Start your story with a character walking through a desert landscape, when they stumble across something unexpected. “That shouldn’t be there,” they muse.

Posted in Dialogue on Oct 13, 2023

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✍️ 50 stories

“The Mirage” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #220

Holden Arroyo had been lost in the desert for approximately twelve days before he stumbled upon the mobile phone store.“That shouldn't be there,” he mused.The store appeared over one of Holden’s favorite dunes, which was a few dunes down from where his plane had crashed. He was on his way to Tanzania when the self-flying plane’s license expired, and before Holden could go online and renew it, the aircraft was plummeting into the sand. Luckily for its only passenger, the plane landed in one of the softest patches of sand in the Ganasi Desert,...

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“The Flood” by Kay Reed

Submitted to Contest #220

A serpent slithers through the desert. It drags its colossal body over the crunching bones of ancient victims, swishing torrents of sand in its wake.The earth trembles. Above, a dark cloud appears in the blue sky.The serpent pauses, swivels its head. It fixes a yellow eye on the cloud, watches it darken, broiling with fury, as if dragging in a long-winded breath, readying to strike.The snake doesn’t hesitate, moves fast through the desert, positions itself at the edge of the cloud’s lightning rage. There is nothing but dry, hungry sand stret...

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“Doodle” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #220

9:17 AMThe Office LobbyThe yucca tree is no longer alone among the impressive boulder formation and cloudy pink sunset of Joshua Tree National Park.“That shouldn’t be there,” Milton says to no one. He has been staring at the landscape for nearly ten minutes while he sips his coffee, letting the image before him sink in. Sometimes you see something that is so unbelievable, so out of place, it can take a moment for the emotions to settle. His therapist – who is not really his therapist but a barista at the coffee shop on 4th Avenue – tells him...

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“Oh Pharoah, My Pharoah” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #220

My tongue is about to explode out of my mouth. I can’t recall how I ended up walking through the desert on my own. All I know is that I am so thirsty, I could suck water from a cactus needle. The sand is endless and blowing everywhere in the strong wind, making it almost impossible to see more than an arm’s length ahead of me, but through the sound, I detect a low hum like some energy-driven device moving past me at a rapid pace. It sounds familiar, yet unmistakably alien with its high-pitched whir and hiss. Even more peculiar to my ears, ...

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“The Elephant Graveyard” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #220

“If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.” — Camille Paglia* * *It is odd how the ionized air of the cold desert night refracts the moonlight, which crackles with the spirits of sojourners past. They seem to still inhabit these barren dunes, trying to speak—the whispers of their urgent warning to the living just out of reach. And the bold moon itself, a dead and lifeless desert, is pockmarked with the evidence of a violent past.This shouldn’t be here. African bush elephants. Desert-dwelling eleph...

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“The Gates of Hell” by Karen Corr

Submitted to Contest #220

Jaxby staggered through the desert with two empty water jugs in his backpack, but the heat weighed him down. The protein bars were long gone, but that was just as well because he couldn't have swallowed them anyway. He didn't have any saliva. Step by step, he began to accept that he was going to die. Buzzards circled the sky, watching their supper cook. All he had to do was lay down. His legs and feet wouldn't hold him up much longer.Soon, he thought.The landscape that hadn't changed since he began this journey was suddenly different as some...

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“Dreamtime” by M.A. Grace

Submitted to Contest #220

The barren charcoal seas of Mare Crisium span the horizon in all directions. The vast Picard crater is the only natural feature of this desolate landscape. Its high outer ridges cast a long shadow across the crash site, as our white hot star races towards sunset and lunar night approaches.“Harper, put your jumper on,” says Mama’s voice. “It’s getting cold.”The Earth looms large in the sky, about 20 times more massive than it should be. I take small, slow steps towards it, transfixed. That shouldn’t be there, it’s too close.Our planet is spin...

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“Nico and the Newly-Deads” by Chloe Pierce

Submitted to Contest #220

(This story discusses the theme of death and afterlife) Nico Nakota’s death was a miserable affair. He marks the day, just shy of his twentieth birthday, as the day death marked him. Now, it lingered around him like an odious smell, creeping into the corners of his vision, like a wisp of something you think you see but there was never anything there to begin with. It followed him into his nightmares, tearing his memories apart so the seams don’t match. Though Nico remembers very little from what came before that night, he reflects up...

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“The Devil's in the Retail” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #220

All it takes is one slip. Gaps are to be avoided. Gaps are where important things fall. That’s why Mind The Gap resonates like a cattle prod to the temple. There are gaps everywhere and the devil uses details to his advantage and what is to his advantage is to our disadvantage. He’s pretty tricksy like that. It was a buggered detail that led to Thruk struggling his way across a dessert. There was something utterly wrong about this from the get-go, but Thruk was not a thinker, he was a doer and so he trudged and splotched across...

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“Eternal Past Time” by Myranda Wren

Submitted to Contest #220

Charles’ legs felt heavy as he struggled to put each foot forward, one after the other. His boots were coated with mud that had dried and hardened into clay and yet still clung doggedly to the boot treads. A remnant of the flash flood which had sent him scrambling up a rock face and left him clinging desperately for a time. The storm of hours before was forgotten in the distance, now suggested only by the hint of dark clouds on the horizon that moved steadily away. The unrelenting desert sun barreled down upon him, and his once damp clothes ...

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“The Key to Dimension Nine” by Raven West

Submitted to Contest #220

It was another New Year’s Eve and another annual extravaganza at the Garrison home in the opulent Mirada Estates in Palm Springs, California. Barbara Garrison, as usual, planned everything down to the finest detail, selecting the most expensive caterers, Waterford crystal, Mikasa china and a live twelve-piece band. She wasn’t about to let her husband Warren’s horrific taste in clothes spoil her perfect setting. “You are not wearing that awful jacket to my party!” she shrieked. “Take that thing off and put on the beige camel sports coat I...

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“That Shouldn't Be Here” by Carrie Simmons

Submitted to Contest #220

“That shouldn’t be here!” Ruby Sue screams out into the silent hot desert air. An ancient brown lizard sits just a few feet away, he is nearly motionless. He doesn’t flinch at the shrill of her voice. His eyeballs roll all around, conspiratorially, as if he knows she is captive. He knows she is helpless. The lizard shifts and falls asleep.Ruby Sue doesn’t notice the sleepy lizard. The last thing she can remember is walking beside the dirty man in the desert, her bare feet sinking and burning in the sand. She was begging for water. She w...

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“The False Tree” by Jack Brooks

Submitted to Contest #220

Mik did not wish to leave the confines of this once great and prosperous castle, now a cold and dead crypt. He assumed that this castle, and the lands it claimed dominion, were once prosperous due to its sheer size and grandeur. Mik did not know truly though; he was not from these lands, after all. “That shouldn’t be there…” he muttered, his mind lost in the past, eyes unfocused. “They shouldn’t be here we… we shouldn’t be here.” Mik was a natural survivalist, spritely with the eyes of a hawk. It was these skills that landed him a spot on ...

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“Steel Tomb” by Cade Holter

Submitted to Contest #220

Marcus was going to be late. He couldn’t afford that, he would have to wait until sunset to get the picture he wanted. He didn’t have that long, the pilot told him to get back as soon as the sunrise ended or it’s an extra charge. Since he doesn’t make near enough money to warrant that, he runs. The desert is draped in thick, dull orange and the long shadows cast by cacti and boulders over sand smooth hills. The sun isn’t yet peaking over the horizon, but it will soon, and he needs to be in just the right spot. Dead centre of where it will ri...

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“The Voice of Giza's Skies” by Erik Van Mechelen

Submitted to Contest #220

The voices in his head had already silenced themselves by the time he touched the first stone. Unable to sleep, well before sunrise, Sam had trudged across the sand, almost in a trance, toward the Great Pyramid. It should really not be there. Despite the Egyptologists and archaeologists and historians who ambitiously—no, arrogantly—insisted on descriptions of how it came to be. "That shouldn't be there," he said aloud, his hand on a block at the base of the marvelous structure. "How do you KNOW?" boomed a voice from deep withi...

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Start your story with a character walking through a desert landscape, when they stumble across something unexpected. “That shouldn’t be there,” they muse.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 50 stories

“The Mirage” by Story Time

“The Flood” by Kay Reed

“Doodle” by AnneMarie Miles

“Oh Pharoah, My Pharoah” by Chris Campbell

“The Elephant Graveyard” by Jonathan Page

“The Gates of Hell” by Karen Corr

“Dreamtime” by M.A. Grace

“Nico and the Newly-Deads” by Chloe Pierce

“The Devil's in the Retail” by Jed Cope

“Eternal Past Time” by Myranda Wren

“The Key to Dimension Nine” by Raven West

“That Shouldn't Be Here” by Carrie Simmons

“The False Tree” by Jack Brooks

“Steel Tomb” by Cade Holter

“The Voice of Giza's Skies” by Erik Van Mechelen

🌟 Similar prompts

You arrive at a destination you promised an old friend you’d visit after they passed, only to find them there too.

As a child you’re helping your grandparent bake. When you’re sent to the pantry to fetch an ingredient, you discover something odd.

Begin your story with a protagonist taking shelter under a bridge during a thunderstorm. An animal scurries past which shouldn’t exist. Against their better judgment, they decide to follow it out.

You’re awakened from your nap by someone asking, “Are you hungry?”. You fell asleep somewhere else entirely.

Contest #220

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

249

Contest entries

129

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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