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Write about a character trying to hide a secret from everyone.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 28, 2025

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✍️ 61 stories

Mallard of Forethought: A Tale of the Arts Department

Submitted to Contest #296

“Ducks,” Professor Thomas Skillruud mulled.“Well, dead ducks,” Art Willows corrected gruffly. “Well, not real dead ducks. Decoys.”“Ah,” Tom nodded, willing clarity to no avail.Art hung on the lull for a moment. “Sooo, my grandpa, uh, passed on a month ago…”“I’m so sorry.”“Nahhhhh.” The Chicago fireman made it a nasal five syllables. “He died doing what he loved – fell out of a duck blind, and you can’t ask too much more than that, right?”“You certainly cannot.” Tom assented, puzzling why a sightless man might have been traipsing about wherev...

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Ode To Jelly

Submitted to Contest #296

Claire had never known the house without the sound of Jelly’s nails tapping the hardwood floor. It was like the metronome of her life—steady, patient, always returning. For ten years, he had been more than a dog. He was a shadow stitched to her heel, a silent witness to the jagged rhythm of her days. When the world felt too sharp, too fast, too much, Jelly was there—mountain-strong and river-quiet.Now, the silence lingered longer in the mornings.She lay in bed, her eyes closed, feigning sleep. There was no use checking the time anymore. Her ...

21 likes 11 comments 11
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The Secret Life of a Hidden Dream

Submitted to Contest #296

Trigger warning: Suicidal ideation, medical coma.Waking up from a coma, sucks. My eyes felt like they were stuck with tar and coated in sand. My throat felt like I’d swallowed a spoon of gravel, and my muscles were simply gone. Lifting my head was like supporting a bowling ball on a toothpick. Yet worse than all the pain that wracked my body was the disorientation. My vision blurred, the world spun, and my mind tried to make sense of the stark white room that settled into existence, grasping at some kind of recognition of where and who I was...

21 likes 15 comments 15
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Following the Herd

Submitted to Contest #296

The zombies surged at the humans like an ocean wave at a wannabe influencer about to lose their phone in the water.Gavin Jenkins’s heartbeat thumped faster. It was happening. He was going to kill and eat someone, another human being. But what was a man to do? It was either fit in or stick out. And look at where sticking out got you – this poor couple was a minute shy of evisceration. No, he needed these zombies to believe he was one of them. He didn’t want to die today, but it was hard when most of the world had an interest in eating the liv...

19 likes 7 comments 7
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Come Outside

Submitted to Contest #296

In the space where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, Herman Bandey's afternoon routine is but a veil, soon to be lifted by the uninvited. Here, in this humble house at the edge of the woods, the threads of philosophy intertwine with the supernatural, edifying the idea that the truths we seek may lead us down a path where shadows dance and reason fades.Herman’s key rattled in the lock, a familiar sound that usually brought a sigh of contentment. It felt strangely hollow this late afternoon, as if the house itself was holding its breath. H...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Transcendence

Submitted to Contest #296

I died when I was twelve. That’s when life as I knew it crumbled into a pile of rubble with unsuspecting souls trapped beneath. The joy and love that once filled my heart was sucked from me as indiscriminately as a Shop-Vac inhales every speck of matter in its path. Up until the event that would mar my soul forever, life was grand in the sage-green mansion on the corner of Little-Known Traffic and Gentle Waves. Our house, with its white trim, angled roofs, and arched windows, was well-known in these parts. I was born on the third floor of th...

14 likes 10 comments 10
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Suburban Living

Submitted to Contest #296

Sensitive Content Warning: This story contains a reference to a transphobic slur, a reference to a mental health condition, a mention of alcohol use, and mature themes. The funeral is crowded. Charlie was an extrovert, the life of the party, friendly and generous, a beloved member of the community. His sisters give tearful speeches. Their baby brother is gone, just like that. His kind face smiles out at the mourners in the pews. It smells like dead roses in here. I am suffocating. People nod sorrowfully in my direction. The pity in their ey...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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What She Never Reveals

Submitted to Contest #296

Long Island, 1974 Think of a day so hot that your T-shirt sticks to your back like paste, a scorcher they say on the morning TV broadcasts. The air is shimmering with humidity, still and heavy, ripe with the sour smell of cabbages that Owen Kepler grows in his farm across the blacktop road. The pungent cabbage odor drifts across the street, into the screened and open windows of the small ranch home that Terry Dougherty shares with her parents. On the front steps, she finds the tomatoes that Kepler has left for them as usual. Terry treads ...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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To the Grave

Submitted to Contest #296

To the Grave‘It won’t be long now’ the nurse said, straightening the crisp white sheet.Poor Gran, she had been sick for as long as I could remember. I loved Gran, she could be a bit cranky and a bit tyrannical, but there was a loving, caring side to her which she reserved entirely for her grandkids.Grandad hovered by her bedside, pacing back and forth. On the few occasions he had attempted to try and hold Gran’s hand she had flinched it away.The family joke had always been that Gran acted like she hated Grandad but deep down she really loved...

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Hand-Me-Downs

Submitted to Contest #296

Doorbells and knocks—easily the worst noises on this space rock, especially when you're elbows-deep in a blood-soaked carpet and there's a pile of limbs in your tub.I froze, the whimsical bell chime I bought online a few months back mocking me with its funny tune. The box cutter in my hand turned to concrete, every muscle in my body warming under the panic.I waited, hoped they would go away. The ticking of my grandmother’s grandfather clock filled the space as I held my breath.The moment stretched long enough for me to finally let my lungs o...

12 likes 0 comments 0
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Nebula Grieving

Submitted to Contest #296

TW: Themes of pregnancy loss and sexual assault.“Hey, Bunny! Think fast!”My co-worker threw a size-XL pair of men’s tighty-whities at my head and, to my dismay, the crotch landed perfectly on my nose.“Not funny. That’s absolutely disgusting.” I looked down at the pile of junk I still had to sort through and gritted my teeth, my hand flying instinctively to my stomach.I was sifting through the bin drop-offs for that day in the suffocatingly humid make-shift storage room, nausea hitting me in waves. New Tomorrow Thrift, where I got my first jo...

10 likes 12 comments 12
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App 327

Submitted to Contest #296

Wiping up tears as she walked from the pharmacy, Suzie stopped. She took a deep breath. It will be okay. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll never hurt again, that I promise. She sat down on the park bench, a bag at her feet and the phone in her hand. She read over the message again. “It will never work out between us. We are just so different. I tried, really I did but I couldn’t get past all your shortcomings and flaws. -Paul-“ He dumped me with a text. Who does that? “May I sit down?” A young man, tall, dark hair, and blue eyes stood over her. ...

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Researcher

Submitted to Contest #296

The moment I saw Larry VandenAkker at the coffee shop, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. I let my eyes slide right over him and back to the menu. But I knew he had seen me. I’d seen his puzzled look as he focused on my face, and the flash of recognition just before I looked down. I’d been here before, and much too recently. I quickly calculated. I’d last been in this location only twenty-seven of their years ago. How had this happened? I’d been researching this blue-green planet for six thousand of their years, half of that time as a hum...

9 likes 3 comments 3
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Nightshade

Submitted to Contest #296

“Morning Chilas” “Good morning, Geeish.” Chilas waved as they approached each other. The elevator was only a few steps from the front door of the hospital. As they entered, Geeish asked, “Are you excited to be going to fledgling care?” “I’m beside myself!” Chilas let out in excitement. “You’ve been wanting this for so long. And if anyone deserves it you do.” “Oh, thank you, Geeish.” “I mean your healing magic is better than anyone’s on the unit, and your hiber-prep is the best in the hospital. You’ll be a Senior Master Level by next cycle, I...

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One Year to Vanish

Submitted to Contest #296

To everyone else, the end of my lease is just a date on a calendar. To me, it’s a countdown to freedom. The only thing keeping me going through this anxiety-ridden year is the knowledge that next February, my townhome lease will expire, and I will walk away from the only life I have ever known. Every polite nod at the office and every strained family dinner brings me one step closer to vanishing. Faking it until I leave has become unbearable. Every interaction with my family reminds me why I need to go. Every cutting remark, every moment of ...

8 likes 5 comments 5
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