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Set your story over the course of a few minutes.

Posted in Short Story on Apr 4, 2025

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✍️ 66 stories

The Last Minute

Submitted to Contest #297

The clock on the wall had a dead man’s heartbeat—slow, deliberate, and utterly indifferent to the man walking toward it. Victor Laine felt each tick reverberate through his bones, as if the mechanical hands were plucking at the strings of his remaining moments.“Forward,” commanded the guard to his right, voice muffled behind the silver mask that reflected Victor’s own distorted face—eyes too wide, skin too pale, a stranger wearing his features.The corridor stretched before them, pristine white and humming with that peculiar static that seeme...

33 likes 15 comments 15
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Lonely death

Submitted to Contest #297

Warning (includes death) I’m lying on my deathbed. The nurse informed me seconds ago. My family isn’t huddled around me, tears soaking their faces. My family isn’t here. They left this earth years ago. You know the saying: your life flashes before your eyes when you're about to die? I always thought it only happened when death was sudden, but my life flashes before my eyes in a way I never expected. It’s like I’m rolling back a tape, to my very first memory, I was three then. I waddle about the room. My parents are out of the house; they lef...

22 likes 11 comments 11
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One Afternoon in a Physical Therapy Waiting Room

Submitted to Contest #297

One Afternoon in a Physical Therapy Waiting Room“Excuse me, Miss, could you hand me one of those magazines?”“Which one?”“I don’t think it matters. They’re all a year old.”The old man laughed and the young girl smiled. Personal connections have been born of less, but none had bridged so many years. Fate has an interesting way of bringing people together, even the very old and the very young, and sometimes in the most surprising of places.“You are going to dramatically affect the average age of the clientele here, young lady. You could bring i...

20 likes 15 comments 15
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8:32 Monday Morning

Submitted to Contest #297

8:32 Monday Morning.The path, impregnated with the smell of sweat, old sneakers and the fear of all those who have walked here, looms before me. The eyes of each crevasse, nick and shadow watch, judge and mock my audacity. What possessed me to choose this as a career? In what universe did this sound like fun, thrilling, uplifting or even challenging? Logic and reason have shut down. All I can do is repeat my mantra:I got this. I got this.The sound coming from up ahead, is still a low rumble, but getting louder with each hesitant step I take....

19 likes 4 comments 4
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The Assassins Mark.

Submitted to Contest #297

My face and mouth were drenched in Dimitri’s blood, as my driver’s brains sprayed across me as his head exploded just inches away. The force of it was so intense, I swore I inhaled part of his final thought. Shards of his skull tore into my face, slicing open my brow and nose, shearing off most of my ear before slamming into the rear window.Instinct took over in an instant.I grabbed the door latch and threw myself out of the car into the freezing snow, rolling clear just as the door I’d escaped from was ripped clean off by a lamppost. A hear...

18 likes 5 comments 5
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Everywhere is an Exit

Submitted to Contest #297

The station clock turns 22.36. Four minutes until the last train home.I look around my things, check I’ve got everything. Suitcases, backpack, phone. I see the train guard throwing me a dirty look. Again. He’s bored and uncomfortable - I can tell because he keeps messing with his boxers, pinching his thighs and shifting. Well his approach to his work is as uptight as his underwear, ‘cause he’d already come up to me half an hour ago, asking to see my ticket. Valid. He seemed put out that I was legit.‘We’ve had loads of trains go to Portsmouth...

17 likes 6 comments 6
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A Date with Death

Submitted to Contest #297

When most people think of Angels, a specific image comes to mind. Something along the lines of long, flowing, white robes, and large, feathered wings to match, complete with a golden, ethereal glow. They think of Guardian Angels, of celestial protectors. They don’t think of me. No halo, no wings, and clad in all black. They don’t think of death. But that’s what I am, an Angel of Death. An angel in all rights and respects as the aforementioned beings, but not held in the same regard, at least not by humans.When most people think of Death, the...

15 likes 1 comment 1
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Brown Bondye

Submitted to Contest #297

Our story takes place over a single, three-minute period of time...I. The Watcher (Soul Veil’s Guard).In Lunvéra, shrine of shadowed waters,Where forest folds to mirrored gleam,And air hums low with ancient whispers,I stand, Brown Bondye, Soul Veil’s guard.Beyond these groves, thrones lie broken,Winds wail through a world undone,But here my watch holds, fierce and firm,As dawn cracks wide the sky’s embrace..Yet nearby lurks the Caged Ravager,A beast of brindle, storm and spite,Muscle thick, jaws drippin’ dread,My cursed foe from nights untol...

15 likes 14 comments 14
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Heroes and Men in the City of Angels

Submitted to Contest #297

“Pop quiz hot shot!” “Don’t got time for this, Travers.” Detective Travers laughed, a very inappropriate time for laughter. Sweat dripped down Paul Harmon’s face. The timer on the explosive device continued to count down. Paul needed to concentrate, but for the life of him, Travers decided it was time to be that asshole. “There is a bomb in a skyscraper. The scumbag has told you that if one person leaves, he blows the entire building. It is also the building in which Detective Harmon’s sister works in. What do you do? What do you do?” “Shit,...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Roger - Cyber Security Officer

Submitted to Contest #297

When opportunity arrives, it does so without warning and at incredible speed. Actions that span only a few minutes can direct a mans life onto a new path, diverting his destiny toward a new future. Roger wouldn’t know anything about that though. His existence had, for as long as he could remember, consisted of one identical day after another. As he dropped his ever growing waistline down into his ergonomic office chair, his screen lit up and displayed the same program windows, in the same positions and showing the same content, as every othe...

14 likes 7 comments 7
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What Waits in Winter

Submitted to Contest #297

What Waits in WinterBy: Emily Chancey Pure white snow embraced the world beyond Katherine’s isolated ranger station, each flake a silent trespasser. She stared into the dense woods, a memory nagging at the back of her mind; a tale the older rangers told of voices on the wind, carried in by the first snow. A trick of the cold air, they had said. The radio crackled to life just after midnight, breaking the six hours of dead silence just as the season's first snow began to embrace the world beyond the windows. The sound came suddenly, startlin...

13 likes 3 comments 3
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Being Dicks to Crows (For Science)

Submitted to Contest #297

The feathery missile smacked into Jake’s face, and he stumbled, clutching at the mask. It was knocked askew and obscuring his vision, his heavy backpack dragging him off-balance as he tumbled inelegantly to the ground. All around him, a metalocalypse of scolding crows cussed out his mama from every parapet, cornice and corbie-step, their champion dive-bomber ruffling his glossy feathers on the dome of a white-streaked statue. Jake clambered to his feet, re-adjusting his plastic protection, and checked the time on his cell phone. It was 2:43,...

11 likes 11 comments 11
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Starry Night

Submitted to Contest #297

Starry Night No one knew how the two-seater bench ended up in this condition. Was it the journey up the rocky path that loosened the screws like eyeballs rolling aimlessly in sockets? Was it the weather that stripped the blue paint from the wood aside from the leathery strips that hung on like torn ligament clinging to bone, desperate and limp? And what would happen to the bench that sorely rested amongst the rocks? Would it sit and wait until the frail legs softly folded inward at the joints? Would the damp wood make a noise as the bench ca...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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11:58 Tick Tock

Submitted to Contest #297

Layoffs loomed, my stomach churned, and the neighbors’ party shook my walls. I wanted peace and a quick-to-bed right after the ball drop. So, I called 311 at about 10:00 PM to have someone to talk to. They sent a noise inspector.“Hi, my name is Carl. Do you want this done in the AM or PM?” he asked.“I’m not sure I understand,” I said.“One is more urgent than the other.”“You sent me a personal message? But what does 'AM' stand for?”His laugh barked like a hyena’s, eyes glinting. “Oh, you’re curious. I like that."I laugh, sort of. It's a weird...

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The speed date

Submitted to Contest #297

‘’So, you’re an architect?’’‘’Well, you’ve certainly found a way to romanticize it.’’‘’Come on. We’ve only got five minutes.’’‘’Exactly. No time to make stuff up.’’‘’I’m only laughing because I was afraid this might happen. My mother always says I romanticize the ordinary.’’‘’So now I’m ordinary?’’‘’Oh God, no. I didn’t mean it like that.’’‘’You’re easily provoked.’’‘’I hope not. It’s just my mom. She has a way of—’’‘’Are you a mama’s boy?’’‘’What?’’‘’You’ve mentioned her twice, and—as you said—we only have five minutes. I suppose she matter...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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