Center your story around someone who realizes they’ve left something behind.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 7, 2025

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✍️ 12 stories

“Left Behind in Fukushima” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #293

I’m sitting on a coach bus at 7 a.m., staring out the window, scanning the streets for tourists. This isn’t where I thought I’d be. Not after graduating with a Master’s in International Relations, fluent in two languages, and ready to take on the world. But here I am.Outside, the street is quiet. I spot him—our last passenger, a foreigner in a blue T-shirt and shorts, looking as if he’s searching for something. I jump out of the bus, waving him over, holding my clipboard. It’s my way of taking control. A trick I learned from my manager.He ap...

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“Evelyn’s Journey ” by Linda Kenah

Submitted to Contest #293

[TW-This story discusses death] Evelyn put her hand to her face in an effort to wipe her brow. It slipped to the side of her head, not achieving its goal. Her gray curls, tinged with sweat, clung to her forehead. Disheveled and on the verge of tears, she had seen her children staring at her, before they had to leave. She hadn’t wanted them to go, but Dr. Marshall had ushered them out of the room. It was what it was. No longer able to speak, she had no control over anything that was happening. Michael would be here s...

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“A Little Extra-Terrestrial ” by Wake Lloire

Submitted to Contest #293

Darla looked out the window, holding her small leather ET doll tightly. He was worn and cracked after two years of accompanying Darla on EVERY adventure. Her little brother, only five years old was slumped against the other door of the car, his seatbelt around his middle, a golden retriever snuggled between them to protect the middle line. Chablis’ tail wagged and thumped Darla soundly on the arm. The world sped by too quickly making Darla dizzy, but she kind of liked the way the colours blended. “What do you think ET? Do you think we’ll lik...

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“High-Speed Train” by Jack Kimball

Submitted to Contest #293

Congressman David Chen found himself where he never guessed he'd be: the dining car on The Express, a high-speed train humming through the Hungarian countryside. A patchwork of browns and gray-dirty snow flashed by. Abandoned Soviet-era factories passed surreal in skeletal frames, riddled with broken windows and crumbling walls. David’s head pounded. Nausea caused him to sweat. He hated trains, but loved his wife, and the Prague conference was over. Just one more meeting, and then he and his wife could take a river cruise out of Budapest.Stu...

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“Losing Something in Ethiopia” by Pamela Blair

Submitted to Contest #293

LOSING SOMETHING IN ETHIOPIA April, 1973 Author’s Note: I’d been traveling for nearly two years, an odd sort of odyssey, eastward across North Africa, through the Middle East, and was now on the final leg of my journey, southward toward my destination, Tanzania. I’d hitchhiked, taken trains, and lorries, and even bought a VW van I drove through the Middle East and sold in Beirut. Just before this story begins, I spent six weeks in Sudan, and, rather than continue southward into Uganda, where Idi Amin, an unpredictable tyrant ruled, I b...

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“Getting Away With It” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #293

Dan looked out of the side window of the car. It was a necessarily fleeting glance that lingered for an alarming age. He knew he shouldn’t have. He was driving and his attention should have been on the road ahead and the many hazards queueing up to happen in front of him. Those hazards were awaiting such a lapse. But he did it all the same. Couldn’t help himself. It was a regression. A recreation of a childhood memory. Wiping the condensation from the window and looking out of the smudged glass at a world he was not a part of. Instead he was...

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“A life left behind” by Florence Proud

Submitted to Contest #293

Your college years will be the best of your life is how I’ve heard people describe life as a student my whole life. Parties, drinks, hook ups, adventures. The works. Everyone’s dream life.Don’t throw away your life locked in this house, lost in your little fantasy world is what my father used to tell me ever since I was a little girl.I never really understood what he meant. Sure, I was never a very social person. I never really had that many friends. But I wasn’t an outcast either. Just… mediocre. Which was good enough for me. Blending in, b...

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“The Hamster Wheel” by Jenn Ross

Submitted to Contest #293

Around the tree and down the hole, I say to myself as I attach the tag to my hopefully under 50-pound, hot pink rolling luggage. I can’t help but think of Alice as she jumps into wonderland in her gingham dress, wide eyed and clueless, yet she goes anyway. That is me, I am Alice. I ungracefully launch my bag onto the platform like a Saint Bernard required to weigh in when visiting the vet’s office, hoping the Veterinarian isn’t judging, knowing full well your Bruno is pushing the limits! We’ve made it, I chose not to look actually, in simila...

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“Moments of Clarity” by Cynethea Cunningham

Submitted to Contest #293

Journey raced down the subway stairs, her heels clicking urgently against the tiles. She heard the train rumble to a stop, its brakes squealing in protest. With a final burst of speed, she slipped through the closing doors just in time, her breath coming in short, labored gasps."I made it," she muttered, straightening her coat and adjusting her bag on her shoulder. She scanned the car, taking in the weary, expressionless faces of commuters lost in their thoughts.The train lurched forward, and Journey grasped the handrail tightly to steady he...

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“No- Where Man” by Christine LW

Submitted to Contest #293

NO- WHERE MAN. Linda sat at the coffee table thinking about her life with Barry. Their time together had a been joke? The Beatles song all those years ago related to Barry the no-where man sitting in his own little world. She looked at the silver key in her hand soon she would not be needing it any more. In the 70s when they had first met Barry, had dark silky...

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“The Forgotten Ones” by Len Rely

Submitted to Contest #293

In my previous life I was a young psychical researcher, and like many of my kind I decided to visit the site where a farmer named Orion Williamson mysteriously vanished into thin air in July 1854 while walking across a field in the town of Selma, Alabama. Many others had gone there before me, some of them locking arms and walking across the site en masse which I thought was terribly foolish, without any result. But as I told my romantic partner most feverishly, it was a case where the exact spot was known to history so why is it st...

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“"What She Took, What I Left Behind"” by Eric Falvey

Submitted to Contest #293

I stood in the doorway of our—no, her—apartment. The lease had always been in her name (I paid for it all,) but she made it clear I wasn’t welcome anymore. I wasn’t even sure why I came back. Maybe to make sure I had taken everything, maybe because I was still waiting for her to say something real, something that mattered. Maybe because I was still looking for the part of myself that I lost somewhere between loving her and losing myself. The air smelled the same—faint traces of lavender, her favorite scent. I bought those candles. I bought e...

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Center your story around someone who realizes they’ve left something behind.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 12 stories

“Left Behind in Fukushima” by Scott Christenson

“Evelyn’s Journey ” by Linda Kenah

“A Little Extra-Terrestrial ” by Wake Lloire

“High-Speed Train” by Jack Kimball

“Losing Something in Ethiopia” by Pamela Blair

“Getting Away With It” by Jed Cope

“A life left behind” by Florence Proud

“The Hamster Wheel” by Jenn Ross

“Moments of Clarity” by Cynethea Cunningham

“No- Where Man” by Christine LW

“The Forgotten Ones” by Len Rely

“"What She Took, What I Left Behind"” by Eric Falvey

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your entire story in a car, train, or plane.

Write about someone who strikes up a conversation with a stranger during a flight.

Start or end your story with someone looking out a car or train window.

Write a story with the line “I’m late!” or “We’re late!”

Contest #293

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

393

Contest entries

141

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: