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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a character who has to rely on the hospitality of strangers.

Posted in Fluff on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 97 stories

“Cursed” by Bron Ganter

Submitted to Contest #96

Kala pictured the rolling brown hills and green forests of her destination and tapped her stick on hard-packed earth, just as the clear cool lake near home floated through her mind, distorting the image.‘Not again.’An invisible dome and swirling breeze settled around her. The breeze became a full gale, flattening her face into a grimace. Air pressed around her like a giant hand squeezing the last drop out of a lemon. Then it let her go. She stumbled.A sick feeling rose in her stomach. The grey rocks all around were unfamiliar. Heavy rain soa...

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“Delirium” by Bekah W

Submitted to Contest #96

I clutched my coat tighter around my shoulders, the normally gentle snowfall turning harsh once the sun came down. My eyes, tears pouring from them, blurred everything in front of me. I couldn’t blink. Then they’d freeze shut. A cough overtook me for a moment and I stood, hunched over the sidewalk like a dramatic child, trying not to throw up what little I had for food the day prior. The storm would only worsen as time passed; I have to find somewhere safe. I seemed to stumble across a park of some sort. Few trees, now dead and covered in ...

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“Vidya” by CAMERAON JAMMING

Submitted to Contest #96

A girl (Vidya) is seen washing her school shirt outside her dilapidated hut. She is tying it on a rope outside her house, for drying. She stands for a moment as the shirt hangs on the rope and looks at it. Vidya walks inside the home. At home, her elderly mother is sitting on a cot. The girl says to her mother, "I have washed the clothes. I am going out." Her mother angrily says, "Somewhere back now. What's the matter, if you stop for a moment at home soon you will run to school." She pretends as if she did not listen to her mother. She says...

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“The Breakup” by Erin O'Donoghue

Submitted to Contest #96

Topic: someone relying on strangers The Breakup “I want to break up.” My abusive boyfriend is an alcoholic. He drinks to have “fun”, but his kind of fun is filled with indoor boxing matches. His punches were persistent and often. I needed to get out, and I needed to escape this relationship. “You will never find someone who loves you, I’m the best you can get. I will be with you forever, you will do whatever I want, whenever I want.” “I’m going, you can’t stop me!” I saw it coming, my martial arts training kicked in before I could think. ...

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“The Kindness of Strangers” by Clara Martin

Submitted to Contest #96

Jennifer Wynn lost her husband Gavin in a gas explosion at the Kotobee mine in Burkesville, Alabama. She and her three children were in desperate need of help. Gavin was the sold breadwinner of the family. Jennifer had to leave her job to take care of their special needs daughter Reagan. The family had moved from their hometown of Trenton Kentucky to Alabama because of Gavin's job at the coal mine. They hadn't been in Burkesville a year before Gavin passed. Jennifer didn't know any of her neighbors in the small neighborhood. The family was b...

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“Eardwulf of Evermore: A Stranger from Above” by T.K Wilson

Submitted to Contest #96

Eardwulf Ragnarson was considered very odd for an ogre. He was a capable warrior and a gifted axe fighter, but preferred the telling of tales and the singing of songs to battle. He loved the small creatures and was often seen in the company of elves. While the Ogres as a people had been at peace with the elves for centuries, they still didn’t trust them, much less one of their own kind who liked them. It was this shunning that led to Eardwulf coming to live in Evermore. Away from the negativity of his ogrish peers, Eardwulf thrived. He ...

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“The Long Journey Home” by Brendan Russell

Submitted to Contest #96

I knocked on the door. The bread inside smelled amazing. I needed food. I had eaten for the past two weeks. I was trying to get home. As I was thinking about home, the door opened. "Uh, hello." Said a boy about my age. He was skinny, had blue eyes, and blonde hair. "Hi. I was wondering if you had any bread to spare. I am trying to get home and need food." I was almost positive that they would say no. Instead, they welcomed me. "We were about to give thanks. Do you want to join?" I was confused. Give thanks? To whom? I sat down and looked aro...

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“On Strangers and Friends” by Kathy Manis Findley

Submitted to Contest #96

Anastasia felt fear, reluctance, about leaving her tiny village in Greece’s Dodecanese islands. For her entire life, she made her home in Aperi, a wee village on the island of Karpathos. Living near the Aegeian Sea, she breathed the ocean breezes every day of her life and gazed upon the extravagant splendor of the deep turquoise ocean. Today, she could not breathe at all, her very breath became a suffocating gasp of fear. “I cannot leave,” she thought, “How can I leave my home, my patritha,* with a man old enough to be my father?” That man...

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“Before You Call Home” by Garrett Michael

Submitted to Contest #96

The kettle gets warmer on the stove, and Flora has to stop herself from touching the circle of heat. Anything to break the dullness of the never-ending predictability of her day. Tea time is her favorite. Every evening at 4 PM, Flora walks into her tiny kitchen, with outdated forest green and mustard yellow tiles with even more outdated neon green wallpaper shaped in squares. It’s incredible how so much color can be so plain, Flora thinks. She walks to the oven and opens the door, where she grabs her silver kettle. Flora keeps all of her pot...

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“Reverse Hospitality” by Mellanie Crouell

Submitted to Contest #96

Sitting observing the beauty of the water, I could hear the sound of the trees wrestling only to indulge in the songs of the birds singing in the trees. It’s interrupted with screaming for help. I yelled, “ back where are you?” There wasn’t an answer. I began to run in the direction of the sound of the voice. Then I heard it again, “Help”! I stopped and listen. I continue to move in the direction of the scream. “Where are you?” I’m by the tree with a heart carved H and M. Automatically, I ran to the voice. This was the tree Mary and I&n...

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“The Coincident Arrival” by Pamela De Souza

Submitted to Contest #96

It was 24th of May 2017. I was as free as ever imagining useless boring stuff which was boring for others, but it was interesting for me. Suddenly a super interesting idea popped from my brain. I switched on my cell phone and guess what? I was on my mission to search my other like…. I mean my stranger twin. Actually during the previous days mom bragged about me being a little insane but now I was set to prove it out to her that I am not what she thought. Since by doing this I thought I would be famous overnight. What if my stranger twin turn...

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“Yeast Man” by Jarrel Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #96

I’m going to get brutalized for this.                Everyone knows the mob gave one of their main men, Carey, the nickname “Cat” because he loves cats, big and small. His big cats make it fun for him to hunt down anyone that wronged him, including their families. Lucky for me, I have no family, no car, and I’m a long way from home.                But I did pickpocket Carey the Cat tonight, in ...

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“Time To Wake Up” by Ali Lee

Submitted to Contest #96

I surface, battling through darkness. Flashing lights illuminate my passage, throbbing in the grey matter behind my eyes. I'm conscious of pain, but I'm not experiencing it's full unpleasantness yet, for which I'm thankful. My mouth and eyes are dry, my neck is bent at an awkward angle, my left arm is twisted uncomfortably under my torso, my bracelet is digging into my wrist and my earrings are digging into my neck. I've woken up like this a lot over the years (more often recently) but I've never quite gotten used to the sheer awfulness of i...

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“White” by Anna Park

Submitted to Contest #96

“Please,” she yelled, “Stop. I’m sorry.” Anna was pleading in front of her mother. But no matter how many tears she shed, her mother gave no mercy. Her mother screamed, “I tried. But every time I look at you, you remind me of your father.” Anna had nothing, no one, and nowhere to go. Her mother was everything to her. So even though she was screaming and crying, all she was thinking about was, “Where am I going?” And her mother’s next word had answered that question.  Her mother said coldly, “Get out. I signed all the documents; so, al...

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“Through Time” by David Van Uffelen

Submitted to Contest #96

It should have been easy. Data coming back from the probe predicated a suitable environment, without any chance of interference with the local population. But as soon as I step through the timegate, I sense that something is wrong. The whole process of travelling to the future doesn’t take more than a second, but this time I get stuck in the limbo for several seconds. Once I get to the other side of the portal I land just off shore in an ice cold sea. The cold water takes me by surprise and while my body fights against the shocking cold,...

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🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about strangers becoming friends, or friends becoming strangers.

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Horror – 187 stories

Write about someone welcoming a stranger into their home.

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Start your story in an empty guest room.

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