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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

Falling

Submitted to Contest #197

She awakens with a crick in her neck, opens her eyes and discovers she is in an airplane. Maybe it’s an airplane. The light is dim, and it’s difficult to make out details. No emergency light strips on the floor, just a soft glow that permeates everything, barely enough to see a few feet. There is no airline logo anywhere, no windows, only featureless walls. She has no recollection of how she got here. Leaning over and looking down the aisle, she can only see a half dozen seats in front of her, configured like airplane seats, two on each sid...

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The Day in a Life

Submitted to Contest #197

The alarm did not go off, but he was ready. Jason was always ready, but this was a day that was going to be extra special for him and maybe…a few others? The lamplight blinded him for a moment. There was a little time left for a shower and some cleaning up before heading out. The cat was fed – it kept showing up all month and he made sure the bowls were filled – and the weather finally turned (their first day that month without rain). He turned on the water for his bath and the shower head hit him on the nose. The spray of water was enough f...

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Green Benches

Submitted to Contest #197

My conflict with the man on the bench began when I first moved to the city. Being in my early thirties with few personal friends, I spent a lot of my free time reading. A romance here, a drama there, I tried my best to vary the genres of my literature. Changing the environment in which I read had also been very helpful in keeping up my mood and temperament. And so, once a week, I ventured to the park across the street. My books entranced me to the point where I hardly noticed the children playing or the birds chirping. This was my routine fo...

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Cruise

Submitted to Contest #197

Racing around to different canvases on the lower deck with my five year old was surprisingly fun as a grown woman. Julian and I loved speed drawing so much that we stuck around for the next activity. Egg drop. Peering down four stories in the fanciest part of the ship, I understood why people got swept away by the magic of a cruise. Everything glittered. Double spiral staircases. Endless pastries, unlimited drinks (depending on your wallet).  From the top of the balcony, ready to drop our bubble-wrapped precious cargo, I glimpsed her:...

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Winguard's Tail

Submitted to Contest #197

Dripping in sweat, Windguard and Jennifer dig at the hole. It felt like years since this caved in, living in a dark cavern with no light, food, water, just each other and Alister. Alister stopped howling a long time ago, he pretty much gave up.   So, when light started to pool in, Windguard cackled with glee, “I’m free,” he mutters as the light grows, blinding them. As Winguard and Jennifer step out of the cave, Winguard is taken by surprise at their surroundings. Expecting to see an overgrown forest by a lake, he sees tall p...

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The Last Job

Submitted to Contest #197

The Last Job The job posting sounded too good to be true but the price was right, and the work description fell right into George’s wheelhouse. He could do this in his sleep. The online job caption was titled Fast Cash for College Apps and it stated: Looking for Financial Aid Professional to review FAFSA applications during our busy season. Will pay $100 dollars per application reviewed. Work from home with flexible work schedule, management breezy to work with, make friends for life. George did some quick mental calculations and his eyes d...

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Constraints and Clarity

Submitted to Contest #197

“...Winning this award is monumental not just for me, but for all rural people in Sabah. It reminds us that we're not invisible, that we matter, and that we deserve recognition for our abilities…”For two straight weeks, Principal Chong Shoi Ming of Hock Academy had been queuing up the same inspirational speech on repeat. The video starred none other than Jeffery Gompung, a former student who had delivered a rousing address that had stirred the hearts of all who heard it. What made Jeffery's story all the more remarkable was that he hailed fr...

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The Orange Ball

Submitted to Contest #197

A bourbon for dinner, then let it simmer. Down the hatch, it’s all in the past.  Be a man and have one with me, my boy!     Derek sits at the counter with his girlfriend, hearing her speak but not listening, only staring out of the window above the kitchen sink and hearing his dad garble and jumble utterances in his head. He subconsciously begins to tighten his fingers around his glass, one filled with gin and a hint of soda water, while spinning a steak knife from dinner on the smooth wooden counter with his ot...

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The Story of Everything

Submitted to Contest #197

I stand alone in vast emptiness, a proprietor of knowledge. In my hands sleeps a glowing sphere of pale white electricity, crackling and popping lazily up at me. In my hands sleeps a secret, a secret I guard with what you could call my life. How do you guard a concept? An idea? You hide it. In vast emptiness. I watch with eyes that see everything as the ball wakes and lights the room with hues and colors of a different reality. Synchronicities and miracles engulf me and a sporadic hum of the sound of everything all at once settles ...

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The Last Adventure

Submitted to Contest #197

“More iced tea, Mr. Siddiqharran?” The android servant asked. “Yes, that would be fine, Corius.” “Perhaps some biscuits as well?” “Later, thank you.” Corius floated off to fetch the iced tea. Other drones moved about the garden, tending to the flowers and plants and mowing the lawn to a consistent height. The sun shone down. Barely a cloud in the sky. Jacob felt the warmth as he sat in the lounge chair beside the pool reading his book. The transparent aluminum walls kept out the noise of the streets and city life. It was an ideal paradi...

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Ill-Fated

Submitted to Contest #197

There’s something to be said about fate. I just don’t think it’s something nice. In all the time I have been alive, I don’t think I’ve ever been so tired. Not the kind of tired that mortals fear, for I do not need sleep. But that true soul—if a soul is what I have—deep exhaustion that rots from the core. The pub is noisy, but not too noisy that my guest won’t be able to hear what I’m saying. College students line the bar, jostling each other as they wait for their cocktails. Absently, I circle the rim of my scotch glass with my finger. Wi...

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Finders Keepers

Submitted to Contest #197

Cathryn Farr 1 Finders Keepers The air sticks to my face and a drop of it skims down my neck adding to my dirt necklace. The pavement has reached an unbearable temperature and my bare feet are stinging, so I hurry to the closest clump of grass growing from the cracks. My house is just across the enormous parking lot and I make a run for it on tip-toes. “Hot-hot-hot-hot...”. A glimmer catches my eye, “Is that a quarter?” I swerve in my route to scoop it up as I pass. I’ll have to endure more steps on what I call ‘hot lava’, but a quarter i...

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In The Hills

Submitted to Contest #197

"Why do people do drugs when smells like this exist?" I say aloud, stretching my arms open to the dappled sunlight and green canopy. The cool air, heavy with the smell of this morning’s rain, kisses my exposed collarbones and peeking ankles. "I do not know." is my sisters frustrated answer. She gives a final heave and out tumbles all her luggage onto the damp gravel. From the little red car we've been in for hours, almost seems to come a relieved groan. I didn't bring anything. Perhaps it is not only the smell of rain, the forest is as lush ...

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The Lifetime Community Bank

Submitted to Contest #197

“Damn!” sputtered Danny as he threw the local paper onto the table. “Another one gone!” “What are you talking about?” Emma called from the kitchen. “Banks. All they care about is money, not people. We’ve lost two in this town in the last two years, and now the only one left is closing as well. And, just like the others, they will be removing their automatic teller machines.” Danny frowned. “They want everyone to go cashless.” Tea towel in hand, Emma leaned against the door frame. “So, there won’t be any way of depositing or withdrawing...

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I was once a caterpillar but I am now a butterfly.

Submitted to Contest #197

I was once trapped inside my shell and it was suffocating and I often felt like I was always gasping for air like a goldfish at the top of their fish tank. I did not know who I was and I was full of confusion and my veins were always pumping with Fear. I knew from my early teens that an attraction to the same sex as me was there within me because I had a huge crush on the very handsome and blue eyed head boy in my school. I went hot and flushed and I panicked whenever he was anywhere near me so there we have it I liked boys. Oh God, this is ...

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