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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

As you check your mail, you notice a letter that makes you stop in your tracks.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 213 stories

“Important Items Enclosed” by Aimee P

Submitted to Contest #47

It is a bright summer afternoon, and it is about half past two now. You are sitting in the bay window of your mother’s house, contentedly reading a book as you occasionally glance up at the cul de sac before you. In this cozy little community you feel safe, and a little sheltered from the outside world. You glance out the window for the one source of contact to your outside world; the mail. You are obsessed with the mail. This may stem from getting birthday cards as a kid and watching Blues Clues get excited for the mail. Sometimes you stil...

9 comments 9
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“Curtains” by Meg Decker

Submitted to Contest #47

You find yourself in a dingy, candlelit space—you’re not sure if you can really call it a room since the “walls” consist of assorted dark, thickly draped curtains hung from the ceiling in a half-circle formation, but it serves to separate this tiny section of the world from all the others. You briefly wonder how long it took to set up. You’re sitting in a shabby, amber-colored armchair that looks (and smells) like it has seen better days. You have to stop yourself from picking at all the frays. You shift your weight from the left arm to t...

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“Castles in the sky” by Alice Greene

Submitted to Contest #47

It is late, almost midnight, but you are not tired yet. You can not give up now. Not when you have been all day walking around the city trying to get your story published. Not when you have been working your fingers to the bone. No. You are young, young and with a dream, like countless others. However, your dream is going to become true, one day. You want to become an author, a bestselling one, if posible. You have the story, the energy, the ambition, however you lack a publisher. The reader finds you quite endearing, keep talking please. Y...

2 comments 2
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“So You Received This Letter Today.” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #47

So You Received This Letter Today Scene One: A Lawyer’s Office “So you received this letter today. That is why you wanted to see me so urgently.” The lawyer in the gray suit then picked up the letter, and read it out loud. “Dear John: I know that you will be surprised by this letter. You think I am visiting with my sick cousin Elizabeth for a week. But you are wrong. She is well. You were easily fooled. You are as gullible as you are charming and nice. You see my grandmother included me in her will. I  ...

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“Daddy's stationary” by Marina Dell Orco

Submitted to Contest #47

As you check your mail, you notice a letter that makes you stop in your tracks. You know this stationary, you spent your whole childhood looking at a man who would cautiously fold thick white paper to put it inside envelopes such as this one. It is just so beautiful. Now that you are older you can't help but wonder how much each of these costs him. “Dad”, you find yourself saying. You open the envelope as your heart beats following a dangerous rhythm, a frequency that is anything but healthy. How do you feel? How does one start to describe w...

2 comments 2
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“R.U.N.” by Talia Vander

Submitted to Contest #47

      You can’t help but recognize the handwriting on the letter, considering that it is as familiar as the back of your hand. It’s yours. Scrawled on the envelope is your address, but you can’t remember writing yourself a letter. Plus, you just moved into your apartment, so how would the letter have gotten here?           The letter feels heavy in your hands as you carry it up the stairs. Not the letter itself, but the circumstances by which it could have g...

3 comments 3
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“Mystery Friend” by Daniel Paul

Submitted to Contest #47

You live your life knowing you are worthless. You wake up another morning, wondering why you still bother and why the world is yet to take you up into its sleeves and act as nothing happened. Maybe it doesn't even care enough to take you.  You feel the sting in your heart, the feeling of abandonment. The inevitable rejection you constantly face all through your life even though you are twenty-five now.  You don't bother to try, or at least, you think you don't, but your birthday is getting closer again and like every other ye...

4 comments 4
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“revenge” by Sofie Barnet E.K

Submitted to Contest #47

As you started your day with your favorite breakfast, oatmeal, bread and tea you picked up the newspaper or else you would not be able to resist the temptation to check your phone. The phone was switched off as the message box was almost flooded with weird, murderous threatens. They all claimed money but as you consulted your boyfriend; he had disagreed to take it seriously. He expected them to be pranks. You had considered them to be rather serious about the money and threats but were convinced that they were pranks as your boyfriend confir...

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“When the Doorbell Rings” by Jaya Avendel

Submitted to Contest #47

 You walk out to check the mail one morning when the sky is still purple and streaked with pink. Your pencil heels click on the pavement as you head down your short drive to your gay red mailbox. You open it up and hear the hinges creak. Up and down the block, your neighbors are opening their own red mailboxes and taking out handfuls of letters. One letter stops you in your tracks and the untied ends of your dressing gown tremble. It is a letter from an insurance company you have no policy with, and it slides out from under the elect...

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“The Extraordinary Letter” by Sue Marsh

Submitted to Contest #47

The Extraordinary Letter Suzanne Marsh The sun is shining, it is a great day to be alive! You begin your day with a bowl of cereal, juice and the ever wonderful cup of coffee. You know you have a writing deadline, the editor sent you an email two days ago, telling you to put some speed into writing the story. Great, you think, since you wanted to go to Lake Senora for the weekend. You whistle as you begin to plan your getaway or so you think. You get your fishing tackle out, check the line and net. You know you think better when you are alon...

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“December House” by I. Love

Submitted to Contest #47

  The moment after the mail truck turns the corner and disappears from sight, you leap toward the front door, abandoning your station at the window. For once you are content to ignore the harsh blast of December air which stings your face.    Your breath comes in rapid puffs, legs burning with anticipation. But with measured steps you at least make an attempt to walk casually.   You wave at Mrs. Bay, peeking from the curtains of a neighboring window. She smiles in amusement at the sight of the chipper teenager nearly skip...

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“15 Years” by Caryn K

Submitted to Contest #47

You were walking back from the mailbox, flipping through the usual pieces of direct mail and unwanted catalogs, when a handwritten letter addressed to you caught your eye. It wasn’t even your birthday or Christmas. Hardly anyone sends snail mail anymore. Looking a little closer, you realized you recognized the handwriting. “What in the world…” You mumbled aloud, barely realizing you’d spoken. After you scanned the front of the envelope, you flipped it over to look at the back, but it was blank. You turned it back over and looked at the retur...

3 comments 3
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“A final letter” by Uta L.

Submitted to Contest #47

It's a grey day. The clouds look even greyer than yesterday. Rain falls down but not the strong refreshing summer rain kind, it's the light drizzle that trickles down like tears. Quiet, grey tears. You feel a connection to this rain. It seems like a mirror of your soul. You haven't slept in days. Just been sitting here, hour by hour passing by, staring through the window, staring at the greyness outside. Your eyes burn and all your bones ache but really, what does it matter anymore? You shouldn't have read that letter. If only you hadn't...

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“You Lose” by Kate Enoch

Submitted to Contest #47

The sky is dark and angry, rain dumping from the dark clouds. You lay on your back in your bead, staring blankly at the ceiling. There is so much on your mind, all the things you escaped to be here, all the people you ran away from. And, on top of all that, you’ve got your first day of this new job. Nothing is going the way you’ve planned and there’s nothing more you want to do than roll over and cover your head with your blanket, blocking out the world pressing in on you. But you can’t. Instead, you throw off the covers and pull your legs o...

3 comments 3
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“Silent Watcher” by P. Jean

Submitted to Contest #47

As you check your mail, you notice a letter that makes you stop in your tracks. It is a bill! An accounting of charges! How can it be so huge? How many times have you visited? Can this be an addictive behavior? Going over it and over it, it appears correct! It is hard for you to realize how much the visits have become part of your life, you recall the visits but none as intensely engrossing as the first.The first visit, it created such a need in you to see more. And so it begins…everyone should be prep...

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