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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that starts by establishing its setting in a different time period — without explicitly stating what that period is.

Posted in Historical Fiction on Jul 16, 2021

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✍️ 114 stories

“The village” by Benjamin Hubner

Submitted to Contest #44

Marcus was walking towards the village, because he knew he had to stay there if he wanted to survive the bubonic plague. It was a cloudy day, so he started to walk faster to avoid possible rain. He was completely alone, and he was very thankful for that because it reduced significantly the odds of him dying this week of the disease. As he walked, he remembered the faith of his family, and almost started crying again. He missed them a lot, and everytime he thought of them sad feelings and nostalgia got the best of him. He had lost everything....

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“The Salem Witch Trial Files” by Riya Tom

Submitted to Contest #44

The Salem Witch Trial Files #34The foggy weather was highly unusual for hanging witches, but it had to be done. John was aware that his wife, May, was unjustly accused, but it was necessary. “John, do you so solemnly swear, on the Holy Bible, that you have seen your wife dabbling in witchcraft?” the priest asked sharply.“I do.”"Can you recount how you found out?" the priest inquired."Yes sir. When we were first married, around 3 years ago, I noticed strange things around the house, things that wouldn't happen before, when I was a bachel...

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“Scotland's Girl” by Ellie D

Submitted to Contest #44

In St. Kilda Scotland, there were the wealthy residents, and the servants. The wealthy ones believed in hierarchy and good fashion. Servants were what were called humble, the word being frowned upon. In this time, there was a family that lived the wealthy lifestyle. The Railes. Many of the Scots had heard of their name many times. They took part in the Hierarchy beliefs. This family had a mother, a father and a child. The mother was a wretch, as well as the father: Bobland and Cellecey. They had met through their own parents marrying th...

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“The Masterpiece ” by Felicia Juliano

Submitted to Contest #44

It wasn’t even a real theater.The room belonged to my cousin Tom, who leased it for almost nothing on account of it supposedly being “haunted.” It was part of a four joint strip mall located in the middle of an old rundown neighborhood where it had sat empty for decades, still as brand new as the day it was built, back when Tom’s daddy was in grade school. The only blemish on the otherwise flawless exterior were the boarded up windows in Tom’s movie theater. Apparently, a runaway convict had been hiding out in that very room for weeks when t...

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“The Eternal Battle” by Ray Bailey

Submitted to Contest #44

Julian had tracked his foe for what seemed like an eternity.   The pursuit started at Hadrian's Wall, continuing to Dover. Then across the channel to the kingdom of the Franks. After being pressed into service for the noble Charlemagne,  Julian found out his query had entered the conflict on the other side.  Just another reason to continue the chase.  While preparing for the battle Julian could not help but remember the last time he fought beside a Frankish king. Charlemagne's grandfather, Charles Martel, as they repelled...

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“Behind the Eight ball ” by Claudia Cook

Submitted to Contest #44

       It was the era of flappers. Of speakeasies and prohibition. Of The great Gatsby and The sun also rises.  The era Agatha Christie wrote her debut novel.It was also the era Kitty had twins with a man she thought she loved and who loved her. She didn’t marry Frank for money for Kitty’s family was rolling in money. It wasn’t for status either as Kitty’s family was well off. She thought Frank was the bee’s knees and she told her father soKitty’s father, Jonathan, owned a local speakeas...

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“Corday” by Link Oberon

Submitted to Contest #44

There are clouds gathering on the horizon, pregnant with the long awaited rain. Above, in the azure sky, the sun beats down, bright, sharp, and unforgiving. The air itself is hazy, thick, a miasma of heat and dust and tightly packed bodies. Sweat, the multi-scented salts from thousands of onlookers, clings to the nostrils and drips from perspiring brows. It sticks to the skin like bedclothes after a night of exertion, and yet you are almost thankful for its presence, its humane odor, for it serves, like lace bed sheets, to cover the rancid m...

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“Freedom” by Sammy Ismail

Submitted to Contest #44

The sun is shining brightly on a cold afternoon, wind sweeping past by gently. Instead of the noise of the bombs and the speeding of war planes across the sky, the birds have returned and started to chirp merrily, creating a happy atmosphere in this already broken and gloomy place. Germans seemed to have disappeared from this place, as if those Nazis have never existed. Instead of the German language, I heard a mixture of Russian and Polish languages, tangled together. Instead of Nazis lurking around, I saw the Russian army, driving through ...

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“The Catholic Mission in Low Earth Orbit” by Samuel S.

Submitted to Contest #44

There was a mistiness in the man’s eyes as he affixed his gaze upon the wooden idol of Christ suspended above the altar. In the past few months, Father Rodriguez had become familiar with this look. On a day-to day-basis, few inhabited his pews, but whenever there was a visitor, they did not come lightly. It did not surprise the Bishop, given the geographic nature of his churchgoers’ profession, to see the immense anguish and anxiety they brought to this place of worship. Still, he could not help but look upon the dark expressions of the men ...

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“Tales of beauty” by Kornelius Sikongo

Submitted to Contest #44

September spring, a happy evening it was. My parents, siblings and everybody at that party were dancing in ecstasy. The mood was jubilant. The effect of two rounds of vodka made me speak to the prettiest girls at the party. At twelfth I had already secretly made up with four girls in the bathroom. It was the greatest Sunday of my life. The joy and excitement went on until two in the morning. That was the morning I remembered I had a DAT test to write four hours later. DAT was a test written to determine the probability of students likely to ...

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“Three Bullets” by Oracle Ferguson

Submitted to Contest #44

The world was slowly adapting to the present changes, sounds of bullets and bombardments instead of birds, the smell of gunpowder instead of flowers and the echoes of the sobbing families, whose husband, son, brother or father had recently lost their lives in the frontlines, filled the atmosphere. The “Great War” as it was dubbed, had been continuing for over two years and no one knew when it would end.One day after the weekly meeting in the Town Hall, discussing the necessities of helping the families in these times and preaching how the so...

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“Disease” by CARLOS MANUEL EUSOYA

Submitted to Contest #44

Madrid had been a ghost town for 12 straight weeks. Today was the 21st of the month of snow, yet no one seemed to bother. The pebble-walled houses had no wreaths of any design. Not a single admirer whistled at the sight of the ladies' fur trim winter coats, their oxford boots, or large purple French-fusion hats. The men, who usually walked with pride and canes, did not light a cigar. They paced faster than usual and covered their smoke-tinted mouths with a white mask.The flu had been killing everything these times. The garbage collection, th...

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“At The Roadside” by Hayley Eden

Submitted to Contest #44

The car by the side of the road was a great hulking machine of pastel pink and chrome. Its rear lights sat nestled within two sharp fins, as though it would be blasting off into space at the moment of engine ignition. The car sat parallel to Teddy, shimmering in the summer heat. The white rims of its tires stared at him questioningly; the rear fender skirt gave the impression of an eyebrow lowered in query. It was nothing compared to the pinpoint gaze of the woman stood beside the car, who was appraising Teddy as though he was resurrected ro...

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“The Night of Fire.” by Ellie Burrows

Submitted to Contest #44

The wailing siren rose to its eerie peak in the early evening air sending a chill down everybody's spine. 'They're starting early tonight.' Frank commented darkly to no one in particular. He jumped to his feet pulling on his tin hat and securing the strap under his chin. Nora and Betty manning the comms desk looked at him, fear gleaming in their eyes. It made no difference that they had been through this several times now, it was just as worrying whether it was your first night or your fiftieth. 'It's going to be a bad one isn't it?' Nora as...

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“Whispers ” by Carol Keefer

Submitted to Contest #44

“Whispers”By Carol Ann Keefer             The lake lap as it caresses the shore and her hair danced in the warm breeze. In the distance, a house surrounded by an assortment of trees giving rise to an illusion of an island. There Isabella lives, or shall I say more like a prisoner, locked in a room whose windows face the forbidden lake. Gone is her innocence, strip away, like weathered stones that make up the mountains that protruded against the horizon.  Isabella...

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