Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

End your story with total oblivion.

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 24 stories

Oblivion

Submitted to Contest #140

TOTAL OBLIVION Tommy’s face, hovering over me, blocking out a beautiful blue summer sky, disrupts the serenity of the morning. Tommy is the newspaper delivery boy from across the street. “Mrs. Ferns! Mrs. Ferns!” he cries frantically. “Are you alright?”             He leans over me; a deep frown furrowing his young brow.            “Yes, Tommy, of course I’m alright. I’m just resting,” I respond.      ...

33 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Erase

Submitted to Contest #140

“So, are you sure this is safe?” I asked.  “Of course,” The doctor responded. “We’ve had many patients like you, it’s a very simple process really. Perfectly safe.” The doctor smiled, crossing his arms and gesturing to the operation table before me. I hesitated and looked around the room at all of the other people there, observers as the doctor called them, here to watch the progress of science in action.  “Then why is there a money-back guarantee?” I asked as I sat down, itching my arm as I stared at the tools before me, the sca...

30 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

Gas on Palms, Bruises on Hearts

Submitted to Contest #140

CW: apocalyptic event, mentions of family member death, discussions of death/the afterlife (plus small insinuations of homophobia), mild language. Adelola dropped the needle onto the record three minutes and forty-nine seconds before the world was due to end.  Mr. Yorke’s crooning whine echoed around her. It flitted away from its place on the roof of the caravan, rolled down the fiberglass sides and the windswept grass and tumbled from the edge of the cliff. Evie had said this was a preposterously precarious place to park – we’...

24 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

The Quiet End of All Things (Human)

Submitted to Contest #140

I don’t think anyone guessed the end of the world would be so quiet. Given the past few years, I imagine most thought it would end with a brilliant flash of blinding light. Those that weren’t consumed by the fire or torn to shreds by the concussive force would slowly wither in the months that followed as they drank tainted water and consumed poisoned food; a gasping death for the human race, as agonizing as it is tedious. But it wouldn’t be the end of life, nor the Earth. While most might not count extremophiles as proper forms of life, I th...

23 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

What Does it Mean to be Human?

Submitted to Contest #140

“Things are never gonna be the same now...”  He said as he leaned against the banister, trusting it with all his weight, perhaps even what weighed on his mind. He was wearing a thick black parka, the one I’d gotten him a few years ago. I wondered for a moment why he didn’t offer it to me.  Ponderosa pines sprinkled the white blanket of snow that lay still on the ground, almost like plastic. We stood on the wooden porch together, little splinters of wood shooting up between the planks that made up the balcony beneath us. I inched ...

20 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Beast in My Jungle

Submitted to Contest #140

The Beast in My Jungle By Robert Ford  When I was a sophomore in college, I took a literature course that was devoted to the extensive novels and short stories of Henry James. Among his many works, I fixated, almost to the point of obsession, on his short story The Beast in the Jungle. The main character is convinced that his life will be defined by some catastrophic or spectacular event and that the event is lying in wait for him like a beast in the jungle waiting to spring. I decided to eliminate the idea that I would suffer a cat...

18 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Prelude to a Catastrophe

Submitted to Contest #140

All of the chattering in the assembled group ceased as Fiona, the Queen, majestically entered the main chamber of the colony. The name of the colony, Westparkia, was derived from its location in the historical downtown park of the city. She strode proudly on all of her six legs to the podium in front and gracefully waved them to acknowledge the cheers from the crowd.She was in her natural element and milking the situation for all of the adulation that it was worth. Her appearance was unusual, given that most of her time was normally reserved...

18 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Oubliette

Submitted to Contest #140

“Where one is forgotten but not gone.” Pamela chewed on her pencil. Number 39 across was a word with lots of vowels. The title of the puzzle was “The French Connection.” How to say “to forget” in French?” She’d excelled in the language in college. Oublier, of course. Pamela penciled in, O-U-B-L-I-E-T-T-E. She remembered the first time she’d ever heard that word. She’d been with Charles in a castle in England somewhere, or maybe in Wales. It was during their grand European honeymoon. They’d visited so many castles then, because as a chil...

16 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Storm Inside

Submitted to Contest #140

“I wanted to figure him out.” I had opened the floodgate and had no choice now but to wade through. “I thought you were one of the clues.” I was wrong. Dead wrong. But now it was too late to do anything, and I was going to have to face the consequences of my actions.  Or was I? “It wasn’t always like that though,” I murmured looking at the torrential rain drumming against the window in a frenzied battle with my heart.  Watching the whipping wind and exploding raindrops, I wondered if this was divine intervention? The wil...

15 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Oblivion

Submitted to Contest #140

OblivionHave you ever had one of those dreams where you are trying to run away from something, but you are just not gaining any ground? Or you are fighting someone off, but your arms will only move on slow motion? If you have, you will remember waking up with an almost painful knot of frustration resting in the very pit of your stomach, and the overwhelming hopelessness that you carried from your subconscious into the conscious waking moments.Occasionally, residual feelings from dreams linger throughout the day, tainting your mood. Like you ...

14 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Hurricane of Fire

Submitted to Contest #140

I want... to forget. The thought repeats itself as I take another swig of hard liquor. It does little to numb my senses; I laugh bitterly. I sit at the far end of a downtrodden bar where not even the blinking neon lights can reach me. I shouldn’t stay in one location much longer; I know what happens when I do. There’s a storm growing inside me, and I can’t control it.I get up to leave, but just before I reach the door, it happens: my eyes flash with a quick burst of lightning contained within the depths of my pupils. Nobody notices; they’re ...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Familiar Strangers

Submitted to Contest #140

'Hello there. Who are you?' I stare at the strangers crowding around my bed. Something is familiar about them, but I can't exactly grasp what. 'I'm your daughter, Mama,' says the familiar stranger, a young woman with dark hair, the same shade as mine. 'Daughter,' I muse, glancing at her. I look inquiringly at two other men. 'Who are you?' 'I'm your husband,' says the man, who looks as if he's in his 60's. 'This is your son, Lacey.' He nods toward the man. 'Husband. Son. Who's Lacey?' 'Oh, Mama,' cries the daughter. She flings her arms over m...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Raveler

Submitted to Contest #140

When she kills me a third time, I start to take it personally. She knows how much energy I need to recreate myself. My fourth body in as many days is gaunt, all angles and harsh lines. I’m nearing my limit.So I run. It won’t stop her, not if she actually, truly intends to kill me, but it could buy me enough time to come up with a plan.I leave the country stowed away on a steamboat, having bribed the dockhands with the local currency. Money is easy to create and I won’t miss the speck of power it requires.I wake up the next day in a bustling ...

11 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Through the Edgeless Expanse

Submitted to Contest #140

Bob floated in the void, perpetually flipping end over end. The endless tumbling wasn't so bad when he didn't have a point of reference. He got super nauseous when he passed a nearby star or planet. Lucky for him, that hadn't happened in a few thousand years. Or was it unlucky? After all, he had been floating through space for hundreds of millions, maybe billions of years. Getting sucked into a star, gas giant, or even a black hole would have at least been a refreshing change of pace. But Bob wasn't that lucky. In fact, Bob was probably...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Scorpion-Fish

Submitted to Contest #140

"I drank coffee and read old books and waited for the year to end."                                                                                ...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with the narrator or a character saying “I remember…”

Angst – 101 stories

Write about a character with an unreliable memory.

Character – 46 stories

Write a story that involves a flashback.

Fiction – 71 stories

Write a story inspired by a memory of yours.

Nonfiction – 89 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel