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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about a character who takes nothing for granted.

Posted in Teens on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 21 stories

“I Was Always Good at Taboo” by A.Dot Ram

CW: Strong languageI forgot the word lightbulb today. I was trying to tell Michael how the laundry room went dark. I think we need a new… do we have any of those...those things that make…It was like a dark spot in my brain. The word had been redacted from my vocabulary. I tried to listen for it, to hear the word in my voice. All I got was static, like the old televisions used to have. Would you change that thing in the ceiling?We used t...

109 comments 109 WINNER 🏆
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“Crimson Butterfly ” by Daniel R. Hayes

(Content Warning: Blood, Gore, Murder, some crude language.)The monstrous heat is unrelenting, a good sign for things to come. I desperately stare out from the apartment window and notice my reflection smiling back. I never realized that I had such a wonderful smile. It suits me. I’m not used to smiling, but I think I can get used to it after what I just did. I glance up at the sparkling moon and bask in its afterglow - a radiant light that fills me with emotion.

26 comments 26
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“6:30” by Elli Lewis

My clock says 6. There are thirty minutes to go. Thirty minutes is half an hour because it is half of sixty. There are sixty minutes in an hour. So there is half an hour before I can go to mummy and daddy’s room. I want to go now. I don't like being alone. But it is a rule. They made that rule when I was little because they don’t like waking up early. Before 7 is early. I wanted 6 and they wanted 7, but I couldn't wait until 7. So, we made a deal. 6:30.Oh. Now my clock says 6:01. 29 minutes to go.I hate...

9 comments 9
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“Behind the Pane” by Imogen Bird

It would be so lovely to go to an art gallery again. To look into the oil and canvas windows framed in gold. My window is framed in plastic, off-white and not quite as clean as it should be for a hospital. At first glance you would think it was fine, but as you keep looking you see that thin trim of dust, slightly too far into the crevice for the hurried cleaners to properly wipe away. The sticky remnants of something that was peeled off years ago in the bottom right corner, attracting fibers, making me itch to rub it clean. That would be...

9 comments 9 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Memory Letter” by Silver Pen: Temporarily Inactive

TW: Suicide. Dear Chris, I’ll never forget the day we met, not even when death himself tries to wrench the memory from my stiff hands. Twelfth-grade calculus, third period. In full honesty, I’m not completely sure why I remember the day so well. Perhaps it was the way you smiled when we were paired. A small, courteous smile full of wires and metal. Ah, the braces. I remember how much you hated them. Every smile was lip-tight and careful, anxious embarrassment hiding the way your face lights up when you truly grin. Even in th...

7 comments 7
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“It's the Little Things in Life that Make us Happy” by Eve Y

Pamela awoke to the bright light-hearted chirping of the charcoal black robins that perched by her window every morning. She sucked in a deep breath of clean spring air, and quietly - before stepping out of bed - she thanked mother nature for bringing life and color to the world, for bringing air, water, and food to the people who lived. She even thanked the animals and plants who sacrificed themselves to support the needs of the people; She apologized for taking their lives to support her own, but - she thought - the...

17 comments 17
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“Paradise on Earth” by Elisa Wells

It was a long day at work which Susie loved doing just to get away from home. Susie's had so much responsibility on her that she didn't even feel married. Life started slowly consuming Susie and she had no outlet so she became bitter. Susie would sometimes cry in her room because she wasn't happy. Susie kept feeling like something was missing. Susie loved her family and was very loyal to them and her life was good. Susie...

0 comments 0
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“The Light Within” by Dr. Verse

Raina tucked the spines of her lovers in the spines of her journals because they were too spineless to love her. She releases her vitality upon the lines of paper that only have the strength to withhold the affray within her core. The agony is unabated. It reminds her of the earthquakes, one calls legs, she tries to stand on. It reminds her that once again someone could not stay. She is reminded that is just a home for l...

2 comments 2
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“Wobbly Wheels” by Karen McDermott

“If you were constantly tuned in to everything that was going on around you or, say, what a wonder it is to have kidneys, you wouldn’t get anything done.” At the time I barely registered it. I was waiting for the father to finish giving his daughter a lesson and for her to put down the can of energy drink she was trying to persu...

5 comments 5
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“Lights Out” by Mike Garrigan

Detective Dana Ciccone and her partner, Tony Davis, didn’t find the silences that accompanied their morning drives to be uncomfortable. Dana drove. Tony looked out the window. They both enjoyed the temporary quiet. Twenty years of daily traffic jams from an obstreperous police precinct to an even more insistent crime scene had frazzled them both. But when they did speak, Dana was usually the one to start the conversation. In addition to being a damn good detective, Dana also seemed to be obsessed with random shit.“Do you ...

2 comments 2
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“The legend of Kapo” by Catherine Tripp

May 1, 1850 Dearest Sister Annie, I am writing to you from Kona Hawaii on my third week as governess to her Highness Emma Rooke, whom most people call Emmalani. She walks timidly on the land, almost on tip toes hips swaying gently.   I have never seen Emmalani run, at least not on land.  She skims from her beach chair to the ocean water, slides in, and then she is simply grace incar...

1 comment 1
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“Sunflower Queen” by F.O. Morier

„You´re a last-minute last visitor.” “Oh Daisy, you´re in a hurry today?” Mary asked. “I have to pick up my daughter at the bus station and I don´t want to be late.” Daisy explained. “Really? Lotus is coming? I haven´t seen her since… I don´t remember.” Mary thought out loud. Daisy was sprinkling some green plants and sighed: “I haven´t seen her for the ...

0 comments 0
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“The Ballad of Marie-Augustine” by Jude S. Walko

Marie took nothing for granted, especially the love she felt for her family. The grey clouds of mist and steam slowly parted to reveal the clearest blue sky Marie-Augustine had ever seen, or would ever see again. And slowly, then suddenly, sound, consciousness and reality hit her as equally as hard as the masonry, in fact the train, that so violently had, just moments before.    Her eyes began to scour t...

2 comments 2
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“Time Goes By” by Marcia H.

Time is something that you can have too much of or too little of. Time is always there and you never notice it until you run out of it and need more of it or you have too much of it on your hands.  Zana wished that she could put all the time she needed into a huge container, an unbreakable container and when she needed more time she could take some out and when she had too much time she could put it all b...

0 comments 0
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“Sunrise on the Sonoran ” by A. Neptune

Isabel woke with a start just before sunrise, her head snapping off her pillow. "Ow!" She gasped as a sudden rush of pain radiated from her left arm and ribs. She closed her eyes, took a few steadying breaths, and let the pains subside.Isabel listened to the many sounds of her bedroom. The buzzing of fan blades, the singing of the birds outside, all occasionally overpowered by her husband's snores. Then, with another steadying breath, she rose from her bed and gingerly put her left arm into its sling. A small 'Oof'

3 comments 3
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Contest #106

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Ended on 23:59 - Aug 13, 2021 EST

Won by A.Dot Ram 🏆

Title: I Was Always Good at Taboo

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