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#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 – 276 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

'Adieu'

Submitted to Contest #83

The crashing sound of waves against the rocks broke Andy's sleep. From the time his wife Molly expired twenty years ago, this was  routine, he didn't need any alarm to wake up.  Standing by the window he saw the crystal clear water and the pristine white beach bordered by coconut trees swaying gently. It was, indeed, "paradise". He would miss all this. His daughter Carla, would be here soon to take him away to England. He was eighty-six, and things were getting difficult for him to manag...

68 likes 57 comments 57
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Missing ingredient

Submitted to Contest #83

"What are you doing?" Water asked, splashing onto the land where Prometheus was. She was bored of watching gods and titans carve up the world, and hoped that the gentlest titan she knew would have something for her.The titan spared her barely a glance, utterly engrossed in his work. His dark eyes had that look again, the one that meant he had retreated thoroughly into that bewitchingly busy head of us. Water drooped a little, settling herself down on her elbows to watch. His long, bronzed fingers were carefully putting dirt together. And app...

68 likes 32 comments 32
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The Lorelei

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...

66 likes 59 comments 59
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Butter Chicken and Heaven

Submitted to Contest #83

“Come on people, line up in single file! Lady, I said SINGLE FILE!”I sighed and brushed past the flight attendant, her voice screaming through the megaphone.“Single File! All aboard the Kanarli Airlines, heading to the Islands Of Paradise!”I scoffed, thinking Why would I go to the Islands when Heaven is already paradise?I was a ghost.Supposedly.If all of y’all are thinking about YOUR vision of Heaven. . . just stop.I’ll tell you what it’s really like.Not everything was made of clouds, though a lot were. The clouds were a variety of pastel co...

65 likes 325 comments 325
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blood, sweat, and tears

Submitted to Contest #83

Your fingers are bleeding.The bright red liquid drips from your scars like teeny tiny waterfalls, dripping all the way down to your palms. It’s warm and sticky and familiar. And it hurts.You loosen your grip on the rope, but it does nothing to ease the pain. Gasping, you wipe each hand on your clothes in turn. One.Right hand.Two.Left hand.You’re wearing white clothing.It’ll stain. You can hear your mother scolding you in your head. You can see your father shaking his head. You can feel the stares of everyone. Everyone. The sky is d...

60 likes 31 comments 31
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chicken broth

Submitted to Contest #83

“We have to stop them before they-” “Yes! I know we do. Would you stop pushing me? I know where we’re going.”  “I can’t let you quit moving now, Lia.”  She turned around and faced her partner, his face set in the moonlight and shining like the last Christmas ham at Kroger. There were smears of dirt and cheese ball dust, orange as the flickering fire in the torches they carried, caked under his eyes and in his nails. Lia knew she couldn’t stop moving, but it was hard not to stop when she hated the idea of her destination. She had...

56 likes 18 comments 18
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There Goes A Whole Year... Like Sand

Submitted to Contest #83

She rowed across the sea, pain wracking her arms. Land was only a few meters away, but it felt like miles. She wanted to stop, to capitulate, but how could she give up, after all she had fought for?“May!” a voice called, “Quit that reading! You have an exam tomorrow, and you don’t want to do poorly on it!”I sighed, wanting to act like I hadn’t heard, but I knew that would call for trouble.“Alright mom,” a soft sigh escaped my lips. I slipped a bookmark into the novel and clasped it shut. That was just my luck; right when the story had climax...

56 likes 92 comments 92
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Siren Songs and Lullabies

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...

55 likes 24 comments 24
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Henry, The Genie and A Bridge

Submitted to Contest #83

Henry’s mother was the kindest, gentlest, and most beautiful person he’d never met. Sure, there were pictures of Henry and his mom the day he had been born and on his first day of kindergarten and some from his first few birthdays, but Henry had no memory of her outside the photos and keepsakes. But the stories. Oh, the wonderful stories. For as long as Henry could remember his dad would spend at least an evening or two a week telling Henry about his mother and just how amazing she was.  Henry’s dad William had met Aolani, Hen...

55 likes 37 comments 37
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The Curse

Submitted to Contest #83

The soft cotton bedcover brushed against Rachel’s legs and her shoes clacked against the wooden bed as she slid as far back as possible to fit her reflection in the dressing table mirror situated in the corner of the cramped room. Although her figure was nowhere perfect or how it used to be in her twenties, Rachel could still fit into some of her mother’s flower print summer dresses and by applying the MAC concealer she pinched from her neighbour — the big-bosomed, bird-brained bimbo’s house — she looked much younger than her forty-one years...

54 likes 27 comments 27
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Tell the Stars

Submitted to Contest #83

***Attention! Please read my comment on this story, thank you!*** When she first emerged from the sea, she had no clue what was happening to her.  Her arms were clammy, her hands shaking, her fingers pruney. Water clogged her ears deep into her drums, but somehow, she could hear a faint voice from the land.  Tell the stars that we were here Tell them that we left Tell them that we love them still Even if they’re bereft The voice was quiet, though she couldn’t tell whether this was from her clogged ears or just the nature of...

54 likes 82 comments 82
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In Reverence

Submitted to Contest #83

They all felt it when it happened. It rocked, then tilted back, like a lurching boat righting itself against a rogue wave. The world sailed onward, yet the water still rippled. They tried not to speak of that irreversible moment, and in muttered conversations, they loudly refused to ignore it. The Veil had cracked, a pointless sliver quickly swallowed up again by the Space between Here and There.  A spirit had given up their spirithood.  No one had bothered to look for what he might have left behind. The damage was already done, hi...

54 likes 20 comments 20
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Lyra

Submitted to Contest #83

As the riptide beat my body through the current, twisting and distorting my shape, my stomach clenched in a fear so primal I would have screamed if my lungs weren’t already full of saltwater. I was losing my battle with consciousness as wave after wave of water assaulted my face, unrelenting in its singular pursuit to keep me under. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see. Couldn’t logic my way out of this imminent disaster. I could feel the beginnings of my brain surrendering. Telling my body, my mind, my soul that it w...

53 likes 20 comments 20
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Their Grey Eyes

Submitted to Contest #83

They each stare at me with their grey eyes, waiting, wanting. There is hunger in their eyes, hunger concealed by thin lips and bony fingers. Concealed only to those who do not look, however. I am not fooled.My knees give way beneath me and my neck is lowered as they force me to bow down. I spit at the ground. Control is returned to my neck but I’m forced to stay kneeling, pathetically.They float, menacingly encircling me.There are three of them.The first is the shortest, the youngest. She floats higher than the rest. Her eyes, grey, of cours...

53 likes 13 comments 13
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TSD 6: A Vow

Submitted to Contest #83

Translucent ribbons of golden energy swirled around Luke’s hands as he followed one of his father’s personal guards through the identical hallways of the Shadow Sworn’s Main Compound. Emotions swirled within him as he walked but he willed himself to be calm. It was not easy for him, he had inherited his mother’s fiery enthusiasm while Lillian had been the one to inherit the cold mask of their father. When he and his guide paused outside a door on the primary cell block of the Shadow complex, all intentions of remaining calm flew out the...

49 likes 148 comments 148
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Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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