Center your story around a character who’s afraid of being forgotten.

Posted in Dramatic on Jan 17, 2025

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✍️ 77 stories

“What If Nobody Remembers Me?” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #286

David had just returned to his hometown a month ago. The move came about because of a job promotion he had received in the big company that he had worked for in another town a few hours drive from his hometown. Just as compelling for the job move for him was that he would be returning to the familiarity of home, not just of town, but of the street on which he spent his childhood. He had hoped that at least a few of his old neighbours were still there, but after boldly knocking on doors of the homes of old neighbours, he found ...

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“The Forest Feast” by Jes Oakheart

Submitted to Contest #286

The wolves howled and the ravens croaked as a woman lay dying in the midnight forest. Sorena pressed a hand to her belly as she collapsed, the blood a pleasant contrast to her cold fingers. The knife wound to her abdomen was quick and precise, the mark of a skilled assassin. She felt the frozen earth below her, a bed of soft pine needles cushioning her body in its final resting place. The pain blurred her vision, but there was one thing she was able to pull into her awareness in her last moments. Aurora, her greatest source of warmth and lig...

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“Confessions” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #286

I’d fallen in love.Not with any man, or any woman. Not with any person. With a thing. A thing flowing inside of a person. One of the key things that keep us alive.I’d fallen in love with blood. With their blood. More specifically, with the sight and smell of their blood.It was intoxicating, like a drug I couldn’t pull myself away from. Greater than the greatest crack cocaine, greater than meth, or a gambling addiction, or alcohol, better than sex, better than anything I’d ever known. That smell.Maybe it was the metallic component of it....

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“A Life Unwritten” by Emma Russell

Submitted to Contest #286

I held the magazine in my hands like it was porcelain, cradling the frayed edges and the staples that barely clung the grubby paper together anymore. It was the last edition ever printed, and I was on the front cover, staring down the camera in bold colour. I sighed and placed it back on my bookshelf, the itching emptiness in my heart returning, discontentedness as soon as it left my fingertips. I placed it beside the newspaper that I slipped into an old, golden frame. The colour had faded in the paper after I had thumbed it so many times, b...

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“Gone but not Forgotten” by Celeste Taylor

Submitted to Contest #286

The office she sat in was small and simple, made up of four beige walls, one of which held the doctor’s three degrees and certificates he was proud enough of to display. There was an average sized window on the wall adjacent to where she sat with the thin plastic blinds that looked like they should have been replaced 15 years ago. The desk was plain but fit the space well. She occupied one of the twin black pleather chairs which she was surprised to discover were more comfortable than she expected. She sat waiting with sweaty palms, an...

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“In Remembrance of Teachers Past” by James Johnson

Submitted to Contest #286

The gravedigger wiped the sweat from his brow and planted his shovel in the heap of fresh soil by his side. The pale sun hung over the yew trees at the far edge of the churchyard and the headstones cast long shadows across the gravel pathway. “Afternoon, Annie,” he said to a hunched figure intersecting the shadows on the gravel. “Off to pick up the young ‘un?” “Yes,” the figure replied with a smile and a perfunctory nod, before continuing along the pathway toward the primary school. Her eyes scanned the names engraved on the final row of hea...

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“The Shade We Leave” by Orwell King

Submitted to Contest #286

Do you ever wonder what will be left of you when you’re gone?The thought may creep in when you’re alone — on quiet nights, in the spaces between conversations, in the hush of an empty room. It’s not just the fear of dying, no. It’s something quieter, something colder. The fear that one day, your name will be nothing more than burnt paper, ash forever lost to time. That the world will move on without you, as if you were never here at all. Your grandchildren may remember you as frail, and their children will acknowledge that you existed. But a...

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“Streaming” by David D'EttoreUser

Submitted to Contest #286

Streaming I will be forgotten. It’s inevitable regardless of what vestiges I leave behind. For those reading this, you will be forgotten too, no matter how important you think you are, how many buildings are named after you, or how much money you have. Yes, you will be forgotten as well. However, I begin by focusing on myself.I was recently rummaging through old photos as many tend to do when cleaning closets, attics, and other forgotten places. I see photos filling a shoebox i...

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“THE WEIGHT OF OBLIVION ” by Maria Barrett

Submitted to Contest #286

Elara lived in a world painted in fading hues. Not the vibrant, sun-drenched world most people knew, but one where memories flickered like dying embers, threatening to vanish entirely. In this world, oblivion was not merely the end of life, but a constant, gnawing fear that seeped into every corner of existence. Elara, a young archivist, dedicated her life to preserving the past. She spent her days meticulously cataloging forgotten songs, lost languages, and the whispers of long-dead civilizations. Each artifact, each faded photograph, was a...

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“A Single-Wide Bit of Mercy” by Mel HW

Submitted to Contest #286

TW: profanity, addiction, domestic violenceJamie counted the pills twice. One for cholesterol, three for blood pressure and kidneys, one for acid reflux, one antidepressant, one antibiotic for the latest UTI, and one for osteoporosis on Mondays. Then the vitamins: C, D, B12, Fish Oil. She clumsily matched plastic lids to their bottles and shoved the pills into the cabinet next to the microwave. She closed the cabinet door quickly, not meaning to slam it. Even though none of the pills were the good ones, Jamie couldn’t look at a collection of...

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“Echoes of the mind” by Matti M

Submitted to Contest #286

If she hadn’t known it was raining, she might have thought small stones were being thrown at the window. The trees that once gleamed green in the summer sun now burst into erratic shades of red. Large raindrops knocked on the window; she presumed they wanted to be let in, impatient to enter, to be part of something larger than themselves. She sat by the windowpane, her hair impeccably styled, though no one was there to notice. The nail polish on her fingers was chipped, half-scraped off by idle worry, and the white shirt with its puffed...

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“Blueprints of Belonging” by Madiha Nawed

Submitted to Contest #286

The restaurant would usually be deserted by 11 pm but Sam sat there, in the deafening silence with his second cup of coffee. He held the warm cup of coffee between his cold fingers and had been aimlessly stirring it with a spoon for a few minutes. Typically, he would stare at the white froth and would lose himself in contemplation about his own life. But today, fear prevented him from doing so. There was one thing that Sam feared profoundly and that was oblivion. Not the oblivion of death itself, but of being erased, of fading into the white...

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“The Monster” by Chloe Gardner

Submitted to Contest #286

Hot sweat began to form all over my body and, instantly, I knew it would be a bitch to get off of the bed in the doctor’s office, the sticky skin on my thighs already being tugged painfully every time I adjusted my dangling legs atop the leather.Dr Lawson unwrapped the old bandage from around my upper arm and placed it in a metal dish. It was damp, a pool of red already beginning to form at the bottom of the dish.“This is the third injury this week, Sahar. You’d think a broken leg would deter you from getting into more bother,” he sighed as ...

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“Eternal” by Virginia King

Submitted to Contest #286

Lucas Grayson lived with a strange anxiety, a shadow with which he had been plagued since childhood: the fear of being forgotten. Not the end itself, but the quiet erasing that followed bothered him—not death itself. His name seemed to vanish into thin air, unheard, forgotten, and the idea tormented him, a gradual anguish he could never quite get rid of. People in the little town Lucas grew up remembered more for their mistakes than for their achievements. You can become a legend from a bad marriage or a drunk episode at the cafe. But like s...

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“Finally Making the Score” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #286

Wanted high school football coach to lead championship-caliber team. The ad immediately caught the eye of the former high school football star as he paged through the Bonn Bugle in the rundown kitchen of a fleabag motel. He had returned to the Maryland suburb after completing a six-month rehab and recovery program in the Shoreline Medical Complex. Contrary to the beliefs of many of the tongue-wagging upper class gossips in Bo...

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Center your story around a character who’s afraid of being forgotten.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 77 stories

“What If Nobody Remembers Me?” by John Steckley

“The Forest Feast” by Jes Oakheart

“Confessions” by Jae Po

“A Life Unwritten” by Emma Russell

“Gone but not Forgotten” by Celeste Taylor

“In Remembrance of Teachers Past” by James Johnson

“The Shade We Leave” by Orwell King

“Streaming” by David D'EttoreUser

“THE WEIGHT OF OBLIVION ” by Maria Barrett

“A Single-Wide Bit of Mercy” by Mel HW

“Echoes of the mind” by Matti M

“Blueprints of Belonging” by Madiha Nawed

“The Monster” by Chloe Gardner

“Eternal” by Virginia King

“Finally Making the Score” by Bob Faszczewski

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone who must fit their entire life in a single suitcase.

Center your story around a character who’s struggling to let go.

Write a story about a cherished heirloom that has journeyed through multiple generations.

Write a story with the line “You never know a good thing until it’s gone.”

Contest #286

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

368

Contest entries

146

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: