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Center your story around an important message that reaches the wrong person.

Posted in Dramatic on May 9, 2025

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✍️ 30 stories

Making Amends

Submitted to Contest #302

Jessica Blevins rubbed her jawline and felt the lump of newly-injected filler under her skin. Massaging would smooth it out, the aesthetician had promised, but all she’d managed so far was to find a new chin hair. Not a great start to the week before her fiftieth birthday.Earlier, minding her booth at the Jacksonville Home and Patio Show, she’d smiled at an older guy and returned his wave. The man brushed past her, focusing on a twenty-something with suspiciously full lips and the blonde good looks Jessica used to be known for. He hadn’t eve...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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Kaiser Bill

Submitted to Contest #302

Peggy does not like this man in her kitchen, this totem of the zeitgeist - or as her daughter puts it - the shitegeist. Here is a man who dismisses the great train of history with a vicious contempt, because clearly nothing noteworthy happened before he was born. Her old and brittle bones harbour a resentment so profound that she is reminded of a super-power she wished to own as a child: the ability to kill people on sight.Of course, the only thing Peggy has ever murdered is a good meal. The man in her kitchen carries the vague scent of exot...

12 likes 16 comments 16
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Divine Delivery Debacle

Submitted to Contest #302

Hermes sat at his celestial desk, drowning in a mountain of messages.The Olympian Postal Service was understaffed—again—and he'd been pulling double shifts all week. His caduceus, usually pristine, had coffee stains on it, and his winged sandals were desperately in need of a polish.He grabbed the next scroll in his "Ultra-Priority Divine Dispatches" pile, barely registering the addressee before stamping it with his signature lightning bolt and tossing it into the outgoing portal.The scroll, marked "To Mars, God of War, Roman Pantheon," spira...

9 likes 3 comments 3
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Dear Satan, I Have Been a Very Good Boy

Submitted to Contest #302

It isn’t often that Lucifer Morningstar received a letter. When the envelope came across his desk, the King of Hell was intrigued. He held it, examining the childishly scrawled words on the front. There was no return address. There was hardly anything to indicate it was actually for Lucifer. It said “Satan’s Workshop” on the front and it had found its way to his desk.Taking a hold of an ornate letter opener (because Lucifer found pleasure in having nice things), he sliced open the envelope. The letter fell into his hand.“Dear Satan,My name i...

8 likes 11 comments 11
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Who’s Kacy?

Submitted to Contest #302

‘Hey, this is Kacy, I’ve tried calling the last few weeks. I need you to know that I had a baby and it’s yours. I know we were just a fling, but she’s your daughter so we need to talk about it. I’m moving in with my mom for some support, I didn’t realize how expensive a kid would be. I want to talk to you before I leave the city so please call me! ’“What is this?” Jasmine, my girlfriend of four years stood there with my phone in her hand.“My phone?” I answered, unsure of what she was getting at.“Don’t try to be cute James, this isn’t funny.”...

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Vercelli

Submitted to Contest #302

Luis Santos considered himself an observer of the human condition. Others might have called him a recluse or a nosy bastard, but he preferred “student of nuance.” It sounded nobler. Less pathetic.He had once been a substitute English teacher. Then a bookstore clerk. Then, for a few years, a nighttime security guard at a luxury condo. Now, semi-retired, Luis mostly stayed home. He lived alone. No pets. No children. His brother called once a month from Arizona, always with news of someone Luis barely remembered. His phone rarely rang, except f...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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Hi Janie, It's Rachel

Submitted to Contest #302

“Hi Janie, it’s Rachel. I just left ballet class and I was hoping to catch you before your shift started. I wanted to let you know how much I love you. You’re so thoughtful, kind, and smart. I am so lucky to be your girlfriend. Can’t wait to see you tonight! Love ya.” The voicemail arrived in Felicity’s inbox mid-morning on a Tuesday from a number she did not recognize. Felicity was busy and gave the voicemail a single courtesy listen before carrying on with her day. She didn’t delete it, though. Perhaps she planned to text the number that h...

8 likes 4 comments 4
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Next Time You’re Out Prancing on Your Pony

Submitted to Contest #302

Charlie leaves the control room and heads upstairs. Before stepping onto the stone floor of the kitchen he removes his boots and places them at the end of the second step. This action always fills him with an awkward vulnerability; he imagines suddenly having to spring into action in his socks, skidding on the floor as he tries to get his client to safety.Mr Clancy is sitting at the kitchen island, sipping his coffee as he pours over a broadsheet. ‘Morning, Clarlie,’ he says.‘Good morning, sir.’‘Anything I need to know?’‘Nothing of note, sir...

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A MODEST WALL

Submitted to Contest #302

(For the Lovers of a Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift here is a relevent update for the modern erra…you have been warned.) My dearest friends and compatriots of a true and real America, we have been in a crisis. Our resources, jobs, and even our very existence are taxed beyond what should be allowed. A strong country, we are not without limits. We have carefully structured our wealth so that we can afford to give ten per cent of our populace two million or more dollars to live for a year. Not to be elitist, forty percent of people receive n...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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Lost on a jarred ear

Submitted to Contest #302

Airbase in Assam - Rakesh and Maya (Evening)The fluorescent lights of the officers' common room cast long shadows as dusk settled over the Assam airbase. Rakesh sat on the edge of an armchair, the silence from his family a tangible weight. Maya entered quietly, carrying two mugs of tea. She offered one to Rakesh, her eyes filled with a gentle concern."Still nothing?" she asked softly.Rakesh shook his head, the weariness evident in the lines around his eyes. "Tried again. Parents, Nilesh… just silence."Maya sat beside him, the warmth of her p...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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Secrets in the Wrong Hands - A Twist of Fate

Submitted to Contest #302

On a chilly Tuesday morning, November 14th, an unexpected event unfolded. A thick layer of mist obscured the upper floors of the skyscrapers, shrouding the city’s usually breathtaking panorama of steel and glass and giving the scene an almost ethereal quality. The streets, typically bustling with the vibrant energy of a metropolis, buzzed with the usual rush hour activity—honking taxis, rumbling buses, and the incessant chatter of commuters on their way to work. Amidst this urban symphony of noise and motion, a significant mistake—a series o...

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severed Ties

Submitted to Contest #302

Severed Ties The design of the cubicles on the second-floor offices of the Aero-fast Inc. building are laid out as intentionally as those loathed neckties that the V.P of procurement, John Watson, picks each morning, fingers incessantly through the day as he stalks the aisles, with the color and design of those ties presaging the type of day his subordinates will have, like a mood-ring on a volatile teenager. His nest of productivity was always chirping with activity as parts were ordered, parts were shipped; parts were lost and found, dir...

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Broken Breath

Submitted to Contest #302

BROKEN BREATHA mother's prayer and a son's second birth Sometimes, we only understand the value of breath when it slips away. I didn’t just lose my breath—I collided with death, wrestled with life, and somewhere in between, I learned what it means to truly breathe. That day, I also learned this: a mother’s prayer can shake even destiny. *** The road we took, my friends and I, began with dreams of becoming police officers. After the exam, we passed the interview. We were hopeful. As I left the house, my mother looked into my eyes and whispere...

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48 Hours

Submitted to Contest #302

“Hello Mr. Miller, I regret to inform you, but your test came back positive. You… don’t have long to live. I suggest you get your affairs in order.” Those are the words spoken by Dr. Anderson over the phone at 5:30am, this morning. I felt my heart stop, “This can’t be happening…” My vision went blurry, the sounds around me were muffled and faded out. I know I’ve been feeling a little under the weather lately, but this? It just can’t be. I hung up the phone before the doctor even managed to say anything else to me, I was in shock. I stare ...

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Mistaken Identity

Submitted to Contest #302

Her feet pounded the sand as she entered her second mile, she felt herself relax. The breeze off the lake washed over her face, drying the sweat into a grimy layer. The sun had already bathed the horizon in pinks, reds and golds and was now a bright yellow ball in the clear blue sky. Summer had arrived.Lacy let her mind empty as she heard the birds squawking behind her. She left the lake and headed onto the path through the tall pine trees on her way around the lake and back to the parking lot. “Why oh why don’t I get out here more ofte...

6 likes 1 comment 1
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