Write a modern version of "The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal," in which someone suffers from their own good deeds and must turn to an unlikely source for help.

Posted in Fiction on Mar 10, 2023

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✍️ 21 stories

“ Extinction Report” by Mehkyla Gibson

Submitted to Contest #189

No one would’ve ever believed it or even thought it was possible. Animals that were extinct are now with us, alive and pumping blood. There is no illusion or some type of magic trick, they are actually here! There’s the tasmanian tiger, the dodo bird, and even the wooly mammoth. Many extinct animals are cramped inside this rocky planet, sharing it with the top apex predator of all, the human beings.Throughout years of cloning and replication of each extinct animal’s DNA, scientists and companies have finally achieved the ability to resurrect...

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“Synchronicity” by Deanna Kabler

Submitted to Contest #189

She had every reason to crumble into dust. Her bones long petrified, flesh leathered by heartbreak, betrayal, fury, burning rage. But laying in the sun attentive to the repetition of the surf and salt air on her tongue, Bracia absorbed the earth’s ions. Energy sucked from the marrow of the sea gripped every cell, plumping, pulsing, protecting her from the black. It was the only way she kept moving, built resilience against the darkness, remained surrounded with angelic light. She was guided by the goddesses Galene, goddess of calm seas and L...

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“Listening to Laurie” by David B Fraser

Submitted to Contest #189

Fuad opened up his apartment door to find Laurie standing there with two suitcases and a knapsack. “It’s two in the morning.” “You said you’d help me.” Laurie stepped in with her luggage and inspected the apartment. She made her way to the doorless bedroom. “I meant, like, to help you find shelter. A woman’s shelter.” “That’s not practical.” Laurie opened his closet, and then his dresser drawers. She began to unpack her things. &nbsp...

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“Ensnared” by Nick Baldino

Submitted to Contest #189

“I don’t want to be alone.” That was the last message Brad had texted her, and the one that bounced around her head the most. They’d been texting for seven months, and although there were many suspicious texts throughout that time, it was this one that shamed her, that she repeated over and over until its sound was no less familiar than the pop of the van lock or the cold, smooth hand of a stranger. It had been twelve days since that text, twelve excruciating days in the dark bondage of Brad’s car, and Mindy was still reeling over the bet...

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“Phishing” by Elliot Kessler

Submitted to Contest #189

I had not seen Hal in a long time. Too long. It took me forever to find him on Facebook and even longer for him to respond to my messages. But, last week, he finally did. I wanted to meet within the next few days. He told me he was out of sick and vacation days and working an extra weekend shift. He must have been struggling, which gave me an idea of what he had been up to lately. He worked at a software company, and he excelled at it. But that wasn’t his only job…. The coffee shop came into view as I rounded the corner. A car drove past. ...

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“The teacher, the staff members, and the student” by Liz Orvis

Submitted to Contest #189

“Let me out of here!! I’ll miss the big game!!” Buddy was a star member of the football team. Super popular and very handsome, but he was also a big bully. He especially liked to pick on the kids with special needs because they were easy targets and didn't fight back. Recently, Mrs. Scheuler, one of the special education teachers, caught him giving swirlies to all the kids with autism, while the rest of the football team stood around cheering, and she assigned him to a week's worth of detention, and now, here he wa...

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Write a modern version of "The Tiger, the Brahmin, and the Jackal," in which someone suffers from their own good deeds and must turn to an unlikely source for help.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 21 stories

“ Extinction Report” by Mehkyla Gibson

“Synchronicity” by Deanna Kabler

“Listening to Laurie” by David B Fraser

“Ensnared” by Nick Baldino

“Phishing” by Elliot Kessler

“The teacher, the staff members, and the student” by Liz Orvis

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story where a character must continue to tell their tale to a listener to avoid unsavory consequences.

Write a story inspired by this quote from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy: “In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.”

Write a story about a fox spirit (a gumiho, jiǔwěihú, kitsune, or hồ ly tinh), inspired by, e.g. Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese folklore.

Start your story with “It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark.” (Hans Christian Andersen, “The Little Match Girl”)

Contest #189

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

281

Contest entries

121

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: