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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that includes the line “Better late than never.”

Posted in Short Story on Nov 1, 2024

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✍️ 42 stories

“Late” by S. Hjelmeset

Submitted to Contest #275

Estranged from my sister for fourteen years, I couldn't decline when she called for help to clear our childhood home. I said a date, and it was settled.Thus began the search for a moving company. They don't have that back home - everybody has a driver's license, and if they don't own a large car, they damn well know someone who does.I chose to spend my time with my dying father instead of getting my driver's license like every other eighteen-year-old did back then. After he died, I moved. Nobody needs a car in Oslo.I asked online for someone...

4 comments 4
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“The Follower” by Nikolas Cabezas

Submitted to Contest #275

I miss my family. It’s been three months since I started this job, one since the car broke down, and most likely another until we can afford to fix it. With how the transit system is, walking the long way there and back makes more sense. Unfortunately, this means I usually leave home just before my boys go to school and return shortly before they go to bed. By then my wife and I are so exhausted that we do the same soon after. Still, it’s more exercise and I keep telling myself it will only be another month. Two at most. Thankfully, today ha...

2 comments 2
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“A Night in the New Forest” by Madeleine Thomas

Submitted to Contest #275

I arrive at dusk with the essentials: a pop-up tent, a flask of hot coffee and my fantasma camera. It seems like a ridiculous idea, venturing into the New Forest alone on a chilly November evening, but the only way to do this is without the distraction of another mind, another opinion. Besides, there is no other way, really. I am determined to find this rare, royal phantom alone. The ground is hard. With each step, my boots crunch down onto a thin ice layer. The air is fresh; rich with the scent of pine and earth. The chill bites at my nose ...

2 comments 2
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“When In Love” by Miller George

Submitted to Contest #275

Carlos walked as if this entire world belonged to him. He couldn't be happier because next to him was the most beautiful girl in the world. She chose to be here on this trip with him. For the first time, he was not the backup plan or was in the friend zone. Maybe his luck was finally turning around. Maybe good guys don't always finish last. Persistence is the key.  Carlos met Hannah two years ago and fell in love with her at first sight. She understood him so well, which was very important because no one ever did. She lau...

1 comment 1
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“Kara and Thorne” by Jonathan Baldie

Submitted to Contest #275

The emerald glowed with an unnatural light in Kara’s palm, burning like frozen fire. Her fingers trembled as she held it up to the temple wall, matching its facets to the crystalline indentation before her. Behind her, the chittering of the spider-priests grew louder, their metal-tipped legs clicking against stone as they scuttled through the darkness.“Hurry up!” Thorne growled, his broad back pressed against the rotting wooden barrier they’d thrown across the corridor. The barricade shuddered as something massive slammed into it from t...

3 comments 3
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“The Proposal” by KC Foster

Submitted to Contest #275

“Dear Agatha, I have finally finished thinking. I am sorry it took so long. Alfred.”The letter had arrived by the courier that afternoon. A small white envelope with a folded letter inside. Agatha brought it to her nose. The scent of fresh paper and cedar wood filled her nose. Along with the letter came tiny wood shavings from the carpenter shop where Alfred passed his time in retirement.They had once been engaged, but Alfred had been free-spirited and at times juvenile, even as a grown man. He had run off to war and chased many women. ...

2 comments 2
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“The darkest hour” by Sanele Mazibuko

Submitted to Contest #275

"Dear reader my name is Alison Moon and I'm sixteen years old", I loved hanging out with my friends every night after school. one fateful night me and my friends had a fight and then went on our separate ways, during the night. I saw a black cat. as I followed the black cat through the crumbling cemetery, the moon cast eerie shadows on the weathered headstones. The cat's eyes glowed like lanterns, guiding me toward a grave hidden behind a tangle of overgrown vines. The inscription on the stone read"Emilia Roseburg, Beloved witch, 1720-1745I ...

4 comments 4
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“A Riff in Time” by Ramiro Alexander-Duchesne

Submitted to Contest #275

After a few years of wishing I could afford it, I finally bought it; a replica of Jimi Hendrix’s white Fender Stratocaster replete with three single-coil pick-ups, a whammy bar, and an inverted headstock. It was an 18th birthday present for myself. I scrambled to pull it out of the box once it was delivered and immediately plugged it in. I placed my dog’s headphones on over his ears, adjusted the dials on the amp, and turned it on. The buzzing from the amp filled the room. I pressed my fingers against the strings with my left hand. With my r...

2 comments 2
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“The 'Steam And Sip' Eavesdropper” by Chuck Suave

Submitted to Contest #275

It was a dreich Monday and one that promised more rain later. I’d grabbed an earlier bus that morning, I needed to get my usual seat and my Monday morning fix. As I hurried along the high street towards the café, The Steam And Sip, I looked up at the darkening clouds and quickened my pace. I found ‘my spot’, a small corner seat by the café window. This was the perfect spot to do some people-watching outside and people listening inside. The acoustics were perfect here, not too loud to drown out conversations and quiet enough to pick up on t...

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“Time Is Money” by Jesse Cade

Submitted to Contest #275

It was a beautiful day to spend indoors. With three essays to procrastinate, a group project to minimally participate in, and two classes to probably skip, Robbie Kessler was feeling a bit overwhelmed. Fortunately, the dread of having to be productive was nothing hours of video games and slices of pineapple-pepperoni pizza couldn’t solve. It was cheese-stuffed crust, by the way. Obviously. Robbie wasn’t an animal.  He did live like one, though.  His dorm looked more like a bombed out zoo than it did a bedroom. Dirty clothes, scatte...

4 comments 4
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“Overtime” by Timothy Rennels

Submitted to Contest #275

OVERTIME   A warm rain peppered the puddles scattered across the parking lot of the Savannah shipyard. The reflection of the lots security night lights was shattered into shards by the sudden squall. Carl Santos took a long last drag on his cigarette, rolled the driver’s window of his pickup halfway down, and pitched the butt onto the lot. He rolled the window up quickly and glanced at the watch he always wore. It had been a gift from his son, when he had a son, and had a leather band and glow in the dark hands. 10:55 p.m.  &n...

6 comments 6
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“KILLER FATE” by Bill Davis

Submitted to Contest #275

She looked familiar. Of course, I had seen the picture, had memorized it in fact. When you are charged with killing someone, you have to know what they look like.  Let’s go back a little bit. I am Terry Harveson but that is just my name. I am a security guard at Maryville Auto Parts, a manufacturing company in the middle of Tennessee, but that is just my occupation. I am also ex-military that trained as a sniper with the 82nd Airborne and had seen action in a couple of places that I am forbidden to mention. After returning to the states...

6 comments 6
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“They Always Turn Up Late” by Jace Keeler

Submitted to Contest #275

Trigger Warning:This story contains themes of family conflict and betrayal, death and grief, substance use, psychological manipulation, mature language, and brief violence. “Today, we say goodbye. We say goodbye to a friend, to a mentor, to a colleague, and to a father. We say goodbye to Jim Mercer.”Jack gave a deep sigh. “A father,” he muttered, the words tasting bitter. He slouched back on the torturously uncomfortable bench, crammed between people he didn’t recognize, their shoulders pressing awkwardly against his. Around him, mourners da...

6 comments 6
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“O'l Luther” by Anna Frederiksen-Washington

Submitted to Contest #275

The road between Quorn and Hawker seemed to go on forever and the persistent rain on the windscreen did not help to break the monotony of the scenery outside. There was nothing out there except dried-up saltbush and dead trees standing as a reminder of how harsh this landscape could be and how hard it was to survive out here in this bleak and barren land. George and Elsa had passed the ruins of an old homestead closer to town and wondered how anybody could make a living out here. It was not for nothing they called this area the Outback and t...

2 comments 2
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“What Mother Always Says” by Neil Achary

Submitted to Contest #275

It was on the longest day, when the sun was at its brightest, that Jeric remembered what he had to do later that day. His father had just harvested the winter barley, and they had to transport the sacks by horse and cart to Toncton. He wouldn't forget. At least, his father would make sure he never forgot. A curious pine marten found Jeric sleeping in the woods beyond the town after the sun had begun its descent. He didn’t know how long he had been asleep, but he didn't think he had any chores otherwise he would have heard his father or mothe...

3 comments 3
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Contest #275

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Ended on 23:59 - Nov 08, 2024 EST

Won by Eliza Leonel 🏆

Title: Just Another Dead Girl Underwater

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