Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

A character finds an old roll of film, and takes it to be developed. What do they find?

Posted in Middle School 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?

✍️ 45 stories

Unseen

Winner of Contest #144 🏆

The canister had always been there, rolling around at the bottom of his duffle bag. Whenever he packed, his fingers would graze over the smooth, gray top, but he’d never take it out, never look directly at it. Sometimes when he unpacked, the canister would get wound up in a dirty sock or wedged inside a pocket, and it would come up with a handful of laundry as he went to chuck it into the machine. Whenever this happened, Jake would carefully retrieve the black cylinder and tuck it back into the bottom corner of his bag.  That’s where ...

282 likes 431 comments 431
Read story

The Talk of the Town

Submitted to Contest #144

“Mom, there are some packages at the door!” Geneva hollered to her mother from the bottom of the stairs. “Be right there!” Holly shouted back as she clipped in her pearl earrings and double checked her crimson lipstick. She slipped into her floor length, satin gown and squeezed her feet into her uncomfortable patent leather pumps. She wasn’t Audrey Hepburn, but thought she looked good enough for the annual black-tie charity event that Colin’s company hosted every year. A night filled with small talk, fake smiles, champagne, and bite size...

45 likes 21 comments 21
Read story

The Disappearance of Elizabeth Conway

Submitted to Contest #144

Elizabeth Conway - reported missing on the 18th of November 1986. 5ft 5, slender build, brown hair and green eyes. Last seen leaving school premises on the 13th of November at roughly 16:00 wearing her school uniform (white shirt, navy blazer, tie, and tights), a double-breasted, brown overcoat with white buttons, and a black woolly hat. First missing person’s report of the victim. No previous criminal record, no records of mental illnesses, no reports of family conflict, no records of conflict at school.   “So no reason to run awa...

29 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Kodachrome

Submitted to Contest #144

It began with my son. “Dad, what’s this?” We were clearing out the attic after his grandmother died. She was the last grandparent he had and Steven wanted to help me put everything in order and clean up all that we had to settle. I still remember the thick dust in that heat, all of the cobwebs, and the sunlight that was unmerciful through the windows. It streamed in and I felt the sweat and dust trickling down my body. “What’s up?” I turned, and saw that he found a box that I had not seen in a very, very long time. “What is, ‘You can’t take ...

26 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

Key to the Past

Submitted to Contest #144

He picked through the rubble of what had been his childhood home, looking for anything that might be kept as a souvenir. Bryon meticulously opened drawer after drawer in the kitchen before moving on to the cupboards and then searching under piles of old papers and leaves that had been left to blow arbitrarily through the broken home, lifted by even the gentlest of breezes as it wafted through from the missing front door to the broken patio glass. He hadn’t been back there since that night.Memories would occasionally surface in his mind of th...

25 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Torn

Submitted to Contest #144

TornThere are things in life better left unseen, unheard, unknown. Truth is not always the best path.“Mommy, why do I have red hair?”“That’s just the way it is, Cal.”“Ricky and Jenny have brown hair. You have brown hair. Daddy has brown hair. Why do I have red hair?”“God picks the color, honey. You’re lucky. You have beautiful red hair.”Such explanations suffice for the very young. Not so much in the later years.“Hey, give me some of your popcorn, Cal.”“Get your own popcorn, Ricky.”“Gosh, you’re such a jerk. Jenny’s right. You must be a...

16 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Photographic Memories

Submitted to Contest #144

So much stuff. Did Leo have nothing better to do than collect stuff? ‘What was he trying to tell me?’ “Gabe?” Sophie called down the stair well. “Down here, babe.” She descended a few steps and peeked into the basement. Gabe stood amidst the labyrinth of newspapers and boxes his father had left behind. “Wow…!” “Leo wasn’t a hoarder, but you can see it from here. He always knew that one article near the bottom of that rear pile would come in handy someday.” “What are you going to do?” “I need to work fast. The bottom layers are turning int...

16 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

My Mystery to Solve

Submitted to Contest #144

(Contains elements of a sensitive nature, including grief, the supernatural, and implied violence) When you’re strapped for cash, and you’re already busy with school and working in your spare time, you find more work. For me, that was cleaning out basements for the neighbors. One particular day, though, I discovered a calling (albeit, short lived) much deeper than earning some extra cash. I was at Mrs. Carruthers’ place, tackling one of the most cluttered gold mines of a basement I’ve faced yet. She was a long-time friend of my grandmother...

15 likes 7 comments 7
Read story

FUZZY IMAGE

Submitted to Contest #144

Fuzzy Image By: Joseph A. Monachino George’s grandfather’s house has comfortable surroundings. George has just moved in after his grandfather, Bill, passed away one month earlier. He feels that when he gets married and has kids, this is the perfect place to live and raise kids. He goes to the bedroom to lie back on the bed to read a book. What is this he sees in the corner of the bedroom? It is a roll of undeveloped film. He wonders what could be on the 12 pictures of the roll of film. So, he brings it...

13 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Star of the Stage and Silver Screen

Submitted to Contest #144

It rolled out from under a steamer covered in dust and other detritus found in the attic.   My father Vernon Hattford had passed away a week ago in hospice, leaving me as executor of his estate.  He had lived in this house since getting his Veteran Administration loan to buy it after the war in 1946.  I grew up, learned to drive, got my first kiss and a whole bunch of other memories in this neighborhood before leaving for college.  It shames me to admit, I have never looked back until my dad got cancer.  I helped set...

13 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

110 Penitent Ghosts

Submitted to Contest #144

Stepping onto his mother’s covered porch, I stiff-armed the purgatorial ghosts of pointless memories. Vague reflections looked up from a murky pond of rippling time, and even the ghosts that resembled me laughed with blame. Especially the ones that looked like me. Those familiars mocked attentively, the rest in spurts and fits.They came up from the ground like watery smoke and wafted through the rails. Sitting, standing, running, lying—they fought, they laughed, they hoped. They also huffed, sniffed, and puffed—rolling their bright potential...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

THE FACE IN THE DARK ROOM

Submitted to Contest #144

THE FACE IN THE DARK ROOM  Mark Ross, a bank clerk , liked very much taking pictures. He was a real enthusiast of the shot. Indeed it can be said that he couldn’t help but photograph. At home he had a well- equipped laboratory for developing the photos he took during his travels , during the holidays ( vacations), but even those he took on the street of his city every day as soon as he could, as soon as he glimpsed someone or something to frame, to capture in a photo. So it was ( had b...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

MM

Submitted to Contest #144

I was a mere peanut-sized being, blossoming in utero, when Daniel the second (my grandfather) and Daniel the third (my dad) both died. Odd to me, their deaths came one right after the other and under what seemed to be very suspicious circumstances that no one could ever really explain in a way that made sense to me. As a child, I would while away the hours staring at the few photos my mother had of both she and my dad, and my dad and grandfather together. The photos told me nothing other than my mom had been gorgeous during that time, a fa...

11 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Heikel

Submitted to Contest #144

I don’t really know why I gravitated to the old, dilapidated trunk in the antique store that afternoon while wandering amidst the many vendors’ galleries, but I did. It was as though I was compelled and drawn to the old trunk for reasons unbeknownst to me. I remember running my fingers over it, feeling the raised ridges of peeling paint as I gingerly lifting the faded, damaged lid. From what I could see at the time, it held an assortment of old clothing, costume jewelry, books, and other such items. It was an intriguing assortment of unknown...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Arabian Convoy

Submitted to Contest #144

While rambling through some storage boxes in the basement one day, I came across a roll of film. The film was among past photos and other odds and ends, and I recognized that most of the stuff was from back in the 1990s. “I wonder what could be on this,” I asked myself aloud, though there was no one around. I rolled the film around in my hand. The yellow sticker on the backside of the film case had been worn down to make it unreadable. I had a sudden sense of profound curiosity to find out what was in that roll of film. How to get this...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with somebody taking a photo.

Adventure – 74 stories

Write a story about a wedding photographer.

Valentine's Day – 31 stories

Write about a character who’s pathologically camera shy.

Character – 21 stories

Write a story that centres around an Instagram post.

High School – 20 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