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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Start your story with someone buying a cursed — or perhaps blessed —mirror from an antiques store.

Posted in Fantasy on Nov 17, 2023

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✍️ 74 stories

“The woman who got lost in her own handbag” by Linda Nicklin

Submitted to Contest #225

It was stifling hot, and the rush hour traffic was gridlocked. A siren wailed in the far distance. I held my breath as I moved through a haze of exhaust fumes that was hanging behind the idling cars. This was a part of town that I knew well, and I was just thinking about a back street detour when something grabbed at my attention. I hardly recognised myself, but there was my reflection in a round brass mirror in the junky antique shop window. My face looked drawn but my body was almost completely obscured by the most beautiful handbag that I...

2 comments 2
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“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #225

When I was released from the hospital, the discharge informed me that I had been in a coma for eight months, but something inside my brain told me it was for a lot longer.  Upon my discharge from UW Medical Center in Seattle walking on the sidewalk to city transit felt as though I was walking on some distant planet.  It felt as if I did not belong here any longer.   The fact I had been the cause of both my wife’s and daughter’s death did not make matters any better.  For twelve years we lived in marital bliss, Dora ...

4 comments 4
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“Time to Reflect” by Cory Fossum

Submitted to Contest #225

I never told the woman behind the register that I couldn’t see my reflection in this mirror. I just placed it on the counter as fast as I could without dropping it and stuffed my hands back into my coat pockets. If she had seen how they were trembling, she would have asked questions. And I had no desire to answer them. “Why I never thought I’d live to see the day,” the woman said, as she searched the mirror for the price tag. She lifted the mirror up between us and looked directly into it, admiring both her elderly reflection and the craft...

3 comments 3
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“Monster” by Kristi Sturgeon

Submitted to Contest #225

Monster Once upon a time, there was a girl named Sylvia Snyde. Sylvia was very beautiful. Every morning, she looked into the magic mirror that she had bought at a local antique shop. The mirror was enchanted. It could speak, and daily, it told her how beautiful she was. No one is your equal in beauty, it would say. So Sylvia knew she was beautiful, and that knowledge began to change her. At school, Sylvia and her entourage would sit on the tables near the front of the school, judging their classmates. No person was safe from their captious...

5 comments 5
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“Mirror of Seirots ” by Veronica Meadows

Submitted to Contest #225

There is something almost magical about a room full of things with so many stories to tell, if they only had a voice. If you're really still, maybe they'll whisper a few words to you. I closed my eyes as I entered the new antique store that had just opened. I thought it would be busier, but I guess not as many people love old junk as much as I do. (I say old junk with the utmost respect, I assure you.) I breathed in the scent of past days, and my heart settled a little. I smiled as I see some pyrex dishes and think of the Marvelous Mrs...

4 comments 4
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“Antique Shop on 27th Street” by Sophie Parmaby

Submitted to Contest #225

It all started in the antique shop on 27th street. Eleanor was, by no means, a connoisseur of antiques. In fact, usually she would grimace at the oddly scattered items that appeared worn down, and well, looked like the idea of them had aged better then the item itself. This morning, however, had been an exception. She had been passing by on her way to the market when she noticed a peculiar looking mirror through the window of the antique shop. It looked out of place next to all the dusty furniture that probably had bugs crawling across every...

2 comments 2
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“Misty's Mirror” by Hollie T

Submitted to Contest #225

Misty was feeling just a smidge guilty. She had just purchased the most beautiful antique mirror she had ever seen. Even to her untrained eye, she knew it must be worth far more than what she had paid, likely at least two or three times the amount. But she also knew she definitely couldn’t afford more. That was why, when she had asked the pleasant elderly gentleman running the obscure shop about the mirror’s value, and in response he had shrugged and said, “I don’t know, what is it worth to you?”, she couldn’t help but name exactly what she...

4 comments 4
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“Hi, Mom” by Danielle LeBlanc

Submitted to Contest #225

I was answering my forty-seventh email of the day as I hurried my way down that bustling NYC street. My Stuart Weitzman knee high boots raised me six inches off the pavement, and I was counting down the seconds until I could get home and kick them off. Stopping me mid-hustle, the mirror in the window of the antique shop caught my attention. “That would look stunning in the upstairs hallway.”I’d become somewhat of a shopaholic over the last couple of years, and my tongue pressed against the roof of my mouth once I saw the handwritte...

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“Keep the Memory Alive” by Jasmine A Taber

Submitted to Contest #225

The Beatles. Fleetwood Mac. Duran Duran. The Beatles again. Queen. The Cranberries. Chicago. The Beatles.I already own every Beatles album.I finish sifting through yet another box of vinyls and stand up to wipe the dust off of my knees. I love coming to the antique mall, but it’s so large and it’s sometimes hard to find the hidden gems. I’ve been collecting vinyls for years, it’s a hobby of mine. Cleaning the kitchen becomes a less mundane task when the turntable in the living room transports you like a time machine to any concert by any ban...

1 comment 1
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“Lost Images ” by Valencia Reed

Submitted to Contest #225

I’d been in the house for a couple of weeks and needed to get out and get some fresh air. I decided to go for a walk. The brisk fall air would do me some good; hopefully improve this crappy mood I’d been in. I mean, I’d always kind of known we wouldn’t be together forever. Even though it wasn’t all bad, it’s not like we were the perfect couple. But now I’m lonely. I hate this feeling of longing; knowing there isn’t anything I can do about it; I miss us. Here I go, heading back down the rabbit hole. Anyway, it’s Saturday morning, and I’m goin...

2 comments 2
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“The Old Clock” by Tom Campbell

Submitted to Contest #225

Antiques are my life. My passion for old things started when I was a child. I collected some of that Burger King and McDonald's crap and when I was a bit older my grandma told me stories about all the nice really old things she had in her house. I read catalogs and noticed things in shop windows and people's houses. It wasn't until many years later when my unemployed drunken husband died driving his car off a bridge that I had the time and freedom to go looking for bargains as well as some nice things for my cluttered little house. Seacaucus...

2 comments 2
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“Angle of Incidence” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #225

The glass was scratched, the silvering was cloudy, and the gilded wood frame was so ornate as to be ridiculous and fragile. Acanthus leaves intertwined with vines and flowers in a style that fell somewhere between baroque and rococo. It was the perfect amount of kitsch to brighten up the hallway. While mostly useless as a mirror, it suited her purposes perfectly. She had to have it. Alyx turned the tag over. It was certain to be priced out of her range. She had a start as the price on the tag was only $20. This was an antique worth thousand...

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“The Gift” by Liz Elletson

Submitted to Contest #225

Ben pressed his ear against the door to his mother’s bedroom and could hear her weeping. She had been crying every morning for over a month and she had a good reason to. He backed away from the door and walked down the hall.He stepped into the kitchen and stared at the lifeless space. He missed his mother humming happily, while she prepared breakfast for him and his father. The bold aroma of coffee percolating, along with the smell of bacon sizzling woke him up every morning around seven. But not anymore. He imagined his father with his arms...

2 comments 2
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“The Last Reflection ” by Daniel Culbertson

Submitted to Contest #225

“Are you sure you want to look into it now?”, asked Mrs. Simms, nervously shuffling a small stack of index cards from hand to hand. The cards, Mr. Stanley had learned, contained information on many of the items up for auction, including the ornate full-length mirror he had just purchased for a staggering ten thousand dollars. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a severe bun, and her black glasses hung from her neck by a sparkling onyx and blood red beaded cord. Nearby on a desk was her open briefcase. “Considering its reputatio...

9 comments 9
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“Green Walls” by Aaron Morgan

Submitted to Contest #225

Kelsey stood staring blankly at the mirror in front of her. “What in the world just happened?” she thought, as her mind tried to connect back to reality. “Am I on something?” She tried to lift her foot to take a step toward the door but it felt like someone was holding it down. With a huge effort she pulled up one foot and moved it closer. Her head was spinning, eyes moving in and out of focus as she fell to her hands and knees and crawled out into the dark hallway. Once there, she sat down leaning against the wall and began taking deep brea...

4 comments 4
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🌟 Similar prompts

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Contest #225

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This week's theme: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

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Ended on 23:59 - Nov 24, 2023 EST

Won by Olivier Breuleux 🏆

Title: The Day Alfred Googled Himself

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