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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that hides something from the reader until the end.

Posted in Dramatic on Oct 18, 2024

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 113 stories

“Coming Home” by Jane Cantor

Submitted to Contest #273

Early Spring on the hillside. No gambolling lambs and nodding daffodils here: the bitter aftermath of winter had not fully let go its hold, and only the lower, sheltered fields of the scattered farms were occupied. Two people, oblivious to the chill, high on the lookout point, alone with their thoughts. The rocky outcrop flared green-red and purple-grey as the sun flickered through the racing clouds. The howling wind whipped her long red-gold hair into cruel cat-o'-nine-tails, stinging her face and blocking her view. She lifted an absent-min...

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“Winter” by Rebecca Martinez

Submitted to Contest #273

Vienna sat on the creaking swing set, waiting for him and tracing her cold fingers numbly on the rust that smelled like blood. As she looked around, the sunset-colored leaves that fell on the pavement were the only glimpse of color on this bleak, lifeless autumn afternoon. Winter was creeping into the year, once more, like an unwanted guest.  She feared winter the way little kids feared the dark. It was a pulsing, throbbing remainder of the way time passed mercilessly and waited for no one. She realized time felt like a race, she had to...

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“The Art of Saying Goodbye” by Sunanna Bhasin

Submitted to Contest #273

My mother and I liked taking long walks once a week. It wasn’t really for exercise. We loved them because you could chat endlessly about private matters all while enjoying the natural suburban beauty that couldn’t be found in the city. These walks were especially stunning mid-Autumn, the time between being surrounded by pure green foliage and completely bare trees. I wasn’t sure if she would be up for walking with me this particular Sunday because it was my grandmother’s first death anniversary. Still, I figured I’d give my mom a call and se...

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“Replica Boy” by Jack Sanger - Author

Submitted to Contest #273

Replica Boy When my parents died, one shortly after the other, in the early 1990s, I was fifty three years old and pretty content with my life up to then. They’d retired after selling their string of pharmacies so, as sole beneficiary to their wealth, I doubled the already sizable fortune I had accrued from my writing. After the second funeral I had the family accountant sort out the house and effects as I'd been too busy with the deadline for a film script to take time off. He was to collect and file all the documentation he might find, f...

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“For Companionship, Perhaps” by Cicada Gerdes

Submitted to Contest #273

You meet her in her garden, surrounded by brambles and thicket. The flowers have long since died, but the blooms stubbornly cling to their branches. A thick silence shrouds this world, one where the only life is you and her.Your breath is shallow, your legs collapsed under you from the strain of being prey. She finds you, a warm hand grazing your cheek."Hello, poor traveler. You may believe yourself dead, but your body persists. Allow me to tend to these wounds and perhaps your will as well."You find yourself in a glass conservatory, where t...

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“Thunder Riders of Yesterday” by Edward J. McCoul

Submitted to Contest #273

“Thunder Riders of Yesterday” By Edward J. McCoulRoy Rogers squinted as the wind whipped around him. He reached for his hat, pulling it down low against the gust that didn’t feel quite right. This wind smelled strange, tinged with a scent like burning wires and wet concrete. He wasn’t in the desert, that much was clear. No more open skies. No more dust kicking under the hooves of Trigger. When he finally opened his eyes, he wasn’t looking out over the wide plains of Texas. He was looking down.Way down.Roy’s heart skipped a beat. Below h...

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“The Mermaid's Wedding ” by Rosa Arlotto

Submitted to Contest #273

The Mermaid’s Wedding When Jeanine was a little girl she would dress up as a mermaid and marry her prince at sea.Her adoptive parents had her dream come true.  Steve, her father, the smart accountant that he is had made a few lucky investments and made a bundle and now he and his wife Patti could afford a cruise wedding and were now completing their daughter’s fairytale.  Patti has said to Jeanine:” You don’t marry a person, you marry a family” and so she had invited  and paid for their entire family and a few ...

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“One Of Them Is My Daughter” by S Nicole Langley

Submitted to Contest #273

For almost two years my family and I have anticipated this day, unable to ban the circumstances from our hearts and minds as much as we so badly wish that we could. Two people: the victim who was assaulted, and the one who committed the assault. One of them has been out (of jail) on bail for 21 months, and today, in just a few short hours, a sentence will be handed down by a judge. Why do I even care? Because one of them is my daughter.  I worry about her quite often, and this situation has not made it any better. Yesterday evening...

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“The Watchers of Bitterwind Road” by Vera N

Submitted to Contest #273

The narrow road wound through trees so thick that they blotted out the sky, casting everything in shadows. Seren Hartley gripped the steering wheel tightly as her car bumped along the uneven asphalt, the silence of the forest around her thick and oppressive. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard, 4:45 p.m. It would be dark soon. "How much farther?" she muttered, her eyes flicking to the GPS. The destination marker pulsed on the screen—Bitterwind Road, less than two miles ahead.  The invitation had arrived unexpectedly in her mailbox...

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“Worth a Gamble” by WRL Battle

Submitted to Contest #273

Five-hundred-thousand dollars. Five-thousand Benjamins stacked on top of each other, cramped into one black, leather suitcase. The bartender doesn’t look that impressed. I know walking around with that amount of cash with me is asking for trouble, but this is a classy establishment. No matter where I look there are at least two security officers within view, and everyone knows there are cameras everywhere. I would like to see someone try and snatch this suitcase away. I think the bartender didn’t hear me. Why else didn’t ...

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“and i felt the universe tilt” by Susie Phelps

Submitted to Contest #273

WARNING: This story contains hints of alcoholism and death. Take care. IN OUR WORLD OR ANOTHER, either ages ago or centuries in the future, a place on the other side of Earth or a place not so far from your own, time paused.In a small, quiet town, there was a boy sitting on the steps outside the library. Snow was falling, or maybe it was the frozen tears of the gods.The boy was reading a book.His ice-blue eyes moved across the page, his pale lips mouthing each word as he read.I stood across the street under a tree, watching him.I didn’t know...

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“Dreams That Fade” by John Britto

Submitted to Contest #273

Dreams That Fade In The Kitchen: Wednesday, September 19, 2023, Ames, Iowa, 8:26 AM Sitting at the kitchen table, Rachel Weber cradled her warm coffee cup with both hands, painfully aware she had mere minutes before leaving for work. The apartment was quiet—except for the soft hum of the electric clock above the refrigerator. She glanced out the window above the sink trying to gauge the early fall weather. The phone rang, shattering her rare solitude. She stood to answer the phone hanging of the wall and felt the chill as she walked past the...

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“Tick Tock” by Janna Cawlfield

Submitted to Contest #273

arco viewed the lively squirrel scampering around from his living room window as it ran from one tree to another and then up the second tree. As Marco sank down in the big, puffy armchair he wondered if his sister, Alice would be arriving soon so they could celebrate her 30th birthday with the dinner he ordered using Door Dash with cake and champagne he got on the way home from work. Their parents had both passed away years ago and it was just the two of them now. He had adored his sister from the time they were children. Alice was two ...

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“I didn't want that” by Parker Benton

Submitted to Contest #273

Ivory said no she swore she did. But he didn’t listen. She didn’t want to give but he still took. She SAID NO and he still did it. She never told anyone. Who would listen to her? She’d helped victims before. Held classmates as they sobbed. It’s never the victim's fault. Not even the girls that get paid are to blame when someone does it to them. Why does it feel different for her? Why does it feel like Ivory deserved what happened? Maybe she led him on, that’s what he said happened. He said she could have prevented it. Ivory sat in...

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“Painting Destiny” by Kevin Findley

Submitted to Contest #273

“Are you sure about this, Navan?” The former pirate glowered at King Mannas’ Chief of Commerce. His bright, emerald green eyes flashed with laughter, however.  “The information came from Daoud, one of my former crew, when I was raiding the coastal villages of Vyrone.” Navan grinned at the look that passed over the face of Gerrod, whose family escaped from one of those same villages. The Iron Hawk was a legend, and parents still used the threat of its crew and their fiery-haired Captain to frighten naughty children into going to sleep a...

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🌟 Similar prompts

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Contest #273

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Title: Venus Buried

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