Write an open-ended story in which your character’s fate is uncertain.

Posted in Short Story on Feb 7, 2025

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 95 stories

“It's just another day.” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #289

I’m running late. Again. Marjory called early this morning. Could I come in for a few hours?“You know I wouldn’t ask,” she said. “But I have a wedding to do, can you shampoo, please?” Marjory promised to pay me next week.That made me a few minutes late for my shift at Johnny's Market. Carson raised his eyebrows when I ran in. He kept circling around my lane all day. When I turned my drawer in, he claimed I didn’t balance and made me wait while he counted again. He docked me the dollar seventy-six I was short. What could I say? I let Mrs. Phi...

37 comments 37

Read story

“Blue Skirt” by Yuliya Borodina

Submitted to Contest #289

The room is full of black specks again. I try to bat them away but can’t find my right arm. I search but find only the left one. It’s shackled to the wall. I stare at it for a moment, considering, then decide that it’s too far from me anyway. I pull in a lungful of air and forcefully blow it out. The specks don’t budge. I blow on them again, harder, but that only hurts someone’s ribs. I don’t think the ribs are mine.“What’s he doing?” asks a voice from in front of me… behind me? Above? I don’t recognize it.“Dunno. Don’t care.”“Gotta keep him...

48 comments 48

Read story

“The HMS Wraith” by Thomas Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #289

She was first spotted near the port of Bristol, a British naval frigate with 28 guns floating derelict just off the coast at sunset. Those who first saw it reported that she was fully aflame, her mainsails and mast rippling with red and orange, casting off a thick black trail of smoke in her wake as she drifted off into the evening fog.But when she was seen sometime around noon hugging the coast down near Bournemouth two days later, the witnesses on a freighter returning from Le Havre who sailed within a few hundred yards of the abandoned sh...

37 comments 37

Read story

“At Night All Blood is Black” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #289

“Let me take you. It’s no trouble” said Maeve from the front door. She had the Subaru keys in hand, just in case. She wanted so much to help.“I’m fine. I need some air,” said Tyrone.Tyrone was already walking up the hill towards town. It was getting dark. Did he know to walk on the left-hand side, facing the traffic? To wear something bright?Tyrone knew neither of these things. Maeve closed the door. The patrol car pulled up just ahead of him, near the airfield. The lights started flashing.&n...

13 comments 13

Read story

“4:35 AM” by L J

Submitted to Contest #289

I was walking down the hall in an almost empty airport when my phone rang "Hello? Hello? Who is it? You called me, what do you want? "I looked at the caller ID. It was the same unknown caller that I've seen before. The clock on my phone said 2:45 pm, my plane was going to take off in 45 minutes. I started to run down the hall to the check- in desk. I arrived breathless and sat down until called to board. My phone rang again "Hello? yes, this is Mina. Who is calling?" Only emptiness, a haunting silence. "Who is this? Hah, my plane is leaving ...

4 comments 4

Read story

“Capricorn's End” by John Rutherford

Submitted to Contest #289

This week’s story follows on from the previous week - Tempête du Cygne Noir. The scene commences in the police station interrogation room. Wicked (Mr. Ramstein) was being questioned by Detectives Melcom and Metzil about the murder of Cygne Noir.************************************************************“If you don’t come clean Mr. Ramstein, your freedom and future will end here tonight!”“Sounds like you are a popular dude around here. Everybody calls you Wicked – right? That’s apt! Right now, with us Wicked, you are the Wicked Witch fo...

10 comments 10

Read story

“Herb Meets His Maker... Maybe” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #289

Herb Meets His Maker…Maybe “Which door will it be?” ...

7 comments 7

Read story

“Jerk and Twist” by Kay Northbridge

Submitted to Contest #289

TW - AlcoholismThey say London spins with the Earth at a smooth 650 miles an hour. But to me it’s a jerk and twist, jerk and twist. Downward, airless, like a corkscrew forced into a too-tight bottle. Like that pink wine we used to serve at Classic Italian. Mateus Rosé. It had an inadequate, narrow neck and a bloated, bulbous body like the victim of a violent strangulation. My palms prickled whenever I had to open one at a table. If the spiky point of the waiter’s friend wasn’t dead centre in the cork on the first push, then metal grated agai...

12 comments 12

Read story

“A fleeting present predicament of past and future” by Penelope Stansfield

Submitted to Contest #289

Once, in a time not unlike ours, in a nearby land, lived a man and a woman known as Mr and Mrs Fleet. They inhabited a house that was neat and modest in size, positioned within a row of other neat and modest sized houses with tidy gardens to the rear and well presented driveways to the front. The residents of these houses, much like their homes, were orderly, predictable and polite, going about their lives in a tidy and modest way. To any casual observer, everything appeared exactly as it should - regular and routine, with ...

14 comments 14

Read story

“RIP Rico” by Lila Evans

Submitted to Contest #289

[Note, this story falls within the horror genre; while there is not specific gore or violence, it may be assumed. There is also mild language. Proceed at your own risk.] I never liked Janice. She was the kind of teacher who corrected your grammar in the break room, the type who sent mass emails about “the ongoing issue of stolen lunches” like we were in a corporate thriller instead of a poorly funded high school. If you were late submitting your lesson plans, she’d remind you. Twice. In bold. One time she told me the only good new teacher w...

10 comments 10

Read story

“Ilsa” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #289

One could remember that sunset. With Ilsa, I would have. The lingering threads of starlight envelop a world so drawn, unremarkable, and lacking. These stars, which guided us here, carried messages from even more remarkable beings whose names we do not speak.It was always this way: a flourish, resolutions, and feverish activity—from learning languages to making alliances. With whom? I hardly looked anymore. My mouth formed words that meant nothing to me. The northern provinces demanded grain while the merchant guilds clamored for lower tariff...

5 comments 5

Read story

“Crash” by James Scott

Submitted to Contest #289

Trigger Warning - Threats of violence, extremism and survival. Micas was awakened by the stabbing glare of sunlight against his face. He fluttered his crystal-blue eyes open, only to trigger an avalanche of the sand that seemed to constantly coat his face. Using the heels of his hands, that were no less grit encrusted, he managed to rub into being a semblance of sight. He sighed at the view he found, it was no less dire than the day before. Closing the plastic shutters on the aeroplanes tiny windows had been a pathetically futile gesture. On...

4 comments 4

Read story

“KYMS” by Karen Meyers

Submitted to Contest #289

This story addresses alcohol dependence.KYMSMy husband’s uncle was a novelist with a day job in the British Civil Service. He taught me to write KYMS on my notes at the beginning of every meeting. KeepYour Mouth Shut. What an invaluable tip.This story began the night I joined Indivisible. You’ve gotta do something and they were at least trying. Laurel Center’s chapter of Indivisible was founded during the winter of 2017, by people who had gone on the Women’s March.I didn’t go, though I made pink hats for a couple of friends. The charter left...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Breaking free” by Krissa Svavars

Submitted to Contest #289

It hurt to move. The world seemed to alternate between tilting and spinning every time she opened her swollen eyes. Intense pain shot through Kat as she struggled to sit up straight against the rough-hewn wall. Some ribs were either badly bruised or broken. Both the little and ring fingers on the left hand were bent at wrong angles and she could feel steady streams of blood trickling from various cuts on her back. This time he had used the three tailed whip along with the usual beating, clearly taking his frustration out on her, cursing the ...

9 comments 9

Read story

“The Photo” by Jay DeBurgh

Submitted to Contest #289

"Come on Jasper time for walkies," says Cass. The fluffy honey coloured tail brushes past her bare leg as Jasper ruffs his excitement. "Park time boy. I can't wait to stretch my legs this fine Saturday after finishing my photo assignment for the paper yesterday. Now what shall I wear today. Keeping my legs bare to catch some rays might be nice." "Ruff, ruff," barks Jasper.“Okay boy, let's give you breakfast then run over into the park to take some photos." &nb...

0 comments 0

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with the lines: “The room is unfamiliar. I don’t know how I got here.”

Short Story – 109 stories

Write your story as text messages or an online conversation between two characters — and at least one of them isn’t who they say they are.

Dramatic – 29 stories

Write a story in which a character discovers that a truth they've believed their whole life is either false or not the whole story.

Dramatic – 73 stories

Your character is getting changed in the bathroom of a nightclub or restaurant, then emerges looking completely different. Why?

Short Story – 58 stories

Contest #289

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Between the Lies with S. J. Watson

$250

Prize money

364

Contest entries

155

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 14, 2025 EST

Won by Dermot Lane 🏆

Title: All I Have To Offer Is My Truth

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Write an open-ended story in which your character’s fate is uncertain.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 95 stories

“It's just another day.” by Trudy Jas

“Blue Skirt” by Yuliya Borodina

“The HMS Wraith” by Thomas Wetzel

“At Night All Blood is Black” by Luca King Greek

“4:35 AM” by L J

“Capricorn's End” by John Rutherford

“Herb Meets His Maker... Maybe” by Murray Burns

“Jerk and Twist” by Kay Northbridge

“A fleeting present predicament of past and future” by Penelope Stansfield

“RIP Rico” by Lila Evans

“Ilsa” by Joe Smallwood

“Crash” by James Scott

“KYMS” by Karen Meyers

“Breaking free” by Krissa Svavars

“The Photo” by Jay DeBurgh

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with the lines: “The room is unfamiliar. I don’t know how I got here.”

Write your story as text messages or an online conversation between two characters — and at least one of them isn’t who they say they are.

Write a story in which a character discovers that a truth they've believed their whole life is either false or not the whole story.

Your character is getting changed in the bathroom of a nightclub or restaurant, then emerges looking completely different. Why?

Contest #289

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

364

Contest entries

155

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: