Write a story about a monster trying to become more human. Or about a human trying to become more monstrous.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Sep 8, 2023

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✍️ 60 stories

“What Kind of Mother” by Danielle Barr

🏆 Winner of Contest #215

Trigger Warning: infant/child loss, drowning The day my daughter died, I became the villain of my own life story. When your child dies of cancer, there are fundraisers and flower delivery vans and friends taking shifts sitting up with you through the long black nights and washing your hair. When your child dies and it’s your fault, there are no homemade casseroles filling your freezer, no one to hold your hair back as acrid vomit wracks your body through the early morning hours, bilious and yellow from the lack of meal trains organized...

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“Monster with Two Faces ” by Livana Teagan

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #215

T/W: Mentions of childhood sexual abuse, disordered eating, and addiction. Please read at your own discretion.I am not a monster.She tries to persuade me every time I see her. The problem is, she doesn’t know me like I know me. She doesn’t know I have two faces. One, an angelic face acceptable to society. It’s the one I show her and everyone else. The other face, is an unsettling one, with the coolness of its dead grey eyes, and the chill of its lifeless skin. I keep it locked inside the most hidden parts of me. I can’t show it to the ...

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“Vanish” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #215

I tried to be gentle. I tried to come to you slowly, revealing myself in fragments under the growing dimness of dusk. I stepped ever so carefully into the downward cast of the yellow streetlamp’s sepia light, sending forth first a finger, then, a tentative but eager-to-caress hand. I moved so gently, so slowly that I felt the cloak of darkness removed from my face inch by inch, nose first, before there was no more hiding. I did this for you, as not to startle you, didn’t you see?I even smiled, those sparks of kindness you all boast so easily...

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“Doctor D. and Mr. Hyde” by Mike Panasitti

Submitted to Contest #215

You stood me up. Or at least Freud would’ve said you stood me up. Me, a former client forking over a check in the high triple digits every week hoping that I’d hear a different existential interpretation than my own, expecting that somehow your take on things would open my eyes to something new, like some kind of salubrious psilocybin trip. I decided to terminate therapy because you disclosed something you perhaps shouldn’t have. “I took ayahuasca in the Peruvian jungle, four years ago,” you confessed. “When I was un...

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“Modern Day Monsters” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #215

Modern Day Monsters How to build a modern day monster inspired by Mary Shelley: Believe misused power could destroy society. Believe in the Gods, here is a chain of them: Zeus: God of Sky, Weather and Fate. Call on him if questioning destiny. Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, Passion and Beauty. She will find love for the loveless. Poseidon: God of River, Seas and Earthquakes. Beware the Elements. Artemis: Goddess of Wild Animals, Disease and Children. Call on her for animal attacks, disease attacks and child attacks. Demeter: Goddess of Agricultu...

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“Ginger Monsters” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #215

The sound of plates smashing, furniture being upturned, and guttural, echoing roars, finally subsided as an uneasy peace drifted through the Skarion household, replacing the previous turmoil. It was a case of the calm coming after the storm. Standing around the dishevelled dining table in the storm’s wake, was Roger Skarion, his wife Barbara, Roger’s mother, Emily, and a very uncomfortable-looking seven-feet tall male creature of seemingly unknown origin, covered from head to toe in shaggy, matted ginger fur. “That is enough!” Scolded the pe...

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“Elderakin” by Anthony Carello

Submitted to Contest #215

Walking through the desolate landscape of Ruitina, Kurt Westin glanced over to his partner on this mission. His name was Alex, and he was a young cadet, freshly out of school. Kurt felt terrible for him for being sent on this mission, knowing that the kid did not know what was happening. The two arrived on this planet a few hours ago to investigate a report of strange sightings on and around Ruitina. Officially, this planet inhabited no form of life, but Kurt knew that was far from the truth. This planet used to be a lush paradise, fill...

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“The Grotesque” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #215

My scaly flesh is hard as stone. A natural armor. I have always had a tough exterior. But I fear I have reached the point where I will petrify completely and be arrested in an eternal prison of stone if I do not cast off my armor before it is too late. I feel my soul, like a firefly trapped in a jar, buzzing about, and smashing against my concrete ribs—encased in a dark stone prison. I feel my essence suffocating and gasping as I become solid.Evil words echo from the flying buttresses and stained glass. The dust...

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“A Monster Of Apathy” by Sol Caine

Submitted to Contest #215

I am a monster of apathy. A creature of habit and a purveyor of fantasy. A born dreamer, I forged my own way of the maverick. Unconventional. Thinking outside of the box. Without siblings, without a father, and without proper guidance, I have waded through the shallow waters of life, creating my own path and re-writing life’s logic to fit my own. An outcast from the normal practices of family life, I have always struggled to understand what normal is. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t care about things. I do. I care about good suc...

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“Choose Life” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #215

The sun abandons a city brim full of life. This overcrowded and noisy place buzzes with an electric vitality that heats the pavement beneath my feet and shines bright lights through my eyes and into my brain. There was a time when this cocoon of hyperactivity enlivened me. But tonight I am tired. Tired of this life. My bones ache and once again I am sinking below the surface of humanity, my breath caught inside my chest, making me feel sick to my stomach. I sink lower and lower until I am where I deserve to be. I find my level and the pres...

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“Befriending a Vampire over a Rare Steak” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #215

"So, you say biting is out of the question?" The Count asked matter-of-factly as they walked on a crowded Manhattan sidewalk. "Absolutely," the Doctor answered. "What if no one was looking, and a lonely madame really wanted me too?" "No!" "How about a suicidal man who was about to jump?" "Still no!" "Really? That seems a bit wasteful. He would have died anyway. Why shouldn't I suck his blood?" "Not even if he begged you. You said you wanted to ditch the "monster" image. There are no exceptions." "Yeah. Alright. But this is go...

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“The Psycho's Revelation” by Steffen Lettau

Submitted to Contest #215

"Trender's Orphanage. If you aren't familiar with it, that's because it is basically wiped from the media. Hard as they could, though, those fools could not wipe away the blood...or tears." The six-foot-seven-inch lady looked down upon the white-haired boy, a metal staff as his only protection held in his lap. She conceded to his intrepidness, and so kept her custom goalie stick-styled blade down. She also appreciated him not staring at her scars around her mouth, usually covered with a surgeon's mask but for today; she wanted to be un...

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“Hematites ” by Aly Magpie

Submitted to Contest #215

Theodore blinked. "Up there?!" he craned his neck till it popped. "What are we, goats?! I'm not crawling there!" "You are," said Grigori, eyes on the steep slopes, clad in snow from the foot to the spear-like cusps, "have you dragged yourself here for nothing? Care to tell His Majesty you rode all the way to the Nebesk Pass to take a nice look at the scenery and bid it farewell?" "Care to tell His Majesty that believing in fairytales past the age of five is considered a sign of madness in most human societies". Grigori grabbed him by the fur...

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“To be human” by Eddie McKenzie

Submitted to Contest #215

There was something so terribly, wonderfully different about them all, and he knew that he was not like them. He knew this in the same sort of way that one knew that the sun would rise the next day or that the worms would pick a skeleton clean, and so he did not question why it was that they were all so very different from him. The answer was perfectly simple after all, he was a monster and they were not. They were not born with the same sort of darkness to them that he was, the same desire to claw and tear and destroy until there was nothin...

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“How to Kill a Mockingbird” by Jimmy Creole

Submitted to Contest #215

A narrow lake glints like a knife in the distance, wedged into dark, snow-dusted mountaintops flashed through with sheer rock faces. The road and its gravel shoulders snake upward, looping lazily through cloistered huddles of squat buildings, the town trickling down from the mountain like a little stream. Mabel stands before an old barn at its base, breathing into her scarf and braced against the bitter mountain air, rifle in one hand and a little blue Government-issue handbook titled ‘Guide to Paracausal Creatures’ in the other that she use...

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This week's theme: Monstrous

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Ended on 23:59 - Sep 15, 2023 EST

Won by Danielle Barr 🏆

Title: What Kind of Mother

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Write a story about a monster trying to become more human. Or about a human trying to become more monstrous.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 60 stories

“What Kind of Mother” by Danielle Barr

“Monster with Two Faces ” by Livana Teagan

“Vanish” by AnneMarie Miles

“Doctor D. and Mr. Hyde” by Mike Panasitti

“Modern Day Monsters” by Mary Bendickson

“Ginger Monsters” by Chris Campbell

“Elderakin” by Anthony Carello

“The Grotesque” by Jonathan Page

“A Monster Of Apathy” by Sol Caine

“Choose Life” by Jed Cope

“Befriending a Vampire over a Rare Steak” by Daniel Rogers

“The Psycho's Revelation” by Steffen Lettau

“Hematites ” by Aly Magpie

“To be human” by Eddie McKenzie

“How to Kill a Mockingbird” by Jimmy Creole

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone trying to resist their darker impulses. Whether they succeed or fail is up to you.

Set your story in a haunted house.

You confront the monster you’ve spent many long years hunting. Except they’re not exactly what you thought they’d be…

Write a story about someone making a deal with the devil.

Contest #215

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

388

Contest entries

135

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: