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Write a story that includes the phrase “I’m free!”

Posted in Dialogue on May 5, 2023

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✍️ 60 stories

Valentine

Submitted to Contest #197

LOS ANGELES, 2079NOVEMBEROh, I could eat you up. Eat you whole. In one bite.Valentine smiles to herself, in her close-lipped way, 'pensive' they call it in the publicity sumsen. She always smiles this way. Lips closed. She has beautiful, blinding-white, even teeth, lighting up her dark blue-black features and her espresso-brown eyes, but few have ever seen this wonderful smile. Jonathan is one of them. One of the few.Standing there on the deck of the Queen Mary, the fog rolling in, Jonathan is framed against the LA night-time skyline, backli...

35 likes 17 comments 17
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The Cannonball

Submitted to Contest #197

They would like me to sit at the end of the barrel and wait my turn. First the elephants dance, then the clowns cast their pies, then the lions roar and the tigers hiss and only at the finale, is the fuse lit-- The Cannonball. I stagger my breathing as my body crunches up to fit inside the narrow pipe. No matter how many times I execute my stunt, the sweat still finds me in all the worst places. On the underside of my chin. The back of my ankles. In a small pool tilting upon my right ear. I tell myself that if even a molecule of my own...

32 likes 19 comments 19
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Sister Sister, Rat Bastards, and Fierce Ice

Submitted to Contest #197

I’ll just say it. I’m free. Fourteen months of eating food with sketchy provenance and enduring the company of unwonderful people has left me devoid of any fond feelings for Huntsville state prison. Also, I can now pee without an audience. It’s the little things that matter. Don’t take that the wrong way, buddy. I have thirty-seven dollars to my name, so getting a hooker was out of the question. A decent chicken-fried steak, though, was in the cards. I got to Lily’s Chicken Palace and sat down. I was soon approached by a waitress large enoug...

27 likes 25 comments 25
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Justice Screams

Submitted to Contest #197

Justice ScreamsChapter Five from my unpublished manuscript “A Brilliantly Scathing Life”. Part One of the book features chapters alternating between characters adjusting to life with the wagon train and time before joining the wagon train. Leroy was thrown from a horse and killed in the first Chapter (see Trampled Dreams and Trampled Dreams Part 2 in my profile).This chapter is some of Leroy's backstory. Shortly after Pappy passed away unexpectedly, Leroy decided the remaining Potter party members would be fine on their own. Their wagons wer...

26 likes 27 comments 27
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Yesterday I drew A Picture

Shortlisted for Contest #197 ⭐️

Jones came in late and took his place at his computer. Instead of turning it on, he just sat in front of it, staring up at the ceiling with a dreamy smile on his face. “Jones,” I said, taking off my headphones. “Where were you yesterday?” “The most incredible thing has happened…” “And?” “I don’t know if it was a change in my medication or a stray cosmic ray, or maybe even God himself reached down and blessed me, but I’m free. I’m finally free.” “What’s that?” I asked. I had lost interest, put the headphones back on, and missed part of what h...

22 likes 11 comments 11
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Always Check The Pockets

Submitted to Contest #197

Nobody liked her and everyone cheered when she died. Or would have done if she had ever taken the time to get to know anyone. I only knew her by way of being related to her. I am Mary Veronica Findlay’s granddaughter and it has fallen on me to do her house clearance. It’s not like people haven’t tried over the years. I wrote her a letter when I was 18, saying my mother wouldn’t disclose why she fell out with her, but I bore her no ill will and would she like me to come and visit. “I’m too old to be entertaining young guests” was her reply...

19 likes 14 comments 14
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Couch-Deep Roots

Submitted to Contest #197

Rich people always seem to think the best kind of couches are the leather ones with those knobby tufts, or the ones with electric recliners in every seat and cupholders and cell phone chargers in between; the ones with the contoured seats that make you feel like you’re getting ready to launch into space or something. But they’re wrong. I can tell you right now, the best kind of couch is one with a deep seat and two long cushions, none of that three cushion business. Two long cushions, at least 80 inches total, and a high back. Nothing ru...

16 likes 6 comments 6
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Roseline's Escape

Submitted to Contest #197

There was only one small window but it was tented, and I couldn’t see through it. There were no clocks, so I lost all sense of time. I struggled to remember what happened. A man who called himself Max came in and warned me not to attempt an escape. He kept calling me Roseline. There was nothing in the small and confined room that could be used as a tool to break out. I found nothing to use as a weapon, and could never overpower him, for he seemed too strong. His appearance repulsed me. He was morbidly overweight, and he stank ...

16 likes 4 comments 4
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Nausea

Submitted to Contest #197

Jean Paul lay in a meadow; half asleep, half aware of the sheep grazing around him. His mind hummed with the blissful vibrato of unconsciousness: he heard nothing, smelled nothing– in part away, in part aware of his being away. Each passing thought animated behind his eyes, in fleeting brightly coloured images, whose sense was not analysed, but felt. He thought, in his far away mind, that his self must be exempt from his body, if, while the body sleeps, he is thus alighted. Yet he knew at once to be true, should his body die, he must die alo...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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ARE THERE VIDEO GAMES IN HEAVEN?

Submitted to Contest #197

*** WARNING: Disturbing imagery, language, mental illness **** * *Jeremy Small, age 13Monday, 8:54 p.m.Ugh. Tomorrow’s Tuesday. Tuesday’s such a nothing day. It’s like being the second child, or somewhere in the middle; not the first or the last. It’s not as weird as Wednesday though. I really don’t get Wednesday being hump day. They couldn’t come up with something better than hump day? All I can think of is Rocco, our French bulldog, on dad’s leg when he answers the phone and Rocco feels slighted. But Tuesday has no...

14 likes 12 comments 12
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Free from the AI?

Submitted to Contest #197

Nor walked through the throngs of people. There were more out today than usual but that was no surprise considering the weather. The lush grass underfoot squelched gently under his feet. He checked his com unit which projected a map only he could see which showed his friends as a tight cluster of brighter points on small familiar map a hundred or so meters ahead of him. Hey here’s Nor, said Yoshie to the rest of the group, standing from her squat position. The others followed suit and warmly greeted Nor with a kiss on either cheek as is cu...

13 likes 3 comments 3
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The Shaman

Submitted to Contest #197

I never believed in sage burning, gem mooning, or shamans until I met Leah. She was always happy and cheerful, and it wasn't an act. She was wise beyond her thirty-something years and became my best friend. We worked in the medical lab of a major hospital in Ohio. I enjoyed my work, but it brought me little joy. I verified testing results, such as blood counts, checking pee for illegal substances, etc. You wouldn't believe the stuff people put into their bodies, like too many blue pills or poppy seed muffins. Leah worked in the genetics lab...

12 likes 7 comments 7
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The Prism

Submitted to Contest #197

References to an imaginary execution.It’s the darndest thing to fall in love. One minute you are yourself and the next you’re somebody else. You can’t stop thinking about this person. It’s constant. No wonder people aren’t ready to commit. Aside from those feelings, who likes being overwhelmed?It’s the feelings we want, granted. The relationship is secondary. Hopefully, we get somewhere with that too eventually. But this is the closest I ever came to understanding what everyone knows. Life is out of our control more than we know.But if you l...

12 likes 8 comments 8
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Very Noir.

Submitted to Contest #197

She had done it again. Tossing and turning in her double bed, Bindi was full of remorse. Bleary, she arose when her alarm went off. She gazed at her reflection, looking at mirrors of regret. Her bloodshot eyes stared back, now what? It was so Friday, the night before. After working online all week as a data entry clerk, Bindi and Cheree had set off in their little black frocks to the local venue. Two fifty year olds, bit of peroxide showing, ready for anything that might occur in a den of sin. Was romance in the air? Bindi was well aware of ...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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Requiem

Submitted to Contest #197

Note: This story contains attempts of suicide, mild gore, and disturbing encounters.-Death toyed with my soul, alluring my heart with fatal seductions that I alone, was powerless to refuse. My desires were like chains shackled to my wrists, I had to fulfill whatever wanton lust that proposed itself to my morbid appetites. I wanted to stop, but my body didn’t let me. It had a will of its own, defying the convictions of my mind, and handing over the reins to my wayward heart. I hated what I was becoming, the echo in the glass, was merely ...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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