Begin your story with a character having a gut feeling they cannot explain.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 76 stories

“Gutter Rat” by Alex Sultan

Submitted to Contest #127

It takes a clear mind to outrun a storm—and Naomi had no intention of outrunning this one. She paced through the pawnshop, dustpan in hand, unable to focus. Head in the clouds. Body underwater. She had to clean the shop before retiring to bed. Naomi approached an empty shelf, an arm pressed to her stomach in hopes of containing the fluttering within. She swept. Dust fled from her brush. Her mind wandered and drifted. Astray from reality. An arrow's flight away. Beyond the skies. Behold the infinite malignity of the stars. The boy s...

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“Silver Sunflowers” by Shaivi S.

Submitted to Contest #127

TW: Death When I heard Mummy call me home for lunch, I felt a little twinge in my stomach. It wasn't because I was hungry, that sort of throb was more of a call, like a car honk from my stomach, telling me I needed food. This ache felt like a soft warning, like a black cat, scampering up the street. I've always heard those were bad luck. Or perhaps not.Something seemed wrong, but I couldn't explain it. Was this guilt? Sasha told me that guilt feels like a monster is scratching at my feelings, burying me from inside. But what did I feel guilt...

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“A Feeling for Rain” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #127

The fierce midday light accentuated the fissures in the baked earth around our farmhouse, making them look like the collapsed arteries supporting a cadaver’s withered heart.At the rear of the property, Pop was wrestling with our water well’s crank handle, as if he was a deranged organ grinder extracting music by force from some obstinate contraption.Inside the kitchen, I could hear the mournful tune of the aluminium bucket as it clunked and clanked its way down the rough-hewn shaft. It had the dreadful chime of a lost wai...

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“A Single Rose” by Phil Manders

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #127

“Our life is a constant journey, from birth to death. The landscape changes, the people change, but the trains keep moving. Life is the train, not the station.”Paulo Coelho.Unrelenting darkness crawled over the empty platform as the last train rocked its way wearily into the station. The engine wheezed and hissed, sending sheets of diesel-stained snow sliding from its roof onto the icy tracks. A solitary light bulb hung defiantly above the station’s café refusing to give in to the night, illuminating the snowflakes as they whirled around it ...

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“What Comes After” by Shuvayon Mukherjee

Submitted to Contest #127

I’m alive as a gentle breeze that pulls strands of hair across her face and ruffles the flowers in her hands. I coax out the sun from behind a cloud and touch her softly on the shoulder. I want to tell her that everything will be okay, but I can’t - not anymore. So I settle for caressing her cheek with the wind. I know my wife well enough to understand what it means when her lips press together and the creases form on her forehead. She’s ruminating again. She’s thinking back to the day when I doubled over in pain and staggered to the ba...

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“Drift” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #127

There’s a spot of blood on the dog’s right ear. Scout, Sheila’s pride and joy, is so unnerved by her erratic driving that his little body flits about only long enough for her to notice the red dot in her rear view mirror, but not long enough for her to snatch him up and examine where the blood could be coming from or whether or not it belongs to her. Her hand is still bandaged and gripping the steering wheel tightly brings about a slow throb that’s exacerbating her already heavy breathing. She tells herself that if anything happens to her,...

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“He had the guts !” by Gbeenro .

Submitted to Contest #127

Borborygmi? Nah, it seemed like my tummy was rebelling against my very existence, shittt! Arghh, maybe I just needed to do that, would have relieved me of that unbidden discomfort.Heading towards the lavatory made me ponder on the unusual feeling I had been experiencing all morning, now this? "What if physiology and psyche coalesce? I mean, thoughts, feelings and emotions are products of chemicals, the D.O.S.E. Physiology has chemicals at it's core, so it's plausible that they interact. “Whoa! I'm hitting on the next Nobel Prize, too much se...

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“Déjà Vu” by Christina Reynolds

Submitted to Contest #127

Life, at its very core, can be broken into two categories: the tangible, things seen and felt and heard, and the intangible—intuition, instinct, feeling. His list of the tangible things read like the plot of a Hallmark movie, dream wife, dream house, dream job. Everything a man could ever want. So why did he wake up in the morning with his heart racing and with cold sweat drenching his pillow? Why then, in his soul, in the area of his spirit known only to him, did he feel a sense of malevolence? Why did his gut tell him to run?He watche...

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“A Peaceful Life in the Swamp” by S.E. Reed

Submitted to Contest #127

Remember that one day, when it should have been too hot to be a day in late November? You had an aching feeling in the pit of your gut that something bad was going to happen. That was the day he came into your town and tried to steal her, to take her from you. He wanted what wasn’t his to take. So you shot him dead… You live in the Florida Everglades, on a three-acre piece of land you bought a few years ago, where the endless sunshine beats down on your leather-cured-back. The humidity blankets your hardened north...

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““Please don’t take your life tonight : I’m trying to make dinner”” by Kelly Stuhlmueller

Submitted to Contest #127

Bonnie Jones’ husband Don had threatened to commit suicide many times before. She had uprooted her life and the lives of her three children for him and he still refused to follow his Drs instructions. Don skipped counseling appts and was non compliant with taking his anti depressant medications. He’d have “great moments” that dragged into days and weeks of uneventful “normalcy” but something would always happen and Don would be “on the edge,” Not taking his meds and living on ups and downs that his wife Bonnie knew he was close to another su...

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“A Horse Walks Into A Bar” by S. Thomson

Submitted to Contest #127

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender, a white-and-grey rabbit, asks,ㅤ“Why the long face?”ㅤ“What did you just say?” The horse replies.ㅤ“Oh, it’s a joke, because of your-”ㅤ“Oh no, I’ve heard it before. It’s just that the long face is a genetic condition, and I don’t really like rabbits I’ve never met making jokes about it.” There is a moment of silence. The rabbit picks up a glass.ㅤ“So… would you like a drink?”ㅤ“Yeah, thanks.” The horse sits down at the bar. “Sorry about that, it’s been a long day.”ㅤ“No, no, it’s my fault. That was bang out...

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“Losing my Grip for Good” by Rajiv Iyer

Submitted to Contest #127

[Note: MINUS/PLUS is from the perspective of “PRESENT DAY”]~~~~ ~~~~MINUS 6 MONTHS | London, UK:Harry wakes up one morning, with a throbbing headache (which he’s been having on and off for around 4 years), with a gut feeling that he’s not really himself. It’s almost as if his entire personality has changed; some totally different character that he doesn’t recognize that was now in-control of him, becoming his de-facto dominant persona.He simply couldn’t explain this feeling. It wasn’t anything logical. It wasn’t as if his Life was in a dark ...

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“The Land of Fairytales: The Kidnapped Elves” by Melony Beard

Submitted to Contest #127

Not so long ago, there were three bears living in a small cottage on the edge of the north woods in the Land of Fairytales.Papa Bear slipped on his shoes. "St. Nick called and the elves have been kidnapped. I’m going to the North Pole to help find them.”"Please may I go with you?" Baby Bear asked."Not this time. This could be quite dangerous." Papa Bear opened the door. "You're much too young. Stay with your mama."Papa Bear headed out, trudging north up the snowy hill towards the North Pole.Now, Baby Bear was quite curious, and he was sure h...

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“Selling crime” by E. Roux

Submitted to Contest #127

I feel a knot in my stomach as I approach the door to Mr. Russo’s office. This can’t be good, but I cannot back down at this point. He already knows I’m here. For the past ten years since I took command of the weapons’ dealings department in Calabria, that knot has saved me many times. Say it’s a warning signal from universe, say it intuition, this thing has served me well and I have no good reason not to trust it. And its presence now starts to worry me. I met Valentino Russo about a month ago at a gala held in a manor house in the out...

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“Blame” by Connie Elstun

Submitted to Contest #127

I ain’t never forgave my Ma for selling my pony; like she ain’t never forgiven me for not telling her sooner bout’ my brother’s injury. I hate to say this, but I’m missing that pony more than my little brother, but Pawpaw said it just ain’t right to feel that way.By the way, my name is Abigail Holts; I go by Abby. I’m twelve years old, and I now live on my Pawpaw’s Hereford Cattle Ranch thirty miles east of Wild Horse, Colorado. If you don’t know, that’s pretty much close to nowhere and HELL. Pardon my French; Pawpaw doesn’t like me saying H...

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Begin your story with a character having a gut feeling they cannot explain.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 76 stories

“Gutter Rat” by Alex Sultan

“Silver Sunflowers” by Shaivi S.

“A Feeling for Rain” by Howard Halsall

“A Single Rose” by Phil Manders

“What Comes After” by Shuvayon Mukherjee

“Drift” by Story Time

“He had the guts !” by Gbeenro .

“Déjà Vu” by Christina Reynolds

“A Peaceful Life in the Swamp” by S.E. Reed

““Please don’t take your life tonight : I’m trying to make dinner”” by Kelly Stuhlmueller

“A Horse Walks Into A Bar” by S. Thomson

“Losing my Grip for Good” by Rajiv Iyer

“The Land of Fairytales: The Kidnapped Elves” by Melony Beard

“Selling crime” by E. Roux

“Blame” by Connie Elstun

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character whose intuition is always right — until one day it isn’t.

Write a story about a problem with no good solutions.

Write about a character learning to trust their intuition.

Your character makes a living faking psychic powers. One morning, they wake up with real ones.

Contest #127

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

221

Contest entries

135

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: