Start your story with a character staring at a picture they don’t remember taking.

Posted in Mystery on Mar 29, 2024

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✍️ 70 stories

“The Party” by K.A. Murray

🏆 Winner of Contest #244

My phone buzzed. I rolled over to look at the text my cousin Maya had just sent. Can you send photo you took of all the girls in costume last night? xoxo My head was throbbing. Hanging out with Maya was fun, but she was eight years younger than me and she and her friends loved to do shots. I needed to stick with beer only if I didn’t want the hangover. That’s what I'd do next time. I opened my photos app to find the picture Maya had requested. It was a group shot I had no memory of taking. It wasn’t everyone who’d been at the party - just th...

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“Safe and Sound Safe and Sound” by Katharine Widdows

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #244

Trigger warning - psychological abuse.7.15am - go downstairs. Phone fully charged, remove cable. Stare at phone wallpaper – not familiar – photo of huge oak in West Park at end of my street – where Rich proposed. Maybe took it yesterday – maybe not. Not sure. Stare more. Check for messages. Mum, Sarah, Rich. Rich? Not heard from him in ages. Is he ok? Oh, he’s replying to me. I didn’t message him. I must have, yes, look. Asked if he had a good weekend, sent 23.03 yesterday. Was in bed by 10. Must have got up - come downstairs - forgotten. Sl...

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“In the picture ” by Helen A Howard

Submitted to Contest #244

Even without a date, you can usually tell the age of a photo from its condition, the print, and style of paper used. This one has a blurred at the edges sun-faded look about it.“That’s strange. I really don’t remember taking that photo. And would you believe it, I’ve gone and left my specs at home?”“You should have got that cataract fixed when you got the chance, Yvonne.”“I dare say.”The out of focus picture in question is of three women: one young, the other two middle-aged. It’s taken from a distance; you’d have to squint to see the three ...

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“Shelby” by Ty Warmbrodt

Submitted to Contest #244

Feeling nostalgic, Melissa decided to go through the old shoe box of pictures from when she was a teen that was sitting in the top of her closet. It had been years, decades, since she opened that box. It’s an old Eastland’s shoe box, wrapped in purple construction paper and bejeweled with fake gems and glitter – very nineties.She popped open the lid and sitting on top was a ticket stub to the movie ‘Titanic’ that her and her friends went to see six times at the theater. She laughed at the memory of them crying their eyes out in the theater a...

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“BANTER BLOOPERS” by Viga Boland

Submitted to Contest #244

Matthew, do you recognize this photo?Should I?Yes. After all, you took it!I didn’t take that! Why would I take a photo of what looks like a small bowl of half-eaten raspberry jello?Because you often take photos of food or other things I’ve never thought worth the effort. I’ve always found that a tad weird. Oh I know. I know. Don’t say it. You’re a photographer and see photos where others, like me, just see objects. But that said, how do you know it’s raspberry if you don’t even remember taking it? Like, maybe it’s strawberry jello?Well, what...

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“Butterflies” by Sophie Fawley

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #244

With both fingers I repeatedly zoomed in and out of the photo. Then I zoomed and un-zoomed even faster, until my screen was just a nauseating blur. I wasn’t sure whether I was trying to make myself feel sick, or if I was hoping that when I finally stopped – when the photo eventually came to a standstill – it would rearrange itself completely into something that made sense. But when I did stop, I was just as confused. Once more, I added up the constituent parts: dark hair splayed on the pillow, shiny skin dappled with bruise-like smudges of m...

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“Intruder” by Jahson Clarke

Submitted to Contest #244

“That day was the worst, I remember Matthew spreading the rumor that I bit his tongue while kissing.” “I mean…you did bite his tongue, Jen.”“You know it was by acci…” I was on the cusp of flipping to the next page of photographs in the album, but something made my eyes divert. “You there Jen?”I was stumped beyond comprehension. The current high school banter became an annoying buzz in my ear. “Hey, I’m going to call you back Emma.” She knew I wasn’t going to call her back. I just needed to focus on what I was looking at. Every...

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“Illusory Truth” by Mabel Gray

Submitted to Contest #244

The woman in the picture smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes. She stood suspended in a moment of clarity and joy, arm draped around her friend’s shoulders, posing in an almost desperate way that guided the attention to her figure. The pair stood outside a local bar, dressed like any other woman in her early 20s about to go to the same place they go every weekend. Their night was likely filled with the same dingy guys trying to buy them drinks, and a strong feeling of deja vu. As she stared at the woman in the photo, she saw herself. Q...

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“I've lost my slippers” by Annie Blackwell

Submitted to Contest #244

The photo in my right hand turns every lump in the armchair’s seat to stones, pressing relentlessly. It reminds me how long I’ve sat here wondering about it, and in truth, pretty much everything else. If only I could think harder, drag memories out of the sticky date pudding in my head. My left hand reaches up and finds straggles of hair. No truths to be found there. The Warden comes in and stares at me. He may not be a warden, but when you’re imprisoned in your body everything outside it taunts your incarceration. Nothing is mine any longer...

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“Shadows of Memory” by Kimberly McIntosh

Submitted to Contest #244

I held the photograph delicately in my hand, feeling the weight of its memories heavy on my heart. The vibrant colors of the sunset danced before my eyes, casting a warm glow that contrasted sharply with the cool uncertainty that engulfed me. How could something so beautiful be so foreign to me? Furrowing my brow, I searched the depths of my mind for any trace of familiarity, but it was like trying to grasp at mist—elusive and fleeting. The photograph seemed to mock me, a silent reminder of a past I couldn't remember. With a sigh, I set the ...

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“Incriminating Polaroids” by Brian Haddad

Submitted to Contest #244

I had been staring at the photograph so long it was just a blurry smudge wobbling between my fingers. I tried to will my hand to stop shaking, but instead the tremor traveled up my arm and embedded itself in my core. I turned my attention back to the photo that I had retrieved from my vintage Polaroid moments earlier.It had only just begun to develop, the image still fading into existence, the mild chemical stink of the development process still clinging to the film, the photo still pinched in the exit chute in the front of the bulky camera ...

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“Quicksand Mind” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #244

The photo is mine. I know this, but I cannot say why I know it. There are not the words, only a feeling that provides me with a reassuring certainty. I have to focus in a way I never used to, or at least I don’t think I did. I focus hard and another piece is provided for the puzzle before me. A piece that will fade soon enough. My existence here is temporary and I have lost the ability to make anything stick. Maybe I never had that ability, only an illusion provided by a heady cocktail of cock-sure arrogance and the ignorance that ...

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“Nooks and Crannies” by Nick Baldino

Submitted to Contest #244

There it sat, in a framed glass on the windowsill that overlooked a spice garden and a sloppy view of the city. Mark never really noticed it, but he remembered it being there every time he washed the dishes, his hands moving brilliantly through the suds. Under stalks of parsley and coriander, his eyes would drift to it- its hard brown frame, the aged curl of the photo, his reflection peering ghostly over the two girls. Then it would disintegrate in his mind, into the hot, shifting clutter of his work, hiding until his sight reclaimed it the ...

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“A Polaroid Without a Memory ” by Emma Jean

Submitted to Contest #244

Old photos always seem to have a lasting effect on the mind. Most people believe they remember that specific moment, the smell, the temperature, whether they were happy or sad; but that isn’t really true. No one actually remembers a photo, it's just an image of ourselves created in a pix elated world that the mind forcefully tries to spark a feeling or correlation to what the photo means. I however, still enjoy the crisped fixtures of opted memories of my childhood, boxed away in dusted containers that seem to always call me back to relieve ...

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“Good Dog” by Cade Holter

Submitted to Contest #244

I didn't notice the photo until I was already home. I hadn't noticed it at the park because there was a fight going on over a kid's soccer match between two grown men. I wasn't paying attention to the why of it because I was busy recording it, and that was on top of making sure my dog, Murphy, didn't run off after all the little things that caught his interest. He's just a little thing himself, I didn't want him getting hit by a car or something.Regardless, I only noticed the picture on my camera roll because I have a habit of going into the...

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Ended on 23:59 - Apr 05, 2024 EST

Won by K.A. Murray 🏆

Title: The Party

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Start your story with a character staring at a picture they don’t remember taking.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 70 stories

“The Party” by K.A. Murray

“Safe and Sound Safe and Sound” by Katharine Widdows

“In the picture ” by Helen A Howard

“Shelby” by Ty Warmbrodt

“BANTER BLOOPERS” by Viga Boland

“Butterflies” by Sophie Fawley

“Intruder” by Jahson Clarke

“Illusory Truth” by Mabel Gray

“I've lost my slippers” by Annie Blackwell

“Shadows of Memory” by Kimberly McIntosh

“Incriminating Polaroids” by Brian Haddad

“Quicksand Mind” by Jed Cope

“Nooks and Crannies” by Nick Baldino

“A Polaroid Without a Memory ” by Emma Jean

“Good Dog” by Cade Holter

🌟 Similar prompts

Center your story around a photo that goes viral.

Write a story about a character who risks their life to take a photo.

Write about a character who sees a photo they shouldn’t have seen.

Begin or end your story with a character taking a selfie.

Contest #244

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

234

Contest entries

90

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: