Start or end your story with someone running away from something, literally or metaphorically.

Posted in Dramatic on Oct 11, 2024

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✍️ 85 stories

“My Bruja, Carmen” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #272

It lay across my chest like a moist log and I knew it was just her arm but it seemed to push down on me as I inhaled and made me gag. I sat up quickly as the bile rose in my throat, singeing the sides, forming bitter spots in my mouth. It was coming up and I could not breathe. My eyes searched shadows with moonlight hard against walls and still curtains. A little air, then a little more and more came, the bile subsiding, the throat relaxing. I knew I should not lay back down; that I should get up and get dressed as her words rang clearly bes...

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“When He Found Us” by Rylinn Kemphaus

Submitted to Contest #272

*TRIGGER WARNING - MENTIONS OF GUNS, BLOOD, AND DEATH* July 4th, 2024. Three months ago, they started watching us, specifically watching me. I had assumed they wanted our wealth, but instead, they were after lust and desire. We had no idea until the night they decided to tear our family apart.We put the girls to bed hours prior, finally relieving ourselves of the day's work. We had a long day of celebration with our family. There was a faint burning smell of sulfur that still lingered in the air. Gabriel had fallen asleep minutes a...

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“The Chase” by Mark Winter

Submitted to Contest #272

The night was misty with a light fog, and Will’s breath came in ragged bursts as he stumbled through the darkened alley. His shoes slapped the slick pavement, the sound swallowed by the oppressive silence of the city’s backstreets. The streetlights flickered weakly, casting pools of light that barely pierced the gloom. Every few seconds, Will risked a glance over his shoulder, and each time, his stomach dropped into his shoes. There it was, never far behind—tall, impossibly tall, the figure that had been following him for a while now. A vagu...

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“Burt and Jeff and Not Darci” by Levi Michael

Submitted to Contest #272

Jeff and Burt are two sick-in-the-head individuals, who met, saw the psycho in each other and became fast friends. As their friendship grew, they opened up to each other, candidly discussing their darker sides. Over the years they came to the conclusion that both of them wanted to kidnap torture and murder someone, and on a sunny Saturday in September, they decided it was time. They were almost giddy as they chatted, taking their time as they dressed the kill room. They draped the walls and floors with plastic sheeting and cleaned and sharpe...

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“Baby on Board” by Peter Spering

Submitted to Contest #272

Grave digging is hard work.The shovel I'd found in the cabin shed is rusty and my hands are dry and cracked from the bitter cold. The bare forest trees hang over me like the claws of devils waiting to drag me down into the ground, down to the burning embrace of hell. If I have to go there, at least I'll be taking him down with me.We bought the cabin from a coffin maker. A hunched-back old man with spindly fingers and searching eyes. He was supposed to have someone come and collect the remaining three coffins in the shed, but he never did. Lu...

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“Refuge” by Trevor Ogden

Submitted to Contest #272

I awoke to the smell of something like burnt rubber. Slowly, objects around me took shape, their edges fuzzy and indistinct. Everything blurred together like an abstract soup. The carpet, red, wove snake-like through the hardwood. Coats hung from the wall. Shades of beige and brown and black bled into one another, filling the gaps between them, each spilling over into its neighbor. For a moment they seemed to breathe—rising, falling, rising, falling—until I realized this effect came not from the coats, but from the glow of a candle flickerin...

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“Hollyweird ” by Sabrina Rose

Submitted to Contest #272

That’s the thing about this city, a beautiful cacophony of junkies and starlets, misfits and artists. Full of gods and monsters, angels and demons, the normal and strange. As an aspiring journalism student, it was my deal to what it was really about, what lie beneath the shiny gold surface. And that was my next assignment; Devin Bohmer, an infamous vampire underlord, allegedly anyway. Eternally on the edge of 17, growing an empire from the g...

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“Shadows of the Marathon” by Layla Elbanna

Submitted to Contest #272

Shadows of the Marathon Clara stood in the midst of more than three hundred other participants, somewhere in the middle of all them, swallowing the impulse to pace the area. Even if she did let it take control, though, there wasn’t any space for her to even shuffle her feet, much less pace. On the foggy October morning, there shouldn’t have been this many people crowded at the starting line of the track, but it was the annual marathon that took place every autumn, and many had been inspired to join. Clara was used to running — she’d ...

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“That Night” by Johan Holt

Submitted to Contest #272

That Night In the darkness of the night, a scene was being shaped, with it, the same elements that would set this night apart from the nights that had already come. Jack, what happened that night? What happened, child? A dance; a piano played the first notes of a waltz; it vibrated the walls around us. Scattered shards of glass crunched beneath our feet. That night, she truly was beautiful. What would you do? The music carried us slowly across the floor, with every step we took, she smiled; a smile that mirrored even in...

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“Lurking behind the Veil” by Emma Early

Submitted to Contest #272

The figure kept on staring at her from across the classroom. It bled from its eyes and didn’t blink once from when it first appeared. Dorcas ignored it as she wrote down notes from the board. The figure followed her everywhere and nobody said it. All she had to do was not look at it and she would be fine. Nobody saw it so she pretended that neither did she. Dorcas started to pack up her belongings as the time neared dismissal. As soon as the bell rang everyone rams to the entrance. Dorcas walked out the doors of the school as uneasines...

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Start or end your story with someone running away from something, literally or metaphorically.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 85 stories

“My Bruja, Carmen” by H.e. Ross

“When He Found Us” by Rylinn Kemphaus

“The Chase” by Mark Winter

“Burt and Jeff and Not Darci” by Levi Michael

“Baby on Board” by Peter Spering

“Refuge” by Trevor Ogden

“Hollyweird ” by Sabrina Rose

“Shadows of the Marathon” by Layla Elbanna

“That Night” by Johan Holt

“Lurking behind the Veil” by Emma Early

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story with the aim of scaring your reader.

Write a story from the point of view of a ghost, vampire, or werewolf.

Center your story around someone trying to resist their darker impulses — and they’ll either succeed or fail.

Write a story in which the narrator or a character says "Did you hear that?"

Contest #272

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

488

Contest entries

175

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: