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Hide something from your reader until the very end.

Posted in Dramatic on Jul 25, 2025

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✍️ 121 stories

Circles

Submitted to Contest #313

Henriette woke to a loud rhythmic booming engulfing her wooden cabin. It was as if the ground were carving out an orifice within itself, splaying the dark trees out to either side, before unclenching and allowing everything to crash down again. The sound itself was subdued, muffled by the dense layer of pine needles and grasses lining the ground, but the ensuing rattle of porcelain against glass that occurred right beside her head each time her eyes blinked had begun to strain her semiconscious brain into freneticism. She got dressed and wen...

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Eggs and Bacon

Submitted to Contest #313

The gravel under her feet crunched and ground against her shoes as the heavy set woman turned and sat down heavily on the bench. It had felt like an eternity since she had last been able to sit like this, and she gratefully relaxed the muscles in her backside onto the steel slats. The bench was not exactly an architectural marvel, but it served its purpose, perched in the one spot that had a real view. Aurelie closed her eyes for a moment and turned her face up towards the sun, enjoying the warmth of its rays as a few scattered clouds floate...

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The Quiet Game

Submitted to Contest #313

⚠️ Content Warning:This story contains themes of child captivity, emotional manipulation, and psychological trauma. While there is no graphic violence or explicit content, readers may find the material distressing. The Quiet Game The numbers blink at her in blue: 111. That’s the only time they’re allowed to play. Nobody ever says who made the rule, but she knows 111 means play time. She counts the clicks of the clock. One, two, three… She always stops at eleven. Then she starts again. One, two, three… She doesn’t know why. It just feels ri...

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Making Up The Numbers

Submitted to Contest #313

Sam fully expected Anita’s funeral service to be painful. Held in an airless church, mostly empty, led by a vicar who’d never met the deceased within the ‘on trend’ wicker coffin. Digging out a black suit, Sam sighed at the shiny grease stain on the sleeve. On the cruise with Anita and Frank a few years back, a drunkenly rested elbow found a dish of olive oil. The last time it was worn. Too late to get it to the dry cleaners now. It was raining, of course it was, meaning rummaging about under the stairs for an umbrella that worked, before v...

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The transom, the mullion and the small door

Submitted to Contest #313

“What the hell is a transom? “I often wished my mother would just shut up. Her voice was like a squeaking meerkat on steroids.The builder told her that her transom was crumbling and quoted £8000 to fix it. They would have to take out the four window panels and two of them needed to be rebuilt because the wooden frames had rotted and a stonemason would have to carve another transom.“The sandstone cross member held in place by the mullions,” he said. “What the hell is a mullion?”He pointed to the vertical stone section in the middle of the six...

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Things Were Good When Domino’s Was a Church

Submitted to Contest #313

*contains explicit language Castle Loop was Josh’s favorite stretch. At sunset, paradise in any direction. Conifer trees lined both sides of the road and traces of dirt and pine tangled in the breeze. He always took a breather at Browning Bridge and watched the cars and diesels roar underneath. The burn in his thighs was welcomed. It meant his second wind would be coming. He focused on his breathing. Deep breaths with controlled release. He trained his thoughts on the coming year. Junior year was almost over and there was work to be done. Hi...

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The Sound of Light

Submitted to Contest #313

The Sound of LightBy: Eric Schrag Part 1 – DO you remember the movie Contact? I owe a lot to Carl for that story. It’s all because of the leading star (pun intended), Ellie, that I became a radio astronomer. The movie came out around the time I was a teenager, and I had better things to do than watch a sci-fi drama. It looked like it was going to be a slow and boring love story with a little outerspace sprinkled in for good measure. But my girlfriend at the time was obsessed with Matthew McConaughey, so she dragged me to the theater to see...

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OBSESSION

Submitted to Contest #313

OBSESSIONBy Deirdra Hawthorne Mathes Walking down the hallway -dread- laced with sick anticipation- fills me. Blood pounds in my ears. For months, I have used every excuse I could imagine- even lied- to avoid seeing you. But this cannot be put off any longer. My future demands this meeting. Drawing my shoulders back, I know this is a brave choice. A tough choice– but I am afraid. So very afraid that I won’t be strong enough to keep you out of my life. Clenching my fist, I silently declare: I will not think this way. I have worked too hard ...

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This Thing of Darkness, I Acknowledge Mine

Submitted to Contest #313

Trigger Warnings: This story contains themes of abuse, violence and death. On her deathbed, Ella’s mother had imparted upon her but one piece of wisdom. “Hell is empty,” She’d whispered. "And all the devils are here.”Ella’s father had asked for those last words. Ella had looked upon him. Old and feeble and long past the days of weathering the harsh storms at sea. “Be kind,” She said. And her father had burst into tears. The grief veiled their house for a short while. The black curtains remained drawn over the glass windows, and meals were s...

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A November Homecoming

Submitted to Contest #313

The November Christmas lights hug the sides of the buildings as I drive. I try to summon the feeling it used to bring. The drive went by far too quickly and now I’m almost there. I focus on the crunch of my wheels over the wet asphalt, the way the twinkling lights blur through the drops on my windshield. I pull into the dark driveway and cut the engine, savoring the dense silence for a few minutes. The neighborhood always felt like its own secret place at night. I could sit out here all night if I wished, I doubt they're even awake at this h...

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Another Dawn

Submitted to Contest #313

The cold embrace of the metallic floor was a familiar comfort against my chassis. No, not my chassis, my feet. Yes, my feet. The rhythmic hum of the life support systems was the only lullaby I had ever known, a constant assurance in the suffocating silence of the world beyond these walls. My internal chronometer indicated Cycle 7,305, Section Alpha-7 maintenance. Another dawn, another day.I rose, the subtle creak of my joints a minor complaint that my internal diagnostics quickly registered for future self-repair. My routine was etched into ...

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The Last One

Submitted to Contest #313

Sandra stirred, still wrapped in the scent of her most recent lover. She breathed in his expensive cologne and the still lingering smell of their sweat on his sheets. Slowly she traced the lines up his resting form as he lay deep under the sheets. Her fingers curled around his thick brown hair as she pulled his head down to look at her. It was those eyes that had drawn her in, had warmed her to her core, that had led to this moment. She had been warned about boys like him, the ones with the quick smile and even quicker hands but she could ha...

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Boxed In

Submitted to Contest #313

TW: Mental Health, Miscarriage, Death Brandy paced through the boxes that littered her new apartment. The apartment looked roomy when she had taken the tour of it a few weeks before. Right now, it felt small and claustrophobic, with just enough space between piles of boxes to be able to enter each room. If she stayed on the phone with her sister, Lilly, long enough, she might make a permanent path in the carpet.“I still can’t believe you moved to the other side of the country. Who does that?”“I do.” Brandy answered. “You know what they say,...

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4:54 pm

Submitted to Contest #313

I thought Chloe’s habit of singing at the top of her lungs was to blame. She would tell you my complaining was “distracting” her. But in all honesty, the deer was the real culprit.At the time of the accident, Chloe was, of course, making my ears bleed with her version of The Hollies’ The Air That I Breathe. Just as I was telling her to quiet down—or at least play a Christmas song—she turned up the volume. The bastard appeared between the fat, feathery snowflakes in the middle of the road. Chloe gripped the wheel, swerving left as the deer st...

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After Everything

Submitted to Contest #313

This story contains themes or mentions of physical violence and pregnancy loss. Elena drove back from the clinic through the rain, cramping and uncomfortable, trying to focus on the future. She needed acetaminophen and a long, hot bath. Even so, for the first time in a long while, she was optimistic. Jeff was waiting for her on the front steps under a golf umbrella, surely repulsed at the idea of getting his swanky suit and coiffed curls wet. A quick glance in the rearview indicated that the only thing strong enough to pull her sunken face t...

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