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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a character driving and getting lost.

Posted in Dramatic on Sep 16, 2024

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✍️ 98 stories

“My Jeremy ” by Amanda Wisdom

Submitted to Contest #249

We’re just kids, Ma. Please let us stay. Please. Please let me keep my—I wake with a start, drenched in sweat. It takes me a few moments to realize where I am, but then I see the wooden walls made of timber, the pointed slope of the ceiling, and remember. The cabin. We’re still in the cabin. After lying on the stiff, unforgiving floorboards, it takes a great deal of effort to stand. But somehow I do. I walk over to the boarded-up window and peek through one of the slates. It looks like the first snowfall of the season has begu...

2 comments 2
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“The Man in the Road” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #249

Leaving his father’s funeral, Joe was on autopilot, barely registering his wife Francesca and two daughters in as everyone piled into the old Volvo. A Stoic does not cry. Blinking rapidly, stern-faced, he had delivered his section of the eulogy, rather more eloquently than his brothers but not quite as ardently as his sister. Still, he had “kept it together”—how Father would have wanted. Not like Rita, who spoke of the childhood things: old-forest hikes with Father, spooky tales around the campfire, funny faces and silly-yet-wise sayings tha...

4 comments 4
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“Circular Intersections” by Clark Redmond

Submitted to Contest #249

I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m driving of course; I know that much. I mean, I’m not sure why, but since finishing another soul draining shift of taking orders over a tannoid in a boring little cubicle with nowhere to stay, or more specifically nowhere I want stay, I find myself lost. Without thought, I engage with aimlessly bounding around Trinketon waiting for something, anything to happen. The more I anticipate it however, the more I simply don’t want anything to do with it. Whatever it may be. I try to imagine myself as more...

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“LOST” by Carol Hopkins

Submitted to Contest #249

LOST!She had driven the route back and forth the hospital many times but this time she was distracted by worry – this was her father’s third heart attack! Her sister sat in the front seat beside her and the two women chatted nonstop as they drove through the rural countryside.Anna’s fingers frequently drummed on the steering wheel as she drove.“Liz, do you think we can convince Dad to move in with one of us? Since Mom died it’s such a terrible worry,” Anna said, glancing quickly at her sister. The car lurched. Forced to press the brakes, har...

1 comment 1
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“The Bloody Envelope” by Kyla Crist

Submitted to Contest #249

The faux leather of the wheel becomes slick with her sweat. She grips tighter still, making her knuckles ache and blood crawl from the fresh stinging wounds.  From the other side of the road headlights leisure toward the speeding ‘65 Ford Mustang, but the woman keeps her eyes on the envelope slanted against the front windshield, crinkled with blood – not hers, at least, not much. Sweat drips from her tight upper lip, leaving a salty kiss on her tongue that catches it in a lover’s fashion.  She revels in this part. The high of the f...

5 comments 5
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“Smoke” by Christopher Kooker

Submitted to Contest #249

DO NOT DRIVE INTO SMOKE. The yellowed road sign was already a dwindling speck in his side mirror, hardly worth devoting any extra energy on, but Bryan couldn’t shake the nasty thought that a sign like that was just the sort of unimpeachable non-action that authorities like to take in a crisis. Notably, he didn’t put much thought into the actual substance of the warning. Wispy gray clouds of smoke rolled somewhere ahead, their exact distance impossible to judge against the resolutely flat landscape. Besides, driving into the smoke didn’t see...

2 comments 2
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“Asleep & Dreaming In Watsonville” by Adrian Pedraza

Submitted to Contest #249

I was getting too old for this. I fought for my gray beard, and now that I have it, cough out my lungs in prayer for the color back. I fought a gangster for a pack of cigarettes behind the overflowing dumpster of this old mini-mart. He pulled his ski mask lower with each grunt, heave, and breath. He swung hard, though docile, and kept hooking his wrists around my neck. I wanted to smoke and I wanted to smoke tonight. I swung hard too, though fragile, and only pushed his nose like a button–squeezed like a clown’s–and popped the blush hidden u...

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“The Cat on Hemlock Avenue” by Charlie Chaos

Submitted to Contest #249

"Turn left," the tinny voice of the GPS said unhelpfully. Greta banged her open palm against the side of the steering wheel. There was no left to take. The phone beeped as it redirected. Thunder cracked overhead and Greta ground her teeth until her jaw ached.  "Take the next right onto Olive St," the GPS concluded as the rain began to pick up. Greta flipped on the windshield wipers and desperately hoped the storm didn't get worse. She hadn't seen the storm on the radar earlier, but with the weather, it was always luck of the draw. Unfor...

4 comments 4
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“One Good Turn” by Patrick Druid

Submitted to Contest #249

One Good Turn.A torrent of rain continued to descend upon the streets and highways of old forgotten towns as a small, red, two door Pinto coughed and sputtered it's way up an exit ramp. William, it's driver, nervously peered through the windshield, hoping for some signs, landmarks or anything that would tell him exactly where he was.William groaned. “Just my luck! Forced to go to some seminar, stay in some dive motel and now, driving home in a thunderstorm at night and to top it all off, I’m lost!”Last week, he had been c...

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“The Sunset Road” by C.N. Jung

Submitted to Contest #249

The Sunset Road To hear the crunch of pavement below With sticky fingers wrapped around a leather wheel Trees and sky pass in an endless flowSurrounded by a cage of solid steelThunder rumbles and shakes the earthLighting flashes in mocking mirth  Rain falls from a darkened skyDroplets slither along glass My lip trembles, and I whisper a silent, ‘why?’A flashing symbol on the dash warns of my waning gasShe loved to drive at sunset, as I am doing nowShe would drive and drive, as long as time would allow I remember the day w...

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“It Called To Me” by Noted Moments

Submitted to Contest #249

Chris had been driving for hours, with the GPS insisting he was close to his parents' house, but he was still ten hours away by paper map. "I knew I should have invested in that new Tesla. I wouldn't have to figure this out. My mom is going to be so worried about me. Dammit, where am I?" says Chris, with a hint of shame in his words. The wooded road seemed to stretch on forever, the trees blurring together like sentinels guarding some ancient secret. He had been looking forward to this trip for weeks, eager to escape the city and spend some ...

4 comments 4
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“No Turning Back ” by Daniel Dundin

Submitted to Contest #249

"I'm sorry. I know, I should've turned back miles ago. I just have this almost pathological compulsion to keep going forward. I simply despise having to retrace my steps. I'd rather take the long way around than go backward even a little. You remember when I forgot my bag on that work trip, and rather than drive the 20 minutes home, I opted to buy all new stuff, even a new bag?"He looked at himself briefly in the rearview mirror and nodded."Thanks for understanding, Norman! You're welcome, Norman," he nodded to himself again and smirked.It w...

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“The Day I Met Billy Smith” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #249

January 23, 1947Somewhere in New MexicoLost!Craning my neck in all four directions, north, south, east, and west, I didn’t see a single living thing in any direction I chose to look in, let alone any sign of human inhabitation. The sun was setting around a mesa in the west leaving long shadows in the dirt and rocks.I sat on the floorboard of my truck and emptied the stones from my work boots. In less than an hour the entire world would be dark with nothing to light the landscape other than the stars and crescent moon. I was su...

7 comments 7
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“The Diner” by Mel Kennedy

Submitted to Contest #249

Music blares from the rental car as she speeds down the highway, singing along with a smile on her face.This is her first trip abroad in years and she feels younger for it.Messages ping up on her phone as she weaves through the other cars; messages from the friends she is due to meet up with in two days.In the distance, the sun is beginning to set, but there is still more than enough time to reach the next city to turn in for the night.Her music cuts off abruptly as the sat nav takes over,“Take the nex...

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“Mr. More-ph” by Douglas R

Submitted to Contest #249

Douglas Reiche                                                Approx. 3,000 words108 Bluffview Drive, Troy MO618-317-6014douglasreiche@gmail.com MR. MORE-PHbyDouglas Reiche Mr. More-ph could not be late for his appointment, so he tossed his briefcase in the back seat and got into the rental car. Beaut...

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