Write a story that ends by circling back to the beginning.

Posted in Short Story on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 214 stories

“The Watch. ” by Aina Salman

Submitted to Contest #42

Alana was sitting on the bleak seats of the London Underground, with three other grim-looking people in the same compartment. It was 08 17 and Alana had to reach her office at 08 45 to be exact, and she was already yearning to take the train back home. Today the ride to her office was awfully still, though she was not a very loud person, she still liked the chitter-chatter and veiled bickering of random people while travelling to work in the mornings. Observing the tranquil environment around her, she glanced at her plain black strap watch a...

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“Lucky me” by Vaishnavi Venu

Submitted to Contest #42

I sit there on the dusty ground in my torn jeans, trying to ignore the atrocity of the world I was in. “Ira! Ira!” I hear my little sister Mirai calling out my name from the distance. Right in time for lunch, I think. “What’d you manage to get?” I ask her, pulling the torn mat out for both of us to sit. “A whole, hot loaf of bread!!” she says, her eyes lighting up. I almost cried. “Really?! Show!” I say, leaning in and inhaling the rich, delicious aroma from the bread that makes my mouth water.We sit there, chewing the bread in silence.&nbsp...

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“Resolutions” by Margo Harris

Submitted to Contest #42

Staring down at the pond, I watched my reflection distort as the creatures living inside moved through the water. I stood there for a long time, enjoying the summer breeze blowing my hair back, carrying scents of flowers with it. I always came there when I needed to think. I hadn’t been feeling much like myself lately. I always got lost when I fell into something too deeply. Usually after some time, I was able to find my way back, but this time seemed different. It’s like whatever I tried, I couldn’t go back to who I was before. This t...

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“To Forgive Or Not To Forgive” by Ayaan Haque

Submitted to Contest #42

I don’t know how I ended up with him. I mean, there were 1.4 million people in the United States Army, and the squadron I was in just happened to have him in it. And now, I stood waiting for him at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, which was literally our home airport, out of all the airports in the United States. The chances were so slim, yet it happened. I looked around the passenger gate and remembered standing right in this very terminal 5 years ago. 5 years ago in 1952. 5 years ago in Korea. 5 years ago when my life changed forev...

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“Dense” by Colleen Stump

Submitted to Contest #42

Dense Colleen Shea Stump I'm a bad person. In my 30s, I chased everything in pants. My gallivanting gifted me a husband who wore uptight suits with monochromatic ties and only ate macadamia nuts, other nuts too pedestrian for his sensitive palate. Our relationship detonated when cards on the felt-covered tables and Manhattans-on-the rocks took over, leaving me bankrupt on the street with my boy. The ex? Soft landing in a fancy rehab in Mexico, the bill footed by his overindulgent parents. Now in my 40s, I reside in Transitional Housing with ...

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“'til Death” by LeighAnne Ferreol

Submitted to Contest #42

I smiled and placed a gentle kiss on his temple. I loved him so much. He didn’t stir at all as I did so. Poor thing, I knew how sick he was. I couldn’t remember the last time he got out of bed. His dinner plate from last night was still on the nightstand, untouched. I reached over and grabbed it. I stroked his head gently before getting up and heading downstairs. I needed to take care of him, no matter how long it took. In sickness and in health, that was the vow I made. I started preparing breakfast. I wanted him to feel better so I made hi...

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“Can You See the Magic” by Rhonda Allen

Submitted to Contest #42

What do you do, where do you go, when your entire life becomes disillusioned and all your dreams disappear?They could still hear the audience clapping and cheering loudly, even though they had already exited the stage in their usual fashion of a ballet like dance and synchronized royal wave. Tobias had said from the beginning that making the departure as memorable as the show was very important, it was a way of keeping the audience connected to them. He was so right, thought Olivia, but then again everything he did for the show and for them ...

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“The Void” by Rhea G

Submitted to Contest #42

I spit my morning prayers after I brush my teeth. Then I eat my breakfast in silence, oatmeal and spoiled milk. I dress up, look in the mirror, and my outfit sucks. I change. I think some more. Chang again. By the time I leave the apartment; I'm wearing my dirty hoodie with disappointment on my sleeve.I don't buy coffee. I make some myself and carry it in my thermal cup as I usually do. It wasn't that I didn't want to buy myself a fancy cup in a fancy cafe and walk to my fancy work, oh so fancily. I was broke, and my brew was out of a cheap ...

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“I love you by Madison Moser” by Madison Moser

Submitted to Contest #42

We, as human beings, are constantly hungry. We are starving and desperate for the thing that fills us up and makes everything more bearable. It makes tragedy a little more tragic and hunger a little more passionate. What we would give to forever sink into the arms of our mothers and be cradled like the rest just doesn’t matter. Our egos need to be carried in a pocket or coddled in a spoon. They are the eggshells we choose to walk on and destroy. No matter how hard we try, walking on eggshells, or even running at that, cannot be done on empt...

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“UNDER THE SHADOWS” by Emma Sangual

Submitted to Contest #42

It was my summers break and as always, we were all packed to spend yet another month in our farmhouse at Kashmir, as we always did. We had nowhere to go but there and though father always promised a new adventure, things always took the wrong road and the same boring days, greeted us. There wasn’t a place that hadn’t been explored by us, or as much as I could remember. As usual, it was quite a few days until all the others came (we always came early, as we did somehow enjoy the road trip), so it meant I was stuck all alone- and had to find s...

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“Endlessly” by Rin Sadow

Submitted to Contest #42

Nara left her phone downstairs. She couldn't believe it. She had actually forgotten to take her phone upstairs with her when she went to sleep in her bedroom. There was nothing wrong with this. She was tired and she did need that sleep. The phone wasn't even important to her; countless times she had found herself becoming bored of it. There was just one tiny problem. She would use it to stop herself from going to sleep and stay up all night. Of course, this was wrong. She would be tired during the day and would sleep for hours...

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“A Wannabe Poet Jumps a Fence to Impress a Girl, But She is Already Walking Away” by A H

Submitted to Contest #42

The stars may have been visible in that clear night, but they were vastly overshadowed by the blinding floodlights that stood vigil over the empty field. There was only one pinprick of light in the sky then, and it hung just over the evergreen trees, low enough that the tall girl who pounded out lap after lap on the red pavement could keep her eyes trained on it as she ran. She wore a tank top, black leggings, and white tennis shoes: her go-to outfit when she had something on her mind and needed to run it out. And that was how it was with he...

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“Mama Moon” by Georgia Brown

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #42

Mama said I have the moon under my skin. That the day I was born she could see the moonbeams dance, soft and silver, under my chest and belly. They spread into my arms and legs, split into my fingertips and toes. Mama said it was a sign of good things to come. I used to stay up all night talking at the moon, my second mother. She’d cradle me in waves of silver light, and whisper things in my ear. She’d send lightning bugs to my window, and crickets to my backdoor. She told me to paint my windowsill blue so bad spirits couldn’t cross, a...

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“Petrichor” by Sandeep T

Submitted to Contest #42

" You know the worst kind of imprisonment Alex? The door is wide open but we cannot move as if we're chained by invisible memory threads of the past. It is then that we see the future through that ajar door, Living off it's faint light."" Hmm Does it hurt mum? When we die? "" Not more than it hurts the ones who are living. " *****I wonder why mum said that, what might have she felt at that moment. I didn't get it back then at my father's f...

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“Nilsson's Mate” by Julia Gibson

Submitted to Contest #42

“Fur Elise is just a song that Ludwig wrote. Fur Elise is really long. Play every note! Ow ow ow, ow owww…” Ten-year-old Greg held the last note until the dog began to howl. “Greg! That’s not practicing. Quit torturing Ludie and play it nice like you will in recital.” Greg’s mother, who was also his piano teacher, was busy in the kitchen. Ludwig, an ancient basset hound, had been asleep under the piano and when he stopped playing, Ludie plodded into the kitchen to beg a treat. Greg looked out the brownstone window to watch a man sitting on t...

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Write a story that ends by circling back to the beginning.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 214 stories

“The Watch. ” by Aina Salman

“Lucky me” by Vaishnavi Venu

“Resolutions” by Margo Harris

“To Forgive Or Not To Forgive” by Ayaan Haque

“Dense” by Colleen Stump

“'til Death” by LeighAnne Ferreol

“Can You See the Magic” by Rhonda Allen

“The Void” by Rhea G

“I love you by Madison Moser” by Madison Moser

“UNDER THE SHADOWS” by Emma Sangual

“Endlessly” by Rin Sadow

“A Wannabe Poet Jumps a Fence to Impress a Girl, But She is Already Walking Away” by A H

“Mama Moon” by Georgia Brown

“Petrichor” by Sandeep T

“Nilsson's Mate” by Julia Gibson

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that ends with the narrator revealing a secret.

Write a story that ends in the past.

Write a story that ends with a character asking a question.

Write a story that ends with one character waiting for the arrival of another.

Contest #42

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

903

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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