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Set your story during a sudden change of season.

Posted in Fall on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 26 stories

Souls of Their Shoes

Submitted to Contest #118

There are many ideas out there about the measure of a man, but mine is the only one I know of that involves shoes. Sure, there is a lot to know about him by his demeanor, the use of his wealth, or how he treats those less fortunate. But the shoes tell a subtle story, for he is aware he will be evaluated by those other measures, and it does not occur to him he may be judged by his shoes;  they are a more true glimpse of him than his reputation or handshake. The shoes will give you as intimate a clue to his person as if his wife had let s...

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Lucy

Submitted to Contest #118

It was the day after Halloween. All Saint’s day. But as far as Jermaine could see there were no saints to be seen within a very wide radius. The bite in the air had just snapped the coniferous leaves into their colorful reds, yellow and oranges. Change was in the air. He was the son of one of Baltimore’s most famous African American Catholicism mavens. As such he had done his stint in the seminary and had almost taken his vows twice. But his love of the opposite sex, made the Chastity one a hard pill to swallow. His mother had...

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The first Christmas

Submitted to Contest #118

Winter came earlier that year. The wind saw cities collapse. Surrendering to the tempest of October. The hearths of millions could not keep homes warm. This is how I started. This is my tale. In the month before Christmas, when Christmas was not yet marketed or truly existing, and when my clothes and skin still reeked of gut-spillage, shame and defeat, and when the strike of midnight anaesthetized the rare drunks consistently awake, the good-for-nothing ice-prince arrived on the shores of his new homeland. In this story, I am the prince an...

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The Calendar

Submitted to Contest #118

Leaves blew down the sidewalk on the chilly fall day. Devin shoved his hands in his coat pockets to help them warm up a bit. He cursed himself for not wearing a thicker jacket, being that it was much colder than he anticipated. Yet even the cold wouldn’t completely ruin Devin’s mood. He needed this breath of fresh air before the big presentation he’d be giving later that day. Just thinking about it gave him anxiety, but he stopped that train of thought quickly by looking at his surroundings. Not too far down the city block was a little ant...

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Outcasts of Granny Flats

Submitted to Contest #118

                                  The Outcasts of Granny Flats                                                    ...

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The Changes War Imposes Upon a Man

Submitted to Contest #118

(CW: cursing, references to war)WWIII. Russia vs. China vs. North Korea vs. the US. It was 2035.The war had just ended, and Edmund Salloway was coming back to the States from his final deployment. To say that he was shell-shocked was a bit of an understatement. The war had taken a toll on him, not only in the ways one might expect. Sure, his entire squad had died twice, he watched his best friend die of gangrene, and he almost starved to death in the Siberian winter. But at least his few friends who did survive the war had a family to go bac...

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Reason for the Season

Submitted to Contest #118

           Kevin watched his mommy dive into a huge plastic tub in the hallway upstairs. Her rear end was waving around in the air in a way that made the six-year-old giggle uncontrollably. Mommy, aka Sandra Peterson, straightened and gazed down at her son, now holding his middle and rolling around the floor laughing.            “Something amuses you, boy?” she smiled down at him.          ...

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Necro

Submitted to Contest #118

Necroby Francois van der MerweEverything is ready for the ritual. The bodies are stacked high in the garden shed. The eyes glow, putrid fluid pools on the floor. Magic grows in green swirls as words of mouth and twisting fingers pull souls from the abyss.Animated dead shamble towards the house.A dead soldier walks through the front door. Startled shouts and screams cut the night. People back up as plates crash to the floor.A man in dark livery climbs onto a table and knocks an arrow to his concealed hand-bow.“Reck!” someone calls.The arrow f...

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Precipitation

Submitted to Contest #118

Rain bounces back up from the clouded cement as it hits the ground. The rainstorm casts a muddied filter across the concrete jungle gym. The only splash of color from a nearby playground, a sweet red emerges the twisting slide heavily influenced by the steamy downpour. The shimmering playscape glows in comparison to its high and mighty bureaucratic brethren. I stare out my window sulking away day after day. Bored of the comfort of my bed I imagine a life I don't live and wouldn’t particularly want to live.  “How do stray cats survive th...

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Gentleman John

Submitted to Contest #118

Gentleman John An old man emerged out of landscape, dappled green grey outfit, not camouflaged print, but similar to garb deer hunter’s rig out. Human yes, but appearing part of surrounding vegetation. As if he belonged more as a tree creature, or part of the bush rather than an actual person. I am enthralled by the white-haired stranger’s story as we waited at an isolated country bus stop. Funny how some people are prepared to launch into confessional mode merely based on a location. Standing by a bus stop, greeting a stranger…forgive me...

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Tis the Season

Submitted to Contest #118

TIS THE SEASON By Allen Samson There is this traditional celebration called Ber Month. It is basically where we celebrate September, October, November and December. Mainly, Filipino citizens. And who can't blame them? I myself love celebrating those kind of months because it's when the holidays come in and most people began to feel the festivities and decorate for the thrills and the chills. What do I mean by that? Well, ladies and gents, this is where we will dive into how I look at these months. With that said, here we go! September i...

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Wraith

Submitted to Contest #118

He pulled his coat close and raised the collar as the crisp autumn air grew colder, whipping around him fiercely and threatening to carry him away like the leaves barely hanging on to the limbs overhead. The beautiful fiery oranges, reds, and yellows waved in the growing wind, fanning like flames. The warm amber light of the setting sun, instead of igniting the brilliant foliage in an array of blazing tones, turned dull and gray. The cooling air of the evening stole away every last leaf, stripping the trees bare and sweeping off the walkwa...

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The Refuge

Submitted to Contest #118

Is this the beginning or the end? Have my girlfriend and I, stumbled into a horror movie or have we been blessed beyond all understanding? Never in a million years would I have dreamed of being in this dilemma and it really put into perspective my piddly little problems in the scheme of… the universe! A week earlier, my girlfriend and I were at a bar in Glebe. An Inner West suburb of Sydney and an easy walk, drive, bus or light rail from Sydney CBD. We lived around the corner in our old one-bedroom apartment and had been together for ab...

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Walking on thin ice

Submitted to Contest #118

CW: gun violence, goreI was home for the holidays.I wanted nothing more than to go to her, to see her face and to hear her voice again; I kept making plans in my head that I knew I would never see through. Surprising her with bright yellow sunflowers during her class; running into her casually at her favorite café; picking her up and taking her back to our spot.Although my love was strong, my ego and pride were stronger; I couldn’t do any of those things knowing what she had done with Mark. As thoughts of Valerie swarmed my mind, I noticed m...

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You Don't Necessarily Reap What You Sow

Submitted to Contest #118

“Can’t wait to get back into the fields and get my hands dirty in God’s green earth,” farmer Frank Albertson said.            Every year for the past 15 he had carefully arranged his corn plants in perfectly constructed rows--and carefully irrigated each of his three fields so they would bring him the greatest yield to produce the most profit--and the ideal climate of Caroline County had never failed to work its magic on his crops.          &n...

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