Set your story during a drought.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Aug 19, 2022

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✍️ 74 stories

“Calling the Rain” by S. E. Mary

The lack of rain this season has hit us all hard but the land most of all. Without any moisture the ground has began to crack open and pull away like fighting friends.I found a crevice yesterday morning large enough to fit three fingers within the crack sideways. Papa told me to keep my hands out of places they don’t belong. Mama says if rain does not grace us before long, I will be able to place my whole fist within the cracks of the earth. Worst case scenario, it goes on long enough for my entire feet to fall in. Calvin says I wi...

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“The Witch with the Water” by Daniel Allen

Extracts from the personal records of Roland de Claire, senior advisor to Lord Montgomery of Oxfordshire. 14th August 1198. Today was a most interesting day. This morning, His Lordship summoned me to attend him in his solar, so naturally, I hurried there with all due haste. However, upon arrival, I had a rather nasty surprise. Instead of His Lordship, I came face to fa...

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“Tahua” by Dana Bláhová

Tahua brings rain.That's what my grandmother told me years ago, and it was always true. For as long as I could remember, every year Ajika and I used to go see the intricate lianas that grew around the demolished walls of the old temple, to see if there were tiny pink flower buds hiding among their hard, waxy leaves. We watched as the tiny balls swelled and grew thick, and when the flowers finally opened and the sweet scent of tahua saturated the air, then...

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“The Consequences of Being Endangered” by Jeannette Miller Mickenham

Not a whisper of a cloud could be seen in the big beautiful unforgiving blue of the towering and relentless clear open sky. The ground was so hard and dry, it felt like concrete underneath my feet. My attempts at scraping up some dust with the toe of my boot were unsuccessful and only managed to produce a few crumbs of dirt. My skin felt just as dry and taut under the heat of the sun as I stood in the once lush pasture o...

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“Death of a Planet” by Kendra Lindholm

(Sequel to Aftermath of the Water Wars) Waiting for water rations was always the start of my day. The machine dinged and filled the jug with noticeably less liquid than yesterday. I knew it wasn’t an oversight. The rations were slowly decreasing. Still, we were privileged to get what we did. We moved to the in...

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“Drowning” by Rama Shaar

It wasn't really a pool. It was more of a huge wet sheet level with the matted grass, but it was so dark that you couldn't really tell the ground from the water. Then, I heard a scream in the distance, so I rushed to see who it was, and that's when I fell in. It felt like I had made a few steps on the glossy surface before I was noiselessly swallowed.I woke up drenched in sweat. My flimsy nightie was soaked, and the bedsheets were darkened with moisture. I struggled to find my arms and sat up, chest heaving and eyes bulg...

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“Benny Bitter and the Cree Three” by Zach Shapiro

It had been four years since the last rains. A normally verdant and temperate valley had become yellowed with drought and death, everything from grass to bushes to trees withering to a pale and lifeless straw. The hills of dead grass and huddled bunches of bare trees looked down upon the dried-out river, now a rocky and carcass-filled road, an underworldly shadow of the existing road that had previously followed the r...

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“The Rules” by Alex Con Foo

THE RULES NOTE: This story contains content regarding violence, mental health, self-harm, and coarse language that some may find disturbing Imagine this. You’re trapped. It’s a room (not a prison, but it may as well be): hardwood floor, plastered ceiling, equally beige walls; you have a door and windows but you’re not all...

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“Dust-An Audio Transcript” by Seaver Chester

This recording is a testament to what I saw here, the terrible deeds this town committed. So lost in despair, they turned their backs on everything- their religion, their way of life, even their humanity. They lost it all by waiting, waiting for the rain, for a savior, and for a miracle most of all. Driving into town, Greensville looked like a typical Midwestern suburb. Dead trees, rabid animals, houses buried under mounds of dust… Well, that’s at least what passes for typical these days. Somehow the town looked even worse tha...

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“DUST” by Frances Hogg Lochow

It came up from the west—an angry, roiling black wall a thousand feet high and moving at sixty miles an hour. Clayton saw it coming and threw a tarp over the chicken coop. He put the mule and cow into the cowshed and tied grain sacks loosely over their heads. Olive stuffed damp tea cloths and sheets into the cracks around the doors and windows, though she knew nothing she did would be enough to stop the dust. As suffocat...

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“The Cost of Survival ” by Ruby Pix

In the far south, water is considered to be a scarce and holy thing. With it, everything lives and grows to change. So when, in the town of Backwaters, wells run dry and a drought preoccupies its lands, water became a mere means of survival. Anyone with it controls the outcome of everyone else's existence. People are creatures of survival and will do whatever it takes to ensure they survive, whether that's done by unde...

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“BeeBee's Secrets” by Ava Woodrum

When I could put it off no more, I tiptoed into Great Aunt BeeBee’s room. The floor was cold and gritty, dust and crumbs and who knows what else stuck to my bare feet. I slowly twisted the freezing cold door knob and pushed the door open with a loud squeak. My only source of light came from a teeny tiny slit between the ugly and old saggy curtains at the window, the feeble brightness barely enough for me to make out any...

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“Scatological Musings” by Jim Firth

CW: Faeces I don’t want to come out. It’s warm and cosy in here. Being rudely ejected into a cold pool of water sounds horrific. Then to slide through the pipes to a facility where they repurpose you for drinking water? Thanks, but no thanks. The more open-minded stools among us say it’s a big adventure. They say it’s a kind of reincarnation—an alchemy of sorts. Yet, as a proud member of t...

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“Praying About It” by J P Fierkens

Mary noticed that every time she took a step her little black shoes kicked up nearly imperceptible puffs of dust. She watched her mother’s and father’s shoes and there she saw the hopeful promise of a dust cloud. She quickly scuffed her feet repeatedly against the dirt road and whipped her head back excitedly to watch. Sure enough, a dust cloud the size of a rabbit had sprung up behind Mary and her parents and t...

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“Let it be a Mirage” by Tahire Güneş

The water in the kettle for making green tea was boiling and now whistling . With the sound of the steam, her thought of the oasis in this desert faded away.That thought which she was unable to name. Because there was no such word in their Khatdi language, the mother tongue of Thar residents. Ponds were the most thought and talked about bodies of water. 'Charo Badal' went to take down the kettle with bare feet, on the way she scattered the fresh goats' poop pellets given by the ...

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Set your story during a drought.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 74 stories

“Calling the Rain” by S. E. Mary

“The Witch with the Water” by Daniel Allen

“Tahua” by Dana Bláhová

“The Consequences of Being Endangered” by Jeannette Miller Mickenham

“Death of a Planet” by Kendra Lindholm

“Drowning” by Rama Shaar

“Benny Bitter and the Cree Three” by Zach Shapiro

“The Rules” by Alex Con Foo

“Dust-An Audio Transcript” by Seaver Chester

“DUST” by Frances Hogg Lochow

“The Cost of Survival ” by Ruby Pix

“BeeBee's Secrets” by Ava Woodrum

“Scatological Musings” by Jim Firth

“Praying About It” by J P Fierkens

“Let it be a Mirage” by Tahire Güneş

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone seeking an oasis in a desert — whether literally, or figuratively.

Start your story with the whistle of a kettle.

Write about a character whose job is to bring water to people.

End your story with someone dancing in the rain.

Contest #160

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

275

Contest entries

121

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Tired of MS Word?

Explore more writing prompt ideas: