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Situate your character in a hostile or dangerous environment.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 28, 2025

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✍️ 85 stories

The Face Of The Forest

Submitted to Contest #296

You have found an old key in your grandma's attic. It doesn't seem to fit in any of the doors in the house. Its surface is tarnished, with strange engravings that seem to twist and writhe under the dim light filtering through the dusty windows. Intrigued, you pocket the key and head into the forest behind your grandmother’s cottage. The sun hangs low, casting long shadows that dance eerily among the gnarled trees. The forest feels alive, whispering secrets through the rustling leaves. After wandering deeper for an hour, you stumble upon a we...

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Pseudoasis

Submitted to Contest #296

Trigger Warning: This story contains themes of dystopian control, psychological distress, violence, and references to asphyxiation/injury. Reader discretion is advised. At a young age, Jael knew he wanted to feel free, regardless of the laws legislated to keep individuals like him locked away from the pristine, picturesque world they displayed in a hypnotizing ad within every available media source. If only there were a way to break free of this monotonous system of bureaucracy. There had to be someone else out there in the Haze who was al...

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Blind Jury

Submitted to Contest #296

Nationwide, the news media had run with the story of Martha Atkinson’s crime. It was a story they could print forever, taking new angles and new attacks up to, and even after, the day she was sentenced to life in prison. “Did you, or did you not,” the District Attorney had said “own several firearms, many of which were posted about publicly on social media?” The DA at that time was a lanky worm of a man called Jake J Douglas, and when the Martha Atkinson case came across his desk he was over the moon to be put at the head of the team that wo...

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The Good Person?

Submitted to Contest #296

The Good Person?A man lay broken on the margins of society, like a wounded animal discarded by a world that was too fast, too selfish, too loud. Once strong, once capable, he was now invisible. Spat out by a hostile world of greedy, self-serving, egocentric beings. Unbelievable tragedies and unfortunate coincidences marred his life. He had been so strong for so long. Working two demanding jobs, he rushed home to cook and clean, struggled to make it through the exhausting days, only to lie awake at night listening to his son wheezing. That ...

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Unconditional

Submitted to Contest #296

She looked through the iron gate and up the drive leading up to the house. A physical reminder of being forever barred from returning to a happier time. The gate, once a showpiece, now had rust snaking along its edges and was tangled with thick vines. Beyond the gate the drive leading to the house had almost entirely vanished beneath the wild growth and weeds that broke through the cracks of the stone, nature always claiming its own. The trees pressed in with their untrimmed branches swallowing the view of the house beyond. It was hidden no...

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The Red State

Submitted to Contest #296

‘Could you come with me?’Mom was wary of travelling on her own. Dad had always made the arrangements for their holidays. She’d been on a few weekends away with girlfriends and stayed with us at the Cape during the summer, but nowhere by herself.‘Of course,’ I said, though I would have happily skipped this, maybe sent some flowers and a card. Maybe. ‘How long are we staying?’‘Well, the funeral mass is on Saturday and I should go to the wake on Friday. You don’t have to go to that. Put everything on my credit card.’I wrote down the details and...

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The Sun Far From Rising

Submitted to Contest #296

Contains mild treat and violence: The Sun Far From Rising. For me it was as the youngest of two siblings, left alone to face a world devoid of care and guidance, that as a child no more than the hight of a grown man's elbow, I’d naturally had less time to hone my skills in the family business of survival no matter the cost than my older brother had; whom out of plain familial love and necessity, as well as a somewhat grudging admiration, I had since the age of two years old always had to rely on. And giving him his due, he had never let me d...

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I Am Not Yours to Keep

Submitted to Contest #296

The bright slam of a door wakes me from sleep. With a start I realise I do not know where I am. The room in which I've awoken does not feel familiar. Bright sunlight pulses from behind the curtains which hang from the only window in the room. Sitting up, I try and recall the night before and how I got here, but my memories are lost to me, swallowed in a chasm of darkness which refuses to release them. Climbing out of bed, I make my way to the window and pull back the curtains. A neat, well-manicured back garden stretches out before me. The ...

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Trouble Comes In Threes

Submitted to Contest #296

Trouble Comes in ThreesBy Lee Kendrick It started off as a joke. There were four of them around the table in the local pub all drinking pints of beer and eating the traditional English Sunday roast. As middle-aged traders trading for over ten years in the Stock Exchange in London, each of them had made quite a bit of money, having their pulse on the right stocks and shares to buy and others to stear clear of.Besides being traders they were also trained in survival techniques and had skills in… Climbing, sailing, scuba diving and cave explori...

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Escape From the Forest

Submitted to Contest #296

Something cold and wet splashed the back of her neck. The icy metal secured around her wrists, held behind her, prevented her from wiping it away. The forest was unmoving and dangerously quiet. She had a plan to run but the throbbing pain pulsing in her swollen ankle prevented her from going any further. She wondered if he was dead and trying really hard to remember where the road was. She wasn’t really paying attention, three days ago, when she was too focused on his well-proportioned features and the way her small hand felt resting inside ...

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Soul Mates Through Time

Submitted to Contest #296

Soul Mates Through Time Germany, 1940 “You were all I ever wanted,” he spoke, his lips so close to hers he felt them quiver. “You know I’ve felt the same, from the moment I saw you,” she replied, her breath unsteady, her heart pounding. Tamara studied the stiff, new uniform he wore. Why all the sudden excitement about joining the Reich’s army? Now they were risking their lives meeting, even in secrecy behind the park, since Berlin’s nightly curfew had gone into effect. “But… but it is getting too dangerous to...

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Cherry Ave.

Submitted to Contest #296

The Samoan was a huge guy, he could be an entire island. No doubt he got the name from where he was born. A lot bigger when in front of you in real life. He was all mass and indigenous fire. He deserved the name. He had the appetite to go with it.I watched him unwrap his burger from a joint on Pacific, The Teri-Yaki, a well-known Hawaiian burger shack. He held it in his giant hands, a $13 quarter pound double that was nowhere near small. I watched him take a bite and it came out with an extra bit of pineapple and egg yolk. The thing looked l...

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Laundromat Blues

Submitted to Contest #296

Yesterday, someone tried to rob me. I own two laundromats. My dad owned one laundromat, passed it to me, and I soon purchased another. Both are in towns around Philadelphia, in relatively nice areas. Even so, crime can be where, and when you least expect it. Dad got robbed once, when he was older, and working by himself. In examining the robbery, we found that he had a pattern of going the same times and days. He would collect all the money in buckets, and go to the bank once a day, after he had done all he wanted in the laundry. So...

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Time's Up

Submitted to Contest #296

“I’m gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket. I’m, I’m, I’m huntin’, lookin’ for a come up-” The ringtone of Macklemore’s 2013 hit song “Thrift Shop” abruptly ends when a hand searching for the source of the sound finds its target. “H-hello?” the sleepy voice of a woman asked. “May I speak to Jason?” The voice on the phone asked back. The woman shot upright from her sleep daze and grabbed the arm of the person lying next to her. “I think you have the-” “Ma’am, I’m not the one you must worry about. If you want to live p...

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Ley Fever

Submitted to Contest #296

Tak filled the bucket with cold well water. Lu’s recovery process was just getting started. Things were going to get much worse before they got better. He rushed back to the cottage, hoping Lu had the sense to stay in bed. “Tak!” shouted Lu. “Right here,” said Tak, as he rushed in, trying to catch his breath and slopping some water over the rim of the bucket, after setting it down too quickly. “Lie down. Please!” “I’m going to be fine,” said Lu, trying to sit up. She clapped her hand to her forehead and dropped back onto the bed. “Ley fe...

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