Write about someone stuck in an endless cycle who finally manages to break free.

Posted in Fiction on Mar 31, 2023

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✍️ 67 stories

“Rich to Rags” by Rachel Parks

Submitted to Contest #192

Papers poured out of dusty desk drawers from over twenty years ago just waiting to see the light of day again. Old files and receipts litter the floor exposing transactions between the family’s interests, overindulgence in comfort foods at grocery stores, and random purchases over the years. Records jammed in boxes line the perimeter of his home office. Saving every document seemed like a novel idea at the time. Now, it’s become a monumental chore to organize it into a manageable organized mess. Rich sighed. Much like his life working as an ...

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“Morning” by Bobbi Brown

Submitted to Contest #192

The morning I decided to take the pill was no different than any previous morning. It was just the simple fact that this particular morning I decided I was tired of having mornings in general. I was tired of waking up, tired of pulling the covers over my head and quite honestly tired of doing life altogether. My days, or more importantly, mornings, weren’t always like this. There was a time when I looked in the mirror and saw someone who had purpose. I would sip my Columbian roast slowly, letting the warmth flow through my body. I ...

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“The Juggler” by Bridger Smith

Submitted to Contest #192

Fluorescent balls flash through the air in a continuous cycle as the juggler works their hands. Tossing and catching, tossing and catching. Never enough time between tosses for a break. The lunch-hour smells of the market don’t faze the juggler. Neither does the honking traffic, or the sharp-dressed people hurrying back to work, take out in hand, phones pressed to their ears. Even as the crowd gathers around them, applauds at each entertaining break of the cycle, the juggler’s focus never shifts. An increased speed, an additional ball, a fei...

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“The last bridge” by Giuliano Olivotto

Submitted to Contest #192

My feet slide out from under me. I realize I have stepped on it when it is too late. A knee-jerk movement causes me to flail my arms, and I almost throw myself off balance. In a moment, as I perform a half-hearted split on the damp planks of the small bridge, I realize I have definitely lost my sense of humor. Brownish and slippery, it made me lose control. The athletic gesture stops with a snatch. Crap! “You have to do it but don’t look at it,” I repeat to myself. Yet the eye falls as I, with my arms outstretched, pretend to be balancing ...

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“Lost and Found” by Anne Reed

Submitted to Contest #192

The sun had risen just above the horizon, though gray clouds lingered in the sky. The rain from last night was gone, but the roads were wet, and long stretches of water lay in the gutters. Kayla Black stepped onto the rickety porch of her small house, yawning and stretching. Her brown hair was tied up but disheveled and falling around her face like a ragged curtain. Her knit sweater was twice her size and had holes, but it was comfortable. In her neighborhood full of small houses with rickety porches, no one cared what she looked like. K...

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“Ouroboros” by MJ Douven

Submitted to Contest #192

At the end, I am always running. Running through the blackness. Tripping and falling over rocks and underbrush until my hands are scratched and bleeding. My throat is hoarse but no sound comes out. I think I remember screaming. Out. I need to get out. Even as I think the words, my body slams into something. Like a glass wall, it shatters, and I fall through. Every time. And then I am back in the dark alley behind Linguini’s. The time on my smartwatch readout is 5am. Again. Inside, I can hear the buzz of people talking and laughing, the ch...

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““From Endless Cycle to Boundless Success”” by Edward J. McCoul

Submitted to Contest #192

“From Endless Cycle to Boundless Success” John had been stuck in an endless cycle for what felt like an eternity. Every day felt the same, and he couldn't escape the feeling of being trapped. He would wake up every morning, go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch TV, and then go to bed, only to repeat the same routine the next day.John had always dreamed of breaking free from this monotonous routine, but he didn't know how to do it. He felt like he was stuck in a never-ending cycle, and he had lost all hope of ever breaking free.One day, Jo...

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“The Finish Line” by John McDonald

Submitted to Contest #192

Around noon, my feet start to get numb. My hands are glued to the handles. My clothes are wet from sweat, and my knees feel like they are about to pop out like champagne corks. "You're almost there." said an automated voice through my headphones. "Ten thousand more cycles and you'll reach the finish line." I looked up at the monitor to see if this was true. The simulated forest looked the same as I started, but the map on the far corner claimed I was halfway down the path. I must have missed the lake view about an hour ago, when I was starin...

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“A Guy Walks into a Bar but He is NOT a Joke!” by V Lauria

Submitted to Contest #192

Week One. She sits waiting . The bartender’s rough hands are gentle when he serves her. He flirts. She smiles. I have yet to stay long enough to find out whom she meets. I’m always called away. She keeps glancing at the massive glass doors, their gaudy gilt handles less function more form. A hint of self-doubt covers her face like the thinnest veil. Week Two. How does this end? How does this begin? Clients come and go. I despise my puppy dog expression when deals are left ajar. Some clients commit. Som...

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“Walk Away” by David B Fraser

Submitted to Contest #192

“Luke, we can’t afford a second car.” Tara whispered into her cell phone as she made her way to the meeting. “I don’t have money for it. Do you have money?” “Sure, throw that in my face.” “We can’t get a second car until you get a job again.” “I can’t get a job without a car.” “I got to go.” “Yea, yea, yea. You’re at work. You’re important.” “Luke.” He hung up. Tara wondered what he would be like when she...

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“A Better Place” by Jacen Patchwork

Submitted to Contest #192

“Weak, I’m so weak. Everything is going dark…” He cried out, his voice lost among the cacophony of the crowd that gathered to watch his final moments. He heard his mother crying; someone was reaching for him, and then… Nothing. The darkness had him; he was lost again. He floated for a time, in the darkness, in the nothing. Between. The cries pulled him from the void; it was always the crying that caught his attention first. It pulled at him and drew him out of the nothing into the light. He could feel the stone below him. Blood pooled ...

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“My Dad’s Most Bizarre Invention” by Neil Amponin

Submitted to Contest #192

I was only just 12 when that thing happened. It was terrifying. Nerve-wracking. Traumatizing. Pulsating. I could use all the words that could describe fear and anger to explain what I felt and experienced that day. Yet, it was all kinda fun. In the mind of that 12-year-old kid, that thing was supposed to change the way he sees things. It was supposed to make him doubt anything. To make his heart weaken to nothing. But he didn’t. I didn’t. That same fear planted a seed of peculiar fascination in me that grew bigger and bigger as I grow up. ...

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“Anchored Drifting” by Brandon Bowers

Submitted to Contest #192

Like the unfelt infinity of a hill’s curve; distance extrapolating. The reef continues on, generating, compounding upon itself: forward in every direction I look. Endlessly. And emptily sits only the pocked skeletons, barren and devoid of the normal cluster. I’ve been here before. I can't keep away from here. The water is hot and inundated with diffuse light; the porous and bread-like rocks translucent to what seems like a flat sun wrapping circumferentially. It feels paradoxically as if the reef is somehow orbited by a towering star. As I s...

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“The conveyer belt never stops” by Rudy Greene

Submitted to Contest #192

The conveyor belt never stops. It’s been a month. I agreed to work in this car seat factory for the summer because the pay was good. When I wasn’t accepted to any medical school, I stayed on. At first, I made it a game. As the rubber seats come down the line, I’d grab one and run as fast I could to the waiting cart. Who knew the cart’s destination? I didn’t care, I just wanted my times to become faster and faster. I wanted to be the fastest and most efficient worker in the factory. It didn’t matter that I was on the 7 pm to 7am shift an...

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“The Drinking Bird” by A. B. Levin

Submitted to Contest #192

Mark sat in his cubicle just watching it. The “it” was a little drinking bird bobbing up and down into a water-filled coffee mug. Both the bird and the mug were a gift in honor of some holiday, whose name escaped Mark. The holiday was one of those new holidays that had been invented in recent years to make the drones feel better about being drones. National Employee Appreciation Day? National Worker’s Day? No, that one sounded like something that came out of the Soviet Union during the height of communism. ...

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Write about someone stuck in an endless cycle who finally manages to break free.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 67 stories

“Rich to Rags” by Rachel Parks

“Morning” by Bobbi Brown

“The Juggler” by Bridger Smith

“The last bridge” by Giuliano Olivotto

“Lost and Found” by Anne Reed

“Ouroboros” by MJ Douven

““From Endless Cycle to Boundless Success”” by Edward J. McCoul

“The Finish Line” by John McDonald

“A Guy Walks into a Bar but He is NOT a Joke!” by V Lauria

“Walk Away” by David B Fraser

“A Better Place” by Jacen Patchwork

“My Dad’s Most Bizarre Invention” by Neil Amponin

“Anchored Drifting” by Brandon Bowers

“The conveyer belt never stops” by Rudy Greene

“The Drinking Bird” by A. B. Levin

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone finding a treasure in an unexpected place.

Set your story at an antique roadshow.

Write a story about someone trying to reinvent themselves after spending a long time in a rut.

Write about someone rediscovering something old they thought they’d lost.

Contest #192

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

248

Contest entries

144

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: