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Center your story around two (or more) characters who strike up an unlikely friendship.

Posted in Short Story on Apr 11, 2025

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✍️ 76 stories

Trials of the Wtich and the Demon

Submitted to Contest #298

Trials of the Witch and the Demon A faint lavender mist falls over the Witrial Woods. Trees cascade down, stretching for miles as small bits of sun peak through the cracks of the leaves. Wisteria sways softly in the wind as it glides through the forest. A little girl, no older than ten, with a head of curly hair full of pink flowers, scrunches her face in concentration as a soft green emerges from beneath her hands, wooden logs blooming from her palms. Willow effortlessly bends the nearby vines to her will, lifting the logs into place upon ...

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Ilkbahar - Spring

Submitted to Contest #298

Neptune was proven right about the blind spot, but how long would the oversight, the lack of perception last? The attacks on Pluto and his dysfunctional family had ceased for now. Kubbeli Evler as predicted became a safe haven, and the new home for the nomadic tribe of stray cats. The sightless eyes of the mountain – les yeux de la montagne, had servants to hunt and find, and it was only a matter of time before Pluto and the seven cats of Kubbeli Evler would be discovered. The group arrived during the zenith of summer, as the burning furnace...

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Keeper Of The Imaginary

Submitted to Contest #298

The silence in her grandmother’s house after the funeral pressed down on Sarah like a thick blanket. It was still full–trinkets on shelves, half-burned candles in ceramic holders, an unfinished quilt draped over the couch. But without Grandma humming from the piano or the low whir of her sewing machine, it felt hollow.She flipped the hallway lights off one by one, each click echoing a little too loudly. That’s when she noticed it–the tiny mousehole in the bathroom wall. A slow smile tugged at her lips. She remembered thinking a fairy lived t...

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Undercover Weirdo

Submitted to Contest #298

It was the middle of second period when I finally decided I didn’t wanna be at school anymore. I simply can not stand this teacher, all she does is stand in front of the class and talk about her personal life. I couldn’t tell you one thing I’ve learned from this class. So as usual I raised my hand and asked to go to the restroom.“Go ahead Raven, just try to hurry, I’m about to get to the good part of my story!”There’s a good part to the story of how her grandma lost her sight? Whatever. As I’m standing up and walking out I hear one of the gu...

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Let It ALL Out.

Submitted to Contest #298

Let us be brief.I was excavating down the Tehachapi, really pulling on the drain plug for the entire lake with a hydraulic bucket rated at twenty five cubic tonnes of pressure. The metal was sweating to lift the gigantic cork left by the ancients but we have to drain this large bathtub once a decade or the watershed becomes too polluted and people in San Francisco react with their coffee.You’ve heard of the homeless crisis that started in the Tenderloin? Bad water. We forgot to drain over the COVID years and all of a sudden you have albino c...

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THE WIZARD AND THE DEMON

Submitted to Contest #298

THE WIZARD AND THE DEMON Gabmar the White stood in the low underground room, a heavy book open on a wooden table, a chalk circle drawn on the uneven stone floor. He was old, stooped but somehow vigorous and radiating a power barely hidden. Heavily bearded, dressed in a long white gown which reached to his feet. A grim expression on his face, as if he were about to attempt something which would take all his power, and if not carried out perfectly could risk his death, or worse still, irretrievable madness, leaving him a mindless drooling body...

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Upon a Dream

Submitted to Contest #298

He is looking at himself in the water. She cannot see his face, only his back that is dusted with blossom petals from the endless orchard. He dips his hand in the ribbon of water cutting through the trees then brings a palm-full toward his lips. He tenses and begins to turn. The water from his hand crashes into the creek. Isleen awoke. The storm had made its way into her cabin. She shouted for assistance from her sleeping crewmates, pulling herself from her cot, and splashed hurriedly up the steps to the main deck to find the captain holle...

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He Was Good At Hiding His Dark Side Until He Wasn’t

Submitted to Contest #298

Detectives Troy Quartermain and A.J. Palin sit in the observation room’s front row. “Full house,” A.J. comments. “These families have been waiting fifteen years for this… and so have I,” Troy replies. “I’m still uncomfortable that their bodies were never found.” “The girls are dead, A.J. Their blood was all over the parking lot. Milne’s shyster lawyer used corpus delicti to get him a second trial. He didn’t count on getting a second jury that was more convinced of his guilt than the first.” “There was another suspect…” “Yeah, Rollo Lloyd, th...

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Picnics and Poetry

Submitted to Contest #298

“Lets have a picnic!” Little did I know that this ordinary request would forever change my life. So of course I said yes. I was a young co-ed freshman at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. I came to study Music, and after surviving my first Iowa winter, the first real day of spring beckoned us girls to soak up that fresh air and sunshine. So Becca gathered up a blanket, a basket and some boys to make it happen. There were four girls, and four boys which made up our little group. Becca, my roommate, was a stunning, tall and gorgeous woman...

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A Barter with the Butcher: A Tale from the Woods

Submitted to Contest #298

‘Papa,’ began the juvenile dormouse. ‘Is it true you were friends with a butcher bird?’‘Your mother’s been running her mouth again,’ chuckled the old dormouse before groaning in pain. At the ripe old age of eight, even laughing left his scarred front right leg aching. ‘But yes little one, it’s true. The shrike and I go way back. Oh, mind your step now.’The young dormouse, just over 3 months old, clung tightly to the log, his heart racing as he crossed over the stream. He could see their destination now, a large gathering of wild, tall thistl...

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Of Bees and Daisies: A Fable

Submitted to Contest #298

When one thinks of daisies, what words come to mind? Obviously, spring. Cheerful or happy, possibly? Maybe innocence or purity? How about love and friendship? While this may be true today, back then, when the world was still young and the land was mostly green and left alone by man, daisies were a cold flower known for their arrogance and pride. Believing that their beauty was unmatched, they rarely befriended other flowers. Instead, they preferred to live only among other daisies. While daisies had contempt for their flowery brethren, it ...

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Finding Grace

Submitted to Contest #298

Finding GraceThe woods were thick with mist, quiet in a way that wasn’t natural. Silas Boone crouched low behind a stand of spruce trees, one weathered hand resting on the stock of his old hunting rifle. His ears strained against the silence, listening for the mechanical whine that always came before death. He didn’t hear it yet—but it was coming. It always was.He adjusted his canvas pack, squinting through the fog. It was late afternoon, the sky a colorless smear, neither day nor night. His boots left no trail in the pine needles. That was ...

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"Hey, you there"

Submitted to Contest #298

It was the same time of day, same blistering heat and Vendo, short for VendoMatic600, was in their groove. Their actions were mostly pre planned. Drop a few targeted ad lines to likely customers but let their standard algorithms do the rest. No need to actively sweat it. Their ringlets spun, crinkling the snacks and meal bars at just the right moment.It was good pickings. Vendo could easily clear six hundred chips a day. The highest in the area. Least that's what the reflection of their sticker said in the showroom window opposite.Then one d...

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Snow Gets in Your Hair

Submitted to Contest #298

Reese and Jockstrap ditched the bar for a drunk cigarette and argued over who took fault for having none; neither’d possessed them in the first place. Snow blanket, beer jacket, big green-sided highway bar with serious shit kicking speakers screaming solid vibration. Six stolen beers from the bathroom of the “Saloon” bulged out Reese’s pockets, made him look the part of a showy bodybuilder. Reese was convinced a hole in Jockstraps pocket was itself an admission of guilt. “If you were any semblance of a respectable lawyer,” slurred Reese, “y...

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Between Hearts, Beyond Words

Submitted to Contest #298

Rayna had been working at Ink and Ivy for about a month now. In that time, she had grown closer to Joel. His easygoing, calming nature made it easier for her to relax. Greg, on the other hand, was…Greg. He was flamboyant and loud. He always entered the bookstore as if it were a stage on Broadway. She kept her distance from him after he started calling her doll. She hated it but was too shy and unsure of her voice to tell him to stop. The bell above the front door jingled as the last customer left. Rayna exhaled; it had been a busy day. She ...

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