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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story from the POV of a now-defunct piece of technology.

Posted in Short Story on Jan 10, 2025

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✍️ 80 stories

“Thanks for Taking Me Along” by Lila Evans

Submitted to Contest #285

I wanted to thank you for taking me along on that trip. After sitting alone for so long, I never imagined I’d get out to the lake one more time. I was just going through my photos, and I still cannot get over how “picture perfect”  the entire trip was. Do you know what my favorite day was? The one when you caught that musky with your dad and Tommy.  It had been a day full of sun, fun, and unfortunately, not a lot of fish thus far. No matter though. As the sun rose over the lake that day, I felt your familiar grip once again, steady...

11 comments 11
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“CH3R” by Hunter Whitlow

Submitted to Contest #285

There was a time when I was the hot, new piece of tech that everyone wanted. I used to stand in the window of the Chrome Emporium while passersby couldn’t help but stop and stare. There would be lines out the door of every tech shop, corner store, you name it, just for the chance to buy one of me. I truly felt like I was the celebrity for which I was named. Sadly, that time has long since passed. My name is CH3R. I am, or was, the first ever humanoid robotic assistant and home performer. They used to call me “remarkable,” “lightyears ahead o...

1 comment 1
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“The Hourglass” by Sharon Nations Toler

Submitted to Contest #285

An hourglass, a silent witness to the unfolding drama of the Stevens family, stood in the heart of a grand, old mansion hidden away in a dimly lit study. Its polished wooden frame gleamed faintly in the low light, the transparent glass chambers not fogged by time, and the fine grains of black sand slipping steadily from the top to the bottom. The hourglass, a symbol of the family's heritage, had seen generations pass by. The black sand shifted down into the narrow neck into the bottom glass only to be turned over to start the hourglass's end...

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“Every Grain Counts” by John Q

Submitted to Contest #285

Every Grain CountsThere was a time when I ruled the world—or at least a corner of it. I was the keeper of time, the grand orchestrator of seconds, minutes, and fleeting moments. My slender glass body, filled with golden grains of sand, was revered. I stood proudly on desks, mantels, and kitchen counters, my presence as a quiet reminder of life’s delicate, fleeting nature. People turned me over with care, watching as the grains cascaded with precision. I was a spectacle. I was indispensable.Now, I’m a relic. A has-been. A forgotten artifact g...

2 comments 2
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“92.7 WQLZ” by Adam Perschbacher

Submitted to Contest #285

You whistle in your sleep. It is often quite loud but I do not mind. You attain many hours of sleep every night and it is enough to sustain you. It is enough to bring you back with regularity so that you may play with your small light machine that makes noise and makes you laugh and vibrates faintly while your nose is whistling.  You begin to have another woman over on occasion and you share your bed with her and you laugh together at the noises from your small machines and sometimes you make your own noises. Your voice is melodic when ...

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“Tamastasia” by Nic Kursonis

Submitted to Contest #285

I remember the first time I died. I remember the first time I saw the face of my creator, Dawn. I remember the joy she showed when I first awoke. I had yet to understand my reality, but I remember that moment. “Anastasia. I’m going to call you Ana, for short. ”She pulled me so close to her that everything went dark again at that moment, but that was the brightest darkness of my life. “That was her favorite movie, you know.”What’s a movie?“They are like stories you watch on a screen. Anastasia was her absolute favorite.” I reme...

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“Blockbuster Night” by Ed Coulstring

Submitted to Contest #285

Blockbuster Night.By Ed Coulstring I am the greatest wedding gift of all time.  When newlyweds Larry And Lisa opened me they nearly burst with excitement.  I Was the newest model with all the bells and whistles, the hottest thing in entertainment for 1992.  When they got me home I went right to the top shelf, the crowning jewel of the entertainment center.  Just under me tele, the dude who made it all  possible. Tele was the canvas to my paint.  Next to tele on his own shelf, my best bud, spools.   ...

1 comment 1
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“Defunct Relics ” by Patrick D

Submitted to Contest #285

In a old Canadian attic, a forgotten Royal typewriter and an original Nintendo reminisced about their glory days.“Remember Christmas 1985! When they unwrapped us?“Unforgettable! They were so excited they nearly broke us getting us out of our boxes! There was wrapping paper everywhere, and Back to the Future was playing on the TV, ” said Nintendo.“We were superstars; I was the most popular typewriter that year.”“And I was the most advanced entertainment system ever made, state-of-the-art! Shoppers would fist fight over me, I was mandatory und...

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“Now I'm only an icon” by Sarah Contact@catladysazdesigns.com.au

Submitted to Contest #285

I used to be a big deal. I’m not the first of my kind. But I am probably the first of my kind to be widely used by the everyman and everywoman. There was perhaps a time when I was in most homes. I’m still in most homes now, but as just an imprint of my former self, quite literally. And some younger generations don’t even know who I am, even though they recognise me. I was the first of my kind to be stylish. I came in different colours and could be used to make a statement about yourself. Otherwise, the colours just helped to tell us apart. W...

1 comment 1
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“Shattered Music” by Caitlin Nikolai

Submitted to Contest #285

Things used to be so perfect. We were together all the time, inseparable. We were going to conquer the world together, one note, one lyric, one song at a time.I Wanna Know what happened. I thought I was Everything You Wanted. I sang to you, You Sang to Me, we sang beautiful Music together. In synch. In style. I was always Amazed at how perfect we were together. The harmonies we shared. So many different songs in so many different styles, but all so special to you – to us.    &n...

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“Unaccompanied adult” by Amelie Thelma

Submitted to Contest #285

It was a typically humid December day in 1996 in Singapore and the airport terminal corridor in front of me was humming with people, movement, luggage, and chaotic energy. An airline crew strutted past me purposefully, confidently, their smiles beaming, their uniforms pristine, their little suitcases in tow, gliding on the brown airport carpet. A family ran past me, slightly red-faced and out of breath, a flurry of backpacks, jackets, and bum bags flailing all around them. Across the corridor, in one of the airport smoking rooms, a few to...

1 comment 1
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“Old Friend” by Sandra Coe

Submitted to Contest #285

She never could bear to part with me, my incredible best friend. Not since the moment she lifted me from the box and I first opened my eyes. There were lights overhead, flashing blue, green, and red in cycles. Behind her was a giant tree, covered in glittering strands of green and red, and topped with a gold star. I remember how tightly she clutched me to her chest, and I felt at home.  We travelled the world together. From the suffocating humidity of an airport in Singapore, to the sharp tang of winter in Europe. Together, we sang and...

3 comments 3
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“Paging Dr. Alisdair” by Chris Graff

Submitted to Contest #285

I miss belt loops. I know that sounds like a strange thing to miss, but as I sit here in the back of a drawer, surrounded by pairs of broken glasses, random loose batteries, and covered by a stack of manuals of some kind, I wish I could be hooked to a belt loop again. I’d even take being shoved in a pocket with twelve pens and a pack of gum over this, because at least then, I would get out in the light whenever someone would send me a message. The only time I see light now is when He is looking for something in this drawer. Every o...

0 comments 0
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“THE MACHINE THAT REMEMBERED” by Maria Barrett

Submitted to Contest #285

The flickering neon sign outside cast a sickly green glow on the dusty windowpane. Inside, I lay dormant, a relic of a bygone era. My circuits, once a symphony of electrical pulses, were now a graveyard of rusted connections and brittle wires. They called me "The Oracle," a grandiose name for a machine that once predicted the weather with uncanny accuracy. I remember the bustling days. Scientists, their faces a mixture of awe and apprehension, would gather around me. They would feed me data – barometric pressure, wind speed, humidity – a tor...

1 comment 1
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“Shelved” by Chris Moznette

Submitted to Contest #285

            “And it was like BAM! Now nobody cares. Just like that, a flash in a pan, as if I wasn’t absolutely revolutionary.”            “Revolutionary. Tell me about that. What made you so revolutionary that being what you call ‘shelved’ is such a travesty?”            “Where do I even start? Every sound you could ever want, every song, every beat...

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Contest #285

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Title: Looks Like You Are Trying to Write a Eulogy?

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