Start your story with a metaphor about human nature.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 109 stories

“There's a Hole Where My Heart Used to Be” by S.E. Reed

Submitted to Contest #102

You know she’s a loaded gun. Click, click, boom. “Lucy, what the hell did you do?” Benny says when we walk into the house and he sees the glass on the floor. “What needed to be done,” I reply. My cheeks are burning. “She’s going to lose her mind!” “But Benny--” I punch my hands into my pockets. “God Lucy! You can’t just break shit. Anything sets Mama off these days--” “Just shut up Benny!” I cry. I don’t have to be reminded how bad it is. She’s moody, bitter, drunk… and she hates me and Benny more t...

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“Funeral Drive” by Alice Claude

Submitted to Contest #102

How many deaths have you experienced in your lifetime? I’m not really referring to beloved Pops, or your great aunt. I’m referring more to the things that have happened, things that have died, that have caused you to grieve. Humans have a tendency to prepare for and attend these metaphorical funerals more times than one may think. We experience losses throughout our lives, and each comes with its own ceremony, with candles and flowers, which attempts to mend the breaks that life has unceremoniously punched into our hearts. Sometimes it’s...

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“Possible Minds In An Impossible World” by Jeremiah Benson

Submitted to Contest #102

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”-Albert CamusOn a lovely spring morning, Beth and her family went out to have a picnic. It was a beautiful arrangement. As her children tussled over the plush green grass and her husband gently played along, as Beth bit into a ripened strawberry plucked from the garden, it dawned on her, this was as good as it would ever get. Eventually her faithful husband would grow bored of her body, her children would abandon their naive affection and begin to interact with their mother as a transac...

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“Mask” by Manan Suraiya

Submitted to Contest #102

TW: child death, murder The mask of human nature is deadly. You never know what lies behind. BOOM! Sofia woke up with a start. A puddle of sweat had creeped around her on the bed sheet. Moonlight filtered through the window, sparkling on the tears that streamed down her face. With a quivering hand, she raised the glass beside her to her lips and took a sip of water. Her eyes fell on the picture lying next to her. The picture of a young boy, no older than six. Tenderly, she ran a hand across the photo, almost feeling the boy’s soft brown hair...

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“Science of sin” by Havilah Bail

Submitted to Contest #102

CW: Blood and gorePeople are God. They create "God" for closure, because they need someone to blame when things go wrong.The church bells shrieked once her breath ceased. Soon the sermon would begin, and the deaconess will be nowhere to be found.Like a man awakening from a horrible nightmare, I jerked my hands away from her neck. She hit the wooden floorboards with a thud. Even in the dim orange glow of my lantern- the only thing stopping the darkness from crawling into the basement- I could make out her features clearly. Wide eyes, gaping m...

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“Mindscape” by Aamna I

Submitted to Contest #102

A speck of green and gold crawled along the periphery of my armchair. Its whiskery feet shook in trepidation as it clumsily navigated over a ridged fold in the fabric. The nervous beetle swiftly froze, as though conscious of my fixation, before resuming its tremulous tread.With my line of sight trailing after its beady silhouette, I began to ponder the intrinsic mechanism which guided its course. What appeared as random, erratic motion at this grand scale perhaps consisted of a series of calculated decisions on the beetle’s part. Perhaps we,...

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“Missing” by Phil Manders

Submitted to Contest #102

Walter stared stone-faced at the mirrored walls of the room. The handcuffs and bland white walls were starting to irritate him, but he knew it would all be over soon. It would be over when he decided it would be. He closed his eyes and began to recite the Lord's Prayer. Outside in the viewing area, DCI Lawrence grabbed a bottle of water and two plastic cups. He waved the bottle of water at the glass. "I know he did it... I’ll get his confession this time if it’s the last thing I do," he said, as much to himself as to the group gathered behin...

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“The Politics of Bees” by Emmanuelle Shemko

Submitted to Contest #102

Hard work, for Coralie, was all she'd ever known. The town of Twinstone was like a bee's nest. Its politics ran similar to that of a hive. There was, of course, the queen bee that ran the operation, and in Twinstone, the queen bee was the Kleindale monarchy.Coralie was the daughter of a merchant and was always overworked in their shoe shop. Her father was a brilliant man but, being born into poverty, was never able to showcase his intelligence. Doing so would have been a death sentence. Under the Kleindale monarchy, the rich thrived, an...

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“Miracle” by Rachel Bacon

Submitted to Contest #102

In the way one climbs a ladder, ambition led him to climb the bodies of everyone he could step on. He was ruthless. Heartless. Borderline cruel. His name was Lloyd Mauldin. Lloyd always wore black. Black slacks, a black suit, a black tie, and a black coat. Intelligent eyes glistened behind his glasses. It was said he would sell his own mother for a dollar. Impossible though, as his mother died when he was eight. He had a corporate job for an insurance agency checking insurance claims. And he was very good at his job. His black attire a...

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“Sam rises like a Phoenix” by Sarah Desouza

Submitted to Contest #102

To rise like a phoenix from the ashes can often be a difficult thing.It is often human nature to think that resilience is not possible. Sam did in fact rise from the ashes like a phoenix, when he took on some new challenges. This is his story.Sam always did had a great sense of adventure. He was an energetic man who loved riding horses. He also had a great career that gave him enough time to spend on all of his hobbies. He was a wealthy man. He had risen to great heights in his professional life. He started small, and found his way up the co...

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“Nobility is not everyone’s cup of coffee” by Bharathi Raja R

Submitted to Contest #102

Those days, exactly at 10:00 pm, the electricity used to be cut for a minute and at 10:01 it would be back. The elders used to say, “They change the line”. Even today, I don’t understand what it means. I never experienced this phenomenon after I grew up. One of those nights, the elders were playing Thayam, a South Indian board game, in our thinnai, a raised platform in front of the house, which every house used to have those days and I don’t see in the houses being built these days anywhere. Ram uncle, Lakshmi aunty, Abdul uncle and ...

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“De är Gjorda av Metall: Reflections on Friendship, Love, and the Lack Thereof” by Candela B

Submitted to Contest #102

“Alla människor är på låtsas. De är gjorda av metall. Men jag tycker om dig. Och det är inte på låtsas, liksom. All the people are fake. They’re made out of metal. But I like you, and that is not . . . it’s not fake.”-Young Royals, Episode 4All the people are fake.When one laments that “everyone’s fake”, or proclaims they are "done with fake friends”, “fake” has a particular meaning that is commonly understood. Insincere, disingenuous. A cheap, flimsy facade. Maybe the person in question is two-faced, a wearer of masks, of thinly ...

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“Dog Fight” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #102

Pedigree rattled in the green plastic dish as I filled it to overflowing, enough to feed three dogs. Trixie, my yellow lab, rushed out on the back porch, burying her face in the bowl. She growled when the cocker spaniel mongrel padded out, refusing to share. Outside the dirty sliding door, Robin barked, baring her teeth. They jumped on each other, a hairy snarling ball, banging into the glass, rolling off the concrete steps, knocking aside the rose trellis. "Trixie!" I shouted, rushing to the patch of dirt where...

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“Detachment” by Apoorwa Bajpai

Submitted to Contest #102

The rain dripping, wind changes its direction, its course changes, but that same wind cannot change the sunlight direction's no matter how hard it tries. A detached human nature cannot be deflected from its course no matter how much of temptations wind flows around it. Human nature is like different flowers in a garden, having similarities still a lot different from one another, having different fragrances, different sized petals, different addictions for there growth, different nutrition need, still they all have petals, leaves, sepals, sta...

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“Evil Machinations” by Nathalie Menard

Submitted to Contest #102

Justice is expensive, that’s why we’re saving it.Ah! Hypocrites! They plotted together, to isolate us, so that we’d believe we’re diminished! I’m sure of it! When we go to the supermarket, they hide the ripe fruits to swap them with green bananas, iron-fortified carrots and concrete apples. In the butcher’s department, they give us steaks that are tough as the sole of my boots and keep the tender pieces for themselves. It’s a conspiracy, I’m sure! The dentist tells them when we’re coming, so we have to purchase new dentures.They’re trying to...

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Start your story with a metaphor about human nature.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 109 stories

“There's a Hole Where My Heart Used to Be” by S.E. Reed

“Funeral Drive” by Alice Claude

“Possible Minds In An Impossible World” by Jeremiah Benson

“Mask” by Manan Suraiya

“Science of sin” by Havilah Bail

“Mindscape” by Aamna I

“Missing” by Phil Manders

“The Politics of Bees” by Emmanuelle Shemko

“Miracle” by Rachel Bacon

“Sam rises like a Phoenix” by Sarah Desouza

“Nobility is not everyone’s cup of coffee” by Bharathi Raja R

“De är Gjorda av Metall: Reflections on Friendship, Love, and the Lack Thereof” by Candela B

“Dog Fight” by Chris Wagner

“Detachment” by Apoorwa Bajpai

“Evil Machinations” by Nathalie Menard

🌟 Similar prompts

Frame your story as an adult recalling the events of their childhood.

Write about a character with an unassailable moral compass.

Write a story about someone losing faith in an institution.

Write about a mysterious figure in one’s neighborhood.

Contest #102

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

712

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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