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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

“Maabeloff's Transition” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #215

When Gustav looked in the mirror, it was always the same.  That monster that he loathed was staring back at him with those marble black eyes.  His reaction was always the same, a groan of disgust would rise in him until he could no longer bear looking at his own reflection. It was an accident.  A horrible, senseless accident had turned the child prodigy into this disgusting creature who was forced to wear a mask when he went into public which wasn’t often these days.  He had played the palace at St. Petersburg in front o...

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“Chance Meeting” by Paul McDermott

Submitted to Contest #215

Chance Meeting A pair of tiny, gold-flecked orbs stared at him. The pupils narrowed, vertical feral slits unlike any Ryan had ever seen. He sensed alarm, even panic, and realised these emotions were not his own. They belonged to … whoever was watching. They resolved as the features of a perfect, delicate face: one which had no page or chapter in any book listing the flora and fauna of the natural world. A foot in height, female in form: hair the colour of purest gold cascading to her waist and held in place by a coronet plaited from...

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“Fire and Ice” by Sally-Ann Hodgekiss

Submitted to Contest #215

This is a game. I am the last piece on the board, and I am wondering why I ever thought of playing.Body heat warms a small space, Eskimos a testament. It was warm for a while. The storm has fled this desolation, but the cold remains, invulnerable.I. Not so.The pain is gone. Like fourth degree burns, the cold is horrific, but welcome because the nerves are destroyed or perhaps indifferent. Emotions are worse than cold, but just like pain, they eventually realise there is no one listening. Fire and ice. Desire and hate. These concepts sit beyo...

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“Catching the Westbound” by Gregg Voss

Submitted to Contest #215

Near Glasgow, Montana Left foot. Right foot.              Breathe.              Then run like hell.              Only my legs won’t move in any other direction but toward that old man, sitting there in his lawn chair behind an off-white clapboard farmhouse, the extinguishing flame of the westward sun behind me lighting up his hazel irises.  &nbs...

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“A Time to Kill” by Howard Seeley

Submitted to Contest #215

Camp Page in Chun Cheon Korea was the perfect place to pop my cherry. For six months, I’ve been training to be a sniper and now I’m finally getting my first assignment. It was a Saturday morning in 1953, when Major Bak called me into his office. “Here is a permanent pass for you. It will get you in and out of the front gate anytime, night or day. Now I want you to meet your partners. When you go out the gate, go straight ahead to the top of the hill. There, you will see several stores on the right on Myong Dong Road. Go there and find the ba...

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“The Cult: The Beginning” by Maxx Randell

Submitted to Contest #215

           He was in love.            Such elegance and near-perfection — nay, absolute perfection — sparkled in his eyes. A thing of pure beauty. If man strove to create perfection in art, this was nature finally equalling man in his endeavour. He had finally found perfection and it cleansed him, changing him.            It made a believer out of him.     &n...

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“The Hive” by Jake Burkley

Submitted to Contest #215

The HiveAC blaring, cold air suffusing the warmth of summer artificially. The comedown after a day's work. Jeff’s scrawny arm, littered with raised, red bumps trailing up the veins grope for the side table. Slender fingers brush the glass bottle standing on a coaster. Water spots soak into the cork. Brown liquid dripping with condensation. Jeff grabs it by its neck, draining it of its feeble contents before closing the reclining chair. He walks in a stumble toward the backyard, taking a lasting glance at the living room behind him. &nbs...

3 comments 3
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“Before She Wakes” by Ashley Brandt

Submitted to Contest #215

The B.E.A.S.T. building looked as innocuous as the bank across the street. Its gleaming windows, tinted against the afternoon sunlight, winked amidst a blue sky. Seven stories high, the building had swinging doors and a polished front lobby, guest suites on the fourth and fifth floors, and a secured basement area where the expensive equipment was stored. There were no roses or thorns, she thought. No ominous music or armed guards. These were modern day sciences, not the fairy tales her parents told her. Nevertheless, her stomach was in knots...

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“It's Complicated” by Amelia Mae

Submitted to Contest #215

Jamie was drifting off and about to drop the book he was reading when he heard the bell ring, signaling to him that there was finally a customer today. Plastering on his “Hi, welcome! How can I help you today?” smile, he readied himself for some know-it-all with glasses and a sweater vest to ask him about a genre that they didn’t have or an author he’d never heard of before. Thankfully, he was greeted with a much less irritating sight. “Max? What are you doing here? You know we don’t have picture books,” Jamie joked, a real grin replacing hi...

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“Shadows Within” by Wilbur Greene

Submitted to Contest #215

The town of Blackthorn, draped in history and whispered secrets, sprawled out like a living relic. Cobblestone streets and gas-lit lanterns framed row upon row of gabled houses, their wooden facades gossiping of times gone by. Every resident knew each other, and every story, true or not, was passed around like a cherished heirloom. Children raced past white picket fences, urged by hushed tales of the foreboding mansion on Hawthorn Hill — its crumbling walls and overgrown ivy testifying to years of neglect. The mansion's dark windows seemed t...

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“To Be Human” by Thunderbolt 69

Submitted to Contest #215

To Be HumanThe undeniable succulent taste of human flesh is to die for. Eating human flesh is what we NakMakians survive on. NakMakians are monsters that hunt the human race. Due to the rise of NakMakians eating humans, they have found a way to fight back against them to prevent them from taking over. They created an organization called K.T.N, short for Kill The NakMakians. They posed a significant threat to us, so we hid and eat when necessary. But being pushed into a corner, we, NakMakians, have developed the skill of camouflage. We can di...

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“Being Frank” by Martin Radford

Submitted to Contest #215

Being Frank“Hey doc’, any chance you could pass me that can of three-in-one oil, on top of the workbench?”Frank struggled with the adjustable spanner, “Damn modern technology, those Luddites down the road have got the right idea -dea-dea.” A heavy hand the size of a bucket hit the rear of his oval-shaped head. The stutter instantly stopped.“Hot Dang, Frank, that looks like it is getting worse?” Asked a concerned Wolfie, raising a rear leg high into the air. The werewolf attempted to retrieve a cup of coffee from a wooden table, by poking a l...

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“Hunger ” by Niyyah R. Haqq

Submitted to Contest #215

I stare into the expanse of sea, turquoise and slate. The waters are warmer and calmer. When the plankton thrive, gentle giant whale sharks skim the surface with their enormous jaws open. They should be monsters like me if you consider their size. But they don’t offer any threat. We used to dance alone with them, until the humans came. Many come now. Which makes some merfolk hungrier for flesh. The whale sharks feast on the plankton, and merfolk feast on the humans. Humans don’t seem unintelligent, despite the stories. Bu...

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“Project Un: R. Gunson - Paradigm Prime” by Samuel Bowen

Submitted to Contest #215

Humanity must survive. The thought passed into the mind of Captain R. Gunson of the Paradigm Prime sitting in the remnants of his ship. The scraps that remained of the 5th generation Starship had been repurposed entirely as base camp for the crew. Laboratories, medbays, and sleeping quarters. Gunson scratched his chin with the metallic prosthetic of an arm. The tablet holding his log book lay on top of his locked trunk. It had been 3 years searching for D.A.W.N. and yet nothing had been found. His crew had scoured Dathanem from Landing Point...

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“The Hunger” by Glenda Bailey

Submitted to Contest #215

Cindy watched as last hint of the red sun dipped below the horizon. She wrung her hands as she paced back and forth; the knot of worry in her belly overtaking her pangs of hunger. She remembered when the sun was a golden ball in the sky, but those days were gone. She had idly observed as mankind tortured Mother Earth; tearing off her cloak of trees; raping her soil, plunging deep to extract her oil, coal, and diamonds. Mankind had violated her water and defiled her air with careless abandon. They had ripped her apart and she could take onl...

4 comments 4
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Contest #215

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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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