Write about a character who tells a lie which turns out to be true - or a truth which turns out to be a lie.

Posted in Dark on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 30 stories

“The Intrusive Demon” by K. Antonio

🏆 Winner of Contest #107

(Content Warning: Mental illness, gore, allusions to sexual abuse and violence)I gots a demon in me; that's what Mama used to say. Mama would always be telling me that demons are all over this world, that they sneak up on little boys and girls and plant evil seeds in their heads that sprout and grow, spreading around their souls like an infection. It kinda be like when you don't wash a part of open, scabby skin; the spot around it starts to turn an ugly shade of yellow, then it gets sticky, and then you gots to clean it with a smelly, burnin...

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“So it ends this way” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

Submitted to Contest #107

It was midday when the police came to take Paul away. He did not fight them off or argue but he coiled his feet in the grass when I perched around the door. Our eyes met and he smiled, fleetingly. His smile was static, pressed against his face like an afterthought. It felt as though he wanted a show like the way curtains opened and closed. His eyes with their wicked glint were saying he would be back. For a short while, I broke my heart to believe the words he had so graciously allowed his eyes to whisper but after a while, I stopped believi...

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“A Good Man” by A. Smoak

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #107

TW: abuse, substance abuseIn the end, it was easier than he ever expected. In the end, it turned out to be inevitable, no matter how much he tried to talk himself out of it. He didn't think it would happen like this but here he was - sitting alone at the kitchen table late at night.The rain poured hard outside. The black velvet box sat on the tablecloth, the smooth gold ring safe inside. George had always wanted to be a good man. It wasn't always a given. Some boys grow up with fathers who were golden examples of beh...

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“The Lady” by Shifra Steinberg

Submitted to Contest #107

Mr. Verdome was one of those annoying characters who seemed to be good at almost everything. With an emphasis on almost, as he was not very good-natured, a characteristic which would have saved him on many an occasion, had he possessed it. He did have a talent for all kinds of useless things though: solving equations, painting, writing, poetry, and best of all, if he saw, lets say, a snail on the sidewalk, he was especially skilled at stepping on it with all his weight, and rubbing it flat down on the concrete floor. His bad character had al...

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“Liars Gonna Lie” by Sarah Kreiger

Submitted to Contest #107

"You're lying, you have to be lying right now." The disbelief in Hara's voice is unmistakable. The shrillness in pitch could break glass if she went any higher. Her face is tightly pinched and she is standing - looming, really - over her younger brother. The rest of the family are sitting in the small living room, three pairs of eyes staring intently at the scrawny man who was slouching so deeply under the disapproving glare of his sister that he was nearly inside the couch cushions. "I wish I was." Cody’s voice is weak but steady. H...

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“Reunited” by Michael Martin

Submitted to Contest #107

“It’s for you, sir. They found Katie.”Special Agent John Lanton snatched the phone from the deputy’s hands. “Is she there? Is she at the barn?”A hesitant voice came through the line. “Yes, yes sir. She’s here, but she’s refusing to cooperate. She said she’ll only come out when her Daddy gets here.”A smile spread across John’s face without him realizing it. They’d found her. After all this time, they’re truly found her. Not only that, but she refused to see anyone but him. She was finally comi...

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“Lies of the Rational Mind” by C.B. Tannon

Submitted to Contest #107

It’s all in your mind, Pete. Pete put one foot through the half open door of his bedroom and slipped out into a hallway in total darkness. He looked down and wiggled his fingers and all he saw were murky phantom blurs. He waited a moment for his eyes to adjust as best they could, resisting the urge to fumble for the light switch on the wall somewhere to his left. It was a kind of test he put himself through sometimes. To prove what, he wasn’t sure. That he was a rational man, unafraid of the dark? That he didn’t need light to walk in a strai...

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“Pathologic Truth” by Bruce Friedman

Submitted to Contest #107

“It’s time to start this glorious day.” Dr. Bertram Collins pushed open the front door of the pathology department with a small grunt. It was half past seven in the morning. He paused for a moment to assess his mood and realized he was a bit off-kilter. More anxious than usual perhaps. He probably just needed to get into his routine in order to grab happier thoughts. Many of his colleagues and friends would probably say that off-kilter was his natural state these days. However, they weren’t available for comment at that moment in time and Be...

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“ Truth be Told” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #107

Eleventh grade and Margot had been a newbie six times. Sheesh! Margot never expected to get used to being the ‘new kid.’ Once high school lay in the rear view mirror, she could get on with her life. Her immediate task was breaking into a group, so she wouldn’t spend the next two years alone. Margot knew too well, gaining social traction after school started, sucks, big-time. By week two, the cliques have gelled. Breaking into anything but your own locker is a pitiful pipe-dream. The kids gathering tonight were lifelong friends. Breaking into...

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“A 500 rupee note” by Spondon Ganguli

Submitted to Contest #107

Over a vast land in the Terai region of Darjeeling, there was a governmental dairy farm. The place had a pleasant and pristine environment smeared with tranquility. The farm was sandwiched by the forest on one side and the tea garden on the other side which spread far and wide. The farm's office employed ten to twelve people to look after the official works whereas for other groundwork like milking the cattle, feeding them, looking after them, the office hired local people from nearby villages on daily wages. One such person was Budhua, of a...

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“A STORY OF DOLLS” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #107

A STORY OF DOLLS Alice and Norma had known each other for a lifetime. They had gone to school together, they had done sports together, skiing and cycling. They had been in the same cultural and environmental associations. Now they were both over forty, both divorced. Alice had three teenage children, who lived with her. Norma instead had no children and, after the divorce from her husband, she had decided to live with a woman, Adele, who was twenty years her senior. Alice had always felt an instinctive dislike against&nb...

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“Shouting into the void” by Tsholofelo Tombale

Submitted to Contest #107

“Hello. Is anyone from the army listening to this?” Prospero leaned into the microphone in front of him, and swallowed past the lump in his throat. He had snuck into the radio station he used to work at, and picking his way around toppled chairs and over splintered tables, he had gone into one of the studios to throw another of his weekly pleas out into the ether. “Please if someone from the army hears this. We need help. We are a group of seven, and we’re staying at Rock City mall. We are running out food, and we need you to come rescue us,...

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“The Lie” by Kelly Haynes

Submitted to Contest #107

I am leaning against the side of our decades-old Chevy, watching the numbers on the gas pump scroll higher while I envision the numbers in my bank account simultaneously falling. The windows of the car are open. It is late summer in Texas and so hot that the air overheats your lungs if you inhale too deeply. The A/C unit in the old car died years ago, and the hot breeze is the only thing standing between my son and me and spontaneous combustion. “Dad, look at that man!” I don’t look, because I’m certain the entire gas station has heard the...

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“Deceit's Truth” by Morgan McHose

Submitted to Contest #107

No physical compulsion? She signs, baffled by my admission.I shake my head. There is nothing to keep me from telling the truth, save the knowledge that I will lose absolutely everything if I do.Destinee raises a fine eyebrow before nuzzling closer to me. We watch her cousin in open amusement as he begins his daily struggle of wrestling the pink disc from the stubborn clutches of Night. The air shifts, Wind blessing our bodies with her cool breeze as the planet warms. Destinee wills her midnight tendrils to stay impervious to its pull. I care...

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“Sophie's truths.” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #107

She lived in a house along a row of other houses. Nothing special about that, except it, was her house. To live in as she pleases. She couldn´t care less about what other people said about all the different colors in her house, what business was it of theirs anyway? Her living room was overfilled with plants. There was only one large window in the house, so she didn´t have space for a grand piano – not even a baby grand. She made up for it by hanging up a poster of the magnificent instrument. One day she was very upset because one of the pla...

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Contest #107

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This week's theme: Liar, Liar

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Contest entries

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Ended on 23:59 - Aug 20, 2021 EST

Won by K. Antonio 🏆

Title: The Intrusive Demon

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Write about a character who tells a lie which turns out to be true - or a truth which turns out to be a lie.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 30 stories

“The Intrusive Demon” by K. Antonio

“So it ends this way” by Abigail Airuedomwinya

“A Good Man” by A. Smoak

“The Lady” by Shifra Steinberg

“Liars Gonna Lie” by Sarah Kreiger

“Reunited” by Michael Martin

“Lies of the Rational Mind” by C.B. Tannon

“Pathologic Truth” by Bruce Friedman

“ Truth be Told” by John K Adams

“A 500 rupee note” by Spondon Ganguli

“A STORY OF DOLLS” by Mara Masolini

“Shouting into the void” by Tsholofelo Tombale

“The Lie” by Kelly Haynes

“Deceit's Truth” by Morgan McHose

“Sophie's truths.” by F.O. Morier

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about a white lie which spirals out of control.

Write about a character pretending to be someone they’re not.

Write about a game of ‘truth or dare’ that goes horribly wrong.

Write a story where a character finds out the truth about something they thought they’d known their whole life.

Contest #107

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

150

Contest entries

204

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: