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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that uses flowers as a symbol.

Posted in Spring on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 32 stories

“Fleurs Chanceuses” by Ragan Temple

Submitted to Contest #9

Feelings are a strange thing. I wonder who it was that gave the name love to these feelings. Love is an evil thing really --the Devil’s work. This was my motto for the first 18 years of my life. I lived by it. It was a mantra that, like the dust culminated at the bottom of a dustpan, would eventually be thrown out the back door. It was let go and it took to the wind. All of the walls I’d spent so many years building up with brick and mortar had crumbled down into a fine powder-- an ancient dust. Something like the dust on top of books in old...

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“GROWING ROSES, GROWING ME” by Jane Kagendo

Submitted to Contest #9

The roses had been the first thing to go, I thought as I walked by a sidewalk florist. They used to be rich, red, loving roses. And they were regular too. He brought me roses every weekend; Friday to be precise. It had become a beautiful ritual. The roses had ushered in our weekends.When his attention and interest had begun to wane and wander, its the roses that had been the first to go. Then it was his things, one by one, until finally, one day he had cleared out all his things from my flat and politely dropped mine off in a box on my doors...

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“They Always Ask Me What My Tattoo Means” by Maria Zhuravleva

Submitted to Contest #9

They always ask me what my tattoo means. I never tell. That's the beauty of a secret, the mystery, the twist of the unknown. It makes us yearn even more to find out what deep knowledge it contains. Gossip? A secret affair? A secret within a secret so dark no one will ever know about it? Even I, myself don't know what it means.  For my people, flowers are the most important living creatures in the universe. These flowers are unlike anything you have ever seen. Colors that are indescribable to the simple human brain. The beauty-unsee...

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“The Roses” by Cathryn Thompson

Submitted to Contest #9

Truthfully, my day couldn’t get any worse. My boss had fired me. My brother had destroyed my apartment. My landlord had called me to scream at me and I was probably out of an apartment. Thunder shattered the sky. Oh, well, it probably could get worse. Maybe I shouldn’t jinx myself. I bowed my head as the onslaught of sleet and rain unleashed it’s hell upon me. I tucked my hands deeper into my pockets and prayed that I made it to my stop without getting my bones wet.I was unsuccessful. I collided into a tinny figure and we both went...

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“Below the Surface” by Shannon Meyers

Submitted to Contest #9

Dalia opened the door to a simple, yet elegant beach house. She placed her bags near the door and continued into the living room.           “Grammy, are you home?” she called looking around her grandmother’s home. It was different than she remembered. The furniture was made of fabric. The walls were a soft sand color. They were illuminated by the sunlight coming through the wall-length window.           “Dalia? Hey honey, you’re early. I wasn’...

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“A Gift of Fate” by Aaryana Rajanala

Submitted to Contest #9

A voice hums in harmony with the murmur of the clouds as the sky tips the sun over the horizon, the dripping hues instantly conquering their canvas. Footsteps as harsh as the light of the moon over sleeping cities lead forward a dress of cloud colored flowers to the precipice, a silhouette over the alluring shadows of the woods that clothe the barren rock. The voice laughs, staring down with eyes of molten iron. Thin fingers grasp a blossom from the dress, tossing it playfully over the edge. It hovers for a moment before sinking away.  ...

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“The Bouquet” by Talia Lauren

Submitted to Contest #9

The day I was born, a gift sat on my bedside table.A beautiful bouquet of flowers, real or imagined… I’m not quite sure.As it happened, these flowers would not die until the petals parted from the sepal underneath.They could only be plucked.And so, if I was careful, these flowers could live an incredibly long life. 1 year old; the colours capturing my attention.A few petals loosed at joyful carelessness.2 years old; babbling constantly to loving parents.A lazy arm and petals trailing in the wake.3 years old; excited to meet my baby...

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“Petals” by Zoë Spider

Submitted to Contest #9

Samuel went silent and the glass of water he was holding shattered as it hit the floor. He never thought it would have come to this. His throat closed up, and the floor seemed to sway beneath him. He thought he had fooled them once and for all, and that he would never have to see him again. He heard the door being busted open, and he knew someone had sealed his fate. Nadia was always the only one who Samuel trusted enough to know about all of his secrets. Emphasis on was. He had selfishly kept one secret from her. That secret was that h...

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“All the lilies in the garden” by Kristina Rossi

Submitted to Contest #9

We're picking flowers from the garden even though they will be angry. Loves me, loves me not, orange leaves falling on grass. I'm angry, filled with hatred. The white lilies have withered. Vases filled with petunias, I'm showing you how I feel but you can't see. My fingers have bled from picking my mother's roses. I tried to give you my regret but you wouldn't take it. Autumn is covering us with a hazy blanket. I will close my eyes and let you go.

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“The adventure of the gay florist.” by Daisy Culley

Submitted to Contest #9

Flowers. So silent and delicate, and yet say so much. As a florist I can tell you how to say, ' you’re an ass' in 9 different ways.Pretty neat huh?But handy when it comes to relationships. That’s partly why I winded up as a florist. I’m not saying that I like people that are angry, I just like people who burst into my shop with purpose, looking over at me breathless and with cheeks aflame.Today, there had been two funeral arrangements to make up- a fairly boring task. So I snapped on my blue headphones and resumed with ‘stayin alive’ bl...

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“Killer Blossoms” by K.B. Jensen

Submitted to Contest #9

An extremely rare and late bloomer, the Palm of Casper is one of the most dangerous plants in the world. Experts say a single milligram of its beautiful ivory blossoms is enough to kill five men. It’s the last flower you’d expect to find in an assortment of edible flowers on top of a wedding cake. The bride and groom certainly had no idea. It was rarely tested for in toxicology reports by medical examiners and its effects mimic severe food poisoning and can cause paralysis.When Henry nestled the narrow, vase-like flower among the other bloss...

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“To My Best Friend Who Tried To Let Herself Die:” by Fiona O'Brien

Submitted to Contest #9

There’s something about a name that can truly draw you in. Names give people a dimension. Whether they’re fulfilling a stereotype that name is said to have, or completely defying it, their name makes them who they are. Someone named Micheal could break your heart, and you would never look at anyone named Micheal the same again. Or, someone could so profoundly affect your life that their name becomes ingrained in your soul’s very testimony. I think that’s how it was with her. All of that. I heard her name when I was at the age that we pretend...

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“7 Petals” by Laura S

Submitted to Contest #9

I was that typical little girl, the one they talk about in romance movies. I was the one who, as a child, dreamed of finding that one person, my true love, thought the first one would be my forever, my other half, and we would get married and live happily ever after.But it turns out it is just not that easy. Life does not work that way. Love does not happen that way, as I dreamed and hoped it would. Life is hard, love is hard, finding love is hard. Not too hard, but, hard. I wish it wasn't hard. I used to imagine finding love as, one moment ...

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“The Peace Offering” by Rebecca Dettman

Submitted to Contest #9

A gypsy caravan trundled slowly through meadows bespeckled with pinks and yellows, whites and blues. The sun shone its warm face upon the green earth, and cherry blossoms floated gently across the hills and dales on zephyr breezes. Wildflowers grew in pretty clusters along the hedgerows, and large white trees buzzing with bees dotted the meadows through which Puzzle haphazardly pulled the wagon. “Nobody plants the may,” Granny Kneebone said, slapping the reins against the pony's back. “It grows wherever it pleases. May trees are fairy trees...

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“Flower Child” by Amy Wannenburgh

Submitted to Contest #9

“Come here,” Nanny said, and deposited a fistful of wild oleanders in my tensed palm. I just stared at them. The breeze tickled my neck, whisked my loose red hair around my shoulders. Beside me, my little sister, Lacey, giggled, and snuck her tiny feet into the ripe soil, soft white hands flailing in the air. But Nanny was patient – she didn’t toss the flowers to the ground and carry me back inside the house to the raging voices and slamming doors and the cowering servants in the shadowy corridors. No, she waited. She wanted me to focus on t...

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