick as a rainbow python brushed up against my leg. Lucky it was friendly. I waded toward dry land. Clouds obscured planet Pathilon's giant moon, and flocks of dark winged shaped flew past, sounding like a flock of yipping dogs. The creatures, up close, looked like bats with an enormous eye for a head...

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“Survivor ” by Mikala Mitchell

Submitted to Contest #83

I lie there, motionless. Suddenly a strange sensation begins to overcome me. I feel as though I am surrounded by something, but by nothing all at once. My body seems to be floating while something gently tugs at my ankle. I open my eyes to find I’m submerged underwater. I am on the floor of the ocean, my body naturally pulling to the surface but that tug on my ankle keeps it from succeeding: a rope knotted to a cinder block holds me there. Panic sets in. How did I get here? How could this be possible? Who would do this to me? A stream of que...

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“Stars” by Ava Lynn

Submitted to Contest #83

Water drips down the side of my cream-colored dress. The brown bomber jacket I had once worn was floating away in the vast waters of the Puget Sound. I shiver deeply. The cool autumn air of little old Magnolia, Washington. I emerge from brisk waters. I dig my fingernails into the palm of my hand, causing red marks to form. I grab my shoes off the graffitied rock they were resting on. Up the graveled path I walked up, sighing with each step. Soon, the gloomy neighborhood that hugged the path to the secret beach had turned into a winding stair...

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“Ora's Wish” by Robert Vucsko

Submitted to Contest #83

Ora’s Wish The Zemi began to take shape because of a prayer. This one had not taken any form or consciousness for more than two-millennia. The song which summoned it now was strong, and irresistible. The spirit took a direct path, up from 8000 meters of pressure and depth and cold, moving through the ocean like smoke blown on the wind. As the music got louder, the Zemi took a vague shape and scattered a school of mackerel. It began to see rich sea-life and sense the temperature of the water warming around it. The swell of...

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“When Stars Are Born” by Miss Tine

Submitted to Contest #83

"Did you know that the more people make wishes, the more stars there are in the galaxy? And when your wish is one of the stars that fell to earth, they said that your wish would come true. It might be absurd, but as a kid, I believed every word of that lie." ~ The moon glowed as the twinkling lights showered across the night sky. There, on the shore sat a lone man, thinking about that same lie. It was a make-believe fact that he gulped down his very being, making his stomach flip. He tried it every time but it never proves itself. Absu...

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“Reborn” by Milo W

Submitted to Contest #83

Authors Note: This is about the Greek Goddess Aphrodite, so I'm sorry if it's like bad or anything.It felt like I was drowning, but still breathing. I could still breathe. I could feel the air circulation through my lungs, but as I breathed out, no air bubbles emerged. As I crashed through the surface of the water, a gust of cool air brushed against my bare skin. I could see the breath leaving my mouth, as the crest of the waves carried me towards the shore. I looked towards where I was headed, and I saw three figures. One was a pl...

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“Hawaiian Tease ” by Kai S

Submitted to Contest #83

I lean back in my seat and close my eyes hoping I'll be able to fall asleep with the noise of the plane engines blasting in my ears. I shouldn't have been on this flight in the first place. My neighbor, a 24 year old guy with a large beer belly from excessive partying all through college and a scraggly beard that grows out in all directions due to stress had bought the ticket for himself. He had spent the past three weeks bragging to anyone who would listen about the fact that he was going to visit Hawaii with his brother who had been ...

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“Blood brothers” by Sando .

Submitted to Contest #83

If you follow Omura’s whale to the place where palmheads dance on the sea’s bravest mountain, that is where you will find it.I never wanted to leave my island, for it was a paradise.Her name is Nagui, which means ‘the fearless one’, and my brother Nop and I had grown up happy in the arms of her lagoon.Nop and I often walked together to the far side of the island where he would spearfish and I would search for the nests of sea turtles beneath the dunes. It was on one of these walks that he asked me how our island got her name, for althou...

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$50

Prize money

826

Contest entries

0

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.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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