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Start your story with an ending and work backward toward the beginning.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 201 stories

Partners In Crime

Submitted to Contest #89

“Next time you want to play with me, learn the game.”Cassie levels me with a predatory smirk. I glare at her attempting to look mildly annoyed instead of utterly defeated. It’s unconvincing, probably because I’m sprawled out on the floor and she’s perched on top of the desk holding Marie Antoinette’s priceless, diamond necklace teasingly out of reach. I kick out, catching her leg with mine, and pull her off the desk. She stumbles, but doesn’t fall. As her eyes darken, I regain my footing. We both know it all depends on who gets to the w...

142 likes 48 comments 48
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sea green eyes

Submitted to Contest #89

He will die, life and light fading from his sea-green eyes as he takes his last breaths. His soft grip on my wrist will grow even softer as he uses his last bits of strength to stay conscious, if only for a couple more seconds.  The dagger in my hand will be sticky with his blood, and I will drop it. It won’t make any noise on the soft rug, and for that, I will be grateful. He will lean in and whisper his last words directly into my ear, for fear that in his condition, I won’t hear them. “I still love you.” He’ll say, and I’ll drop him ...

79 likes 47 comments 47
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Sign of a Haunt

Submitted to Contest #89

She's everywhere. She doesn't do anything or say anything - just stands there smiling. Everything about her looks dry, but her hands are cold, clammy, and wet. Trust me, I know. When she grabbed my arm after I'd dropped my papers in the hallway, my wrist was dripping with water. The shadow of a wet handprint lining the outside of the pisiform on my arm.I jumped back, not because my arm felt weird, but because she shouldn't even be here. She left. There was no way she was still at Georgetown High. She left. There was no escaping her...

69 likes 130 comments 130
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I don't know what to say

Submitted to Contest #89

I think I followed the prompt. If not, oh well, enjoy the story anyway. There probably isn't going to be a sequel, by the way.“Jace, look!” Mike says, pointing over the side of the railing, and leaning forward. The wind blows his curly red hair out of his pale, freckled face. He’s tall and lanky, and clumsy sometimes.Charlie automatically reaches out to grasp the back of Mike’s shirt, and pull him back, not looking up from his phone. His black dreads are pulled back in a low ponytail, and his rectangular glasses are perched on his nose. ...

65 likes 67 comments 67
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Beneath A Lazarus Moon

Submitted to Contest #89

Full disclosure: Paul Jones Palin was no longer the voice of a generation. His death assumed to have happened on August 31, 2010, had people talking all around the world because of its questionable nature. It wasn’t until September of 2017 that he was then declared dead in absentia. By that time everyone had not only stopped talking about P. J. Palin, they’d also pretty much forgotten all about him. And so it goes, my children, and so it goes. That’s why it came as quite a surprise to most that after several undocumented reported sightings...

60 likes 12 comments 12
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The Traveling Rock

Submitted to Contest #89

You hold me in your hand glaring and about to throw me. I may be a small pebble but I was once big. Some people think that small things are really annoying. Me, I think it might be an easier way to move around. I didn’t mean to hurt your foot, I just needed a ride to explore. I like to move around and see different things. I used to think staying in one spot was the thing to do but now I want to know what all there is out there. My only problem is that everywhere I go I leave a piece of me behind.Before I was in your hand getting ready to be...

56 likes 31 comments 31
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A Horse Named Lionheart

Submitted to Contest #89

The summer air tasted sweeter than it did four years ago. Somehow without all the pain, misery, death, and destruction coloring the air, the entire world feels lighter. Freer. If I closed my eyes, I could still feel the barbed wire cutting into my chest and hind legs. I can still feel the warm hands of the two boys who cut me free and then walked me back across the swath of earth they called No Man’s Land.  But all that is in the past now. My days are no longer filled with the sheer terror of war but rather with my sweet Leo’s sure brus...

56 likes 15 comments 15
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Palindrome

Submitted to Contest #89

THIS...is the END...of the UNIVERSEEndless nothingnessUtter silenceComplete, all-encompassing blacknessEons pass. They are mere moments to the cosmosA dazzling flashAtoms vibrate in time to the rhythm of the universeMolecules form, linked by unbreakable bondsStars blaze, sending rays outward, illuminating the vacuumArranged together, the stars shine within their galaxies, forming the teeth in broken smilesInnumerable galaxies, each with their own precious planetary systemsYOU ARE HEREThe Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy within the Virgo Sup...

55 likes 51 comments 51
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Justice In A Whiskey

Submitted to Contest #89

March 21, 1957There is blood on the bed. His stomach ripped open, his left eye mutilated, and the side table is lying near the door frame. His wife is bawling her eyes out, and there is a half-empty bottle of whiskey under the bed. The cut on his body shows that he was attacked by a knife, and the incision is so clean almost as if the murderer is an anatomy genius. The mouth of the body is gaping open, and his neck has purple splotches. My friend who is an investigator clicks photos from all angles. With each flash of the...

53 likes 89 comments 89
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The Wrong Swipe Right

Submitted to Contest #89

Horror dawned in her eyes as she saw that he was not, in fact, her Tinder date's roommate. In fact, there was no real date, just a fake profile he'd made after hacking her account and tailoring his catfish version to her type. Horror turned to unadulterated panic, complete with hyperventilating, when no Daniel showed, and she realized that he had locked the door behind her from the inside. He advanced on her with a slow and unhurried gait.She threw her weight against the door once, then again, but it had been triple locked, the only keys cur...

48 likes 7 comments 7
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The lies we tell

Submitted to Contest #89

I look at the clock. It’s 4 P.M. Only one more hour and another working day will be done. I text my son Jake to remind him to clean his bedroom and do the laundry because I’m too tired to follow you around, picking up after you like some maid. I reply to a text from my husband Alan telling him that no, I’m not coming home late today and that there’s food in the fridge. Then, I grab a pencil and doodle on a piece of paper. My hand traces a cat with two pointy ears and three whiskers coming out from each side of its face. I hold the paper up, ...

39 likes 9 comments 9
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⥼Evergreen⥽

Submitted to Contest #89

⥼2050⥽ I walk around in my boots, my legs scruff the dirt. I stuff my hands in my pockets as the cold air blows my skin. “Its been almost 23 years since that day.” I whisper to myself. “Yeah.” Mark says as he walks up behind me. We walk silently in the world that is not as it once was. There is dirt for miles, yet no plants have grown. There are a few trees but that's all there is…a few. We would grow them back but…all the seeds we put in the ground never seem to grow. They just die off. We have lots of storage for food since we knew this da...

34 likes 35 comments 35
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don't unmute the group chat

Submitted to Contest #89

“You know, Ells, I don’t think I’m coming next time,” I said, adjusting my duffel bag on my shoulder. “If there is a next time.” If I’m invited.Ellis moved his mouth, but no words came out, and I wondered briefly if I’d been dropped into a silent film. He tugged on the hem of his faded t-shirt. I remembered standing in line with him, our shoulders bumping, when he bought it at a concert. “Yeah, I know,” he finally said.“It’s just, they aren’t—”“I get it.” He ran a hand through his hair, as if that would tame his unbrushed, sleep-tangled curl...

34 likes 16 comments 16
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I KNOW THIS PLACE!

Submitted to Contest #89

  Start your story with an ending and work backward toward the beginning. I sit tonight looking at an image that I haven’t thought about for decades.   I had stopped into the library to return two books on growing roses and on my way out the door,  I glanced at the bulletin board and saw the image.   It stopped me dead in my tracks,  literally.   Leaning in to read the small note attached,  one of those tear off a phone number kind of notes,  I read that a person was trying to gather informati...

31 likes 2 comments 2
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Abroad

Submitted to Contest #89

The old man’s suitcase was having none of it. She smiled slightly, trying her best to reassure its wrinkled figure that no unfortunate miscreant was lurking in wait of its corner. Now, she thought towards its sagging eye; hanging jowl, you might find a hand ready to rob you, but I should think your corner is safe. It continued to glower, and her nose wrinkled as she sniffed the air. You’re going to set my head aflame with those angry looks of yours, she thought at it. Hairspray is quite flammable. The luggage harrumphed as the train lurched ...

29 likes 4 comments 4
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