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Write a story that includes someone saying, “I feel alive.”

Posted in Dialogue on Mar 24, 2023

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✍️ 68 stories

The Good Old Days

Submitted to Contest #191

A lifetime of adventuring had led Helga the Fang-Wielder all over the nine kingdoms. She’d climbed the mist-cloaked peaks of the Loathsome Mountains. She’d wandered through the verdant fields of the Eternal Valley. She’d even, on her most daring quest, explored the haunted ruins of Storm Rock.Yet no matter how far she traveled, she always ended up at Silverwood Hall.It was a cozy tavern in a small town. Quiet and unassuming, it was not the kind of place Helga had ever expected to grow so attached to. But her memories had tangled themselves t...

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The Apple Orchard

Submitted to Contest #191

 Malcolm Philip Harkness III woke on a warm, early-May morning of his ninety-first year to the sweet, delicate fragrance of millions of apple blossoms. But even before he opened his eyes, besides counting his blessings, he also pondered a dilemma.This time of year, mornings were still dark at 5 a.m., but on this day a rare cosmic peculiarity caused a false dawn to light up the sky to the east. Nevertheless, Malcolm was not quick to leave his bed as he usually did.He had rested deeply and well and, as usual, he had woken before the alarm...

15 likes 11 comments 11
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Mr Jangles

Submitted to Contest #191

Grown-ups seem to frown a lot, don't they reader? But contrary to popular belief, this isn't because they are angry or frustrated. It's because deep down, they're confused and keenly aware that they have lost something very precious. Something that they used to cherish, that means more to them than their own name. That something they have lost, is childhood innocence. You see, everyone is born with a brightly coloured marble in their heart, which contains all of their childhood innocence, joy and laughter. It gleams brightly as they gro...

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Flowers and a Funeral

Submitted to Contest #191

My House…My house has been in my family for three generations. My grandfather, who passed it down to my father, who passed it down to me. He wanted a son, but I was his daughter and only child. But we will come back to that. Right now, we are talking about my house. My house is not typical. It’s a funeral home. My grandfather was a mortician, my father was a mortician, and now I am one too. The house is Victorian, but the colors are muted, tasteful and appropriate for the type of business that is run out of it. The landscaping is n...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Caretakers

M B

Submitted to Contest #191

The female vulpine looked out over the vast expanse of trees from her mountaintop perch.  Found guilty on about eight thousand counts of financial fraud, coercion, and a half-dozen other crimes that the Council could pin her on, at least...  ...A seventeen-thousand-year sentence. Ironic that what had once held someone else for a time was now being used to hold her.  The Cat’s Paw was no ordinary ship: A nature preserve flying through space.  A giant greenhouse and wildlife sanctuary. For the vixen it was to be h...

14 likes 7 comments 7
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A Thousand gates

Submitted to Contest #191

“I feel alive.” “And again Mr Maxwell I can very much assure you that you are in fact very dead” said the gentleman behind the podium whilst fixing some errant paperwork in front of him. “How can I be dead if I feel this great?” asked the aforementioned Mr Maxwell becoming steadily more incredulous “well according to the paperwork the how is a traffic accident and as to the why you feel so good, I mean it would be a hard sell to convince people to cross over if you felt like you were dead the whole time you were here”. “Surely you’ve mad...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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That Afternoon

Submitted to Contest #191

“Don’t touch that.”  “Why not?”  “You don’t know what you are doing, and I’m not going to be here to fix it after you fuck it all up.”  Andrea eyed her older sister with a glance somewhere between contempt and sly amusement, but nevertheless put the slightly cracked, ashen skull head back down on the top shelf of her sister’s armoire.  “Mama says you’ve gone crazy.”  “Mama wouldn’t know crazy if it hit her with a red arrow in between the eyeballs.”  Emily was not one for subtleties, and among a face of...

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MY LIFE IS MINE AGAIN

Submitted to Contest #191

Life brings you unexpected things. Some of it is good and others can turn your life upside down. Then you spend many years trying to get your life back together. You succeed for the most part but you want more out of life. You want to blossom like the cherry blossoms you see blooming all around you. You want your life to begin again. You are open to it. How do you live again? My name is Molly and for the last decade I've been struggling with survivor's guilt over the events that took place on a very beautiful spring day. I still remember t...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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The Song of the Violinist: By Mary Palladino

Submitted to Contest #191

“The snow falls, the wind howls, and the moon rises to console the stars.”Few could see the cold imagery of the mind. Many are blind; they ignore the inside storm. They only look at what they want to see- the outside: Vibrant colors and the melodies that the Violinist creates.In a sleepy little village some time ago, in an old cottage on the hill, there lived a man. Every soul in the village knew of this man. He would go into the less sleepy parts of town and play his violin. His playing was so entrancing that the ears that heard his song wo...

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The Sleeping Princess

Submitted to Contest #191

Once upon a time, a beautiful princess slept in a stone tower in a remote village in the cold and craggy mountains. The tower was on a cliffside and had only one window. The princess was in a deep sleep but could hear the sounds around her. She especially enjoyed hearing the birds sing lovely melodies daily and the waves crash upon the rocks. Princess Amethyst was very beautiful, and her father and mother vowed to reward anyone who could wake their daughter because she was their only child, and they loved her very much.  As could be...

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Go Do It Then

Submitted to Contest #191

I’m so fucking bored all the time. My classwork and homework are easy. I get it all done in minutes. I work out daily, hangout with people daily, and I still have so much free time. I know this sounds like a dream for a lot of people, but this is torture for me. Wake up, workout, do homework, socialize, repeat. I can’t take it anymore. This is way too easy. I am a freshman in college, I’ve made good friends, I’m in a fraternity, I get some action from girls but nothing special. I play sports, often, and I’m in good shape. Financially, my f...

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The Plight of Chickens

Submitted to Contest #191

For all the trouble he was, Olivia held the fondest memories of Jacob. Although she could honestly say that she didn't dislike any of her old lovers - at least not beyond the few weeks after breaking up with them, or vice versa - Jacob was a favorite. As a young woman, Olivia loved to be in love. She watched her relationships blossom from a place outside of herself, as if they were movies she was starring in. Back then, her romances might last a year, sometimes longer. Or they might fizzle out after a few months. A new man would ca...

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Everywhere Still

Submitted to Contest #191

Flesh brushes against metal, metal against flesh. Roses spring from the garden. Spring shines through the window. The window takes up a good sized chunk of the wall, although the wall was never very big to begin with. It’s far too small to keep Alex’s heartbeat contained inside. Alex’s heartbeat whirls and churns inside his flesh. Two bodies. Two beings. One heartbeat.Metal brushes against the medical bed, tubes connected to nonexistent organs that play a tune of inconsequential despair. Inconsequential is what you get when you don...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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The Lilac Girl

Submitted to Contest #191

Every day she walked through her orchard to listen to the stories told by the trees. It was a gift she was born with. With a soft touch of her hand, she could hear the countless knowledge the trees held just beneath their bark. In their infinite rings of wood, adventurous stories rolled before her eyes like the waves of the sea.  On days like today, the trees were especially ready to share. The sky was only filled with a few clouds, the air was warm with shimmering sunshine, and a soft breeze danced through the leaves.  Today the...

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Whatever It Takes

Submitted to Contest #191

Her hip-length shoulder bag bounced against my knees as she threaded her tiny self through the mouse-width space between me and the news racks jammed into the corner of the train station. Surprised, I pulled back into my seat to avoid further contact. She proceeded to shove the racks out of their parallel order along the wall far enough apart so they jutted out into the waiting room at odd angles. I inhaled. What could she be doing? I wondered. At first I accepted her hectic gestures as a match to what I assumed to be the mindless echoes o...

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