Write about a character who is trying to leave something or someone behind — only to realize they carry it with them.

Posted in Sad on Nov 4, 2022

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✍️ 72 stories

“Retribution” by C P

Submitted to Contest #171

It was one week after my girlfriend’s vicious coup d’état that I realized I needed to make good the weekend that I lost loitering incognito in the shady corners of the city. If you are curious about what happened, I can only summarize it by saying that it was the most wily and sinister trick ever played by any girlfriend or consort of any type in recorded human history. She tricked me into packing my bags and scooting when what I really deserved was a great weekend lounging on the couch, gulping beer and binge watching Netflix on T...

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“The Bedford Cross” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #171

Vince Stafford’s eyes welled up with tears as he looked at the photos, wilted flowers, trinkets, and waterlogged sympathy cards gathered around The Bedford Cross. The twenty-five-foot cross had been erected in 1956 on a large traffic island that separated South Bedford Road and Route 119. The Cross memorialized the dozens of lives lost or ruined there. Vince cried because he knew too many of them. Drivers heading north were often lulled into a false sense of safety by the picturesque trees that lined South Bedford Road, especially in the f...

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“She Shall Play Carnegie Hall” by Carolina Mintz

Submitted to Contest #171

It was an old upright piano, scuffed oak, a heavy instrument, bought used, pushed against the living room wall, the only place it would fit. The damper pedal worked, but not the other two. The child only found this out later because at three, her feet could not touch the floor. Some of the ivory keys were a sickly yellow, like smokers’ fingernails. Her mother told her father that their daughter and only child, would, by God, play piano and she would start now, and this was because she herself had always wanted to learn as a child but was ...

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“The Box” by April Mattson

Submitted to Contest #171

Her name was Eileen. And she talked with a smile. If you were blindfolded, or even blind, you’d still hear it- the sparkle in her words, the lilting cadence. Mesmerizing, you could say; hypnotic. She held out a lacquered cherry wood box; on the top it had a swirl of yellow characters- Chinese perhaps, something Eastern, something profound. But Mara dared not ask this. All she needed to know was that the box was important. It was a keeper of secrets, of unwanted things. Eileen opened the lid. Mara wanted to lean in and inhale ...

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“A Miniature Encounter” by Helga Gabel

Submitted to Contest #171

Andrew adjusted his crossed arms, as if he were a cardboard box just emptied of its contents and settling into a new cube. He was here now, on the Amtrak, but the sensation of lateness kept apace with the moving car. He inched his blue suit-jacket cuffs over his wrists and glanced quickly around. There were two people across the aisle in separate benches behind him, and one more in front. He readjusted his arms into another box.For a few seconds, Andrew closed his eyes. He was self conscious, and didn’t like to think of how he looked with hi...

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“Money Talks in the Middle West” by White Buffalo

Submitted to Contest #171

So I moved to Indianapolis last Tuesday night while the night was dark and the weather cool. From Southern Illinois. The books I read and the people I know all say the same thing: The Big city's a "tough place". With mom and my girlfriend both dead and a recent diagnosis of Major Depression, I figured Indianapolis might be for me. Main Town had no business or room for me, anyways. Ironically it was not "Main"-ly anything but ordinary, if not "Main"-ly overtly conservative church-going and unjust. When the most important lady in my life,...

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“The Inner Fire” by Daniel Legare

Submitted to Contest #171

The sky burned with orange and red streaks. From her window seat the pine trees poked the sky with their shadowy points, surrounding the old road with a greater darkness. The lights in the bus come on and she takes off her jacket and pulls at her tight jeans, her skin itchy from the hot dry air. She’s ol’ the driver had said when she asked him to turn down the heat. She counted five passengers when they left Tahoe. An old lady in the front, a grizzly looking couple at the back, and the boy and her. The boy kicked his feet back and fo...

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“What Comes Around” by Sarah Goodner

Submitted to Contest #171

Adriana zipped up her suitcase with a flourish. She was angry. Angry with Chas, angry with her mother, angry with herself. She was so ready to leave this god-forsaken town that had been the setting of so much heartache. She didn’t need to be at the airport for another hour, but she couldn’t stand looking at the poorly painted paneled walls of this room any longer. She picked up her phone and ordered the Uber. Five minutes away. She dragged her overstuffed suitcase off the bed and onto the floor, swung her backpack over one shoulder, and pick...

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“Grandpa took Mama home” by Sri Vi S

Submitted to Contest #171

He looked through the window, The magpie came swooping down. perched itself on the ridge He caught his old breath! But the bird was free!! He looked at the ridge, The magpie looked up and down, walked tenderly over the ridge, He caught his old breath But the bird was free He looked at the chimney, The magpie looked up at the sky Danced around the ridge He caught his old breath But the bird was free He looked at the roof The magpie was ready to fly Spread its wings on the ridge He let go of his young breath And the bird was finally f...

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“Carrying Your Friend with You” by Clara Candace Farr

Submitted to Contest #171

Content Caution: Trigger topic #171 The familiar ringtone sounded, and Clair glanced at her cellphone to see Ally’s name and picture smiling at her. She swiped right to answer the call. “What’s happening, Chica?!” Ally’s tone matched Clair’s as she responded “Hey, hot Mama! All kinds of things are happening, that’s why I’m calling!” “Spill. I’m listening,” Clair laughed into the phone. “So do you know Dr. Brown?” “No, why?” “He’s the cardiologist downtown, I thought mayb...

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“"Ambivalence"” by Diane Towry

Submitted to Contest #171

Giselle looked cautiously through the curtains. Fortunately they were lined, too thick to give away her silhouette. No sign of the taxi. She had been told by the hotel clerk to only get into taxis with the metal lightning bolt fixture attached to the roof. Those were legitimate taxis. He had regaled her with many a harrowing tale of tourists who ignored such warnings and were robbed or worse. From here she would go to the waterfront. Ivan had arranged for his security guard to meet her and bring her by boat to Ivan’s private island. The real...

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“Debts” by Claudio Murgia

Submitted to Contest #171

He left her with an angry message. For months he had known their story was finished, and yet, the story kept adding excursus after excursus. The truth was he wasn’t brave enough to do what he needed to do for his own happiness. When he had realised months before that Vanessa had an interest in him, he had felt lucky. Here was this beautiful woman, ten years younger than him, funny and clever all in one, and she was interested in him. In a few weeks, they had fallen together, like an avalanche. Like most irrational stories, the problems star...

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Write about a character who is trying to leave something or someone behind — only to realize they carry it with them.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 72 stories

“Retribution” by C P

“The Bedford Cross” by Michael Jefferson

“She Shall Play Carnegie Hall” by Carolina Mintz

“The Box” by April Mattson

“A Miniature Encounter” by Helga Gabel

“Money Talks in the Middle West” by White Buffalo

“The Inner Fire” by Daniel Legare

“What Comes Around” by Sarah Goodner

“Grandpa took Mama home” by Sri Vi S

“Carrying Your Friend with You” by Clara Candace Farr

“"Ambivalence"” by Diane Towry

“Debts” by Claudio Murgia

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone looking at a breathtaking view and getting emotional.

Write about two solo travelers who keep bumping into each other in the most unexpected of places.

Write a story where someone decides to take the long way home.

Your character is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. The story takes place during a long-haul flight, with an open return-date. What happens?

Contest #171

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

204

Contest entries

79

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: