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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a character whose job is to bring water to people.

Posted in Dramatic on Aug 19, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 42 stories

“Wally's Water World” by Zack Powell

Submitted to Contest #160

Content warning: Swearing"I know it's your first day on the job and all, but don't worry, man. You're gonna do great. Trust me. We're happy to have you here at Wally's Water World.""Thanks. I'm happy to be here.""Great!""I gotta tell you the truth, though. I only applied because my mom told me she would kick me out if I didn't get a job. She said thirty-five is too old to be unemployed.""That's great too. Exactly the type of can-do, highly motivated, problem-solving attitude we're looking for at Wally's Water World. Glad to have another memb...

38 comments 38
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“Gifted” by Corey Melin

Submitted to Contest #160

      “The gift has been given to you. Others have lost this gift because either they did not want it or used it for their own selfish needs,” I was told many moons ago.            I lowered the bucket down the empty well, knowing the results once I pulled it back up. Many will call me a fool for this well held no water for years. Of course, they did not know I had the gift to bring forth water. Water that will fill the soul in a world gone to madness. It is...

14 comments 14
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“The Bog Witch” by Brian Stanton

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #160

Frogs croak at sundown in the bogs. That’s when she took visitors. I heard their chorus and quickened my pace. Each high-knee step took me closer to her, but burned deeper into my thighs and abdomen. My feet grew more tender with each step. My pack was light, but two days traipsing through a swamp was enough to exhaust me. A week trekking down the mountain, and my bones hurt. My lungs burned too, like a hot coal singeing my insides. I reached for my canteen–the old stainless steel one I had plucked from the corpse of a long dead soldier...

23 comments 23
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“Icedriver” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #160

Zen Morai nudged the right flight stick on his control unit, and the fifteen tonne asteroid chunk beneath his feet stopped rotating. A tap on the throttle, and the longitudinal thrusters pulsed, sending him and his payload towards the cargo rail – the two-hundred metre long metal tube with dozens of meteor chunks harnessed to it. They had already caught a batch of about ninety tonnes of ice, and this would be the last of their haul on this shift.“Status check,” said Daw Artego, through the local shortwave. He was sitting safe on Gopher-7, th...

35 comments 35
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“Prisoner 0004” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #160

            “You can talk to him, but not for more than ten minutes. Don’t look at him. If he makes eye contact with you, we will have to shoot you.” The chief warden didn’t look at Alex Jeffries. Footsteps from their black boots echoed off the stone walls in the dark tunnel. Algae grew unchecked on the dank grey blocks.            “What about him?” Alex asked. The warden hadn’t made eye contact since telling him he’d been ...

17 comments 17
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“Water Freezes at 150mph” by Kenneth Bryan Villagoneza

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #160

Water Freezes at 150mphby Kenneth Bryan VillagonezaLiving almost my whole life as an orphan, I am fascinated watching how family’s bond get so strong. How sometimes they bicker on simple things. How they grow apart and live with a family of their own, then miss each other but during reunions all they talk about is how to divide their inheritance. Why would the eldest gets to own the family business? How the youngest has lived his life away from the responsibilities and that he does not deserve a single penny from the inheritance. Relatives t...

10 comments 10
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“Murder at Harajuku Michi(道) Soba” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #160

Jun looked at Sayako and pointed into the dining room at the customer who had come to murder him. Sayako carried over a glass of cold water and placed it in front of him.“Welcome to Michi Soba Restaurant!” she said in the spirited up tone that she used with customers, and presented him a menu. Sure, the man looked a bit rough, but more like a construction worker than a murderer.This is what she was paid to do. Serve glasses of water to customers that walk in and take their food to them when it was ready. Two years out of high school, and she...

22 comments 22
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“Water, Water, Everywhere - and Lots of Drops to Drink ” by ER Castaneda

Submitted to Contest #160

“Welcome to Refined H20, an immersive aquatic experience here in Los Angeles.  You’ll be tasting five distinctive flavors of water today, and I’ll show your palate how to differentiate between luxurious agua and simple tap water.” Many patrons laughed.  “My name is Ricardo Cortez and I’m a water sommelier.  Few of us exist in the world.  I’ll be serving your water this evening and helping your palate to discover the joys of the influences of the different waters we have to offer, helping to point out th...

3 comments 3
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“I'll Never Desert You” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #160

My eyes fluttered open at the first light of day. Grayish hues scattered across the dawn-lit sky, the ambient rays of the rising sun peaking over the distant horizon, and beaming down trace amounts of warmth to a cold desert. I sat up and watched it for a bit, my eyes blinking lazily while I tried to find the energy to get myself up. I wished I could stay, lay on the soft grass, and enjoy the full extent of the morning, but unfortunately, duty called. I looked around the hidden oasis. Everything seemed so still and beautiful at this hour. I...

2 comments 2
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“Washing with Newah” by Robyn Murray

Submitted to Contest #160

Carefully, I stepped down the marble staircase trying not to slip under the weight of my tramping pack. The bag contained a collection of items that would keep me safe in any circumstance - a water purifier, a change of clothes, a mosquito net and a thin blow up mattress. Mild paranoia had taken over while I was packing, for who knew what was waiting for me beyond the safe confines of the city? The bulging bag looked excessive for a simple day trip but it brought me peace of mind. I strutted out the door wearing my newly purchased hiking gea...

6 comments 6
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“Dance of the Water Bearer” by Janetra Waters

Submitted to Contest #160

Under the heat of three suns, eager eyes watch the horizon in anticipation. Sweat pours down their dirtied faces and their chests heave as they draw in hot air, coughing as it hits their parched throats. They try to wet their dry lips only to flinch at the rough, cracked texture. Though unbearable, they wait with optimism, squinting beneath the bright glare. Humid wind blows around them, offering a small, barely noticeable break in the heat. The people of Tahla have gotten used to dry lips and parched throats. Tahla sits in the south of Asto...

2 comments 2
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“Mandatory Training” by Karen McDermott

Submitted to Contest #160

Triggers for strong language and sexual harassment. Annabel inspected the two glasses carefully for any smudges, then filled them from the sink. Her eyes made contact with the pitcher sitting on the shelf, so she decided to fill that too, for good measure. England was experiencing a heatwave, after all, and despite all the airs and graces her employer KSM Partnership liked to put on, the budget didn’t quite stretch to air conditioning. Trying to balance the tray while opening the kitchen door, Annabel caught her ghostly reflection in th...

4 comments 4
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“His Mercy Rains” by C D

Submitted to Contest #160

Trigger Warning: mild violence, humiliation, verbal abuseWatching the children cry out with pangs of hunger and thirst was the hardest part. The shame came with overwhelming guilt as the crops died and the last reservoir dried up.  After two summers, the Elder Council of the Seiche Church dismissed the absence of rain as simply poor luck. When the last rain ended, there was nothing to distinguish it from another as it left with no fanfare. For the people of Arediel, the lack of indication those were the last drops was the most difficult...

1 comment 1
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“The Gloaming ” by Sean Finn

Submitted to Contest #160

We stood on the porch together, staring at the vast blue twilight above the horizon, waiting for the man with no eyes. He sells water, and we pay with our dreams.  He first arrived three years into the drought, when the town well eventually dried out and rumours of people drinking blood to survive began to circulate. He walked out of the desert in a red beanie that covered half his face and his eyes, a grey raincoat, black jeans and navy Chelsea boots. Leaning against the well, he said he would return weekly to trade water for the tow...

4 comments 4
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“Elijah the Water Diviner” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #160

A man walked out of the Dead Mountain Wilderness area wearing the traditional robes of a shaman.  His name was Elijah Foster and he had been reported missing over fifty years ago.  His sudden appearance sent shock waves through the remote communities of the Mojave Desert in California. According to first hand accounts, Elijah appeared not to have aged a bit since his disappearance and he was confused and disoriented after his Rip van Winkle disappearance a half century before. His father was a Paiute shaman, a follower of Wovoka w...

2 comments 2
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Contest #160

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Ended on 23:59 - Aug 26, 2022 EST

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Title: The Chandelier

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