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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story where your character is traveling a road that has no end.

Posted in Fantasy on Sep 16, 2024

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

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✍️ 98 stories

“Talking Heads” by Sol Caine

Submitted to Contest #239

“Mind the gap. Doors closing…” It had been a gruelling week and James Frobisher felt the weight of the world upon his shoulders. War had arrived at his doorstep and there was nothing he could do to stop it. Diplomacy had failed, common sense had lost out to sabre rattling, threats became insults, and finally, ambassadors were recalled – all leading to the decision of no return. With only thirty minutes left to seek shelter, James had rushed headlong into the underground tube station at Westminster and hopped onto the Circle Line – a looping...

38 comments 38
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“Just Deserts” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #239

It is impossible to resist a hitchhiker on a road to nowhere. And that was exactly what my cousin Shane’s wedding to Raven the following morning was going to be.It was strange that we all gathered to wish them well when none of us would be there in two years when the ineluctable breach of the sacrament was ratified by the divorce judge after Shane’s degenerate, pathological gambling resulted in the foreclosure of Raven’s overpriced Bungalow-style home in Boulder City, which she would naively agree to mortgage to the hilt to bail him out, set...

12 comments 12
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“The Road to Reflection” by Tom Skye

Submitted to Contest #239

Thirty-Three reversed the car out of the bay and exited the parking lot onto the road. "240 miles to daily checkpoint," he said as he propelled the vehicle northward. Waves of sunlight flickered off the surrounding dunes, dazzling him, and he tossed his head side-to-side to shake away the glare. Accelerating hard, the car quickly reached 65 mph, and he lowered his cap."Ah, we got six hours," said Seventy-Five, biting his fingernail.Thirty-Three navigated the chicane. "Yeah, only six hours after your third bowl of soup.""Well, the soup sucked...

16 comments 16
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“It Must Be Midnight” by LeeAnn Hively-Insalaco

Submitted to Contest #239

     It must be midnight, Lily thought to herself, as her eyes focused on her surroundings. To her left, Lucy, her eldest sister, and to her right, Lydia, the middle of the Hawkins girls. In the center, she sat with no idea how she arrived here in this room with its rocking, rhythmic restlessness. But as soon as her eyes focused, they glazed over anew, and she dreamily looked around the carriage again. For that is where they sat, the three Hawkins girls, slight and pale beneath heaps of obsidian curls and heavy skirt...

8 comments 8
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“The Hiking Trail” by Kersti Kodas

Submitted to Contest #239

The first thing I remember about the hiking path is a caterpillar. I was six, and till then, caterpillars were hungry blobs in picture books. The translucent emerald worm inched across a branch at my eye level.  “It’s like a gummy worm!” I said with bug-wide eyes. “Why don’t you eat it?” My dad suggested. I giggled, “No, that’s silly!” “Come on, I bet it tastes like candy!” I clutched at my dress, still giggling but growing more uncertain. “No, it doesn’t.” My mom handed me a leaf. “Maybe it’s hungry,” she said. I put the leaf in...

7 comments 7
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“A Calico Apothecary.” by Ken Cartisano

Submitted to Contest #239

The dog queries me. “Do you know your name?” I try to respond, but I can’t speak. My lips don’t move. “Just a moment. She’s coming around, coming into focus,” another voice says, and I understand that whoever they are, they’re referring to me. I try to intervene on my own behalf only to confirm that I cannot even move my jaw, let alone speak. A moment later I realize that I can’t move any other part of me, either. I don’t think I’m restrained, I’m just—immobile, lying chest down on the sofa, my sofa. My face turned towards – my dog. I ...

10 comments 10
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“The Fool and The Trickster ” by Alexandra Noir

Submitted to Contest #239

*** "You will never be a god." ***    When you run through the city streets, at its heart, you find memories set in stone, like pages from an ancient story — a place where time flows slowly, and history no longer endlessly repeats itself. Here, where every ending is just a new beginning, nestled within the trunk of a history-ridden tree, an old man sells thousands of souls, abandoned by the bygone eras. An orphanage for mirror remnants... His hands, with veins pulsating like ink paths on an unwritten paper, caress the deepes...

3 comments 3
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“Pilgrims of nowhere” by Joshua Doe

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #239

‘The Pilgrimage is going through the city centre tomorrow.’ It’s evening and I’m leaning back in my chair, denim-clad legs stretched out, heels resting on the kitchen table. I like sitting like this, thinking and not really thinking, smoking and staring at the mould creeping out from the corner of the ceiling. You get what you pay for I suppose. The flat is dense with the warm stench of cigarettes and turmeric. Victor stands over the hob in that stupid apron he insists on wearing while making dinner and I realise he’s speaking. ‘Oh...

7 comments 7
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“Parked Up ” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #239

Jill leaned on the dashboard as Noah pulled into the parking structure. “I can’t thank you enough for driving me today.” He said, “You know I’d do anything for you. We came together.” Noah retrieved the ticket from the machine and watched the gate rise. Red lights on the tally board displayed available parking spaces. The first twenty-one floors read ‘FULL.’ A line of cars idled up the incline ahead of them. The glow of hundreds of brake lights lit their faces. Noah couldn’t believe how long it had been since he’d seen Jill. Friends since gr...

12 comments 12
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“RandoJRNY” by Janet Boyer

Submitted to Contest #239

"We have to set an intention first, Matthew..."  Jennifer grabbed the phone.   "You don't need the phone to set an intention". Matthew snatched the phone back.  You'd think this couple were in their teens, but apparently 50-something soulmates married for thirty years can do the whole "playful bickering" thing just as well as their younger counterparts.  Matthew and Jennifer walked out of their house and headed towards the gravel driveway. Autumn leaves, strewn across the yard, crunched underfoot. The br...

12 comments 12
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“Black Friday at the Megamall” by Morgan Hall

Submitted to Contest #239

Trisha Hartley was supposed to meet her husband, Don, by the South entrance to Books 'n' Things inside the newly opened nine-story mega mall at 12:15 PM on Friday November 24th, 1989. It was Black Friday. Trisha was running late.
    The 200,000 square foot Books 'n' Things, along with the rest of the massive retail center in which it resided, was having its fifth day of an aggressively advertised soft opening week for the public and nobody had properly prepared for the enthusiastic turn out. Security staff was stretched dange...

2 comments 2
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“Passing Signs” by Aaron Morgan

Submitted to Contest #239

 She couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t in this truck. The humming of the tires on the asphalt droned on forever, a constant note which was both comforting and ominous. Landscapes changed, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly. Grassy hills gave way to dark, misty forests, then desert sands stretched out as far as could be seen on every horizon except for one. Before her, across the flat sands as the road disappeared from view there was a beautiful mountain range.     Even from the highway it could be seen that...

8 comments 8
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“Respawn” by Mary Lynne Schuster

Submitted to Contest #239

Sara looked around for a prompt, a trigger, a clue – anything that would give her a hint on what to do next. The vast plain stretched before her, golden waist high grass undulating under the hot steady wind.  She whirled around the see the tunnel of ice she had just stumbled out of, but it was gone, the endless grassland reaching to the horizon under the blazing sun. Ok. She took a breath and wiped the sweat already dripping down her face. The heat still felt good after the cold of the ice cave but she knew that so...

3 comments 3
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“Satisfaction Without Sweat” by Brian Stanton

Submitted to Contest #239

Reginald (Jake) Jacobson bent low and stabbed a tee through the perfect green turf. He frowned. It didn’t snap through that thin root film of resistance. He straightened easily–too easily. He raised a hand to his forehead reflexively, as he’d done so many times before, to guard his eyes as he scanned the fairway. Long fronds drooped beneath the giant royal palm above him, rustling gently against the cigar-shaped trunk indicating to him a five to six mile-per-hour easterly wind.  Gentle. Consistent. Insignificant.  He held out his...

4 comments 4
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“The Endless Road of Redemption” by E.L. Lallak

Submitted to Contest #239

My chest was already in spasms, etching their way into my jaw, when I saw her Audi pulling into the driveway. The metallic tang of dread mingled with the taste of blood, a consequence of biting my cheek incessantly. Hoping to wash away the impending apprehension, I quickly swallowed a sip of water that felt obstructed in my throat."Ah, just who I wanted to deal with right now," I muttered to my seemingly unsympathetic ceiling. Heather, the self-proclaimed expert on my life, had arrived. In the last 23 years, she's been a front-row spectator ...

3 comments 3
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