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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Set your story in a small town where everyone is suspicious of newcomers.

Posted in Teens on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 135 stories

“Welcome to Sloan” by Christopher Gibson

Submitted to Contest #59

The single post office sits across from Jackson’s grocery store. Reed’s diner is located about two blocks from the post office. A small movie theater can be found right in the middle of town. The rest of Sloan is comprised of houses, a few small shops, the town church and one school. On one particular evening John Reed, Alan Jackson, and Phil Landon decided to meet at Reed’s diner to discuss a pressing matter. “I don’t know who they are or where they came from, but I don’t like them being here,” stated John. “Out of all places, why did they ...

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“Bottled Water—Oh, and Some Directions, Please. ” by Lory Grace

Submitted to Contest #59

I had asked for the bottled water minutes before I entered into a staring contest with this old woman, face so wrinkled it looks like the creases of a crumpled page. I don’t think she’s blinked since I spoke to her, and the intensity of her gaze only feeds my assumption that she’s never blinked in her life. I hold my ground. “So…” I shuffle my feet, then readjust my crooked skirt, dirt spotted at the hem. “…about that water…” She raises a pencil-thin eyebrow. “What about it?” I blink. “Can I have some?” Her nose wrinkles in disa...

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“The Cart Man” by Niyati Kashyap

Submitted to Contest #59

THE CART MAN The crowd had gathered. A cart carrying pumpkins overturned in the middle of the town. The cart owner was trying to put the cart straight. No one came forward to help. Finding helpless he pleaded that someone help him out. But no one from the crowd stepped ahead. He knew they would not. A stranger stepped forward and helped him. The cart owner sweating and breathless thanked the man, “It appears you are not from town?” The stranger nodded. “The town is not unfriendly.  You wander around and each one is staring at you. Ev...

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“Perspective” by Sandy Buxton

Submitted to Contest #59

   The frayed blue tarp rustled as the two men pulled it over my body. It was the one I used to cover the Ford 5000 seat. I hated getting on a wet tractor seat in the morning. Though since the cows were gone now, I fed later so that location was usually dry. The old grain caught in some of the folds rained down on me, smelling of mold and fermented booze.     The back doors of the van slammed, and the motor started. The skip in the engine rev told me all I needed to know about the geniuses who were now cart...

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“Outsider” by Nat S

Submitted to Contest #59

Brettonsville was a small town that never had anything new. It was tightly wrapped in its blanket of familiarity and all of its residents planned for it to stay that way. They dressed modestly, went to school from eight till four, and ate dinner every day at exactly seven p.m. Nothing interrupted the schedule until Cordelia. Cordelia was a wrench thrown into the town’s perfect gears. Her long blonde curls were a mess and her dress was too short to be proper for a young lady of her age. She came into town one evening on the back of a beautifu...

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“Highly Suspect” by Cody Burrell

Submitted to Contest #59

*Note: words in this were intentionally spelled and used wrong. I am attempting to emulate western (cowboy) speech. I probably fell short a bit.* I hate travellin'. It takes forever, 'specially if'n your horse runs away and the scenery stays as same as my boot tread. The most interestin' things today had been a miniscule sand dune from the top of which I got a better view of the sand all 'round and a mite of a cloud that had drifted in front of the sun momentarily. Yessir, I hate travellin'.  It were night afore I saw anything at al...

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“Spy” by Hanna Yuzyuk

Submitted to Contest #59

The red Jeep Cherokee was flying on the I-90. She was curious about the future in the new town. She was so open to start a new life after her awful divorce. His voice is still in her ears: "You are nothing without me! We will see how fast you will be back on your knee, asking to be with me again!"-No, I will more likely die than back to the slavery life with no voice!Helen was a 40 years woman, but she looks so young that most people would say she is 25. She was born in a big city in Ukraine and raised by a free woman. It was even so hard to...

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“Sunshine” by Jesh McGee

Submitted to Contest #59

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of Sunshine. The skies there always beamed bright blue through the day and starry black and white through the night. The leaves gleamed with a fluorescence you see in those old movies from the sixties or the seventies, the ones where the contrast level gets turned all the way up. Mostly, I think about the glow. The feeling that I felt when I was there, like everything good was eternal and everything foul had ceased to exist. This story is about how I found that small ...

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“The Outsider” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #59

The Outsider Old newspapers blew across the veranda and slammed the peeling front door shut. Jenny jumped, and waiting for her heart to slow down, she pulled the woollen blanket around her shoulders and sank back into the grubby and lumpy couch. White nylon curtains blew across dirty windows sending particles floating across the room. She watched, mesmerised as the bits went up into the air and then down, and up again. Putting her feet onto the worn, wooden and gritty floor, and with drooping shoulders, she trudged into the next room. Shiver...

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“Horror In Bliss” by Austin Stevens

Submitted to Contest #59

Horrible things happen in Bliss. Some say the small town is cursed, haunted, home to a cult, among other things. One outrageous accusation is that the town is ran by a group of corrupt politicians who orchestrate publicity stunts in order to bring attention to the town, and the issues they want to address. The odd thing is, that most of the incidents claim victims who are not native to the town. Almost as if the town is weeding out those who weren’t born on it's soil, the newcomers always end up disappearing or the victim of some cruel and...

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“Greensbourg” by Kate Simpson

Submitted to Contest #59

Greensbourg had never been fond of newcomers. It was a small place, with less than a thousand people. It was a town with eyes in every window, every alleyway, every street corner. Ears that picked up on every syllable, every coin that clinked in the pocket of foreigners. Mouths that loved to move and spill thought, in every building that contained a heartbeat. Eventually people would blend into the background. The newcomer finally became a local after years of putting up with the burning spotlight. Desperate to fit in, they too became a mout...

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“Watching. Always Watching” by Eleanor Grayson

Submitted to Contest #59

I could feel their eyes – so many eyes – just staring at me. Watching. Judging. I pulled my cap a bit lower over my eyes and shoved my hands deep into my pockets, hoping that it would somehow make me blend into the bricked store walls while knowing that it only made me stand out more. These people were not like me and they did not like me; two verbs not mutually exclusive. While I tried to shrink away, shoulders curled, muscles tight, they walked and strutted and paraded with their heads high, their muscles loose and relaxed. We were two opp...

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“"Fierce Chewing, Suspicion Brewing." : An LMP Green Tale” by GREENDOODLISM .

Submitted to Contest #59

Once upon a time when mobile’s weren’t an accessory and network coverage was less than reliable… The land line rang for a third time. He answered despondently. “Garda Murphy, Sneem Station” “Ah so you are there Sean. Whats taking you so long? Third time I’ve bee….” He cut her off mid flow. He knew the kind of haranguing that was coming. “Now Mary, we’re run ragged, what with all the current criminal escapades.” She snorted at his sarcasm, he smirked. “Ye cheeky man, it's not my fault if ye bored, but here’s something for yeh. One of them s...

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“The Town of Juliet” by Joshie Nygaard

Submitted to Contest #59

Nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains lies the quaint, sleepy town of Juliet. Much like any lumber town established in the late 19th century, Juliet is proud to boast of a population of 1,106 (1,107 if you count Natalie Habrook’s new baby). The directions to Juliet are fairly simple, if you dare to brave little-known Highway 17 off I-77. Dozens of travelers unwittingly meet their end on these winding mountain passes each year. The town’s cemetery is filled with unknown, unnamed, unclaimed bodies of the unsuccessful would-be visitors...

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“I See, You See, They See” by Christopher Cayen-Cyr

Submitted to Contest #59

Great destruction will soon rain upon us, once the Intruder crosses the gates of our hallowed halls. We may only survive by raining destruction upon the Intruder first. Dusk is drawing near. The harsh shrubs of the Sonoran Desert seem to stretch to infinity in the distance, vanishing into the orange hues hovering over the horizon. As you drive down the Devil’s Highway at a dizzying speed, the Arizona landscape blurs itself into a liquid mix of limestone reds and succulent greens. Attempting to distinguish the elements of scenery in that fr...

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