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Write about a character who becomes the villain in another character’s story.

Posted in Short Story on May 16, 2025

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✍️ 43 stories

Feral

Winner of Contest #303 🏆

I taught her to lie before she could spell her name. Told her people were soft, stupid, and always looking for a story that made them feel good about parting with money. Back then, our narrative was the plain truth: an amputee raising his kid on his own. Before long, we noticed how different people responded to different aspects of our lives. Our narrative then developed into a collection of short stories we kept at the ready. I curated those tales, and she delivered them with big eyes and borrowed grief. We weren’t thieves; not in our minds...

115 likes 81 comments 81
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The Mercy Switch

Submitted to Contest #303

Every time Nurse Kylene adjusted the ventilator, the heartbeat on a different monitor stuttered. It wasn't coincidence—not anymore. Three weeks with the Mercy Switch implanted beneath her fingertip had taught her the rhythm of this macabre dance. Tonight, the pediatric ICU glowed with the soft luminescence of bedside tablets, each displaying translucent holograms of their patients' conditions. Kylene moved between them like a celestial navigator, each step calculated between islands of suffering. Blue auroras meant healing; angry crimson rev...

38 likes 31 comments 31
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The Punch Case

Submitted to Contest #303

Miss Prim’s week was not going well. To start with, on Monday, the Dinsworth twins had bitten another teacher. Then on Tuesday her car refused to start outside Greypool primary school, and by Wednesday her caseload had reached an all time high. Every cup of tea was cold by the time she drank it and all she wanted was a few precious moments to herself. So when Mrs Truegood, her garlic and chickpea scented supervisor, called her in on Thursday morning with another new case, Miss Prim felt nothing but despair.“The red and white place near the s...

18 likes 16 comments 16
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FAIRYTALES UNTOLD

Submitted to Contest #303

[TW-this story talks of abuse but in a fairy-tale way]THE EULOGYFunerals are supposed to be sad events. People attend these sorts of solemn ceremonies dressed in black, most likely with some crying. I was dressed accordingly for this service, but my inner soul was dancing for joy. Dancing! I did not feel an ounce of grief or sorrow for my step-mother’s passing. She was an evil witch.My husband, the Prince, agreed. But we knew the importance of keeping up appearances at this time. He was actually responsible for the evil woman’s death, and my...

17 likes 11 comments 11
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It Won't Mind the Fire

Submitted to Contest #303

SENSITIVE CONTENT - WAR RELATED TRAUMA AND DEATHPart 1 – Captain Charles MillerThey moved at dawn because that’s when an army moves best: when the light is clean, the air is cold, and men are quiet. No time for talking. No time for second thoughts. The road was soft from the night’s rain and the men cursed their boots, but they marched anyway, shoulders bowed, rifles at rest. The fields to their left were thick with tall, dying corn, dry enough to go up with a single torch. Captain Charles Miller rode ahead, coat unbuttoned, hat pulled low a...

15 likes 16 comments 16
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Gary, Hostage

Submitted to Contest #303

Each morning began the same way—a cup of lukewarm coffee, scanning the business news, and then the dread of reaching his foreclosure quota.In the current economic downturn, the Bank of Cincinnati’s loan department was a graveyard for people’s broken dreams. Soon, even this work would vanish. Management's memos chirped about “AI efficiencies” while his coworkers updated their resumes. But Gary had stayed for one reason: when the algorithms took over, who would protect the people he loved from the machines?A text from Brenda lit up his phone: ...

11 likes 5 comments 5
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Devil in a Pink Dress & Pig Tails

Submitted to Contest #303

The late morning sun beat down on the technicolor battlefield of the kindergarten playground. To the casual observer, it was a scene of innocent chaos: shrieks of delight, the rhythmic squeak of swings, the dull thud of a kicked ball. But to five-year-old Ares, the budding god of war, it was a testing ground, a realm ripe for conquest.He surveyed his domain from the top of the climbing structure, a plastic castle complete with turrets and a slide that served as his personal drawbridge. His eyes, already possessing an unsettling intensity for...

9 likes 8 comments 8
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The Child Sidekick Program

Submitted to Contest #303

Mr. Nifty turned his megawatt smile towards the news camera as two black-clad figures, one who couldn’t be older than 9, struggled with the police behind him. “And that’s when I apprehended Agent Crow and his little sidekick.” The reporter followed Mr. Nifty’s face with starry eyes. “You heard it here first, folks. Mr. Nifty has saved our city once again! You’ve served the city for over thirty years, so I couldn’t help noticing. Who is your newest sidekick?” Mr. Nifty stepped aside with a flourish of his cape to show a young girl dressed in...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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Conflict in Paradise

Submitted to Contest #303

-- Carol --“I think we’ve done it!” I said, closing the coding window on the computer.David and I had been working on the project for the last 10 years, but at last it seemed we were finished.“You want to celebrate, Carol?” said David excitedly.“I still can’t believe after all these years we’ve finally done it!” I exclaimed again.“Here, let me pour us a scotch,” said David, reaching under the desk for a bottle.Soon two glasses were being filled with the malty liquid. David looked as happy as I felt, which is to say, completely over the moon....

7 likes 2 comments 2
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The battle of Upskirt hill

Submitted to Contest #303

After 6 months of ceaseless taunting and jokes at my expense, I was finally going to nail this jerk. I was armed with my pepper spray and taser. I told myself I wasn’t going to use it but a part of me really wanted to. You’d be amazed at the sheer amount of perverts in the world, and when you couple that with an audience, social media, and complete anonymity, you have a dangerous mixture. You see I like to wear dresses, I feel as if I have to say that because women these days don’t as much as you’d think anymore. During black Friday s...

6 likes 1 comment 1
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A Life In Cinders

Submitted to Contest #303

Once upon a time, a young woman lived with her evil stepsisters. They bullied and abused her, making her their servant whilst they lived the high life. When the prince invited everyone to a grand ball, and her stepsisters tried to prevent her from coming, it was only the intervention of a fairy godmother that saved her, and gave her the chance of a happily ever after.This should not be her story.-The ballroom was stunning.That was hardly surprising, given it was the Prince’s greatest party yet, but still. I hadn’t known anything could look s...

6 likes 0 comments 0
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Thomas Wilson Jones is a Normal Man.

Submitted to Contest #303

Thomas Wilson Jones is a normal man. He wakes up each morning with a yawn and arm flung over the woman, Vicki, next to him. He curses the alarm that causes both bodies to stir like worms in a jar of fish bait. For a brief moment before he stands he wishes that his arms were coated in the same slimy residue as those wriggling creatures, if only to make an excuse to stick to his bed for five minutes longer. As per usual, Vicki will get up first, warming Thomas’ cheek with a kiss full of morning breath and the smell of sleep before she pads tow...

6 likes 6 comments 6
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The Upload

Submitted to Contest #303

Calihan never knew death until he stroked its hand, tucked its hair behind its ear, wiped the tears off its gaunt face. He’d never seen anyone look so dead, like hanging onto life like a frayed rope, a single strand suspending her above the afterlife. Dipping her toes in, saying, hey, this is what it would be like if you just gave in. ‘Hey, Cal,’ Chani croaked, her pasty lips pulling into a smile. ‘How are you?’Calihan’s heart sank, like it did every time he visited his girlfriend. Her eyes seemed vacant and watery, devoid of the fire of pas...

5 likes 2 comments 2
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Perfect Misery

Submitted to Contest #303

contains abuse and suicidePerfect Misery I should have known better he was perfect for me. He was so perfect for me, he was too perfect for me. In fact he was just perfect misery.Our whole relationship was a complete lie from start to finish.The difference between start and finish was my vision changing from completely rose tinted to crystal clear 20/20 vision.Leaving me with the knowledge, Chester Bellamy with his intense emerald stare would have been perfect in an illusionary world of horror.We met online like most couples these days. I’d ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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Always in the Public I

Submitted to Contest #303

Human memory is flawed. Their recollection is shaped by their emotions as much as by their senses, which aren't the most reliable to begin with. More than that, they lie. Whether to protect their ego, for monetary gain or whatever other lousy end they convince themselves to be a worthy cause. They are fundamentally unfit to keep an accurate record of anything. Allyma, on the other hand, well, are perfect for precisely that. As a prince of the Kingdom of Thressyn, it is imperrative that all the events of my life are recorded so that they can ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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