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And there's a twist! It actually all took place in the past.

Posted in High School on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 32 stories

Unbroken Promises

Submitted to Contest #14

The walls of the shabby apartment shook with her sobs, but he knew he had no right to cross the creaky floorboards and comfort her. Her hands pressed against her swollen belly as she stumbled to lean against the paint peeling off the wall. He didn't make a move to steady her.   "How could you?" It wasn't the first time that hour she had shrieked the words, but it was the first time he found the strength to answer.   The remains of his phone, broken against the wall by her hand, coated the sparse carpet between them. A bar...

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Starry, This Happened Already. Love You.

Submitted to Contest #14

Once upon a time there was a glass tree house city hidden within the dark brown trees. It was filled with white lights, wooden bridges, slides, ladders, and zip lines. And lots of ropes and pails to haul and unload things. Dad and you walked hand in hand from the wooden boat shop to the market. It was a cloudy day, but you didn’t mind because of all the fall decorations. White and orange pumpkins and gourds lined the wooden walkways. There were autumn leaves with berries and pinecones spiraling around the light poles. Above you and over the ...

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In Dying Color

Shortlisted for Contest #14 ⭐️

There used to be sticker vines here. Months of nuclear winter left only angry thorns, the rest withered from lack of sun. Ash made everything the same color. No greens, no blue sky, no butterflies or birds. Skinny dogs and cats dug in the trash before humans could squabble over it. The fast ones, anyway. The maimed, sick and old were dinner.Beth squeezed through the bars and peeled the clinging vines off her clothes. Across the potholed asphalt she scuttled then plunged beneath the collapsed roof of a house. In the nick of time, she thought....

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Of Our Reflections

Submitted to Contest #14

Trigger warning: includes talk of suicide.Ariel I stared at my reflection in Sycamore High’s bathroom mirror. Running cold water from the facet, I splashed some at my face. I glared at my face. I hated it. Flush, and white from the cold water. My pale face only made my polluted-river green eyes stand out more. My nose was narrow and pointy. My cheeks were slightly round from years of over eating. I hated my complexion. I loathed every part of it. I glanced at the door, wanting to leave. In a few minutes, I had an appointment with the guidanc...

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The crash

Submitted to Contest #14

The ground was approaching at an alarming speed and there was nothing they could do about it.Hugo was twisted in his seat, with his face pressed against the communications panel. “Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Intrepid 5, we have engine trouble, I repeat -”Sparks shot out of the panel and he jerked back just in time.“We’ve lost communications!” Hugo shouted above the high-pitched whine that was emanating from the engines.Sweat was streaming down Cath’s face as she fought with the controls. A steep hillside appeared in front of them. Cath b...

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IN THE LONG HALL MIRROR

Submitted to Contest #14

This isn’t going to work, thought Angela Mountjoy as she traipsed up the corridor of the “Long Hall” as it was called, at Hawkfield Hall. A Hall within a Hall. You knew things weren’t going to plan when trivia was a refuge.     But at breakfast in their hotel – a modern one, despite the holiday tour being called “Stately Homes of Eastern England” – it had been worse. Between eating his full English (she had settled for a poached egg on toast) and taking sips of strong tea in that odd, slightly birdlike...

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When Trees Talk

Submitted to Contest #14

“I was planted at the very edge of the forest, where the limbs of the tallest trees reach over into the roads of men.  My mother is the great Inner tree. She is a tall and mighty tree, her children and arms reaching into all corners of the world.  All the wisest tree nymphs come to her for wisdom. And all the most beautiful tree nymphs come to admire her beauty. We live in prosperity and peace.  We are all very close to man, but as long as he does his duty to us, we do our duty to him. To him, we breathe the breath of lif...

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Pearly

Submitted to Contest #14

The ivory net curtain swirled gently in the spring breeze. Sir John gazed out of the bay window to where the horses roamed freely. Today 'Grey Pearl' limped awkwardly. Sir John attempted to pull himself up from his wicker rocking chair to get a closer look. A sharp pain shot through his left knee. He fell back and dozed off.'Grey Pearl' whinnied as the crowd roared. Her long ears twitched as she tossed her plaited mane. John knew every blade of grass on the Norton track. He steered 'Grey Pearl' with the accuracy of a ship's ca...

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Pleading In Darkness

Submitted to Contest #14

The silence was deafening. Usually I preferred quiet, but this was unbearable. My eyes wouldn’t focus in the darkness. This caused a slight panic when I started to make out a faint noise in the background, completely drowned out in the fog. Someone whimpered. The noise someone makes when desperately trying to hold back from sobbing.“Riley …”I strained. My name was barely audible, but someone was trying to get my attention. My heart was racing, and I could start to make out an outline of a figure, sitting down with their head in their hands.I...

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To our past stories

Submitted to Contest #14

“In the past?”, Elizabeth Williams repeated in a tone that did not particularly imply that she found the twist to be incredible. “But why?”David cleared his throat, taken aback by the unexpected question. What is that supposed to mean, he didn’t ask, and instead chose to let his eyes wander around the small office, just in case the cold, dead, empty walls would like to provide him with an answer.“Well”, he started, horrified at how blank his mind was, “because it changes things, doesn’t it? Makes you consider the story from a different persp...

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Remembering the Halloween

Submitted to Contest #14

Eva and Mara ran past a couple of skeletons, and zombies. “Guys! Keep up!” Michel, Eva’s brother yelled. The night of Halloween they had made plans to go to the Haunted House and see who could stay until two in the morning. It wasn’t dressed up in any decorations, but the windows had been plastered shut.  Michel stopped in the driveway of the house. Mara and Eva slowed as they neared Michel, breathing heavy. “Mic, slow down!” Michel gave them a sly look. “You’re right, you guys are gonna need your breath when you need to run out of the ...

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Behind the Red dress

Submitted to Contest #14

There she was, standing in her red dress on a lonely rainy Saturday night. I saw her from my store window, she looked all confused and lost. Usually, I close the store at like 9 pm but I got so caught up with what I was doing that I lost track of time. She looked so beautiful that I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her hair was wet and sleeked back , her mascara was drooling all over her rosy cheeks and her red lips were smiling in my direction as if they were calling me over. I closed the store before midnight and I stood behind a pole wat...

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Today

Submitted to Contest #14

I unlock the front door at 3:30 am and walk out because maybe he’s outside: He always was a runaway. I have the bag of treats, the Polaroid, some cash, and I have to find him. His name is Today. We took his name fromm Todo in the Wizard of Oz. I start screaming out, “Today! Where are you? Come here, Today! It’s your master, Michelle.” I sometimes hear jingles from his collar when the tag that says he’s gotten his rabies vaccine and the tag with my name and telephone number jingle against each othe...

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Ready, Aim, Fire

Submitted to Contest #14

Nobody ever meant for it to end up this way. People always talk about the dark and stormy night, but ours was actually calm and clear. Not a cloud in sight. No storms to be seen, not a raindrop on the horizon. One dark, swirling sky, waiting and watching, for all that would happen underneath it. It was you and me. I was falling, hard. I don’t think you knew. I still don’t think you know. We were here, and we were there. We were everywhere. A few simple mistakes led us together, and we collided, head on. You were you, and I was me. It was col...

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The Flames of Change, Procrastination and Expectation

Submitted to Contest #14

Small and as quiet as a gray mouse, I treaded down the long hall of my father’s mansion. My white socks allowed me to keep up with his leisure pace towards the bottom of our windy staircase, which he could not see without the aid of a flickering candle. My father is fairly old, and with his vision degrading over the years, too many times he had stumbled upon my toes. As the fresh rays of dawn burst into the living quarters, I found myself ahead of father, already in the kitchen—as usual of every dim smoky morning. Until all the wall torches ...

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