Write a story that includes the phrase “Maybe in another life.”

Posted in Dialogue on Apr 28, 2023

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✍️ 74 stories

“Her Secret Struggle” by M B

Submitted to Contest #196

As Celeste logged on to the forum she frequented, her phone screen lit up. Her phone. The only device she had. It was meant to be used to keep tabs on her, but she hoped it was the key to her freedom. “Hey!” She wrote. “Hi, you’re back! You logged off so quickly last time!” A user replied. “Before technology, I had no way to communicate with the outside world. I am not about to have it taken away!” She replied back. “Oh, right! Your secret. Are you ever going to tell us the secret?” One user asked. “I’ve held it in for so long. Part of me is...

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“Fire & Brimstone” by Koda Wall

Submitted to Contest #196

I was raised on the idea that good things happened to good people and only the bad things happened to bad people. The “Just World Phenomenon” and whatnot. I went to church, said my prayers, committed good deeds, just like my mother taught me. I always thought I was a good man. So why did it happen to me? It all happened one night working at the office. It had been hours sitting at my cubicle, staring at the dull blue light of my desktop entering data in spreadsheets. I was just listlessly moving the cursor to the submit button for the da...

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“Tuesday” by Natasha Smith

Submitted to Contest #196

It is often said that Monday is the worst day of the week. It’s not. Tuesday is. Why? Because Tuesday is the start of my working week. Always beginning the same way with the dreaded morning alarm blaring out in the small confines of my bedroom, startling my sleep-riddled brain into consciousness. My phone seems to take pleasure in this act every workday morning, the vibrations of the alarm sending it dancing gleefully across my bedside table. Any dream remnants are brushed away as easily as cobwebs as my heavy eyelids struggle to open. ...

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“Maybe In Another Life...” by Jillian Puckett

Submitted to Contest #196

I often thought about what would happen if things were different for me. If I had been born into a different family if I hadn’t fallen for who I did if I wasn’t me. I would love to say that my life was all sunshine and rainbows but that was hardly the truth. I had an alcoholic mother and a father who was in jail. My girlfriend of five years had cheated on me with my best friend and I was a college dropout with a minimum-wage job and no future plans. I often thought about how badly life had turned out for me as I struggled to sleep at night. ...

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“Ruby Blood Paint” by Charly Woods

Submitted to Contest #196

You know those dreams, where you think you wake up on the other side of your bed? And sometimes, actually do. And to make things worse, you had a fever dream. And to top things off, in the dream you’re accused of murder.You’ve heard people say, “When you’re dreaming, you’re actually seeing yourself in the multiverse” and strangely, you believe it.Maybe in another life, you killed someone.Maybe in another life, you are on the edge of being accused of it.Maybe in another life, you get away with it.-The blood on your hands had dried up and when...

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“JOURNEY TO ANOTHER TIME” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #196

Maybe in another life I can go to the past or to a different reality and see what life is like for those people. For generations I wondered about the past, about all those people who came before me, the good and the bad. I also wonder about the people who could possible live in a world that is identical to mine own. Are the people the same as the people in my world or are they different? Do we live in the same time period? The past comes alive in my head, the images of the people sit within me ready to be rediscovered. The events of the p...

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“Lou” by Cody Olson

Submitted to Contest #196

Lou won’t crack a smile for shit. We’ve been attached at the hip for twenty-plus years and I’ve seen it maybe ten times. He’s not depressed or anything, that’s just the way he’s always been. I spent some time early on trying to figure him out, but that investigative intrigue fell away quick. Lou didn’t make me guess who he was or what he was about, he showed me. See, with most people you gotta read their expressions to find out who they are and what they like. You need a sense of their emotional state, where y’all are, who else is around, ...

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“Ghosts of What If?” by Alexis Pfauser

Submitted to Contest #196

A midwest summer storm battered the small ranch house. Inside a mother held her daughter, the room barely illuminated by their small array of candles. When the lights went out the mother had stumbled through the darkness cursing herself for not replacing batteries in their emergency lighting. Her father had only reminded her several hundred times. The wind howled, shaking the walls of the house. It was an old house that settled often, and at the most inconvenient of times. Thunder struck and jolted the door from where the latch just bar...

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“Silver Linings” by Jennifer Chan

Submitted to Contest #196

After all these years, his number is still the same.“Do you remember when we were 17 and the school held a fair at that old abandoned factory lot at the end of Magnolia Street? That probably wasn’t very safe, but then again, times were different then, weren’t they? There was this ride—I don’t recall what it was called now, but it swooped up and down and sideways—anyway, Sally Jenkins swore it made her stomach drop and her teeth clatter, so I had to try it, but as soon as the ride attendant strapped me in, of course that’s when I realized tha...

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“ Levetica's song” by Jasmine Crenshaw

Submitted to Contest #196

"Jasmine!" A loud voice screamed to me from inside the telephone. "Yes? This is Jasmine from M Court Circle." I considered the single lettering of Morris. "It's all about you Levetica." "I apologize, she died today. It's an hospital." The purpose Levetica telephoned people was because she'd seen names plus numbers on the desk inside a room place there for last minute emergencies. Whenever Levetica came to hospitals she'd bring the card plus her birth certificate that told police her identity. Levetica wasn't taught English in school but was ...

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“Stradlater Gets His Comeuppance” by Eunice Armitage

Submitted to Contest #196

The red and white stripes of the torn circus tents swirled in the breeze like the ghastly bandages of the bloody barber’s pole. The carnival always stayed for a week after the street parade and fireworks, giving the people of the town the opportunity to add a goldfish to their family pet collection or a coconut to their fruit bowls. And giving the teenage girls enough time to fall in love with a swarthy rogue who had dirty fingernails and a twinkle in his eye. Stradlater strolled across the threadbare field, surveying the damage...

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“Moving On” by Joseph Niesen

Submitted to Contest #196

When I got to the parking lot of the Church of Christ the Conqueror thrift store, it was a mess. I must not have been the first person that Old Gary told about the donation drop. All around the bin were scattered bags leaking their wares onto the dew-damp pavement. With a half-defeated sigh, I went up and started kicking through the bags looking for whatever I could find. Old Gary hadn’t been lying. It was a big donation; however, unless I was an eight-year-old girl who was really into horses, there wasn’t much for me. Disappointed, I picked...

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“Life After the Before” by Michael Clark

Submitted to Contest #196

Have you ever wondered that if you were told something enough times that you would not just start to believe it but to live it without even noticing? The motto of our government is one that basically flips off the switch on our ideas. I had never given it much thought before today. That is, until I talked to my grandpa about it. He’s basically older than the frozen dirt. To hear my him tell it, people used to be mega-obsessed with themselves and their place in the world. He says, they used to have places “online” where they hosted their own ...

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“Pastel Virtue” by L.J Sunwing

Submitted to Contest #196

Love for good is often a result of knowing the badness in ourselves. The aspiration of, in the conscious and attentive effort, is a noble cause. To lack that understanding though is to hate goodness and love, to be bitter towards it. What we lack in ourselves we search for in others, and as human beings, we are the worst of all. Beatrice ran into the bathroom of the confectionary, the metal clasped door to the stall is swung open in a whirlwind of emotions and abruptly shut. She leans against the door, her chest heaves and she feels somet...

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Write a story that includes the phrase “Maybe in another life.”

Submissions are closed

✍️ 74 stories

“Her Secret Struggle” by M B

“Fire & Brimstone” by Koda Wall

“Tuesday” by Natasha Smith

“Maybe In Another Life...” by Jillian Puckett

“Ruby Blood Paint” by Charly Woods

“JOURNEY TO ANOTHER TIME” by Melinda Madrigal

“Lou” by Cody Olson

“Ghosts of What If?” by Alexis Pfauser

“Silver Linings” by Jennifer Chan

“ Levetica's song” by Jasmine Crenshaw

“Stradlater Gets His Comeuppance” by Eunice Armitage

“Moving On” by Joseph Niesen

“Life After the Before” by Michael Clark

“Pastel Virtue” by L.J Sunwing

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character unknowingly experiencing a “sliding doors” moment. Write your story in two halves; what could have been, and what actually happened.

You’re walking down the street, when you spot a familiar figure. It’s another you. And they’ve come from an alternate reality to warn you about something.

Write a story involving a portal into a parallel universe.

Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

Contest #196

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

279

Contest entries

149

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: