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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

Posted in Novel on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 198 stories

“The Story of My Death” by Angel Brookins

Submitted to Contest #59

This is the story of the day I died. It was not my first death, nor would it be my last, but it was the one that stands out from the crowd as the first time I saw the face of my Angel.  Let me preface it by telling you about the first time I heard her voice. I was two years old. In my Grandmother's old Victorian, 6 bedroom house, there was a narrow doorway on one side of the dining room. I was standing on the thick, navy blue carpet, the smell of Murphy's Oil soap clogging my nose. The massive oaken dining table and matching chairs...

2 comments 2
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“Nothing to see ” by Sadie Black

Submitted to Contest #59

“Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Atlantis?” Grandpa asked.  Benji’s eyes bulged. “You didn’t go to Atlantis! Did you, Grandpa?” "Sure I did! I wasn’t much older than you, Vicky.”“It’s Victoria, Grandfather.”“Right, right.” He grinned.“Grandpa!” Benji shouted. “Tell us! Tell us about Atlantis.”“Benjamin. Grandfather did not go to Atlantis because Atlantis does not exist.” She rolled her brown eyes, enhanced eyelashes tickling her filled eyebrows. "Don't be so immature." She folded her arms formally. Benji's enthusi...

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“U-Bank” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #59

I awoke naked on a bench in a depressurization tank.  The tank had rusty steel bulkheads bearing old dripping pipes and weathered ventilation ductwork. Someone had cranked the AC to an uncomfortable level, raising goosepimples on my bare flesh. The chamber deadened most sound, save for the blower, the dripping water, and Sportscenter. The plasma TV had been fastened to the wall in such a way that I couldn't get at the controls, and I found no remote...or clothing, for that matter. The floor had chevron patterned plating like t...

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“THE PLACE WE CALL SOMEWHERE” by Claire Tennant

Submitted to Contest #59

I stepped off the bus after three long hours of travelling. The view before me was a pleasant scene. It was somewhere between a Hollywood film and a normal “non-crazy” dream. The warmth of the summer sun, on my back, the fragrance in the air, was somewhere between percolated coffee and rose bushes: no need for despair. I followed the crowd as it too relaxed in this place we called somewhere. Blue skies with fluffy white clouds in the unnamed town of nowhere.  Our steps took us down a path unfamiliar yet enchanting. G...

3 comments 3
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“The Blue Grotto” by Aisha Olanrewaju

Submitted to Contest #59

Copyright © 2020 Fallow Amber.All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used f...

6 comments 6
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“columbus” by Taylor Pastore

Submitted to Contest #59

Just as Christopher Colombus sailed the ocean blue, Leif Erikson sailed the icy waters, and Lewis and Clark waded those murky rivers, I paddled my way through the creek outside my house with the ambition of a world-class explorer.  If Dora had taught me nothing, it was to explore.  And so I did. I had been to many strange places in the woods.  Abandoned farms,  secret clearings, and quiet passageways that led straight to the side of a blaring highway.  Every new place was a notch in my adventure until I had mapped ...

2 comments 2
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“The Automanagerie Prologue” by Elizabeth Louis

Submitted to Contest #59

The cadence of excited colloquies infused with a music box chiming issues from a polite line. The tune is Smetana’s Vltava, though I can’t say how I came to know it. Women in prim laced-up dresses, soft pinks and lavenders, giggle softly. Men, dashing in black tailcoats, tip their top hats, exchanging How do you do. A sign, dazzled with illuminated round bulbs, reads, THE AUTOMANAGERIE--Clockwork brought to life! Tickets Here! I stand in this line, heart palpitating, as I try to peer past the broad brims and billowing cloth roses. Daring to...

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“A Heaven on Hell” by __Achor __

Submitted to Contest #59

Night was beginning again and sure enough, an orangish, redlining began to strum the edges of a dusty horizon. Far off somewhere amid the endless miles of dunes walked a half-dead corpse, treading upon what so long ago thrived. But now in every direction, sand stretched across this barren wasteland, engulfing the so-called world few inhabited. What lived, killed, and what was killed, rotted alongside the souls of the living. Each grain of sand this corpse-like-traveler kicked up was one of sin and pain, a breeding ground for death and despai...

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“A Place for Misfits and Mongrels ” by Julie Good

Submitted to Contest #59

Freaks, geeks, movers, shakers, and hell, pot brownie bakers… The weirdos, yeah, the weirdos… that’s who we are. There’s nothing particularly wrong with us, no defining characteristic, there’s no stamp of misfortune that’s branded on our foreheads upon birth. We don’t enter unto the world with a flashing neon arrow pointing to us shouting out our societal deficiencies. Yet, somewhere along the line, we’re labeled as the odd balls. We’re the people that just don’t fit in. It’s not for lack of trying, but there’s only so much you can do when t...

3 comments 3
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“Life on 5th” by Morgane Oléron

Submitted to Contest #59

Everything in this hallway seems to look down on me. The high ceiling, the chandelier, the red carpet, the spiral staircase… I squeeze myself into the tiny, very old elevator and make my way up to the fifth and last floor.Looking at my reflection in the mirrors that show three versions of me, I think to myself that this must have been the servants’ quarters, many, many years ago. It seems a tad dramatic but appropriate, after losing my relationship, my job and my apartment, that I would end up up there. I enter the code I was given...

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“The Hidden World” by Stephen Goll

Submitted to Contest #59

I didn't know where I was going. I just thought I'd just wander around until I discovered something interesting. I walked through my small town of only six thousand people. A normal town with the usuals. Mayor, bank, school, park, and etcetera. I disappeared into the trees and grass and animals. The sun felt wonderful. I continued to wander until I wandered out of the trees and noticed that I wasn't in my town. Or anywhere else I knew of. The air smelled wonderful. No smoke, no car emissions, no sounds of machinery hammering away, no stores,...

1 comment 1
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“Heartsmith” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #59

He schleps through the swamp, grateful he’s brought only a t-shirt and jeans, no backpack, no food, no nothing. He’s forgotten what it felt like to wear his own people’s clothes, forgotten how to take off the glamour. So he trudges to the alchemist’s smithy in human form. He remembers the day he decided to become the Heartsmith’s apprentice-she’d shown up to the city to ‘see the reckless boy’ who would succeed her when her own heart gave out. A small woman she was-her eyes had barely reached his chest. Wrinkles covered her, as if her skin we...

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“Grandma Esther's List” by Sharika Mattoo

Submitted to Contest #59

“Alter egos. Stage names, multiple personalities. Mark my words Noah that town is going to be your oyster.” Shane recited the words along the rhythm of the song blasting through the car speakers, head bobbing vigorously. “Well then, how come no one has ever heard of this town except your very old, and quite frankly severely ill grandma.” I retorted feeling grim with every passing mile. We had been driving aimlessly in the deserts of Alabama for no less than three hours now, yet to discover this mystery town. Needless to say the summer sun ha...

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“relocation” by Sam Newsome

Submitted to Contest #59

Relocation On this sunny day, the shoreline was to the starboard as the sun began to settle over a vast expanse of water, lowering to a distant shoreline, miles to the west. The sloop’s sails were furled, and the two-masted vessel lay against the lee side of the island. She was ready for duty, with the cannons charged and the crew anxious for action.  In the waning hours of the afternoon, Captain Benjamin watched for the Queen Anne’s Revenge to appear in the setting sun. Benjamin was the swashbuckling young captain of a rea...

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“Do You Remember?” by Phoenix's Fire

Submitted to Contest #59

I know it wasn’t just me. And I know it didn’t start just last night. Was it before then? I don’t remember. I was there, at the party, the new guy. He was talking to me. He looked about 22, maybe 24. I was 17. Did he take me upstairs? I don’t know, man. The light when I woke up, the light now. It’s too bright. Too. . . . white. Yeah. I think Cassy was there. Is Cassy here? “Cassy?” I called out to her but I didn't hear her. All I see is white. There, over there, these blurs. What are those? Just blurs, lying on the ground, like me. Am ...

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Contest #59

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Title: The Witch’s Daughter

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