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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

"It was just here!" you shout, frantically searching your pockets for the missing thing.

Posted in General on Dec 11, 2019

Submissions are closed!

Sorry, we are no longer accepting submissions. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

✍️ 32 stories

“Humphrey!'s Emu” by Zilla Babbitt

Humphrey! was his name. All of it. It all belonged to him, every lovely loop and curl and syllable. Even the exclamation point. Especially the exclamation point. Some people would try to take the exclamation point away from his name, try to make it the nice and normal Humphrey. But that wasn’t his name. His name wasn’t Humphrey. His name was Humphrey!. The sun above Chance Street was bright, but frowning, like a too-harsh grin, like a suspiciously determined ...

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“The Opal of My Eye” by Bree Kokiri

“Navia Rio… help… Navia Rio PLEASE HELP US” The screams echo but I can’t find their source. I’m running, but I’m so out of breath, and this forest seems endless. “I’m here!” I scream into the nothing. “Where are you?” What are you? I think. It doesn’t matter. I’m close… I clutch the opal around my neck. It’s glowing so brightly it’s illuminating my path. “Sálvanos a todos!” The voices call back in a desperately plea. I’m frantically scraping through the brush, trying to do just that, save them all, when I am hit over the head. A man ...

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“Persephone's Coin” by Natasha Arnold

Huddled beside a radiator at the cinema, there were only two things on your mind: Joaquin Phoenix and a taxi cab. Your hands scurried in your pockets, pushing past the lint and left over nibbles of cookie dough. It always seemed like you had just the right amount of change. There was just enough change to get you a taxi to Grand Central Station, where you could take the Q32 to Harlem. And there maybe, just maybe, some bright-eyed Harlem girl would take interest in you and ...

4 likes 1 comment 1
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“A Child's Scribble” by Linda Herskovic

My niece was waiting anxiously and impatiently for me to give her the folded note. She remembered the paper; she was about 4 when she gave it to him but she remembered. I was surprised that she did. I didn’t remember it although I was there too.“Goddamn it. It was just here!” I shouted, frantically searching my pockets for the missing thing. I couldn’t imagine where it was. I was a chronic checker and had felt the small paper about a hundred times on the bus. But maybe that one time, that last time, it fell out of my pocket and it ...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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“Isabella is Gone” by Daniel Brown

“It was just here!” I must have scrounged around in my coat, pants, and jacket pockets for two minutes pulling out my: keys, stray border collie hairs from my the last house I hit for the day, a packet of unused gum, tiny phone book/agenda book, broken sports watch I need to get fixed and a random ballpoint pen. “It has to be here somewhere.” The sole picture I have with Isabella...

3 likes 3 comments 3
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“Missing in Time” by Cathryn Grossenbacher

My hand slipped inside my pocket, grasping for the button that had been there only moments before. I was met with an emptiness, nothing in my pocket. Panic set across my face as my eyes scanned the ground around me in search for the missing button. "Oh god... Oh god! Where did it go? Please lord, just let me find it!" I exclaimed, drawing attention to myself. The eyes of the surrounding villagers on me. I could hear their whispers rippling through the crowd. If I didn't find that button I would be stuck ...

2 likes 1 comment 1
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“If Only Three Months Earlier” by Kaitlyn Strong

“It was just here!” I said again, fighting back the tears that threatened to overflow my eyes. I reached a shaking hand down into my white lab coat pocket and closed my eyes while hoping for the feel of cold glass meeting my fingertips.The crisp touch of the sterilized lab coat pocket was what my fingers slid against and nothing more. Swallowing the hard lump that was rising in my throat, I forced my eyes open and stepped back over to where I had been sitting at my desk which housed several microscopes. For more than three hours on...

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“The Smoke” by Melody Davidson

The clouds were lower today, lower than they had ever been. Whatever The Agency had done this time was working. The smoke wasn’t normal smoke. It was thick enough to cut through; strong enough to kill. The town was falling before my eyes. People were coughing and dying without notice. Maybe, this once, The Agency had won.“You,” a harsh, whispering voice said from behind. I turned arou...

2 likes 1 comment 1
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“The empty pocket that saved my life” by Alice Guile

Blake had everyone fooled at the start. Even my friends thought he was great. We were 18 year old sixth formers and he was studying medicine at Oxford University. Oxford. I used to love telling people that. I cringe when I think of myself at our family’s big Christmas party, telling every single relative that asked how I was that I was very well and that I was dating a lovely future doctor from Oxford University. I was so naïve, I can barely believe that I thought cleverness would make someone a good person. I didn’t think really.T...

1 like 2 comments 2
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“Sunshine Likes To Hide” by Rosaline Hope

I'm a poet.    That feels so weird to say, but its true. Well, kind of. I write and save all these works of mine on a small flash drive. Like, I assume, the average poet-to-be, I was up at 3 AM again and thinking about my latest poem. Sunshine hides

1 like 2 comments 2
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“Lost Letter” by Connor Abate

The young boy sat down at his desk in the midst of the crisp autumn night. His hand trembled ever so slightly as he reached for a black pen out from the mug on his desk and the dark blue spiral notebook from the drawer. Tears began to prick his eyes as he flipped open the notebook, starting to write a letter that was addressed to no one in particular. "Dear to whoever may be unfortunate enough to come across this," the letter started. With an intake of breath and slow shaky exhale, he began to...

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“The Awkward Date (a short story) ” by Eve Burks

Pilar pulled her car into the parking lot, circled it a couple times looking for a closer spot. It must be busy tonight, she thought as she kept her eyes peeled for any empty spaces. Her palms were sweaty, and she could feel her heart fluttering as she drove. A car was pulling out two spaces from the front door. She shifted gears and backed up so they could get out, then waited for five minutes while the driver made a ten-point turn before exiting onto the street. She carefully parked herself and flipped the ignition off, pu...

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“The Dimensional Thief” by Elizabeth Orwig

“It was just here!” I exclaimed, frantically searching my pockets for my soldering tool. I had just put some of the final touches on my time machine, but I needed to solder a few wires before it was a complete product.  The red and green lights of the machine were blinking, seemingly mocking me, and I knew that my soldering tool wasn’t anywhere in my workshop if it wasn’t in...

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“THE STING OF FRIENDSHIP” by Aduragbemi Oyekunle

Merry moments it would be, to share the same room with one’s best friend, especially in college where every fresh face sought for peer acceptance.My best friend, Jenna, had stayed with me for a year and now we are both sophomores. Those times spent together were most horrible moments of my life. When her presence became a torn in the flesh rather than a cloak of comfort.A year it was, when it all started. Like the soothing relief of the evening breeze, the news of our admission to Burmey international colleg...

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“Lost in the Pocket” by Daniel Vilaire

You are in a dark, cold room. A white linoleum floor glitters beneath you, illuminated by the skylight above. You are standing in front of an electronic safe, protected with unimaginable firewalls, and impossible passwords.You slide the bypass cover open, revealing the black hole of a USB port. In a few moments, you will hold the culmination of years of hard work. You will have the key to unlock wealth and prosperity. “Hand me the drive.” You whisper to your partner. The drive. A single USB symbolizing all the work that...

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Similar prompts

More fantastic prompts from Contest #18.

Write a story about a character who buys a secondhand coat and then discovers something in the pocket.

General – 106 stories

Your fingers tensed around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice.

General – 47 stories

Write a story about someone cleaning out their attic. They find an old piece of clothing, and inside of its pocket is an old keepsake.

General – 57 stories

Write a story about a very skilled pickpocket. 

General – 71 stories

Contest #18

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Pocketful of Sunshine

$50

Prize money

364

Submissions

Ended on 23:59 - Dec 06, 2019 EST

Won by Sam Lauren 🏆

Title: The Price of a Nice Guy

View details

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