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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

Posted in Fiction on Oct 25, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 201 stories

“The Accident” by Raelynn Hefferon

Submitted to Contest #89

Brent: Accident I groan and turn my head. There is so much pain. Pain is everywhere. In my fingertips and all the way to my head. I try to open my eyes but whatever is around me is so bright that it hurts. Finally, I can open my eyes all the way, and I sweep the room. Around me I hear a beeping and breathing. I quickly find that the breathing is me and the beeping is the heart monitor that is taking my heart rate. My vision blurs, but I soon find the eyes of a woman with dark hair and a blue mask. “Can you tell me your name?” the woman a...

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“The Dream” by Aisha Khan

Submitted to Contest #89

James led the officers down the makeshift ladder. He could hear two of them grunting, but Officer Edison followed with a solemn vibe. There was a stench inside the tunnel, but James felt a little grateful because it didn’t make him nauseous again. The officers seemed fine too. Or maybe, he was thinking, the officers were used to worse occurrences than this. The only luminosity in the pitch blackness of the tunnel came from the officer’s flashlights; the few on the back were scanning the walls and the back end, but Edison kept his flashlight...

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“Prey” by Jenne Gentry

Submitted to Contest #89

Sophia sits in the hospital bed, shaking. Though the danger has passed, she remains rigid and on high alert. Nurses file in and out of the small room, performing tests and checking the readings of various medical machines, but she barely notices. Traumatized, she is locked in her mind, reliving the events of the day over and over, with no power to stop it. Her doctor thinks he is out of earshot when he whispers to a nurse, “they just found the animal and put it down. It was banged up pretty bad, she's stronger than she looks,” he nods at Sop...

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“Her Dying Memories” by Aaron Measer

Submitted to Contest #89

As the bullet passed through her chest, Erin saw one thing: the face of the man who loved her. She collapsed in a heap on the concrete floor, her hands and feet numb and cold. The stink of gunpowder filled her nose, and for a moment, it reminded her of her father, the way his Sunday jacket smelled. With what little strength she had, she slipped her hand into her pocket and touched a cold, metal item. She wrapped her fingers around it and held it tight. Her lips trembled with the taste of blood, and as she died, her mind engaged a parade of m...

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“Crash and Burn” by Spense Long

Submitted to Contest #89

The lights of the emergency vehicles painted the forest with a mixture of reds, blues, and purples. Ashley sat on the edge of the ambulance, wrapped in a warm blanket, and taking small sips from a bottle of water. The EMT was still trying to coax her into going to a real hospital, but she refused, just as she had before. The EMT sterilized her leg and wrapped it. Even after he had walked away, the alcohol still bubbled deep within the tender muscle of Ashley’s calf. All along the borders, between the tree line and the yellow police tape, cam...

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“Bloody Innocence” by Rosana Maryjain

Submitted to Contest #89

BLOODY INNOCENCE "Mrs. Swan you are being charged with murder of Matilda Swan, your niece, daughter of James Swan, you are under arrest, do you have anything to say in this regard?" Mr. Watson sternly asked the woman who still had an imperious countenance, even when she was being charged of a cold blooded murder. The clinging followed by the clicking sound of a pair of cold handcuffs, encircling the fair and slender hands of Mrs. Swan, gave Mr. Watson a fleeting but evident sense of pleasure, as they were the cold and bloody hands of a murd...

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“The Timely Affair” by Hannah Rutledge

Submitted to Contest #89

THE TIMELY AFFAIR “The future…my past…your present…its all connected…” Emperor Henry began to cough again, this time for at least 5 minutes.       “Oh please my love don’t speak.” Empress Anne whispered as her 600 year-old husband who didn’t look a day over 50 (and neither did she for that matter), hacked up blood. Old age had finally caught up with him. Tripping over his own feet down the spiral staircase from his own lab in the palace had broken a couple ribs and punctured a lung that refused to heal.  &nb...

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“Space Rendezvous” by Tim Gorringe

Submitted to Contest #89

Valentina was sitting at a picnic table in the long shadows of the pine trees. She was about to be the most celebrated women in the Soviet Socialist Republic.Along the stone path came the young Khazakstani couple. Sofia was carrying a tray of mutton stew. Amir was holding three small glasses and a pint-sized bottle of the local liquor. Amir felt very uneasy.“My name is Valentina,” said the visitor. She had short blonde hair, unusually pale skin, and an accent that was unfamiliar to the couple. Her eyes were dark and betrayed her exhaustion.“...

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“Absent” by Kyaris Newton

Submitted to Contest #89

Augustus 31, Year 358 The ceremonial trumpets blared the first notes of a familiar tune. From her bedroom window, Princess Maeve Saoirse watched a parade of creatures from the fairy and elf kingdoms make their way into the palace halls. This wasn’t the first time she saw such a crowd; there was one every fifty years to mark the crowning of a new Fairy Queen. She sighed audibly at the thought of what was looming beyond the horizon. “What’s wrong, Princess?” Vaska questioned as she ran a brush through the strands of Maeve’s long lilac hai...

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“No Cure” by Elijah Bernice Muyrong Santos

Submitted to Contest #89

I just hugged Callix out of sheer fear. Afraid to die. Afraid to be bitten by monsters around me. Of our six together, only three of us left breathing: me, Knight, and Callix. And here we are in the middle of nowhere where we see the wave of zombies that will judge our end. It's an apocalypse, anyway. We have nowhere to go. Wherever we go, they are there. Hunting for us to be their supper. We are going to die anyway, so what's the purpose of fighting? We have nothing to eat, no water, no animals, nor plants-- just us and these brain eaters. ...

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“Just What I Wanted” by Melanie Bobin

Submitted to Contest #89

TW:// Mention of Suicide And we fell in love, got married, and lived a perfect life. I finally got what I wanted. To say goodbye to her one last time. I kiss him, such a perfect bride. He takes his hand in mine. I wed the one I love. He's practically beaming, and so am I. I walk down the aisle, my father on my arm. And his heartbroken face can't say no. I give one week before I propose. To seal a life, which I've always wanted. I prepare my final plan. At the lowest in his life is when I target. I acknowledge that...

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“Why? Why? Why?” by J. Olen

Submitted to Contest #89

A girl alone.A dark prison cell.A horrible crime.Put them all together.And… This is the result.***Dark. Dank. Depressing. That’s what this place is.Jail.The colors are all the same. Grey and black. Black and grey. The dark place sucks the light out of people, leaving them hollow. The atmosphere is nothing out of the ordinary (for a jail)...Yet there’s something missing.I don’t know why I’m here…***Why am I here?Why should I be here?I’m no criminal. At least I don’t think I am.Why? Why? Why?***My name is Maxine. You can call me...

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“A mother knows” by Sue Catrama

Submitted to Contest #89

Sarah stood there with her face pressed up against the window screaming for her son. The nurses were frantically trying to sedate her and remove Charles from the room. The sun was shinning through the church windows illuminating the alter as Sarah and her father's arms were looped while they each took a step in since towards Charles nervous stance. Beside him stood his brother Eric with the ring in his pocket. Ahead of Sarah her sister Maria strolled down the aisle like a pro. The pews were filled with family and friends adorned in thei...

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“The End?” by Kathryn Inglis

Submitted to Contest #89

The End? This was not how their story was supposed to end. There were still so many chapters they had hoped to write together, so many journeys toward possible futures that they had imagined spending side by side. She never anticipated being a childless widow before she had even turned forty-two. She’d never considered being faced with a hopeless situation, or the unenviable decision to allow them to stop treatment and let him slip away. Treatments that could prolong his life a little, but not fix him. Their plans ha...

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“Happy Marriage” by Jim Corinthians

Submitted to Contest #89

The sun glared in my face as I drove away from the courthouse. My foot felt heavy. I had signed my name along the bottom of the paper. It actually happened. This is the first time I’ve signed such a document. I never thought I would be signing such a document. I always feared I would sign such a document. But here I am, pen in hand, standing morosely across from my wife - my ex wife. She doesn’t look that upset. That’s one thing I always admired about her, she never really got sad about anything. One of the things I really admired abou...

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