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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#85: City Living

There’s something deeply compelling about cities, isn’t there? Whether it’s the influencer-driven styles of LA, the laid-back sophistication of Athens, or the perfectly manicured greenery of Singapore, each one truly has its own unique soul. Those who visit are awed and at times overwhelmed, either falling in love or swearing them off forever — while lifelong residents take up a fierce loyalty that nothing can shake.

When writing, it’s often helpful to think of your setting almost like another character. Cities are an excellent way to explore this line of thinking, so for this week, pick a favorite and invite your readers in. What gives your city (whether real or imagined) its local “flavor”? And what impression do the people there give to the many tourists traipsing down their streets? Tap into your inner tour guide — it's time to travel the world!

This week's prompts

Set your story in a major city that your character has a love-hate relationship with.

Middle School – 153 stories

Write a story that takes place in the same building but in two very different time periods.

Historical Fiction – 154 stories

Start your story with the line, “That’s the thing about this city…”

Adults – 283 stories

Write about someone fighting to change their city neighborhood for the better.

Teens – 44 stories

Write about someone fighting to keep their city neighborhood the same.

Teens – 34 stories

Stories

“Ultimate move!” by Sri Susarapu

Submitted to Contest #85

"See, that's the thing about this city Leonard. Ya asked me to try. So I will," a guy next to me said. "People do what they’re told here.” He looked at me with mismatched eyes and flexed his arms.Let me backup a bit. I was in Folan, the eleven capital for research purposes on the elegance of elven architecture. All around me were dazzling buildings that seemed to glow in the eternal moonlight. The gilded arches seemed to defy gravity. The elves themselves were a sight to see as well. With their tall, lanky, frames and long white hair, e...

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“Grime” by Eric Bell

Submitted to Contest #85

“That’s the thing about this city…” he thought to himself. “There’s never any doubt whether you’re the hunted or the hunter, the taken or the taker.” Every night, Jerry walked this same street, and every night, he would see something that maintained his utter lack of faith in humanity. “It’s a good thing there’s no bridge on this route,” he would often think. He had actually changed his path home from work to specifically exclude one tall bridge already. Some days it was just too hard not to ...

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“Strawberry Mustard” by Zoya Sabnani

Submitted to Contest #85

“... That’s the thing about this city,” Jessie droned on “the young people are the future. And if you take me as your teacher, I will show the young people everything I know.” Everyone in the gym stood up and clapped although most of them had just woken up from a nap and had no idea what Jessie had said. The new student teacher speeches were highly unnecessary, everyone thought so, but the principal enjoyed the ‘excitement’. Every year there would be around three hours of speeches from annoyingly perky people who were in their...

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“MAGIC FINGERS” by Sivaram Govindaraj

Submitted to Contest #85

.The city has its good side and its bad side. Kravan belonged to the latter. The good side was the mayor Marge who was constantly trying to change the city’s neighbourhood for the better. Kravan was the head of a mafia which was running rackets like smuggling, extortion and so on. He was about 40, was short, dark, bald, and had a bloated body. The only thing people initially noticed about him was his genial smile beneath his massive moustache which masked his real self. That morning, as he was at his desk, Riki dropped in. She was probably t...

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“Succor” by Testimony Odey

Submitted to Contest #85

I was not going to have it anymore. It was enough already, enough of the nonsense that everyone now thought of as acceptable. "They say it's my fault," Shira cried. I bent down and put my hands on her knees. "No, don't say that honey. It's not your fault. It's his fault." My heart bled for her. I stood and opened more windows. The weather was burning hot. The food was on fire and I rushed into the kitchen to check the Jollof rice. I thought of how Shira must have felt having her family turn her back on her. I thought of how betra...

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“Men, to Arms! (or Women, to Spray Bottles)” by Delphine Hintz

Submitted to Contest #85

“Is that what I think it is?” “. . . No?” A sigh. “That’s not supposed to be a question.” “It wasn’t?” The woman’s heels clacked upon the stark linoleum as she approached. The rumble of tracks behind them grew louder before hissing to a stop. Her jaw clenched as she refused to breathe in the smell of mundanity and piss. Urban development developed into this. Any further west and she’d need the two-dollar neon snorkel. “Don’t play dumb.” “I’m not playing.” “Clearly.” The near empty spray bottle clattered. It settled, rolling back an...

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“Six of One...” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #85

I love this city; I just can’t live here. But then, that has little to do with appreciating a fix that takes you to a place you can believe in, or one that you can’t forget, if only on a Monday. It is not just the excitement of the city; it is more than that. The lights, the noise, the immediacy that permeates from every crack in the sidewalk; the city, the world, as though taking its final breath. The pulsating waves of fear, hate, euphoria that accompany you on a stroll through a town that is being born, ...

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“Volantina” by Jasper Goredema

Submitted to Contest #85

The stone mason 's paradise, the highest achievement a farmer's lad could hope to accomplish i.e living in the city ; The pride of a peasant's daughter to be married to a man who resides in the city. Well there are two schools of thought about that afore we reach a sequitur, to the city immigrants, city living is the next thing to a paradise but it's a pandemonium to the City natives, The automobiles are a wonder and the skyscrapers are a tourist attraction to the reservoir relocatee whereas it makes no matter to a native born all the s...

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“A chilanga love story” by Belén Houghton

Submitted to Contest #85

They call it the big city, her dad hated going there. He said it was always loud and always full of traffic. She, on the other hand, was drawn to it. That fast cosmopolitan lifestyle was fascinating to her. Growing up in a small town, Belle often found herself bored, wishing she could live in a different place, somewhere she could see more, experience more, immerse herself in different cultures and activities. She made a promise to herself, right there and then, at 12 years old, that she would move to the city when she grew up. When sh...

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“Best Friend” by Adam Wan

Submitted to Contest #85

She tossed and turned, then checked her phone. There was no one beside her, and it was four a.m. In the darkness, her phone’s screen glowed like rectangular image in her palm, displaying her home screen wallpaper. Raindrops dotted the windowpane in the picture, glittering in the prevailing sun after the rain. The scene almost seemed too cheerful, now. Because it was cold. Her body felt chilled, frozen; her mind bleak, the very opposite of the sun-glittering scene depicted on her screen. That image was only hopeful, something of an illusi...

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“The Haunted Streets of Love and Memory” by Aj Lumague

Submitted to Contest #85

She was dead. Those were the only words that had registered in Amor's ears as he sunk deeper into the depths of the silence ringing all around him. He hadn't felt how he had put down the phone or his breathy whispered reply of, “I’m fine,” to his cousin on the other end of the line. She was dead and he was a whole world away. But if he was in the mood for being honest, Amor had been worlds away from her a long time ago. A broken promise ago. “Are you going back home?” His tita, Rose, had asked in their mother tongue ...

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“WHERE SHE LOST EVERYTHING” by Leena Deshpande

Submitted to Contest #85

TW: road traffic accident, graphic descriptions of injury and death She hated it. She hated the city. Everything about it. She hated how bustling and cosmopolitan it looked on the surface. She hated how it felt homey and cosy; when underneath it was bleak. Nightmarish. The vibrant things about Las Vegas were necessary; they were necessary to hide the ugly things that actually happened. And Lucinda Black knew of those things. Her relationship with the town was complicated. She had grown up here, made friends here, gone ...

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“Adventures in Altron” by Robert Consiglio

Submitted to Contest #85

Adventures in Altron By Robert Consiglio Alert level 1: Star Shield Testing will commence in 15 minutes. Colonel Jecos Diaz checks his smart watch, then again reads the electronic billboard announcing Star Shield inside the MetroTram he is riding in. He grunts and turns to gaze out of a gri...

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“Scorching Summers” by Sage M

Submitted to Contest #85

The summer heat burned through the closed windows and doors of the small one-story home. In the summer, the house was more of an oven than a place of life, burning anyone who dared to step foot inside. The AC was on, slowly humming in the background but not powerful enough to lower the blazing heat more than 10 degrees. The fans were on, spinning slowly to stir the hot mixture. They achieved nothing more than mixing the hot air around the house, too weak to create any breeze. Theo had her feet propped up on the armrest of their cheap...

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“Why You Shouldn't Hate the World” by Dalia Navarez

Submitted to Contest #85

The smell of smoke residue from some teenagers inhaling cigarettes the other night clouded my senses as a nightly trail of drool went up my nose, the simultaneous wail of a police siren and deathly red of an ambulance hovering in the distance doing nothing to help them. I grumbled a sarcastic ‘good morning’ to myself before peeling myself out of the cold mattress called ‘my bed’ to brush my face.Hmmm… yeah...I had to rethink that thought as I grabbed the red toothbrush and wiggled the last remains of toothpaste from the shriveled mass of pla...

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Ended on 23:59 - Mar 19, 2021 EST

A winner will be announced soon.

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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