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Write a story where the laws of time and space begin to dissolve.

Posted in Fantasy on Feb 23, 2024

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✍️ 98 stories

Metonymia

Winner of Contest #239 🏆

“God is dead.” “Which one?” “I meant it as more of a blanket statement, but if we’re getting into specifics, I guess I mean the one that I killed.” [When | the | god | of | cause-and-effect | is | slaughtered | in | cold | blood | everyone | knows | who | to | blame.]“People aren’t too pleased about that, you know.” “I’ve heard.”[Everyone | has | heard.]“Why did you do it?” [But | nobody | knows | the | motive.]The moment stutters and skips. A silhouette of a memory scampers down the hallway, rounding the corner in a...

141 likes 58 comments 58
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Frayed Edges

Submitted to Contest #239

Monday, 6.50 p.m.Sitting hunched over the scratched, wooden surface of the desk in the corner of his room, Hideo Nakamura froze mid-brush stroke and stiffened, the hairs on the back of his neck rising up in response to the sudden, inexplicable certainty that he was being watched.He was home alone, had been for days, the house was deathly quiet and the night was still. He’d been buried so deep in silent concentration while he practiced his kanji that he could have heard a moth flap its wings or a spider scuttle across the floor. Nobody, not a...

43 likes 34 comments 34
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Morning Drive

Shortlisted for Contest #239 ⭐️

There’s a ghost in the backseat. You catch glimpses of her as the car chases a line of streetlights. It’s hard to focus when your eyes are blurred with sleep. It’s harder still to recognize the beady squint set in a face so thin that you can see the car seat through it. “Eyes on the road,” Grandma chides, like the time you crossed the road without looking and she grabbed your hand. Sweat glued your palms together then. Now, her voice sticks to your ears. An itch that wriggles deep. “How long until we get there?” “Five minutes,” you s...

35 likes 21 comments 21
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Newton's cradle

Submitted to Contest #239

Something was wrong. Fatally wrong. He couldn’t grasp the reason for his anxiousness.As Clive stepped onto the platform at precisely 06:05 and 35 seconds waiting for his early morning commuter train, something was wrong, he thought. Something was not right. In those moments in his life, his mind concentrated on an image of Newton’s cradle, it was idle, motionless, the big brass orbs, dangling from the brass cradle, all were stationary, passive and still, but there was a sense of anticipation, the orbs were oscillating in anticipation of move...

26 likes 8 comments 8
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Whispers of the Wild: A Journey of Discovery

Submitted to Contest #239

A man sat amid a sea of swaying wildflowers, apparently captivated by the vibrant colors surrounding him. The sun’s golden rays softened his face, and he appeared lost in contemplation, his eyes tracing the delicate dance of petals and leaves with a serene expression.He wore simple yet weathered clothes that blended perfectly with the rustic charm of the field. Strands of his unruly hair danced around his face, kissed by the gentle breeze like wisps of forgotten dreams. His hands, calloused from hard labor and adorned with specks of earth, r...

23 likes 6 comments 6
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The Fridge

Submitted to Contest #239

Jack is walking on air when he gets home, early that morning. Oh Boy! Best picture! Best actor! Best screenplay! The sun is almost rising, he can see a smidgeon of light through the kitchen window when he walks in the door. It has been a long, but glorious night with interviews, sound bites and numerous post parties.Home for Jack is a one-bedroom condo. That night, Jack doesn't go straight to his bedroom. He sets his awards on the cheap coffee table from a big store chain. And flops on his futon. Staring at his trophies he realizes, that man...

22 likes 8 comments 8
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A Whale’s Tale

Submitted to Contest #239

“Get out!” I said to her back.  She stopped her writing, put down her pencil, and her spine stiffened. She stared at a photograph I had bought her at the ocean years ago when we were still happy before I screwed everything up.  I know she heard me, but she didn’t say anything. “Get out,” I said again, but not so forcefully.  She breathed in and out slowly, still staring at the photo of a humpback whale’s tail dripping seawater into the dark green ocean water. “I’m sick of you and trying to make this work.” I tried to...

19 likes 8 comments 8
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The Longest Promise

Submitted to Contest #239

The Redemption had been transported to the beach where Victoria and her father, Marcus, had left many decades before. Over the years, this west English coastline had changed, though it still sported rugged cliffs and a rocky shoreline. Victoria and Marcus sailed away in their 35 ft. Sirius yacht, for their Island.Where they thought it to be, from their memories, may have been wrong. It had taken two months initially. Indeed, in a modern yacht, the trip should be shorter. They realized their initial idea of sailing away together needed a real...

18 likes 21 comments 21
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Elian's Dragon

Submitted to Contest #239

Elian did not allow his gaze to stray from the dragon egg.The shell was almost translucent, a network of delicate, vein-like structures weaving across its surface. Its throbbing light cast a soft glow and revealed a faint outline of the baby curled up inside.Elian’s heart matched its cadence as he started his incantations. His slender fingers, nimble from years of poring over potions, trembled as he sprinkled a fine dust of herbs over the egg.A profound silence enveloped the chamber as the last words left his lips. The shell shuddered, and a...

18 likes 7 comments 7
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Pavle, Number One

Submitted to Contest #239

The moment I burst into the office and see myself perched on the desk, eight-o-clock-wide grin and all, the day's already a disaster. Nothing quite like a greeting from the younger, better version of yourself. As if it’s not enough I’m working the long weekend, as if it’s not enough I have sixteen voicemails begging me to fix a project I know I can’t fix, as if it’s not enough Matt’s coming in too, when I barely had time to brush my teeth. “Late as always,” Cambridge-Pavle says, fanning himself with a blood red folder, smooth like his ch...

17 likes 3 comments 3
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Upstream

Submitted to Contest #239

You’d never call me an overachiever. I don’t care much about grades. I’m not in community college to shine. It’s more like a placeholder until I figure out what to do with my life. I’d rather fumble along and get so-so grades. That’s worked out quite nicely my first year in the graphic arts program at Kaufmann Community College. Mom and Dad’s motto is simple. “Stay in school. Live at home rent free.” Works for me. So when I get the ominous summons from Dr. Peters, with the word ‘plagiarism’ on it, I don’t freak out. Much. Plagiarism? Not...

17 likes 8 comments 8
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O-Bec

Submitted to Contest #239

“Nurse Billups!  Paging Nurse Billups!” The intercom disrupted a rather placid evening shift at St. Michael’s Psychiatric Hospital. Employed here for over twenty years, I had been head nurse at the emergency admissions unit for the past five years.  As I walked with purpose to the intake desk, I wondered what this call was all about.  It didn’t take long for me to see the skinny wide-eyed man sitting at the desk.   “Nurse Billups?” The police officer stepped forward as I sat at the desk. “Yes.” “We found him in o...

16 likes 6 comments 6
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The Mailbox

Submitted to Contest #239

1:27 pmHis appearance would not have raised an alarm except Will E. Scape had not seen his father since the trial. More importantly, no one had seen him since his death. In the years hence, DNA testing improved and would have convicted him of the murder, but that was 1975. The murderer was back."Son, listen to me. Everything depends on you". For years he wondered why his father did it. The wondering deteriorated him. Whiskey swished his liver, women left his bed, and age cracked his skin. At first, he wasn't sure this person was hi...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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The Girl and the Empty Moon

Submitted to Contest #239

There was once a Girl who loved the Sun with all her heart.  And she loved the Moon with all her soul.  She loved the Skies with their twin faces, whom in the background watched over all. The Sun shone her rays when she was happy and warmed the Girl, the Moon, and the Skies.  But when she was sad or angry, she withdrew her warmth and all felt it’s loss. The Moon could coax the Sun out of her wrath with his charm and light.  His laughter was contagious; his need for adoration so great that he produc...

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Office Romance

Submitted to Contest #239

.I don’t know how long I sat curled up in the fetal position atop the toilet seat, clutching my cellphone with trembling hands. Lori’s WhatsApp message had dimmed and I clicked it again, as if resurrecting it to life put paid to its blatant lie :Have you heard the news? Colin has died, a heart attack. Apparently.The broken-heart emoji was an empathetic touch but just as hollow as Lori’s tactless message. She knew our history. I had little doubt the entire firm did. My own broken heart lay in shards somewhere on the not-too-pristine cubicle f...

14 likes 10 comments 10
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