Write about a character, animal or human, who is reborn as something totally different.

Posted in High School on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 42 stories

“beneath the quaking aspen” by Myia Melendy

🏆 Winner of Contest #118

He buried her in the forest before the leaves of the quaking aspen turned golden. No one noticed the tamped down soil, or the way the wild grasses died back all around her, or even the circle of whimsy brown mushrooms that erupted soon after.And when autumn came, and the leaves changed, the trembling giant whose roots she fed turned scarlet instead.“I am here,” she called. “Please find me!”But, after the first frost, the leaves turned rusty, and were then indistinguishable from the rest.No one noticed her, buried in the forest beneath the qu...

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“The Hawk” by Ramona Scarborough

Submitted to Contest #118

On the day Queen Roseanna gave birth to her first child, she asked Avelina, one of her ladies in waiting, to go to bedroom’s balcony. “What kind of bird perches on my bird feeder?” she asked her. She hoped for her favorite bird, which she thought most like herself, with bright orange and yellow like her royal robes and black plumage the same as her long, shiny ebony hair. If so, she would call her infant daughter, Oriole. Avelina stood at the window for a while but said nothing. “Well? What do you see?” “Only a common house sparrow, my...

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“Metamorphosis of a Former Beauty Queen” by Peggy Gerber

Submitted to Contest #118

My name is Sarah, and this is the story of how I died. It is the tale of a sixty-five year old grandmother, a former beauty queen, who made a radical decision to transform herself without considering any of the consequences. Please don’t judge me. My story begins the first Tuesday of October, at approximately 6 A.M., when I was jolted awake by a searing pain in my back along with lightning bolts shooting up and down my legs. After my car accident six years earlier, eight of the discs in my spine had collapsed and the ...

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“The Bonfire” by Bethany Garner

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #118

It’s ugly, the way these searing tendrils of heat claw up my arms, over my face, across the brittle surface of my hands—which are clenched into fists. I can feel it scratching my eyelids. My nostrils. My gums. Tearing through parts of my body I usually think about so little that I don’t even realise I’m not thinking about them. But this searing heat isn’t even the worst part. It’s the smoke that gets you. That’s what the firefighters said when they came to my school back in the day. Stay low, stay low. Breathe through a wet sock. I...

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“Morning” by Michael Heavener

Submitted to Contest #118

This morning, I wake up and find a pregnant woman in bed beside me. In my bed. There's no mistaking the swelling of her belly. This woman, she's a young thing. From the side, she appears too young to be so pregnant, maybe 16 or 17 at the most. She—the young woman—has long brown hair. Long. It flows everywhere, on her side, onto my side. And it has soft curls. Really pretty, I wish I had hair like that. I lean up on my elbow to see her face. You'd do the same, right? Maybe I shouldn't have. She has my husband's face. No shit! I've l...

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“Autobiology” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #118

I woke up from the most relaxing sleep to realize that it had happened again. Now, usually, I would adjust to the change in circumstances by learning my function and trying to be quiet, tame, polite and even inconspicuous (a good word; a word that I was learning to use more and more often when I was on my own). But this felt a little bit different. Someone had decided that I needed to transfer my essence to various parts of the body. This really could be the worse form of reincarnation anyone could imagine, and I thought that I was in hell t...

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“The Average Life of a Swan” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #118

I became a duckling the day being a swan became too strenuous. Calling out to whichever deity would listen, I begged to have my wings cut or shortened. I wanted the white that had inspired artists to paint me and great beauties to envy me cast off my plumage or given away to someone who could better care for its grace. The others I swam alongside were perplexed at my request. Why wish to return? Why loathe my current form? Why beg to rewind the fable of the swan? Because some of us miss our youth that much, I suppose. Some cannot loo...

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“A Fine Line ” by Zoe Nicholas

Submitted to Contest #118

“Hi! I’m Rachel, I’ll be your stylist today.” A petite, pretty girl who had blushed when their eyes met, lifted her long thick hair. “So! We’re going short!” She’d come out of town, where no-one knew her, heart racing as she made the appointment, racing now as she nodded and handed the photo over her shoulder. “I’d like it like this please.” She held her breath in the silence, waiting.“Ok, no problem, just come this way and we’ll get you shampooed.”When she thought back to the start, it felt strange, like looking int...

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“Board” by Zane Schneider

Submitted to Contest #118

It was her idea to splurge on the new computer monitor. It was her idea to splurge in general, whenever a splurge snuck up and presented itself. The regulars would come in, and they would say, “The mirror in the bathroom is bigger! That’s wonderful!” Or: “This new display table! All for candles! Simply Wonderful!” And you would shrug and say, “Guess we’re doing alright, huh? You keep shopping here, we’ll keep buying bigger mirrors, just for you. Cash or credit?” The new computer monitor was shaped like a rectangle instead of a square. “Bet...

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“Rebirth,...?” by Robert Wilson

Submitted to Contest #118

Rebirth,….? He fired another shot into the ceiling as the last of the bank patrons dropped to the floor. Some were cursing under their breaths and others were crying and some were hysterical as the gunman nervously made his way from one teller to the other. “IN THE BAG!” He yelled as he held it up in front of each frightened teller. As the gunman moved he waved the gun into their faces to hurry them along. At the last of the tellers he took the bag by both handles with the gun still in one ...

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“Confessions of the Kentucky Fried Cannibal” by Rabbitt Sharp

Submitted to Contest #118

Trigger Warning: This story has elements of Crime and Horror. It includes descriptions of Violence, Murder, and Cannibalism from the viewpoint of a Serial Killer. ------------- As I sit here in this cage, awaiting my death, I have been moved to tell you a few confessions and explanations for the actions that have sealed my fate this day. You see, I used to think I was a chicken. I know how crazy that sounds. Maybe that is why I feel I need to explain myself. You see, it all started with a dream. You have to expect weird dreams when ...

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“Weathering the Storm” by Marly Smith

Submitted to Contest #118

People are a lot like caterpillars. There are plenty of caterpillars amongst us, but on occasion we get a glimpse of a butterfly… The wind had changed direction. No longer the soft, warming breeze that blew gently off of the ocean caressing and nurturing me. This wind was angry. It didn’t care if I wasn’t ready for it’s onslaught. The new gust was powerful and merciless and really cold. Really cold. &...

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“Waiting For You” by William Alfred

Submitted to Contest #118

TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of death and gun violence. Twelve hours. I wake up in a boy’s bed. The light from the sun hurts my eyes. I wish to bury myself in the boy’s wondrous sheets and sleep for a few hours more, but I know that his mother will wake soon and that I have much to do today. So, I rise and pick up my discarded undergarments and dress myself. The boy, of course, has not awoken. He is pale and still. I kiss him on his soft lips before departing through his window. I wander through the boy’s neighborhood for a short time. Th...

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“Purgatory” by Cydney Cantello

Submitted to Contest #118

It serves me right, I guess, that I should end up like this. Had I known reincarnation was more than just shit being spewed to keep the masses living in mindless fear, I might have lived my past life differently. Though I suppose with people like me running around, it is best the masses live in fear, anyways. It’s hard to say definitively if we would have done things differently when we look at our past actions through the lens of all that we know in the future. I didn’t have a crystal ball full of all the knowledge I have now, not th...

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“The Inframorphosis” by David Week

Submitted to Contest #118

I have lived 280 million years, give or take ten million. Needless to say, I've stopped celebrating birthdays. Occasionally, in my wanderings, I encounter a birthday cake—someone else's—and I confess to a nibble or two. But my brain is not capable of holding the memories of every day that I have lived, so even though I know the fact of those birthday cakes, I can summon of them no memory, no images, no feelings. Of course, my body wears out. I must renew it periodically. I give birth to myself. But each new self is the same as the old, u...

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Ended on 23:59 - Nov 05, 2021 EST

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Title: beneath the quaking aspen

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Write about a character, animal or human, who is reborn as something totally different.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 42 stories

“beneath the quaking aspen” by Myia Melendy

“The Hawk” by Ramona Scarborough

“Metamorphosis of a Former Beauty Queen” by Peggy Gerber

“The Bonfire” by Bethany Garner

“Morning” by Michael Heavener

“Autobiology” by Kendall Defoe

“The Average Life of a Swan” by Story Time

“A Fine Line ” by Zoe Nicholas

“Board” by Zane Schneider

“Rebirth,...?” by Robert Wilson

“Confessions of the Kentucky Fried Cannibal” by Rabbitt Sharp

“Weathering the Storm” by Marly Smith

“Waiting For You” by William Alfred

“Purgatory” by Cydney Cantello

“The Inframorphosis” by David Week

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with “Today’s the day I change.”

Write your story from the perspective of an outsider watching something or someone change.

Your character picks up a fallen leaf and can’t believe what they discover underneath it. What happens next?

Set your story during a sudden change of season.

Contest #118

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

204

Contest entries

140

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: