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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone discovering something new about themselves.

Posted in Nonfiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 52 stories

“PARASITE” by Pamela Saunders

Submitted to Contest #29

I had my eye on my partner early on, when we were both young. Even then I knew that one day I wanted to possess her, to own her totally, to be there for every part of the rest of her life. I watched her at school. She was so happy and bright, took to anything she tried like a duck to water. She joined in everything that she had a chance to and represented the school in so many competitions of all sorts. When she danced, her eyes shone and the blonde wavy bunches in her hair bounced and flapped around, with her green ribbons shaking in time w...

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“I Love You” by Najwa Zandlo

Submitted to Contest #29

“I love you,” he says. The room is warm and humid, our sweat mixing in the air, windows slightly cracked to let in the sounds of the warm, Southern night. We’re lying in bed. He has his arm around me in a way that has to be uncomfortable for him but oh-so-comfortable for me. The words are dripping over us – this is the first time he’s said it. This is the part where I’m supposed to say it back, but I’m choking. He’s relaxed against me, slowly falling asleep in the haze. Flashback to five years ago. I was walking down the street with my ...

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“Invisible” by Lilly Blossom

Submitted to Contest #29

“Train kids come here to die,” she told me. I sat down on the sidewalk next to the girl with the monkey tattoo and tongue piercing. She couldn’t be much younger than me. “Don’t get me wrong,” she continued, “New Orleans is a hell of a place. Always something going on. You can lose your mind and set free your soul.” She laughed, somewhat wickedly/somewhat naively, “Drugs are plentiful, people messed up as the rest of us...it’s easy to get what you need...feel me?” She looked right in my eyes, her own eyes slightly glazed over and her dirty fa...

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“The Silence Between Words” by Natalie Frank

Submitted to Contest #29

“I have something to tell you,” I murmured, hoping that my words would be lost in the darkness between us. We were sitting crossed legged, knees touching. We were holding hands in the space between our ankles. I was shaking slightly, a tremble that could only be felt and not seen. I couldn’t help it; a tornado of emotions was ravaging my head, making it hard to think clearly.    Normally, Riley would have contested the darkness, but through my trembling and the fear in my voice, she kept the walk-in closet’s light off. &n...

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“The Hunter and His Prey” by Arthur Tiberio

Submitted to Contest #29

In all things, the Job came first. It was the first thing you learned and the last thing you ever forgot, since it was also a given truth that this wasn't the sort of occupation that ended in a nice pension and a beach-side Havana retreat. There were beaches. Occasionally, there was Havana. But retreat? Never. It was down there in the manual, right next to the little sidebar about cauterizing amputated limbs with a smokeless campfire.. . . for it is known that he . . . who flees the face of darkness, is as unto that face. And he who shirks t...

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“Things I Have Learned With The Death Of My Mother ” by Barbara Eustace

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #29

I have learned many things with the death of my mother. I have learned that I am not a smoker. When I was young, my mother, the overbearing woman that she was, made it clear that smoking was not allowed. She told me that I must never smoke, that she would be able to smell it if I did. Once she suspected just because I walked home from school behind two girls smoking. I got a thrashing for that, for telling lies. So I never tried smoking. My mother was a formidable woman. You did what she said.But now s...

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“Not Dependant” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #29

The doctors reception was cold, and that did nothing to help the ache in her hands. In the quiet room Lisa was painfully aware of the noise she made as she rubbed them together, but it was either that or she feared her fingers would fall off. Damn it, didn’t this place have heating at all? A working coffee machine would be a start, but the large ‘Out Of Order’ sign that was plastered across it when she came in for her blood test was still there. As ever the doctor was behind with his appointments. While she had a book in her bag Lisa didn’t ...

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“Alexandra” by Guadalupe Schmidt

Submitted to Contest #29

“Hideous!” My mother screamed at me furiously.“I can’t believe you thought that!” My father screamed, equally as mad, as he grabbed the mirror and slammed it to the ground, breaking it into what seemed more than 1,000 pieces. I looked down at each little piece and tried to see if there was any part I could put back together, blocking out their yelling.The mirror was supposed to be there to reinforce our flaws, but instead, they had caught me looking at myself in the mirror with a small smile as if I believed I was pretty. That wasn’t al...

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“Dear Norma” by Zosia Appleton

Submitted to Contest #29

Shaking fingers tear open the grey envelope and drag the letter out. A photograph falls to the desktop, but the man simply glances at it before turning the letter over and starting to read.* * * The creation jerks across the floor, loose bits ripping the fibres of the once yellow carpet, now matted and black from grease. Its voice, ever repeating, shudders out of its speaker which ticks with every consonant and growls with every vowel.Do not be afraid, it says, but the man does not listen. The man just sits there and stares, as he has f...

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“The Necklace That Wouldn't Leave Me Alone” by Ariel Kalati

Submitted to Contest #29

          I wasn’t born with the necklace. I woke up with it one morning when I was ten years old. I didn’t remember putting it on, but then again, I’d had a pretty eventful night. I’d stayed over at Nina’s house until 8 pm, unprecedentedly late for me. It was for Nina’s eleventh birthday, but you wouldn’t have known that Nina was the star of the night, because Amber was the one everyone focused on. Because Amber had gotten that most precious of honors: the first one in the grade to get a boy...

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“Sophie's Retribution” by Holly Starlin

Submitted to Contest #29

Sophie Mason looked around warily, finding herself standing in the center of a deserted operating room. The bright lights overhead illuminated the shiny metal operating tools and metal table—the table she had just been lying on as the anesthesiologist had her count backwards from ten. She had only made it to seven when her world went dark. Now she was alone, and everything in the room looked to be untouched, still prepped, sterilized for an operation. Had her worst fear come true? Had she died during her spinal surgery? “Hello?” she called o...

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“Fortune, Flower & Falcon” by Rochelle Bourns

Submitted to Contest #29

A flower is burning within my mind. It is – was – a rose, soft and white as a dove on its stem. Now it runs coal-black all the way to the base, its edges alive with angry gold embers. The phantom scents of floral and ash fill my breath, spinning my vision off into a stomach-churning dance. This has happened before, and I cannot even state a preference on whether it means something as an omen or merely that I am going mad. Yet the rose is still there, and it is dying, and I can do nothing to save it. Instead I must watch it slowly burn away, ...

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“A Capable Captive” by Dash GetEm

Submitted to Contest #29

“We understand that you've been through hell and the last thing we want is to have you relive that. So when you can, tell us everything that you can remember. Take your time."I shut my eyes and for a second there was only silence, my mind grew still.I think I remember waking up to a bright white light shining in my face.My ears were ringing, kind of like a car alarm but not quite as shrill, sort of like the sound you hear in a hospital when shit really hits the fan.I was hazy, like I had been drugged, but it was the good stuff, you know. The...

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“Marlene’s Gift” by Laura Simmons

Submitted to Contest #29

Marlene Smith was an ordinary person in every way. She was of medium height and weight, had brown hair and eyes, and wasn’t bad looking, but certainly not beautiful. No one looked twice at Marlene. She was a good cook, a decent singer, poor in math, like many people, and good at creative writing. But how she wished she had an ability, a talent, to set her apart from others! Just one, so that she could be known for something special.Marlene’s parents often told her that she would find the talent to make her stand out from the rest. They said ...

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“Welcome to the Top” by Eric Maier

Submitted to Contest #29

Welcome to the Top© Eric Maier 2020Twenty-Four Minus One Tomorrow was Aaron’s twenty-fourth birthday. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. Everything would be different tomorrow. He stood at the window. Three floors down, he could see his car in the parking lot. A few kids were playing on the tiny, token playground provided by the apartment complex. His apartment was small, but one bedroom was plenty for him. The walls were bare, save for a slightly crooked picture of a sunlit, flowered, forest glade, and a calendar. His faded three...

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