Center your story around a character who longs for something they’ve lost.

Posted in Dramatic on Nov 15, 2024

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✍️ 88 stories

“A Kind Voice” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #277

There was an art to it— to letting go— and Regina had lost her touch. She no longer enjoyed it, this luring in hearts, treating them softly and then pushing them away, leaving an ache— or sometimes a wound— as one leaves a parting gift for a childhood friend. She remembered the last one, a trickster god centuries older than she was. What a smile that one had; it still made Regina laugh to think of it. It made her laugh to remember how they used to dance among the stars, his joy coursing through Regina’s veins like fire. Regina stood up...

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“#ReedsyWicked - A Shadowed Love” by Esther Ruth Ezra

Submitted to Contest #277

Five years had passed since Jacob had disappeared. They, Jacob and Amelia, had spent that final afternoon together, walking down to the lake near the cabin, laughing and teasing each other like they always did. Jacob had been her light, her steady ground, the one who could make her feel at peace in a chaotic world. And yet, as quickly as a flame snuff out, he was gone. The townsfolk had their theories. Some whispered that he’d grown tired of the quiet life and moved on to find adventure. Others believed that he’d been caught in a storm and s...

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“His Forgotten Harmony” by Tyler Billing

Submitted to Contest #277

He has heard this music. Even now, despondent and isolated, he could hear the complex notes of other loves all around him. His glassy eyes offer no more than a blink. Disengaged, he gives their songs no second thought as time slowly consumes them. Everyone had a favourite record, one to call theirs, that with each listen only grew more meaningful. He knows this to be true. Why wouldn’t it be? In a reality of melodic connection, he alone was seemingly deaf to the symphonic love others treasure so dearly. Time weathers him slowly as fear sprou...

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“THE WIDOW, NECROMANCER, AND A DEAD HUSBAND'S FORTUNE UNFOUND” by ROBERT E. M. Clements

Submitted to Contest #277

The bereft widow pays a small fortune to a necromancer to resurrect her recently deceased husband; not because she loves him or can’t live without his presence in her life. The stingy bastard didn’t leave her the secret location of all the gold and silver he stashed away during their twenty-year union. Not even his most trusted Estate solicitor is privy to where his fortune abides.The stingy bastard had always lived a frugal life. If she hadn’t possessed wealth of her own, she would have looked like a penniless pauper their entire married li...

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“I'd Give My Right Arm For” by Theresa Hartenstein

Submitted to Contest #277

This is a true story. It is shared to remind us all to enjoy life and good health if we are blessed with it. In this case, the story I share is that of friend whom I admire for many reasons. Her name is Ann. Ann enjoyed good health and happiness until age 38. It was at this age that she lost her husband to cancer. She was then a young widow with two small children. Ann persevered, establishing her own business and raising the kids as a working, single mother. Time passed, the kids grew up alright. She continued to experience professional suc...

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“The First Thanksgiving” by Mary Richards

Submitted to Contest #277

The woman went through the motions, a half-smile hanging from her limp face. It was a holiday, after all, and she couldn’t let the family down. She needed his help. To reach the pan, high up on the tallest shelf in the garage. To haul the giant turkey from the downstairs fridge. To run to the grocery store with the list of things she'd forgotten. But he wasn’t there. He would never be there to help again. He was gone. Forever. He was dead. The thought reverberated from her head into the room and bounced off the walls of the kitchen and up th...

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“Remnant Ashes” by Daniel Dupuis

Submitted to Contest #277

“Mommy… it’s dark mommy… I can’t find Teddy,” James said. And then, a small bloom of light emerged. James stood there, half shrouded in darkness, looking down at the wood beams running along the floor. His feet were bare, his clothes tattered as they clung in strange drifts in loose threads of clothing. “Mommy, where are you? Where’s Teddy?” The house around him, looked strange to his young mind… a boy, all of six...

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“After All, It's Nothing.” by Sara Rudel

Submitted to Contest #277

TW: Suicide and self-harm, sexual violence, mental health and substance abuse.14. I was 14 when he looked at me. When he eyed me down as if I was an object to devour, to indulge in. As if he had the right, as if he was deserving of regarding me. His eyes flared like a demon from hell, burning, smoldering my skin with his dirty glare. My soul tainted in disgust, ashamed to parade my body, to believe for even a second I could step out of the confines made of cotton and silk and simply be. I wonder if his wife knows. If she attests to his actio...

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“Even Death Needs Forgiving” by Sabine Castro

Submitted to Contest #277

It’s fickle, loss. It’s fickle because humans deal with it in different ways. Yet I stay forever more, collecting those that are lost. I take their hand and guide them toward a peaceful eternity. Yet, I can do nothing for those who lose and live through the losses. I cannot lose my life, I am eternal. I will never lose for nothing will ever be mine. Yet, I have lost the thing I held the closest. I have lost my humanity. My forgiveness. As a result of this never-ending cycle of Life and Death, celebration and mourning, I have lost...

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“The Damned” by Ellie Murray

Submitted to Contest #277

The Damned Inspired by the Salem Witch Trials TW: death, verbal abuse, aggressive themes She was not careful as her palms cupped the chalice. Wine trickled along the edges, over her fingers, thick as blood as it lifted to tender lips. That well-chewed flesh instantly grew drenched with that sweet, drunken scent as Leona swallowed all within. She breathed out and licked away the remnants, m...

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“From the Doorstep to the Train” by Maruna Rizh'ye

Submitted to Contest #277

November 20XX, 8:36 p.m.It was a Sunday afternoon when I had sat down to read the book we were assigned for my anthropology class, right after I had come back from Church, where we had done a panahida, a remembrance mass, for those who had passed away during the Holodomor, the famine. Similar words I would see in my assigned readings, much to my surprise. A very curious coincidence. Now, all these words in italics may mean nothing to you, my dear reader, but they meant the world to me. When I began to read the assigned b...

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“The Blades We Held” by Cameron Snider

Submitted to Contest #277

The stranger's grisly features could sparsely be made out in the light of a sparking whetstone. He had one hand clenching the head of a large sized axe, and the other on it’s shaft, moving the tool with the precision of an expert craftsman.Father was not far, arms crossed and tapping his foot against the wood floor while awaiting completion of the chore.“Come on, come on then… I’ve had about enough of this. Finish sharpening already and get out, you know what I risk.”The stranger paused his action, and let the spinning whetstone come to a ha...

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“To Have Loved and Lost is a Longing Forever” by Paul Tyree

Submitted to Contest #277

To have loved and then lost, to have lost that which makes one complete, then never know if that which was lost will ever return. Returning to moment it was lost is never a guarantee of the same that was lost will be the same that returns. The love that two people have, maybe not in the beginning, is a love that will never fade or be forgotten, especially if this be the first love or the first time being in love. It is indeed the hardest love to ever let go much less to be released. It can linger in one's mind and can become a long obsession...

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“The Clockmaker” by Grace Anderson

Submitted to Contest #277

The ticking of the clocks filled Henry’s workshop like a chorus of whispers, each one a reminder that time had never been on his side. His current project was torn apart, shattered into pieces across his battered wooden desk. Henry muttered madly at himself, mumbling a mess of pleas. Outside, the snow was barren and seemed endless. Not a person in sight - just Henry. His old workshop seemed out of place in the oasis of white. Distant village lights faded in and out of view with the moving fog clouds and snow storms. The moon had started...

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“It didn't have to be this way” by Clarissa Venter

Submitted to Contest #277

The first time I met my brother, I did not greet him. He quietly entered the looming house, and we traversed the creaking floorboards like unwelcome animals. ‘Is she asleep?’ He picked up a dusty photo album but kept it firmly closed. ‘She should be knocked out for a while.’ I eyed him carefully. He refused to glance back at me. I wondered if he even recognized me. Jacob’s stubborn face looked just like his photos, except he was worn and old. There was a hint of red mocking his tufty hair. Those searching eyes analyzed every busy corner of t...

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Center your story around a character who longs for something they’ve lost.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 88 stories

“A Kind Voice” by Sam W

“#ReedsyWicked - A Shadowed Love” by Esther Ruth Ezra

“His Forgotten Harmony” by Tyler Billing

“THE WIDOW, NECROMANCER, AND A DEAD HUSBAND'S FORTUNE UNFOUND” by ROBERT E. M. Clements

“I'd Give My Right Arm For” by Theresa Hartenstein

“The First Thanksgiving” by Mary Richards

“Remnant Ashes” by Daniel Dupuis

“After All, It's Nothing.” by Sara Rudel

“Even Death Needs Forgiving” by Sabine Castro

“The Damned” by Ellie Murray

“From the Doorstep to the Train” by Maruna Rizh'ye

“The Blades We Held” by Cameron Snider

“To Have Loved and Lost is a Longing Forever” by Paul Tyree

“The Clockmaker” by Grace Anderson

“It didn't have to be this way” by Clarissa Venter

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about an outsider or social outcast who will do anything to fit in.

Start or end your story with two friends who become enemies/rivals, or vice versa.

Write from the POV of a fairy tale character sharing their side of the story.

Write a story with the word “wicked” in the title.

Contest #277

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

328

Contest entries

121

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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