Write about a character arriving in a place unlike anywhere they’ve ever been.

Posted in Novel on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 198 stories

“You've Had Your Fun” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #59

Wake up in a bed with a red, red blanket. Check the room. Hotel? No. Nice--nice place. The red blanket is soft. The mirror across from you shows your hair properly mussed. You had a nice time, but you didn’t overdo it. Your eyes aren’t red. Your breath tastes of gin and chocolate. Your nails are getting long again, because you felt like quitting something, so you took down biting at them and you took up sleeping in the beds of strange men. Not so strange. A neighbor. A man named… Something Italian. Better said with an accent....

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“Trees in the Night” by Lani Lane

Submitted to Contest #59

Sam felt like she had been hit by a truck. She groaned. Her head ached and every bone in her body screamed. Her memory was fuzzy; what had she been doing?The bakery. She had stopped at the bakery for a banana nut muffin. Then… a car hit her? That couldn’t be right, but it sure felt like that’s what happened.Sam lay on something hard and cold. She squirmed, wincing at the ridges digging into her back and legs. She felt odd, like her body was tilted. It certainly didn’t feel like the street outside the bakery.She slowly opened her eyes, squint...

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“Mud, Mud, Mud” by Molly Leasure

Submitted to Contest #59

(Write about a character arriving in a place unlike anywhere they've ever been.)Squelch.The soil sinks beneath my foot as I step out of the ship. My other foot follows. It’s also swallowed by the mud. Moisture soaks through, seeping from my boots into my socks. I’ll be drying those for weeks. Or tossing them.Ignoring the disgust brewing in my stomach, I trek forward. This is what I’d said I wanted. I’d signed up for this. Oh yeah, I love soil. It’s the best part of botany! My own stupidity reverberates through my head, mocking me for being s...

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“The Nice Voices” by Lina Oz

Submitted to Contest #59

There are many people here. Many young people. They move about quickly, and loudly––too loudly.But perhaps these voices are the friendly ones. The nice voices.There is a line on the left side of the large room. It weaves about like a snake, circling around tables, moving, fluid. Comprised of many young people. The other young people are sitting at round tables scattered throughout the large room.There seems to be no pattern. No reason, no rhyme. I tap my finger against my left thigh, three times. My breath slows.The line is moving––forward, ...

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“Davy Jones' Locker” by Prakhar Mishra

Submitted to Contest #59

Augustus felt frozen, engulfed by darkness and oblivion. He could see nothing, hear nothing, do nothing, feel nothing but terror, as he sensed something approach him. Something familiar, and unholy.From the darkness began to emerge something. A face? No, a skull. Red stars shimmering violently in its eyes. Blue clouds of smoke expanding out of its nostrils. Jaws stretched to an unnatural distance, as if to form a grin.Davy Jones.“You know where ye are, yes?” He spoke in a guttural, penetrating voice, without moving his bony jaw. Suddenly all...

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“Returning Relocation” by Mariam Michalak

Submitted to Contest #59

Alisa Edwards was a typical teenage girl. Brown hair, green eyes, working at a coffee joint while attempting to make ends meet while also taking college classes to get a better job, youngest team captain of the high school volleyball team, and not to mention somehow finding time to study for the big test in high school coming up. Dual credit was starting to look like it was more work than it was worth. However, it was free of charge to her, so it was saving money in the end. With a huff, she leans forward against the counter of the local caf...

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“Calliope (part one)” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #59

I drum my fingers against my leg and peer out the window to my right, wondering how long it is until we arrive on Rectar. Not that I want to go. I don’t. This spaceship is just really hot. I stare down at the duffel bag scrunched underneath my chair, then suddenly stand up. “I’m going to the bathroom,” I announce to no one in particular and rush past the seats in which my mom, dad, and older brothers Aiden and Xaviar are sitting. I stumble throughout the foggily-lit hallways, dizzy from the palpable pulse of the gravity field and speed stabi...

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“The Couple” by Onur Yürür

Submitted to Contest #59

“Kamil brother! Can you come for a sec?” Kamil looked at the door out of the corner of his eye. He was still focused on his razor blade. -What? -Come, check those out. -I am busy, my delight. Don’t you see? He was busy with the head standing in front of him. It looked handsome with freshly trimmed hairs on the top of it. Kamil was scheming a structure in its disorderly beard now. Three fingers of his right hand kept the head totally fixed with a tender grab by the neck. -Ya, Kamil brother, let it go for a moment, for god’s...

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“A World’s Beauty” by Elizabeth Burrows

Submitted to Contest #59

The dark clouds of sleep wrapped themselves around her consciousness. Blackness that gripped at it and refused to let it free. Its black hands reached forward to grasp her awareness too. Darkness was all that she knew. Even as her awareness came back to her she knew what she would see. She would see dark trees that had shadowed her mind forever. She would see clouds that covered the beauty of the world, and if she opened her eyes she would see a world that was dull. A world where everything had lost ...

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“Where Am I?” by Blane Britt

Submitted to Contest #59

I thought in some of my worst nightmares such as vividly observing an 800 lb. alligator biting off half of my right leg to the knee cap and me watching zoo visiting people laughing at me for actually trying to stop him from chopping down on my leg with one of those huge beach umbrellas, as if Bozo the Clown tried to get inside a hot wheels car was bad or the time I made a unconventional and an insane bet with my former best friend Crazy Larry that he couldn’t lay in between the train tracks as 120 car train passed over him going over 66 mile...

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“The Clavius Club” by Chris Buono

Submitted to Contest #59

The rocket thrusters shut down slowly in a languid hush as the tripod gears extend and hit the ground with a gentle thud. The crowd of passengers in the main cabin all give secret sighs of relief to have finally made it and arrived with no issues. Even the regular visitors carried a look of apprehensiveness to again be traveling the new way. I look out my window, attempting to take in all that my eyes can on the darkened white surface. The Clav...

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“A Tale of Two Grannies” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #59

There are jobs that have died out altogether, starting with the Industrial Revolution and running right through to the advent of Artificial Intelligence. In some cases, at least, probably no bad thing as they could be dirty and dangerous. But there are other jobs that are still around, and it might surprise people. For instance, there are still governesses, and Helga Sherman was on the point of becoming one. Oh, she called herself a tutor, as only a man in that role would once have done, but it was not the same as giving ...

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“Fake Plastic Flowers For Algernon” by Joshua Scott Hotchkin Wordpress.dungherder.com

Submitted to Contest #59

There is a famous satirical science fiction story from the nineteenth century called ‘Flatland’. Aside from being a critical commentary on Victorian culture and the British monarchy, it serves as a primer in understanding the differences between the first three dimensions, before positing on ones we have not yet even discovered. Although quite popular, having even been made into a handful of films, it is utter bollocks.I am going to let you in on a little secret – there are no such things as dimensions.Human beings have a habit of creating c...

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“Space is not a void” by Amalee Bowen

Submitted to Contest #59

Space is not a void. The distant stars glitter in the black like jewels in ink, all the distant fierce, fiery giants and the promise of planets, whole other worlds spinning just like ours. The moon is a luminescent pearl when we catch a glimpse of it. The sun burns ravenously brilliant outside of the layers of atmosphere. But Earth is the true gem. I should be doing my tasks, since we are just hours away from docking at the International Space Station. But I can’t stop staring out the window at Earth. She is still so close, taking up the ent...

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“Alone she came” by Ola Hotchpotch

Submitted to Contest #59

Momo is a strange name. But when my mother said she was eating momos when her labour pain started and I looked like a crumpled bundle wrapped in an old cotton saree when she first saw me and the name came to her instinctively, I forgave her for giving me a name like that.When I completed my degree and started looking for a job, I decided not to be choosy about the place I would start.As a young girl, raised in a congested big city full of pollution and noise, I wanted to be in a place where the air and the water would be clean,I could see th...

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Write about a character arriving in a place unlike anywhere they’ve ever been.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 198 stories

“You've Had Your Fun” by Story Time

“Trees in the Night” by Lani Lane

“Mud, Mud, Mud” by Molly Leasure

“The Nice Voices” by Lina Oz

“Davy Jones' Locker” by Prakhar Mishra

“Returning Relocation” by Mariam Michalak

“Calliope (part one)” by Inkstained Introvert

“The Couple” by Onur Yürür

“A World’s Beauty” by Elizabeth Burrows

“Where Am I?” by Blane Britt

“The Clavius Club” by Chris Buono

“A Tale of Two Grannies” by Deborah Mercer

“Fake Plastic Flowers For Algernon” by Joshua Scott Hotchkin Wordpress.dungherder.com

“Space is not a void” by Amalee Bowen

“Alone she came” by Ola Hotchpotch

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a couple who have just moved to a place that one person loves, and the other hates.

Set your story in a place with extreme weather, but don’t use any weather-related words to describe it.

Write a story that feels lonely, despite being set in a packed city.

Set your story in a small town where everyone is suspicious of newcomers.

Contest #59

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

767

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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