Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Menu

✕
CONNECT
Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites
BLOG
Success Stories
APPS
TOOLS
Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Set your story in an unlikely sanctuary.

Posted in General on May 13, 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.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 41 stories

“Jacob's Ladder” by Dustin Gillham

“Awake again?”  Bobby stares into the nurse’s pale blue eyes.  “Still trying to figure out if this is heaven or hell.”  He views her curves as she bends down to connect the IV.  He looks at the clouds beyond a tree in the window and then stares at her round bottom.  “Oh, and how could this be such a horrible place?”  “When you’re here, I get a glimpse of heaven.”  ...

65 comments 65
Read story

“A Friend Indeed” by Howard Halsall

Walter Waterhouse shut his heavy front door with a neurosurgeon’s precision, making as little noise as possible. Clutching a laptop bag in one hand, he breathed a sigh of relief and extended his free arm across the swirling floral wallpaper to flick the light switch. A soft overhead glow illuminated the vestibule and the silent corridor leading to the rear. Walter tiptoed over unopened envelopes, snaked his way past cardboard packing boxes, and entered the empty kitchen to be greeted by a familiar voice.“I worry about you sometimes...

12 comments 12
Read story

“Resettlement Notes” by L. Maddison

This story contains themes of mental health and reference to sexual abuse.”Don’t forget your pills.”Alan slurps his tea to cool it. Some dribbles down his chin, adding to the damp patch on his chest. His mouth contorts with involuntary lip-smacking and grimacing caused by years of heavy medication.“Your pills,” repeats Agnes, nodding to the small paper cup on the table. She stands next to him, arms crossed over her stout body as she waits, sternly overseeing this regular ritual. Her ey...

19 comments 19
Read story

“Among the Widows” by Shea West

“I call this piece, Among the Widows.” Viktor hands his sketch done in black charcoal to Professor Grabski. The teacher scrutinizes the lines of apron strings wrapped twice around the body of a fatigued looking woman opening a shoddy door. The angles of her face are heavy, especially at the edges of her eyes.A memory floods Viktor’s mind as if he’d just sketched the woman’s fingers wrapped around the doorknob yesterday. He imagines what it’s like to view the piece before him&n...

37 comments 37
Read story

“Junebird and Love” by Gem Cassia

Love crept in through the window silent and unannounced, like a mouse tip-toeing its way along the shadows of a dimly lit room. Or at least, that was the effect that she had been aiming for. What happened instead was a clumsy maneuver that involved stumbling over the roughly hewn wooden sill and landing on the floor of the treehouse in a crumpled heap. That was the way she made her entrances— it was the same way she had entered my life and it was the same way she greeted me everyday— stumbling, and messy, and beauti...

13 comments 13 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

“SANCTUARY ON HELL STREET” by Chris Campbell

The Arizona sun completed another life creating and life ending day across the desertscape of cactus and tumbleweeds of the Old West. What had been a hot dusty passage of energy warming all in its radiative glare, made way for the setting of the solar giant - triggering the onset of an early evening chill. Days out in the desert were hot and dry. The nights, bitterly cold and treacherous. That mattered little to the young Mexican family - kneeling before several agitated men baying like dogs howling at a full moon. The goosebumps ris...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Door” by Suma Jayachandar

“So, is this the best you have on offer?” a sceptical voice inquires.I am jolted out of my corner, from my meditative mood. I put my pen down and smile.There is doubt in slit eyes, pursed lips and the tilt of her head.Oh! This one has high expectations.I see her eyes wandering through the world in my corner. The mountains, the rivers, the deserts. And a mixture of happy, sad and every other variation of characters going on about their lives.She shakes her head. And checks her catalogue.“I...

18 comments 18
Read story

“Fragments of Spencer” by J.C. Lovero

(TW: contains themes of death and dying)I sat on crinkly paper in the exam room while the blood pressure cuff deflated. This table was not like the others I had sat on before for physicals or blood tests; it was softer and more comfortable, almost like a recliner. Designed for the procedure I was about to do.Dr. Kristina Abbott pressed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose. “One hundred twenty over sixty,” she said after reading my blood pressure. They always said that like you were supposed to know what the numb...

24 comments 24
Read story

“The Werewolf's Rose” by Mike Rigby

A beast, from grace was his mind to fall, Did not see the signs; did not heed the call, A lone wolf indeed, but a heart there to give, Ugly he saw himself, so alone he did live. ‘twas a fine day that gave us the hour of luck, It began with a beauty, and the rose she would pluck... The garden was a place many visited ...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Be(longing)” by Rebecca Miles

This story contains material that is distressing: physical abuse. Before I can do anything, he’s upon me. Big hands clamp onto my neck, easily circling it. The man’s grip is unrelenting; I can’t turn my head to bite those fleshy fingers let alone duck and dodge. He flips me onto my side, knocking the breath out of me. Kneeling in the dirt, he swiftly slips a frayed rope out of his overall’s oran...

8 comments 8
Read story

“Secret Women's Business” by Leticia Mooney

'Sister, how long have you known?' My devastated whispers echoed through the dark cavern. It responded with dripped echoes. I imagined that the faint breeze kissing my face was a collective of kisses from all women past and future. A gentle honouring, a please forgive us. 'Did you know what you were doing? That you were complicit in this destruction?' I sat heavily...

4 comments 4
Read story

“A piece of lightning” by Bruce Thomas

I was walking home yesterday, and I saw a piece of lightning sticking out of the ground. I squinted at it, looked behind me and back. It was really real, that was for sure. Between the bus stop and the corner, it was.I looked at it.I pressed my pupils on it real hard; I didn't want to miss a single detail.It went up into the sky.Man, oh man, lightning is hugely huge!"Jesus, how did this get here?" I asked.Nobody answered my question.I a...

7 comments 7
Read story

“Doggone” by Katherine Willey

The light penetrating the room’s dusty curtains seemed too bright for the time of day. Still groggy, Archie lay blinking for a couple minutes trying to figure out what it was that felt off. It took a moment to recall exactly where he was. His head hurt a little, probably due to the five Coors he’d downed the night before, but that wasn’t it. Something else was out of kilter. On this fourth morning alone i...

5 comments 5
Read story

“Aftermath” by Sean Miller

The peace found in the ruins of a battlefield is unlike any other. The aftermath of a battle is the antithesis of itself. War is chaos. A cacophony of sounds barraging one’s earlobes from every direction. The reverberating clang of metal as two bloodied swords strike, the erupting shudder of a cannon-shot rippling through the air, the commanding shouts from generals as they attempt to raise their voice ab...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Broken Hand” by Graham Kinross

Deep in the dark, beneath everything she knew Sir Danielle Longbow was introduced to one strange species by another. Kutharma, a cenaga, held a flaming torch high to reveal four bipeds that were more and less like Danielle than the quadruped serpent with antlers that was making the introduction.             “I am Broken Hand,” said the foremost of the uamhith. Its arm was the length of Sir Longbow’s, but the width...

2 comments 2
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write from the point of view of a character writing a letter to their past or future self.

General – 72 stories

Write about a character attempting to meditate or do something mindfully.

General – 39 stories

Write about a character discovering a surprising strength in either themself or another.

General – 59 stories

Start your story during a team building exercise.

General – 19 stories

Contest #146

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Getting to Know You (And Me)

$250

Prize money

230

Contest entries

144

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 20, 2022 EST

Won by Michał Przywara 🏆

Title: 10 Days to Mindfulness

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!

Tired of MS Word?

Join the revolution and write your book in a tool designed for authors. 🙌

Includes FREE typesetting to print-ready PDF & EPUB files, track changes and collaborative editing.

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Comedy Writing Prompts ⭢

Creative Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

For Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

General Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢