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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✍️ 51 stories

“The Desert Sand, and Time” by Oswin Fielder

Submitted to Contest #220

An endless, relentless shade of orange stretched for miles in every direction, as if the desert had absorbed the sun's intensity. In the distance, the once-proud peaks stood tall against the horizon, their rocky forms slowly giving in to the patient erosion of time. Over centuries, small bits of mountain have broken off and mingled with the sand, contributing to the rugged, textured terrain. Here, shrubs seemed like mere afterthoughts, sprinkled sparingly across the dry landscape, and the few cacti that existed made half-hearted appearances,...

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“neurosis” by Colin Nichols

Submitted to Contest #220

I don’t remember how I got here. I look around, trying to jumpstart my memory with something. Anything. There’s nothing but sand. It’s soft sand. It feels nice under my feet. …but I’m wearing boots. How can I feel the sand? Wait, now it’s hard sand. Compacted like rock and even hotter. The sun is overwhelming. Suddenly my attention is consumed by it. Was it always this hot? It splits through the hazy sky with the accuracy of a laser. I feel like I’m under attack. It takes my breath away, as if purged out of me by the...

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“Desert Song” by KC Luna

Submitted to Contest #220

Ava watched her own picture burn in the bonfire alongside the notes she had written her classmates over the years. She heard their taunts as her face bubbled and melted. She threw her red cup to the ground, foamy beer spilling from its side and soaking into the matted grass. She turned away from their laughter and headed west on foot across Old Man Zimmerman’s field. The grass was wet below a low fog dotted with dairy cows. She stopped on the train trestle and rested her elbows on the edge.She stood on the bridge in the darkness, listening t...

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“The Desert Oracle” by Frank McCoy

Submitted to Contest #220

Alex had been trudging through the sand for what felt like days. Climbing up and down dunes, his body was heavy from exhaustion. His feet seeming to sink deeper into the soft sand with every step. Alex turned his head to look towards the crimson horizon, where the sun was setting… or was it rising? He couldn’t remember. As Alex thought about whether the sun was retiring for the day or getting up to greet him, his foot struck something sticking out of the sand. Nearly losing his balance, Alex threw his other foot in front of him to stop his...

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“High Tea / High Desert ” by Lukah Roser

Submitted to Contest #220

The world was red, upon red, upon red. Not the artificial red of dyes and cautioned danger, but the rich, primal red only found in nature. The type of red one feels rather than sees, shades a sensation on the senses that grounds you to the very base of what it means to be human. The tiresome sun was bleeding from his place against the horizon, spreading red light across the already red desert. Antonia Cahoy cast her eyes from the shattered sky (ruby, scarlet, wine) to the path before her (vermillion, cardinal, carmine), though it w...

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“Third Zenith” by Lo Harmsway

Submitted to Contest #220

THIRD ZENITH Every morning Bel and her brother went out to the Sands. Before dawn, when the sun was still steeping – a teabag touch in hot water, saffron strings of clouds cobwebbing the horizon – they left their grandparents’ house, pajama’d, carrying water in old round canteens, rubbing sleep from their brown nut eyes. They walked down to the street’s nub then veered off into the desert. A tundra of sand lay before them – miles in every direction, violet in the morning light, still cool enough that they could walk on it barefoot. They ...

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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

✍️ 51 stories

“The Desert Sand, and Time” by Oswin Fielder

“neurosis” by Colin Nichols

“Desert Song” by KC Luna

“The Desert Oracle” by Frank McCoy

“High Tea / High Desert ” by Lukah Roser

“Third Zenith” by Lo Harmsway

🌟 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

253

Contest entries

129

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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