Write a story that involves a flashback.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

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.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 71 stories

“When We Survive ” by Hannah-Grace Botkin

Submitted to Contest #140

My nostrils are burning. The fumes radiating off the Tarmac are making my eyes water. I’m under my bird pre-flighting the nose gear—my shoulder blades pressed into a plastic creeper. I can’t rub my eyes again without coating them in grease. Someone runs by me, nearly tripping over my foot. I try to roll out from under the bird and hit my head. Before I can stand, Ray grabs my arm and yells something. I can see his mouth moving, but my ears are ringing. More people are running now. The first fuel pit explodes shortly after I secure my flak a...

3 comments 3

Read story

“"They're Gonna' Stick a Needle in Me"” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #140

“They’re Gonna’ Stick a Needle in Me” It was the ceiling. However much he wished it were otherwise, it was improbable that Carl would find a room without a ceiling. They all look pretty much alike, so it was not surprising that his bedroom ceiling would often snap him back to another place at another time.“Why are we going to Terra Haute, George?”“It’s a BOP holdover. They sort us out there and then ship us to our long-term placement. It will just be a couple of days.”Carl really didn’t care where he was going. He just wanted to get off that...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Grateful” by Courtney Renee

Submitted to Contest #140

My hand trembled as I turned the key to our apartment. I stepped over the threshold cautiously, my breath caught in my chest. My mother’s feet tapped behind me, and I heard her click the door behind us. The sound only intensified the sensation of being zipped in a time capsule, deprived of oxygen. My coffee mug was still sitting on the island that separated the kitchen from our living room. It was white, with playful gold lettering that spelled “grateful”. That mug once brought me a sense of peace, but seeing it now only brought knot...

2 comments 2

Read story

“It Was For Us” by ᴡʀᴇɴ ᴏʀᴛᴇɢᴀ

Submitted to Contest #140

I’ve never found joy getting all dressed up, drinking alcohol, and flooding the school gym to dance the night away. I would rather stay in bed all day with a good book than be surrounded by one hundred seniors dry humping each other. But this isn’t any other dance, this is my first date since Stephan. It had been over a year since things ended between us and I’m ready to get back into the dating world. “Why are you all dressed up,” Abigail asks, standing at the door. “Well, minus the converse.” I look down at my white dress shirt and bla...

0 comments 0

Read story

“A Virtual Life” by David Ader

Submitted to Contest #140

We all have regrets. Coulda, woulda, shoulda…fill in the blank. It drives some people into insanity. Or into therapy. Or worse. Coulda, woulda, shoulda. Shoulda is the worst of the trio. I should have done this, but I did that and look where it got me. Where is not the preferred place or you wouldn’t have asked the question in the first place. The ideal was a life well-lived, no regrets, and a long look in the m...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Cool Beans” by Stephanie Leinbach

Submitted to Contest #140

Annie exited the interstate at the old State Street exit that would take her to her hometown of Summersville. She hadn’t been back in years, but as executrix of her grandfather’s will, she was required to go to the First National Bank of Summersville to log the contents of his safe deposit box and close it out. Her grandfather had moved to an assisted living facility near her when his health started to decline, and she was still adjusting to the idea that he was no longer alive. He was her only close family member, as she’d lost her parents ...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Station 1 / Ladder 3” by Jennifer Fisher

Submitted to Contest #140

I heard the sirens before I saw the trucks. The wailing, melancholy pitch like the mermaid's song of doom. Standing on the busy street corner, I squeezed my eyes shut tight and prepared for the approach. Loud clanging accosted my senses with the force of gale winds. The monotony of whining, like that of a neglected baby in her crib, sad and defeated from being unattended for far too long. A shiver went down my spine. The cacophony of noise-polluted music stirred up a familiar sweet sickening melody I hated to love. As...

0 comments 0

Read story

“What's So Funny? A Love Story” by Linda Boroff

Submitted to Contest #140

Part I My mother stands in my bedroom, a can of canary yellow paint overturned atop her head, its bright, creamy contents cascading down her face and red bouffant hairdo. Seeking the center of the earth, the paint plunges on past her shoulders, chest and arms until it encounters the hardwood floor, rebounding in a mighty splash. Obedient to the laws of physics, it disperses outward in waves that appear chaotic but are really not. The paint finally subsides into rivulets at her feet and forms a sort of coastline, whose configuration, if...

3 comments 3

Read story

“Mince and Tatties” by Deborah Mackie

Submitted to Contest #140

Mince and Tatties (Word Count: 2332) Words from the past; just three of them. It was a shock to see them on the blackboard menu, white scrawls looping around memories, tugging at her taste buds, wafting and dancing as they tried to harness fleeting aromas and flickering images. Obviously, it wouldn’t be the same, not here in this remote village in the Scottish Highlands. Not here in this cozy wood paneled bar where logs blazed in the stone fireplace, the local muso strummed his guitar and the two barmen sang along with soulful tunes. It...

3 comments 3

Read story

“The Frog Pond” by Erin DiLorenzo

Submitted to Contest #140

Ruby began her day with a cigarette, as always. Normally she’d take it with a cup of the blackest coffee; she decided to forgo caffeine that morning, fearing it would heighten her anxiety. She sat in her car, engine shuddering from the cold and flicked a flame from her clear BIC lighter. It was a bit of a routine for her. Not just the cigarettes but the way she lit them. She would purchase the most nondescript lighter available from the Mobile down the road and scrape off the plastic design so it was perfectly clear. Then, she would u...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Winter's Allegory” by Jasz Garrett

Submitted to Contest #140

The full moon spins silver jewels through velvet, drooping branches. Magical, intricate webs full of stories old and new loosely hang, each memory woven through prisms. The melting dew drips onto the barren, empty earth. The moon’s exhale mixes together with snowflakes to create crystallized pathways, licking the side of tree trunks then scattering like rapid flames.A girl has just come to a fork in the trail. Her hair is dyed marigold and stands out starkly against the white forest. Her face is as pale as the snow, and her lips tinted purpl...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Hope Of Deliverance” by Ina Haymond

Submitted to Contest #140

Hope Of Deliverance As they open the package, nearly 18 years have passed and my girl Janina is now 40 years old with a grown daughter named Annika. She is 19 now and reads her birthday card from her aunt Sabrina: “Hi, I found this in my basement the other day. Somehow it ended up there after your grandmother passed away years ago. I thought you might enjoy having your old toys back. Happy birthday!” Your Aunt Sabrina! In that moment my eyes behold the light, which carries the sunshine of thousand stars, my Janina! I haven’t seen her in ...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Full Circle” by Yvonne McCoy

Submitted to Contest #140

“Ain’t it somethin’? Sat right up there on the counter when I was a tyke while Pops sipped his suds, and here I am, all these years later, standin’ at the same spot, drinkin’ my own beer. You didn’t know my Pops, did you, O’Malley?” I ask after I empty my glass. I watch Tom O’Malley, wiping off the bar top. Man’s got a patient face. Second generation bar owner, raised up around the locals, educated by what he heard spoken by the gruff men commiserating at the bar stools. His face tells me he knows a story’s coming. He sets another beer in ...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Cernunnos’ Memory” by Rhi F

Submitted to Contest #140

The accidental discovery nearly sent me flying! CERNUNNOS?!! The Celtic God’s earliest depiction is in caves in Northern Italy?! And I had been pushing him away this entire time! He truly was an ancestor! Suddenly, and without warning or control, my mind was catapulted back ten years – to the first teacher. I realised I’d been had. I hadn’t been taught a thing! Merely platitudes and manipulation. Flashbacks to all the non-answers and diversions, micro facial expressions suddenly making sense. She may have been the first, but she definitely...

1 comment 1

Read story

“SUDDENLY BEHIND HER ON THE ROAD” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #140

SUDDENLY BEHIND HER ON THE ROAD Since she had retired in the countryside Marilyn took that walk every day. Mostly she set out shortly after sunset. At that hour of passage, as if suspended, the air became thinner , and the light, which still shone, and yet was fading, imperceptibly but was fading away, it ( the light) was of an incomparable splendor. Sometimes instead she took her walk early in the morning, in the liquid light of the newly risen sun. She rarely met anyone during her walks, even more rarely she...

0 comments 0

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with the narrator or a character saying “I remember…”

Angst – 102 stories

Write about a character with an unreliable memory.

Character – 46 stories

End your story with total oblivion.

Horror – 24 stories

Write a story inspired by a memory of yours.

Nonfiction – 90 stories

Contest #140

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Down Memory Lane

$250

Prize money

333

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 08, 2022 EST

Won by Cecilia Maddison 🏆

Title: Old Soul

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Write a story that involves a flashback.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 71 stories

“When We Survive ” by Hannah-Grace Botkin

“"They're Gonna' Stick a Needle in Me"” by Murray Burns

“Grateful” by Courtney Renee

“It Was For Us” by ᴡʀᴇɴ ᴏʀᴛᴇɢᴀ

“A Virtual Life” by David Ader

“Cool Beans” by Stephanie Leinbach

“Station 1 / Ladder 3” by Jennifer Fisher

“What's So Funny? A Love Story” by Linda Boroff

“Mince and Tatties” by Deborah Mackie

“The Frog Pond” by Erin DiLorenzo

“Winter's Allegory” by Jasz Garrett

“Hope Of Deliverance” by Ina Haymond

“Full Circle” by Yvonne McCoy

“Cernunnos’ Memory” by Rhi F

“SUDDENLY BEHIND HER ON THE ROAD” by Mara Masolini

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with the narrator or a character saying “I remember…”

Write about a character with an unreliable memory.

End your story with total oblivion.

Write a story inspired by a memory of yours.

Contest #140

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

333

Contest entries

170

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: