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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Set your story in a major city that your character has a love-hate relationship with.

Posted in General on Apr 14, 2021

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✍️ 167 stories

“The Windy City ” by Nainika Gupta

*Nainika's Note* Yo, so this is basically *ahem* fact-based and doesn't really have much of a plot, per se....anyways, enjoy!My city gets a lot of mention around the country, and sometimes even around the world. The City of Big Shoulders, the Center of the Midwest, The Second City, The White City, the City That Works, and most notably, the Windy City. I have lived within the city’s reach all my life, and even though I live out in the ‘burbs, I am proud to call myself a Chicagoan. And I love my city, I really ...

49 comments 49
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“Rose Witch” by Amany Sayed

It is not that I hated the people of the city that I did what I did. Really, it was quite the contrary. I found them fascinating, from the inside of their intestines to their outsides. I found that the human body had it’s many limitations, but it was easy to work around them if you tried.  The blood never really left from underneath my fingernails, and the smell lingered underneath the suffocating rose scent of my...

35 comments 35
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“Off With Their Heads” by 🦈⛰️𝔼𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕟 𝔸𝕧𝕒𝕔𝕒𝕤🏳️‍🌈🦈

"Yes mother," I sigh into the line, wrapping the infamous cord around my finger. "Of course, I'm fine... What? No, it's not like I'm in the states! This is Britain, god damn it! Mother... no I think you should lie down for a while. Call dad as well. He'd fancy a visit from you, I'm sure" And just like that, my hand smashes back on the receiver. Blood, Britain, eh? Who could ever have imagined Olivia from the apart...

27 comments 27
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“Grace and Mercy” by Thom Brodkin

“Cleopatra?” the barista shouted as he put the cup of coffee on the bar, turning to work on the next order. “It’s Cleotha, Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty . . .” the elderly woman replied, who had been waiting patiently for her much too expensive beverage. If she hadn’t been in a hurry, she would have preferred a cup of coffee from a 7-11 or Dunkin’ Donuts; however, necessity forced Cleotha to the self-important coffee shop situated on the corner of the block where she had lived most of her adult life. She h...

36 comments 36
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“Back To London” by Zahra Daya

TW: AbuseMeet at Banana Tree for dinner, 7:30, my calendar reads. I inhale as my eyes gloss over the words, my mind already running a million miles an hour. Breathe. Birmingham is far enough away from London that my past there doesn’t clash with my present. I didn’t want to move that far away from London; there are parts of it I love, really, so I ended up here, in banal Birmingham. Nothing to complain about, but all the same, not much to praise. Now, I stand on the train platform at Bayswat...

16 comments 16
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“Visions of the West” by Amarah Friedman

Agatha has always been stuck in between. When she was born in the Gateway to the West, the doctor reading his watch on her mother’s left declared it 11:59 PM, March 31st. The doctor reading the wall clock above her mother’s head said it was 12:00 AM on April 1st.Unsurprisingly, Agatha’s mother advocated for the March birthday while her father insisted she be born on April Fools. Agatha’s mother fainted from the combined exhaustion of arguing and giving birth, and the doctors had the common decency t...

19 comments 19
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“The Best Pickpocket of Palma de Mallorca” by H Bolton

Beca stood outside her hide-out, her hands on her hips, breathing in the smells of bread baking, salt from the ocean, and the sewer line, broken, two avenues over. Today was going to be a fantastic day. She turned to close up her home, a hollow space in the city wall, just tall enough to sit in and long enough for her to lay down. She better stop growing or else she’d have to learn to sleep on her side. Shaking her hea...

12 comments 12
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“London” by Avani ☾

“But I don’t want to go!” Bianca said, stamping her foot on the ground.  “No one will be there to dress me, or properly feed me breakfast!”  Bianca’s mother, Isabel, frowned. “Your breakfast?  You mean the cereal you eat at 12:00?”  Isabel asked, referring to Bianca’s habit of sleeping late. “Duh!” Bianca said, dramatically holding out her hands, palms up. “Bianca, I don’t think you understa...

26 comments 26
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“A Quiet Night In San Francisco” by Jessica Primrose

Her friend spilled a Margarita on her. Mary was never fond of the smell of alcohol. Actually, she downright despised it. Perhaps it was the way it lingered on the breath like sweet spoiled nectar or the lack of coordination thereafter. Either way, the entire ride home she smelled like sour lime and southern Valencia, which now embedded itself in the car seats, no doubt. Why she even agreed to attend that party, she frank...

12 comments 12
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“Le Plan” by Leilani Lane

A suitcase rolls toward me, the sharp corner hitting the middle of my thigh. I wince and step back onto a man’s foot; he grunts and shoots me a dirty look. Shaking my head apologetically, I shuffle forward and settle against the pole next to the doors as the train lurches forward. The City of Love, my ass.Four more stops of pressing my back into the pole and I’m finally lunging out of the train, hurrying up the steps into the street and pulling out my metro map.Parisians hurr...

14 comments 14
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“Cambree Street Rat” by Amy Hodges-laurenzo

Ashtanar, a world so appropriately named. Mainly for the lengthy legends and chaos that turned much of it to ash. It was a two sun and two mooned world. The larger continents were sparser in populations. Some fared better on the smaller northern continent. Some races were still more resilient than others, others were simply no more. All seemed destine to be washed away on a bloody tide of death.               Though n...

2 comments 2
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“No Judgement” by Cathryn V

TW: addiction, violence Grace remembers the women at the fabric store talking about the Ramsey family, trailer trash they said. Mother and father with three little ones. The bank took their house. The Ramseys left in the middle of the night and took nothing with them. The townspeople carried out a good sofa. A set of twin beds. A high chair and crib. The pictures from their mantel were thrown in the garbage. Grace had taken the dishes.    Even so, Greenhills Pennsylvania had a certain nostalgia to it. Gra...

14 comments 14
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“This Place Is Dead Pt. V” by Joshua Insole

The flames of Greywood cast an orange-black glow over the ruins of the city.   What remained bore little resemblance to the Tilgreen she’d grown up in. The city she’d fallen in love with. What remained looked to be little more than rubble and toothpicks. And what remained had sapped the last vestiges of love from her heart. Had drained her of her fondness for the streets she’d once called home.   Polly used the inferno as cover and made a break for it. What else could she do? Sit...

2 comments 2
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“This city never sleeps” by Vanessa Queens

DOING THE WORK“This city never sleeps,” thought Jamie as she walked down the main street, cigarette in one hand, digital camera in the other, heading for her apartment. It had been a busy day and she felt dead beat.Her job as a freelance photographer was more than a steady income for her; it was a passion; she loved to immortalize people, places and things, especially those that go unnoticed. During...

2 comments 2
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“Unspoken Conversations (A Sequel to ‘Faithwood Boarding School for Girls’) ” by Ana Govindasamy

Author’s Note: Hi! Also: NOTE FOR ALL Y’ALL WHO GO ON LIKE SPREES: I personally think that likes are nice, but comments and critiques are much more helpful! I kind of hate it when people just go on random liking sprees. I would appreciate it much more if you took the time to read and give feedback. Points are nice but at the end of the day, improvement is better! Ok, so this didn’t need a sequel, but here we are. I loved the original, I don’t think I did it justice, but I hope you enjo...

5 comments 5
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