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Start your story with one character making a vow that they never would have made the year before.

Posted in Holiday on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 102 stories

KING v. DARKNESS

Submitted to Contest #75

Max King was driving his son to school when it happened. The father enjoyed making his child laugh. He made a vow that he would quit smoking before New Year's Day. He also promised his son that he would take him to Disney World during his time off from work. A bad driver took Max's attention away from his son. Max blew his horn at a motorist who was driving too slow in front of him. He didn’t know things would get worse. The trouble began when Max went to pick his son, Aaron, up from school. He was told by Aaron’s teacher that a woman c...

84 likes 36 comments 36
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The Real Thing

Submitted to Contest #75

“I vow that I will never fall in love ever again,” I say, as the other guys make their vows almost a few seconds before it is the first of January. My words are lost in the joyful cheering when the clock strikes twelve, but I still mean it. I’ve never meant anything more in my life. Love is not real. It’s the type of thing that you can’t find because it doesn’t really exist. There are many versions of love, unique to every person. The real thing, however, true love as they call it, is fake. An oxymoron, isn’t it? Every rel...

75 likes 43 comments 43
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Speaking to Silence

Submitted to Contest #75

new moon: new yearWords, words, words. The ones I think, the ones I am thinking, about her. She has been the only person I have spoken to, but not through these-forms of written language. Language is bordered and hesitant, probably a trickster if you hear it from me. Words and I, we go way back, before even the tiniest bacterium swam the seas. (You wouldn’t believe how talkative trees are) People, they are fairly new to us, but it is quite an achievement for her, being the only human I’ve ever spoken to. And my, did she have a lot to say“So,...

67 likes 31 comments 31
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Jean’s Vow

Submitted to Contest #75

Jean's Vow“Monsieur, the all-time pianist, Madame Agustin is inviting you to do a show with you—that is if you want to." The assistant, Andre offered him.  “Andre. What have I told you about my relationship with music? I said I don’t ever want to hear it again. That includes not playing it. I haven’t even touched my violin for 10 years. Go away and tell her that I refuse.” Jean Ander replied coldly.  “But Monsieur—” Andre got interrupted by Jean.  “Do you want to have no job? Do you want to go home with no money...

59 likes 30 comments 30
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Rhythm of the Waves

Submitted to Contest #75

Olive knew of rapid heartbeats. Shortness of breath. The sting in the air that pricked his skin. The wind that slapped against his cheeks.The people he had walked past mere seconds ago were now blurs in the corner of his eyes. His entire family was here - his mum, his dad, his stepdad, his two brothers.It was surreal.Blue was standing in front of him with a cerulean suit to match his eyes. A white rose in his breast pocket to match his shirt. His silken hair was pulled back into a bun like the day they had met.Two well-intentioned curls had ...

53 likes 47 comments 47
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Strangers on a Train

Submitted to Contest #75

“Some birds sing when the sun shines bright. Our praise is not for them, but for those who sing in the dead of night. We raise our cups to them.” Suyin plopped herself down by the train’s windowsill, gazing out the reflective glass to see shimmers of rain falling down from the clouds. From the right angle, she could almost see her own reflection in the window, right above the bronze colored wood. Sighing, she stared out at the rain as it poured like a paint dripping down a canvas onto the streets of Ophirie. Signs blew in the wind, the rai...

52 likes 40 comments 40
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Easier Days

Submitted to Contest #75

I will never eat another apple pie. Never again. I wouldn’t have said that last year or any year before that. But now, the thought of an apple pie shatters me. It started with a Facebook post from an ER doctor treating COVID patients. He wrote about baking his single use N95 mask in order to sterilize it before using that same mask again. And again. And again. “It comes out warm and toasty and clean. It comes out safe. I set it on the windowsill to cool, like an apple pie from easier days,” he wrote.   I sent that to Pip, who...

44 likes 47 comments 47
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Going Back

Submitted to Contest #75

TW: child abuse, gun violence The bishop began his homily, but I was only half paying attention. I could feel sweat gathering in my hands. Did I really want to do this? A year ago, I would’ve said,   “I’m never doing this!”    But now, I wasn’t so sure. Last year, I had stumbled in here. I had no home. No family. Well, not anymore. As soon as my parents found out what I did, they slammed the door in my face and told me to get lost. No real family would do that to you.    That thought seized m...

41 likes 34 comments 34
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Wedding vows

Submitted to Contest #75

“I take you to be my lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”“I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”"You have declared your consent before the Church. May the Lord in his goodness strengthen your consent and fill you both with his blessings. What God has joined, men must not ...

41 likes 15 comments 15
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Blood, Bone, and Broken Hearts

Submitted to Contest #75

Trigger warning: self harm   Kara had killed him.   I had loved him.   I will never be the same. And so, hatred and vengeance boiling in my blood, I stood on the dark, shadowed street and, raising my knife to the moon, I plunged it into my hand. My blood ran down my sleeve, staining the white red.  It dripped onto the rain-soaked cobblestones, my skin slashed but feeling no pain. "Aeti Aeito Amnada Asara," I chanted, tracing a circle on the ground with my good hand, drawn in my own blood. "I, Akiko Marsadi of the house Ry...

39 likes 76 comments 76
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The Choice

Shortlisted for Contest #75 ⭐️

Trigger warning: Suicide "I choose myself’"   Les sighed as he made the vow, and he turned his collar up against the harsh wind. He looked down over the edge of the building. This building was 100-126 feet tall; he knows that because stating the estimated building heights from the number of floors was something Cal used to do as they walked by them. Every time they walked by one over 8 floors actually. It was a little-known fact but if you fall from a distance 48 feet you have a 50% chance of dying, if you take that up to...

32 likes 9 comments 9
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White Flower

Submitted to Contest #75

Kira Sorenson thought about her upcoming birthday. It was going to be a day that she would never forget for as long as she lived. Which could be centuries, seeing as she was a hybrid. Her father Jared, who was a vampire, met her werewolf mother Natalie in the late eighties.Mixed species relationships were becoming even more common as the decades passed. Nobody who knew them was surprised when the couple got married. They moved into a large house in Astell Grove, owned by the Sorenson clan.After many years, fate had at last decided to give th...

29 likes 5 comments 5
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Commitment

Submitted to Contest #75

My trembling legs nearly gave away my attack of nerves. Thankfully, they were hidden under many layers of organza and tulle making up the lower half of my wedding gown. I pressed my knees together to quell the shaking.The priest had already turned to me, waiting for me to recite the vows I had memorized and practiced countless times. Although his countenance was relaxed, his eyes flashed, revealing his impatience.The man I was about to marry faced me, a small smile playing on his lips. My hands were placed in his upturned palms, and he gentl...

26 likes 19 comments 19
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It's a Secret

Submitted to Contest #75

Prompt: Start your story with one character making a vow that they never would have a year before. It’s a Secret    Cheryl Marita    Rudy laughed at his reflection in the tiny mirror in the men’s bathroom. He didn’t even recognize himself after six months on Kwajalein Atoll Air Base.    “Hey man, even with the sixty-hour weeks, you still show some island sun.”    He enjoyed the warm, clear water. An escape from data, an escape from his broken heart that pushed him to jump at the c...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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Be Good for Goodness' Sake

Submitted to Contest #75

Before this year, I wouldn't have paid much attention to people’s laziness. I wouldn't have dwelled on the crowded chats in the lunchroom about the latest story on The Daily Mail or a patient they shouldn't have been talking about. And I would have turned my back when I saw staff treating break-rooms like private bedrooms— in a couple of different ways, if you know what I mean. It was just what people did. And I figured that nothing could really change people. But this year, people’s laziness began to cost lives, un-masked chats in the lunch...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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