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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone who is tired of their day-to-day routines.

Posted in Sad on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 36 stories

“The Runner” by Matthew Langford

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #5

Mark had a dream a few nights ago. There is no explanation as to the circumstances that gave rise to this event and I am reluctant to make an attempt to interpret its significance. I have always found Freudian arguments unconvincing and never quite believed that Joseph, he of the multi-colored coat, predicted seven years of famine and plenty after listening to the over active imagination of a pharaoh.   This skepticism is reinforced by the nature of dreams as transient images: details disappear with the dawn of a new day and the best we...

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“Tired of (Daily) Life” by Kate Osment

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #5

When Hal Goodman returned home from a plug-ugly, lemon cleaner and dry air-smelling container of a building in which they had spent the past ten hours, otherwise known as work, their girlfriend started crying. Nothing to do with Hal, it should be added. The cause of her distress was a news bulletin hissing from the radio, about an arson case up north. Three Poles or something similar, judging by the sound of their names, had apparently set fire to their shop in the hope of getting an insurance pay-out and the flames had spread to the house n...

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“Jimmy the Hammer and the Quality of Mercy” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #5

“Our numbers are in the toilet! What do I need to do? Set you on fire?”Jimmy glowered at his assistants. They cringed inside. He needed a break. The day to day grind was getting to him. And then to see their numbers circling the drain depressed him. Jimmy hated working in collections. He couldn’t wait to get to Del Mar.He continued, “We’re in a rut, guys. What can we do to get things moving? Leon!”Leon flinched. “I don’t know boss. How about burning their cars?”Jimmy did a face palm. “Arson is old hat, people...” Leon kept going. “But you sa...

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“331 North Horton St.” by Arthur Tiberio

Submitted to Contest #5

The door was of black varnish, very fine and just old enough to have class. It opens now, inward, admitting not just decadent snow and the sounds of traffic and life, but the bundled figure of a man, his overcoat providing not nearly enough protection against the deadly chill of the city. Perhaps, then, the sigh is one of relief, for as he hangs the garment upon a hook he feels the warmth of the nearby hearth, the smell of cooking stew from the kitchen close by.He walks there now, a small smile upon his face, and his shiny black shoes thump ...

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“The Rut” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #5

THE RUTLook, I’m not saying my life was boring. Okay, I AM saying my life was boring. Not unpleasant, not arduous, but it made the hero of Groundhog Day seem to live a positively unpredictable and spontaneous existence in comparison.    For days, weeks on end, it didn’t bother me, at least not on the surface. There was something comforting, or at any rate, something that meant I never had to feel uncomfortable about it seeming like a major event if I changed my breakfast cereal (and I didn’t really like cer...

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“What a Sunny Day!” by Christine Hungerford

Submitted to Contest #5

Beau sat on her sky-blue plastic beach chair, watching as the waves crashed again and again against the sandy shore. It seemed to shiny up the seashells prettifying the beach as well as erase the footprints left by the walkers passing by her and the other attendees. She sighed, digging her bare toes into the lighter sand that expanded itself like a colonial empire in front, behind and on either side of Beau. I don’t want to know that I have to clean my apartment or serve ice cream or pick up Piggy’s poop or any other mundane activity anymore...

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“A Break in My Routine” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #5

A Break in My Routine I’ve always lived my life through routines. It saves me a lot of trouble and worry. I live in a world where having to make unnecessary little decisions affects my calm. Following routines has brought me success. I am 27, run my own accounting firm, own a mini-mansion and have a nice girlfriend. My daily routine involves doing everything I can at the same time every day: eating, leaving for and arriving from work, and watching television. And all my family and friends are familiar with all t...

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“Great-Wings, How Boring!” by Stephanie Elizabeth Saul

Submitted to Contest #5

I watched him bank sharply, his wings turning him effortlessly as he pushed them against the oncoming breeze. He angled himself just right before slowing into a hover through the dense hanging willows. His dark brown eyes sparkled, mirroring his toothy grin, and I cringed. How could he still be enjoying this? I scrutinized him from my sitting spot on a hefty willow branch. My wings twitched behind me, automatically reacting to how I would have flown his route, a kind of self-simulation to create some sort of excitement in my day. Unfortunate...

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“Read The Card First” by Zach Young

Submitted to Contest #5

In the afternoon, my mom asks me “Dad and I are going out to dinner, did you want to come?” They’re going to korean, the same place we always go for korean food, Hot Stone. A good place, really, just not always my top pick. {First world problems, what have I become.} On our way, mom talks about going to help the candidate for city council put stamps on last minute items before the big voting day. She jokes and laughs about how she would be at home drinking if they didn’t need her. The feeling creeps up on me. It begins with a thought. {How h...

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“Shuffling” by KD Live

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #5

6:15. Wake up.  Everyone has some sort of ritual in their life.  6:20.  Wash face. Brush teeth.  Jeremiah Lee was no exception.  6:25. Stretch  His days had been the same everyday for many, many days. Most of the time it was like running on auto-pilot. 6:40. Morning run around  the block.  It was simple, comfortable. Familiar. Predictable.  7:00. Return from run. Grab today's paper on the way in. St...

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“Sawdust” by Joe Glocke

Submitted to Contest #5

Ralph was beginning to think that his desk wasn't made of real wood. It looked like wood, but he thought it might be a piece of plastic with a wood grain pattern stuck to some cheap particle board. Now that he thought about it, everything on his desk was made with plastic. His computer monitor, the speakerphone, his latest "ship-it" trophy, and the picture frame of his -- Someone knocked on his door. Without windows in his office, Ralph had no idea who this could be. No one was supposed to come by today. He needed to submit his expense repor...

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“The unoiled hinges” by Fatma Tabassum

Submitted to Contest #5

Miriam gazed longingly at the potted azaleas on her kitchen’s window sill, pink and bright, blossoming boisterously. It wasn’t the blooming flowers which captured her attention every morning, when she would sit beside the kitchen window, with a cup of steaming coffee, but memories rooted to them. Memories of far lost days when life didn’t feel bland, didn’t feel a dreamless night and when she and Nathan had planted the azaleas- it was his favorite. But today, she wasn’t glaring at them to rekindle her memories. Apart from the fragrance of th...

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“Pennie Gets a Life” by Daniel Brown

Submitted to Contest #5

Dishwashing wasn’t the intended end-all-be-all for Pennie Udeba but neither her student loans nor her books for class or rent would pay for themselves. It turns out living in a fifth-floor apartment five minutes from campus has more drawbacks than she previously imagined. In fact, she has realized within her fresh three months she’s lived away from her father’s house has been a succession of heartrending firsts. One of them, in her first month out of her dad’s house, once he drove Pennie to her new place, has been the adrenaline-pumping...

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“Courage ” by Anna.J. Shevardina

Submitted to Contest #5

It was a rainy day and the sun was hidden behind thick, gray clouds. The streets were almost empty and only a few people were outside. They were running towards their cars or homes to find shelter from the rain that was yet to come. There was only one person that did not run, only one person who stood their ground and kept working; that person was Tony Maple.Tony was a young man only 19 years old. His physique was average and so was his clothing. He did not seem special. He was not a person you would turn your head for, to be fair though he ...

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“Up and Down” by Nemo Artist

Submitted to Contest #5

Wake up. Shower. Get dressed. Down an elevator. Jack had always wanted to live and work in the same building, so when an apartment became available in the building next door to the building he worked in, well, he had to jump at the opportunity. Pick up a taco and a coffee from the cute vendor in the lobby. Every day he would flirt, every day the cold shoulder. But warm taco and hot coffee. Up another elevator.Through the side door - so no one notices.Pull out chair.Sit down.Fire up the computer.Work is pretty much a ...

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Title: World Got Smaller

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