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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#98: Origin Stories

Every year, on the fifth day of the lunisolar calendar’s fifth month (which happens to be this Monday!), the Dragon Boat Festival commences with gusto all across China. Within three days of celebration, people attend dragon boat races (as expected), eat sticky rice dumplings (zongzi), and hang aromatic plants around the house to ward off evil spirits.

The origins of the festival are obscure: some say it commemorates the death of a poetic and patriotic official who was exiled from the ancient Chu state. Others say it celebrates a filial daughter who lost her life searching for her father, who fell in the river during the organization of a boat race. While father and daughter were reunited in death, their misfortune connects to yet another alternative origin story for the festival: the fifth day of the fifth month was considered the unluckiest day of the year, and the festivities are carried out to keep this bad energy at bay.

Taking inspiration from these fascinating stories, and from their multiplicity, I present to you the prompts for this week! Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the festival itself: since the tales behind this occasion are so diverse, there’s something for everyone.

This week's prompts

Write about a family with a long-standing tradition, whose members all have conflicting origin stories for it.

Thanksgiving – 58 stories

Start your story with a character having a premonition, but no one believes them.

Dark – 147 stories

Write about someone who’s desperately trying to change their luck.

Teens – 101 stories

Set your story on (or in) a winding river.

Middle School – 122 stories

Write a story involving a character who cannot return home.

Angst – 320 stories

Stories

“Killing and Creating” by Dean Atlas

Submitted to Contest #98

Reporters gathered around the steps of the courthouse like vultures attracted to a corpse ready to pick every bit of rotted flesh off the bones. This was almost literally the case of Carter Sweed. Carter’s empire was built on three thousand lives in the last three years. Carter was a tall, thinner man. In the past thirteen years, no one ever saw him without a suit and tie. His hair was slicked straight back perfectly symmetrical, outlining a facial structure t...

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“Losing home but gaining friends” by Sarah Miller

Submitted to Contest #98

Moving towards the bug scuttling past Bean-M0A watching movements of the insect’s legs closely, analysing what he has to follow to appear as the bug to the “humans” he’s hiding from on this planet. He attempts to use his dead illusion disc to appear like the bug and jumps as it sparks bright yellow fire, expelling the disc from his body to the floor with a ping dulled by the dust covering it. His eye move to the black and broken illusion disc, then to the bug that stares at him before scatterin...

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“The Gift of the Elements” by Maira Finn

Submitted to Contest #98

I've lost track of how much time I've been out here. A month? Six months? Three years?All I know is that I've been out here, fending for myself in the forest for a long time. I used to live in a village, among other people, but I can't go back to that village.I can't return home because I used magic.Every day used to be the same. I'd wake up, have breakfast, go to work, go home, make dinner, and go to bed after a few hours. Sometimes I'd stop by the bar for the town's gossip and a drink.But that all changed that faithful spring evening. The ...

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“Lost Love !!!” by ALi Khan

Submitted to Contest #98

Ok Kids !!! Its getting late, ride on to the bus and yes Zulqarnain so finally u got the parents permission, thats more like it the teacher said Its a Bus which has made more school trips then the number of entire seats in it. The Boys sat on the right portion double seats and the Girls sat on the left portion double seats, between the portions of seats there are 3 poles at a distance from each other indicating the Bus is too old yet It had the audacity to climb on hilly roads . Saima I want the mirror side please, Marina...

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“Like Him” by ℤ ℍ☮️

Submitted to Contest #98

He would put me to bed every night. He would read, so legato that his words sounded like a melody thrumming against my ears. He would make breakfast in the morning, sizzling fried egg on a wheat toast cut into two triangles. When I walked to school each morning my bag moving to a beat, he would smile and wave. His eyes were bright and bold, his hair was thick and lively. He only put me to bed once a week, his eyes shutting periodically and his words stiff and choppy. He would barely make breakfast, I would climb up the fridge on my knobbly...

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“Truth Be Told” by Joe Swanson

Submitted to Contest #98

“You can’t go home again? What does that mean? I know about the esoteric meaning, and all the nonsense that goes with it, but you can’t go home again, sounds like a…I don’t know what, but ominous when you think about it.” “And why would that be? I can see circumstances where you couldn’t go home, or not want to. I’ve had more than my share of times like that. But those are usually a temporary stalling mechanism until you can decide if it is safe to show yourself.” “So you were afraid of something?” “It was noth...

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“Unexpected Joy” by Cindy Calder

Submitted to Contest #98

Poppy stood outside in the moonlight, shivering a bit at the unexpected cold of the late summer weather. Pulling her shawl more tightly around her shoulders, she stared into the stone cottage before her, hidden where she stood behind the massive oak tree, its heavy branches masking her image. How she longed to enter and see the people who resided therein – how much she missed them - but she knew she could not go inside. No, she could never return home. Despite the fact that things had now turned around completely for her, and she had a home ...

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“M-I-S-S-I-N-G” by Saga Kosak

Submitted to Contest #98

Here he was, yet another night, staring down at the many houses below. The boy had his eyes fixated on one house in particular. Silhouettes of people waltzing through the rooms could be seen. The light was turned on in the kitchen and a person was moving around inside. As the familiar person looked out of the window, The boy felt an ache in his chest. For he could not go there. He could not waltz through the rooms of the house while waiting for dinner to be finished. Yet he could not help but to return to the house which had used to be his h...

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“A War Disguise” by Chloe Madeleine

Submitted to Contest #98

We got a letter in the mail today. We didn’t open it because we knew the words that would be planted on that piece of paper. Like getting a college acceptance letter. You either knew or you didn't. War. Such a short word with a powerful meaning. The letter read, “You’ve been drafted for war…” and a bunch of other information I didn't want to be reading. Why us? Why were we basically given this death sentence, sending us into a fear frenzy. Even just the thought of going to war when we were already financially struggling, made me sick to my ...

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“The storm that changed my life ” by Jayden Hackworth

Submitted to Contest #98

I sat on the bus with my earbuds blasting in my ears. I was on the greyhound bus heading east out of Texas. I was on the way to my new life in Massachusetts. I was leaving the place I had known for seventeen years because of a dust storm that had happened only a few weeks before. It was a nice summer day in June. It had been a typical summer day in Texas, the kinda day you go have BBQs with friends and then go swimming. You know, just a normal summer day with friends. My friend's family had invited my family over for a summer kick-off BBQ....

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“Can't Go Home Again” by Kimberly Hallman

Submitted to Contest #98

I was seven when the people in suits came to take me away. I remember thinking how rich they must be since Mama had always told me that people wearing suits were rich. I don’t think I understood what was happening at first. Mama was crying, but the suit people were so kind that I figured there couldn’t be anything really wrong. Mama was just having another one of her crying days. She had them every so often - days when she couldn’t get out of bed, couldn’t take me to school, or make me dinner. On the really bad crying days, she would sometim...

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“Cross Country” by Joy Wood

Submitted to Contest #98

“And that, class, is why we always wear our protective eyewear!”The class erupted in a round of applause as David Jones, high school science professor, took an impromptu bow. The mangled remains of a class project stood humbly in the deserted front row.After an anti-climactic cleanup, punctuated by the ringing of the final bell, David packed up his briefcase and headed for the door.“Mr. Jones!”David turned to find himself face-to-face with Jason, a bright sophomore who had started out the year quite shy but had, as of late, begun to come out...

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“Kind of Like Home” by Maddison Buch

Submitted to Contest #98

A.N.: Mentions of child abuse - nothing explicit or graphic, but it is there. It was hard, knowing that she couldn't go home. What was even harder was pretending that it didn't bother her. There was so much that went into it. Logically, she knew what had happened was abuse and that abuse was bad, but there was a part of her that couldn't help wondering if what happened wasn't abuse. It was the way her dad showed affection, it was for her own good, and her dad was so nice when she took it without crying. She knew it wasn't logical. She k...

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“The Glowing Stone” by Lia Way

Submitted to Contest #98

Ayda was running.She had no clear goal in mind, she only knew she had to get away. Just a look over her shoulder told her that she’d have to be faster. Running past houses and crossing empty streets, the footsteps behind her grew louder by every passing second.Ayda wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep running. Her lungs had started burning, and she feared her legs would soon give out. She dared another look behind her. It was too dark to see who was running after her, or how many of them, but she knew they were catching up.That was whe...

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“And That's Just Sad” by Daniel Norton

Submitted to Contest #98

It was tough for me growing up. Both of my parents were very strict. Yet they would send me out to play and tell me not to come home until it was time for dinner. It was hard trying to make friends. The few I had never wanted to come over and play at my house. And I was never invited to play at their homes. While my few friends were having sleepovers I was at home by myself playing with my train set and matchbox cars until I learned to read. Then I would read and listen to the local top 40 on AM radio. Thought this was fun un...

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$50

Prize money

751

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 18, 2021 EST

Won by Mary Sheehan 🏆

Title: Blessed Home

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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