Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story where a character must continue to tell their tale to a listener to avoid unsavory consequences.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 10, 2023

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 41 stories

Farewell My Love

Submitted to Contest #189

** Sensitive topic: death of a loved one ** I stand at the front of the room, my hands gently rubbing back and forth along the wooden stand in front of me. I feel the divots worn smooth from the countless hands that came before mine. I do not want to be here but I am so afraid of what comes next that part of me hopes this time never ends.  I look up from my paper and try to take a breath. I can’t. The last breath simply refuses to leave my lungs and make room for the next. The moment stretches and I feel my lungs burn. My chest ache...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Drifting Through Powder

Submitted to Contest #189

While the rest of the winter sports enthusiasts shuffle toward the mountain’s base, I crunch my boots in the opposite direction. He won’t follow me after our little spat, not with five inches of fresh powder on the slopes. The morning’s first tracks are too important to him. A bus rolls by, pebbles crunching under the tires. The outside racks hold over a dozen sets of skis and snowboards. While the bus slows, brakes squeaking, I continue to put distance between myself and the buzzing energy near the mountain. A quarter-size snowflake drifts ...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Everywhere at the end of time

Submitted to Contest #189

Tuesday 4:20 The sentences on the page blurred into opaque black lines as Callie's eyes tried to fixate on the words, she squinted them to focus. Her math professor’s monotone voice dragged on despite the class's apparent lack of interest. The window was open. A cool breeze gently hit her face, occasionally taking a bit of her vibrant red hair with it. That’s what it said on the package, vibrant red. She twirled a strand around her finger. The clock mocked her, it extended every second as long and tedious as it could muster. The bell sh...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Ella

Submitted to Contest #189

Mom, unfortunately, knew she had to teach me all I would need quickly before her end. So, she taught me to read, cook, sew, and keep a house by ten. Mom passed about a month after my eleventh birthday a few years ago. My father and I had a wonderful life, but he was lonely. He was convinced I still needed a mother figure. So, he and the widow Monroe married after dating for only six weeks. She and her two brats moved in and took over. They treated me as their servant, not like a sister. The real servants were loyal to my mother and quit when...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Lost Hits

Submitted to Contest #189

WARNING: Contains profanity and mentions of narcotic substancesThe record was called "Blue White Scars," the fifth by the American Wraiths. It went platinum in 1977, their one and only, and produced four hit singles that cracked the top twenty of the US Billboard charts. Raw, beautiful, devastating. Magical stuff. Four of the greatest songs in the history of rock n' roll, which undoubtedly meant four of the greatest songs in the history of America, because rock n' roll was America and America was rock n' roll, and those were four of the grea...

9 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

A Waste of Oxygen

Submitted to Contest #189

Content warning for very mild sexual themes and some depictions of blood and death.-----------------------------------------------------Yes, I know I should be saving air by shutting up. But you need to stay awake. You have all the signs of a concussion: slurred speech, nausea, confusion. At least, that’s what I remember from the shows we used to watch.The main power is offline, but I sent a distress call using the portable backup. Dear anyone: please retrieve Mr. and Mrs. Callahan from… well, somewhere on route to Earth. Struck by debris, s...

9 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Listen please!

Submitted to Contest #189

"You fail to entertain me Antinio."A bloody and beaten man is tied to a chair. A fist rockets toward his lowered face, brutally connecting with his already sore jaw."Listen! Please listen, I... I can do..."SMACK!The impact again smashing the inside of his cheek against teeth that cut into his flesh."I hear promises and no delivery. Lucious, get the bike chain!"Fuck. That is Antonio's only thought at the moment."I went out Saturday night, and had a beer. Karaoke was on and felt like singing some Johnny Cash. I took a shot of whiskey...""What ...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Chatting....

Submitted to Contest #189

While Tammy was sipping her coffee, she read her latest copy of a parenting magazine. The editors made it sound so easy. They had to keep telling their story with such good advice, so mothers like Tammy could avoid any dreadful, unsavory consequences. Tammy did not want to be a rotten mother. She was waiting for her fifteen year old daughter, Talissa, to emerge from her bedroom. Talissa spent most of her day hiding, 'doing stuff'. Tammy wondered what Talissa's stuff entailed. Being the mother, she was supposed to be worried about vaping an...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Six Stories Under

Submitted to Contest #189

“God, I hate being stuck down here,” she whispered aloud. All elements of her facial features were stretched tight as burgeoning stress consumed her body. She repeatedly pushed back loose strands of errant hair over and behind her ears. Six stories below ground. Although, Annalise generally did not mind closed in spaces, something about the limited egress challenged her sense of safety. Shifting her weight from foot to foot, the mechanical whir of the elevator provided much needed relief. “Finally,” she wheezed. A welcomed ping echoed throu...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

One Day the Oracle Began to Speak Again

Submitted to Contest #189

One day the Oracle began to speak again.When I was alive, I never knew that a mirror could become a window, a window could become a door. But one day the drought ended and it began to rain again. The fountain filled, and I slipped inside.At first no one comes. Before the last Oracle was empty, she would sing, her song achingly beautiful, haunting, like a memory long-forgotten begging to be remembered. The water is receding quickly, and in desperation I begin to sing, but the melody is wrong and I don’t remember the words ...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Stay with Me

Submitted to Contest #189

**This story refers to the loss of a spouse, and includes light profanity and a very brief assumed reference of abuse.** Remember that time in Malaga? You and me, and Jonah? We arrived with twenty bucks in hand and no plan at all. I’ll never forget that night. Remember that bar we landed at? I think I was five energy drinks and vodkas in, and Jonah had had at least that much. Remember how much we laughed? I’ll never forget the look on the bartender’s face as Jonah jumped onto the counter and did a cartwheel. I still can’t believe he landed...

8 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Dog Eat Dog

Submitted to Contest #189

“So it was all a lie. I fell into your little trap. Now what?” He held the gun to her head. His henchmen circled her, eagerly palming their own Glocks.  The warehouse was nestled between an old decommissioned tobacco factory on the Southside and the newly minted ‘St. Bernadine Dog Park’ that closed at sunset, almost two hours ago. She chose this spot because it has two exits, each currently guarded by one of Macguire’s armed brutes, and a large skylight overhead.  “Well,” she said, adjusting the collar of her favorite burgundy ...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Rise and Fall of Sir Pee-nut Seedfleenger

Submitted to Contest #189

"This is the story of the rise and fall of Sir Pee-nut Seedfleenger and how he came to live with me. It all began the day that Pee-nut hatched. He was very young just like you were when you hatched." "I wasn't hatched, Uncle Steven! I was borned from mommy's tummy," Anna said. Steven smiled. He loved the way she tilted her head and held her index finger high when making her point. He reached out and gave her a little tickle under her armpit. "And sometimes when I see your mommy, I think there's another YOU still in there," and poked her ...

8 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Something savoury

Submitted to Contest #189

"I can’t believe it’s been sooo looong, dude!!” Lena had just tapped to pay when the satisfying beep confirming her payment was drowned out by a loud American girl who had raced through the entire café in a whirlwind to give her a big, loving hug. “Oh it’s so good to see you! Look at you! I love your hair! You’ve gotta tell me your secret!” “Hi Lilly”, smiled Lena, “It’s so good to see you too!” Lena had not seen her friend in nearly a year. At university they had been inseparable: Never did one arrive without the other be it a lecture or o...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

No Refunds

Submitted to Contest #189

"You think you’re cursed?"Patrick couldn't contain his simmering glare from peppering the up-until-this-moment kind stranger with as much ill-will as he could muster. He had told his tale a hundred times since hearing his fate. A hundred times of the same questions, same dodgy replies, and the same tactless subversion a friendly conversation could afford. But, he had no other choice, and hoped that this time, the luck of the Irish would be with him."I know I’m cursed," he says, turning that glare onto the polished bar top. The stranger wince...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story inspired by this quote from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy: “In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.”

Fiction – 66 stories

Write a story about a fox spirit (a gumiho, jiǔwěihú, kitsune, or hồ ly tinh), inspired by, e.g. Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese folklore.

Fiction – 41 stories

Write a modern version of "The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal," in which someone suffers from their own good deeds and must turn to an unlikely source for help.

Fiction – 21 stories

Start your story with “It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark.” (Hans Christian Andersen, “The Little Match Girl”)

Winter – 112 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel