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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#89: The More Things Change...

If there’s one constant in life, it’s change. You can plan all you want, but as we all know, life is often surprising. The only way to keep up is to remain flexible and open to new choices.

This is my final Friday here at Reedsy, and so in the spirit of moving forward, this week’s prompts are all about changes. I want to thank this wonderful community for all your creativity and enthusiasm — it’s been an honor getting to write these prompts for you every week and see the dazzling, beautiful, and unique stories you create from them.

But Reedsy Prompts is much larger than one person, and as the saying goes, the show must go on! Next week you’ll be meeting your new Prompts host, Laura, and I’m very excited to see what you all achieve together.

This week's prompts

Write a story that spans a month during which everything changes.

Sad – 131 stories

Start your story with a character taking a leap of faith.

Middle School – 151 stories

Write a story where one person is trying to say goodbye but keeps getting interrupted.

Middle School – 154 stories

Write about someone who is always looking toward the future.

Adventure – 77 stories

Start your story with an ending and work backward toward the beginning.

Fiction – 201 stories

Stories

“Don't Walk Away...” by Nandana Rajesh

Submitted to Contest #89

I laid there on my side, eyes fixed on the alarm clock by my bed. Cold sweat trickled across my forehead. I don’t know how long I had been awake. I found it harder to keep track of time as the minutes ticked by.Finally, deciding that my alarm wasn’t worth the time staring at, I turned over to face the other side. Customarily, I expected to be greeted by the smiling face of Axel. I had grown used to the way he would try to reassure me, convince me that I was going to be fine.However, all I saw was an empty bed and a fluffed up pillow. I panic...

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“Dance or Mathletes?” by Coco Longstaff

Submitted to Contest #89

This is a collaboration with Inara Ranger. I wrote the first part. This whole thing is the first part. I think she’s gonna post the second on her account.She is a good friend and she is so nice! Her story “All Too Innocent” is so well written! Go check her out! Rrrrrrrrringgggg! The school bell, the final one for the day, rings. My teacher is scribbling on the board yakking about some weird math equation but of course, no one really pays attention. We all leap out of our old, rusty school chairs and start leaving. I push my way through the c...

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“Don't Look Back” by Philia S

Submitted to Contest #89

Snow, the coldly white surface, the soft white blanket, which hid the jagged rocks below. Like a deadly beauty, the iron fist in a velvet glove.I shivered involuntarily, as I looked at the seemingly innocent falling snowflakes, covering the vicious terrain like a dense fog, making those jagged rocks look like a plain.I let out a sigh, another lonely Christmas. Why? oh why did it have to snow today?I knew better than to step out, one wrong step and goodbye sweet world.I looked at my empty cup, with a few sugar crystals at the bottom.Sighing, ...

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“The Itch” by H Bolton

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #89

She couldn’t focus on what her boss was saying because of how much the bug bites on her leg itched. Her dress pants had gently kissed each bite as she walked to his office, waking up those pesky red dots from their hibernation. They screamed to be itched now. Beat on her temple, ‘Scratch me! Scratch me!’ Leaning over, she rubbed one on her knee to calm the chant. Ugh, she knew she should’ve worn bug spray while camping. She gave herself a pass because it was winter and she hadn’t seen a mosquito in months, but a smart person would've ac...

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“To the Pieces of a Person ” by Evelyn Kill

Submitted to Contest #89

Some people hate goodbyes. The only thing you hated was saying them more than once. You told me that a goodbye, a real goodbye, is final. Like a last breath, it's something that can only happen once. I don’t want to mess this one up. The other day I found an empty snail shell in the garden. I picked it up between my forefinger and thumb to examine the nothingness inside, but my hands were shaking so badly that I crushed it between my fingertips. It turned to dust, and I thought of you. It felt like a sign, even though I never believ...

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“Nothing last forever” by Rose Quartz

Submitted to Contest #89

*A true story in my life- please read it would mean the world to me*JANUARY: It was a cloudy spring day in Connecticut, but it wasn’t a nice day for everyone. My sister Temi lies in the hospital with stage four cancer. She was only diagnosed today and was struggling for her life at the age of four. I wanted to help her, but I was only ten. I didn’t want this to be one of the days whereI set up a go fund me, or set up a walk-a-thon for her. I wanted her to live. I watched her breathe through a tiny tube, within her li...

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“Aliens, Axes & Emilia” by Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #89

There was something special about the town she grew up in, it might’ve been the history. It was a stopgap town, only enough people for an informal dialect, so really it had to be the history. At least that's what Noelle thought, after all she was the type to read the library archives out of boredom. Which was why she knew everything there was to know about the rinky dink little hometown she was apt to leave fully. One day she’d only need to come back for her kids, if adoption panned out. The adoption part had been in her life plan ever...

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“Free” by 𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙠𝙞 ☾

Submitted to Contest #89

I took the leap. Leap of faith. I landed safely. I realized I really was in the middle of nowhere. The only thing I saw was an old railway track and a tiny train station in the distance. I knew exactly what to do. I ran. I ran wild. I was finally free. Hours before… In those dark days after the ambush, after our children were abducted, the grief was enough to sink the strong. Our hearts were enough to rise, and we became the parents our souls demanded we be. Those who sell drugs also deal in body parts for live donation. The only way to ...

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“Goodbye...” by Kaleigh Montague

Submitted to Contest #89

Authors Note: So long story short, I ended this story a lot sooner than it probably should have only because I'm exhausted and I can't write. I just can't think of better ways to write this story out. If you decide you like this story and I get enough requests I will continue this story and add in more information. But only if I get enough requests from you guys. I'm exhausted from work and I had a little over an hour to finish it so my brain just shut down on me. I also had really high hopes for this story. But anyways, enjoy! The sound o...

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“Goodbye Mother. ” by Shannon Ruane

Submitted to Contest #89

Goodbye Mother. Sitting in the middle of her two best friends, Jane and Mia, Andrea was preparing for additional suffering. Andrea would be speaking before her entire community. As each friend grabbed one of her hands, the silence of the Bright City Church was deadly; her mother was too. Although academically gifted, Andrea's public speaking abilities were dreadful. However, today was unlike school. Choosing the wrong way explain a topic would simply result in poor grades at school. How Andrea presented her mother's life with her eul...

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“Ritual Burn” by Katie Gibson

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #89

There are some places that just don’t look right when viewed in the light of morning. The main stretch of Angelwood had a washed out white light and sat at a tilt; all the storefronts seemed to lean drunkenly in at you when you looked straight down it. Morning made a deserted fairground out of the streets. It was almost embarrassing. I was doing what anyone with a a brain would do in Angelwood at ten in the morning. Anyone who wasn’t wisely still asleep under cover of absolute darkness. I was sitting in a bar, leaning against the corne...

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“The Fragments of Freedom” by James Holgate

Submitted to Contest #89

Fate. A word that truly depicts the odyssey of life. Life remains a journey of integrity that each breathing person strives through, day after monotonous day. Yet moments of joy can be found even in the darkest of places, as long as one remembers to turn on the light. Unfortunately that was not always as easy as counting to 10. After stepping forth into the blinding daylight, one would expect the sign of a smile, though not for Franco, for his day was declining into the realm of pure madness. Running wild, running free, such ideologies wer...

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“The lies we tell ” by Celine Aoun

Submitted to Contest #89

I look at the clock. It’s 4 P.M. Only one more hour and another working day will be done. I text my son Jake to remind him to clean his bedroom and do the laundry because I’m too tired to follow you around, picking up after you like some maid. I reply to a text from my husband Alan telling him that no, I’m not coming home late today and that there’s food in the fridge. Then, I grab a pencil and doodle on a piece of paper. My hand traces a cat with two pointy ears and three whiskers coming out from each side of its face. I hold the paper up, ...

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“Always in Deep Thoughts” by Tina Laing

Submitted to Contest #89

He gave her a hug and told her he was fine and continued walking into the woods. She let him passed and continued her jog through the park. She thought as she ran about what her next chapter will be. She already has most of her goals done. She graduated high school and got a job. So what is the next chapter going to be for her and will their be a door that will opened for her? Or maybe a old door will close for her? Than she would know, as she thought . As she was listening to her breathing as she jog, timing her ...

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“Come Again” by Nina Chyll

Submitted to Contest #89

CW: suicidal thoughtsMy mother dropped a thermometer once when I was little. I leaned over the mosaic of broken glass and mercury beads, and a hypnotised hand extended to pick up one of the perfect balls. The sight ripped a screech out of my mother, so shrill it sounded prehistoric, making the hand retreat immediately. She took me in her relieved arms. ‘You’re like a magpie, aren’t you? Can’t say no to shiny things.’It’s twenty-five degrees outside. I know because I’m looking at a thermometer similar to the one she broke that time, hanging o...

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$50

Prize money

718

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 16, 2021 EST

Won by Shea West 🏆

Title: Strong Exhale

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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