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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that takes place in a waiting room.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 256 stories

“The Verdict” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #49

“You’re a star.” “I’m not a star.” “Of course you are. Those red snakeskin boots say it all.” The kid ignored the older man sitting across from him. He shuffled through the magazines on the waiting room table. Us. Cosmopolitan. Family Circle. “You here for test results?” The man watched the kid roll his eyes. He rummaged through the worn monthlies on the table. “They never have anything good. What I wouldn’t give for a Popular Mechanics or a Penthouse.” He laughed. The kid slouched into the bench and pulled his iPhone out. Swipe. Swipe. “Let...

2 comments 2
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“The Gatekeeper's Offer” by Anupama Iyer

Submitted to Contest #49

The click of heels could be heard through the long and quiet platform. Arya couldn’t remember what happened the previous night. There were mild blurs of a beeping monitor, and some tensed faces who had masks over their mouths. At present, it was fifteen minutes past three, and naturally the station had only a select few people scattered away. Arya dragged her mid sized suitcase along with her to the dingy waiting room, which had two tube-lights covering the entire room, giving just enough light to know if somebody entered or left. She loo...

5 comments 5
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“One Morning, in the Waiting Room….” by Daya Mukherjee

Submitted to Contest #49

The female attendant in my ophthalmologist’s office escorted me to the waiting area and helped me ease myself into the typical chromium-plated metal chairs that one sees across hospital waiting rooms. Cold, unfriendly and uncomfortable. No, don’t get me wrong. My eyesight is fine, and has been fine these 65-odd summers. Of course, I do need to wear reading glasses, but that’s quite normal for someone my age, isn’t it? No, the reason I was at the receiving end of such solicitude was that I had had eye drops put into both my eyes to dilate the...

31 comments 31
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“THE WAITING ROOM” by Chuck Waldron

Submitted to Contest #49

My death came as quite a surprise, quite astonishing in fact. It took my breath away. What was I doing when it happened? I was in the middle of something hard to pin down. My memory is somewhat murky. When the mist recedes, I get a glimpse, an inkling, of chopping onions for a salad. Yes, I seem to remember now, a salad.I seem to recall muted conversations from the next apartment, Bach’s Cello Suite No.2: Sarabande, in D minor on my radio, delicate strokes of Pablo Casals, making it compelling, authentic.I needed to decant the wine and place...

6 comments 6
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“Crashed” by Eve Naden

Submitted to Contest #49

I’m in a stupor the moment I cut the engine. The car park is awash with disused concrete, peeling in the sun. I grit my teeth. It shouldn’t be so sunny, not when I know what I know. The sun should not be shinning, not today. I wipe my eyes and open the door. Slam it behind me. At my side, an ambulance roars through the gates, the driver stone-faced with a five o’ clock shadow as he pulls into A & E. For a second, I fracture. I wonder if that’s her, blood pooling around her broken bones. I blink. Regain my composure. As a Farmer, I ca...

4 comments 4
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“girl” by J R

Submitted to Contest #49

I glance across the room for the fourth or fifth time, my gaze now well-versed in navigating the handful of plain faces to find the plain clock set against the plain wall. Another 2 minutes have passed since my last journey across the room, which leaves about 1-30 minutes to go, or maybe more. I'm not early; I never would have gotten here early on purpose. If I had, I would have waited in my car where I can somewhat relax. I actually arrived six minutes late, but it didn't matter because there was a complication with the appointment before m...

7 comments 7
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“Bushington’s Play Pen” by James Offenha

Submitted to Contest #49

    My children had to go to school, my wife had to go to the supermarket, which left me and Bushington; and I’m not leaving Bushington alone again, because what if he finds his PDA?  So, Bushington has to go to work with me, again.   We drive together; Bushington in a cage, me in the driver’s seat.   I secure the cage (with the seat belt) to the passenger seat, so it won’t move around and after 20 minutes, we’re at work.  Not Bushington’s work, my work.  But I t...

2 comments 2
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“Waiting” by Cheri Jalbert

Submitted to Contest #49

     A steady stream of rain tapped against the window. My left eye twitched to the beat. It was only a matter of time now. I sucked in a breath. “Would I survive this? Would she? Is it too late to learn to pray?"People in colorful uniforms whizzed by with purpose. Some pushed carts, others held charts. Fumes from pungent disinfectant forced a fit of sneezing while I sat on the bench holding my cousin. An elderly man in a mask across from us glared, then stood and moved quickly away.Code 99, ICUI jerked my head in th...

13 comments 13
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“SECRET INGREDIENT” by Rodrigo Juatco

Submitted to Contest #49

A whirlwind of long disheveled hair and ruffled clothing, AURA STEVENS, storms towards a hospital admittance desk. Aura had the look of a person who had just stumbled out of bed and threw on whatever she could find with little regard to her appearance. Upon reaching her destination, Aura drops her heavy purse upon the desk with a THUD then addresses the attending nurse in a rather uncivil fashion. “My husband, Craig, had an accident at work. I was told he was sent to this hospital.” Make up, keys, and various other feminine items spill onto ...

9 comments 9
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“The Waiting Room” by R L Brewer

Submitted to Contest #49

The waiting room was too bright, the fluorescent tubes glowed so brightly they made her eyes hurt. The seats were cold and far too hard, and the air conditioner felt a few degrees too cold. The smell of disinfectants and bleach lingered in the air and reminded her of why she hated hospitals. “You’re pacing again Trish,” Andrew said firmly. His glare was telling her she was embarrassing him again and to sit back down with him. To pretend there was no rift between them, a solid front against the world. She couldn’t pretend. She knew he bla...

2 comments 2
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“ queuing ” by Sandra Claros

Submitted to Contest #49

- Hello? Oh ! Elizabeth, I was thinking to call you and tell you to postpone the outing we should have together today afternoon. - Yes! I am so sorry, dear, but I was forgetting to tell you that I have an appointment today , dear. Yes! With the doctor that I had never seen before, but I guess I have told you about the appointment the week before, don’t you remember ?  Well I am still feeling that I am short of breath, so I will go there have a check up, and maybe have some examinations for the ...

8 comments 8
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“Stay” by Catherine MacKenzie

Submitted to Contest #49

The room in which he sat was burned with activity. People zipped by in the hustle and bustle of the busy time-slot, but he saw none of it. His hands supported his head, the heels of his hands digging into his eye sockets, though it didn’t stop the tears leaking, dripping slowly down his arms.As he sat the noise blurred out until he could no longer hear it, his mind slipping further into the recent past.“Don’t do this, Jack,” he pleaded, his voice breaking with the swelling of a myriad of emotions, ready to take him under as the wave finally ...

8 comments 8
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“Real Anti-Racism” by Ronda Everson

Submitted to Contest #49

When we lived in Nigeria, my oldest son was two years old. Now a days, he is a D. A. who went to the university and law school both on complete scholarship and bought a nice big house with cash before he was thirty years old. He speaks several languages and plays the guitar so well that his band won battle of the bands with a song he wrote. He also played the guitar on a song that went to 10th on the charts, but he chose to be a lawyer instead of a professional musician. He has always been a kind of wonder. In first grade...

1 comment 1
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“The Last Ticket” by Kate Enoch

Submitted to Contest #49

        Dark. Cold. Emptiness. That’s all I felt as the life flowed from my submerged body and mingled with the frosty water that surrounded me. Those last moments of life were sharp and vivid in my mind. The cracking of ice, falling, thrashing, screaming. How the frozen water seemed to claw at my clothes and hair, drawing me further and further into its cold embrace. It was only a matter of time until my life gave out, like a fragile chair supporting too much weight.      &nbs...

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“A New Year's Wish” by April Summers

Submitted to Contest #49

I hated this place. It was loud, crowded, and it smelled of death...Well, it smelled more of a combination of cleaning products and antiseptic. Nonetheless, it was a suffocating smell. Like someone was trying to cover up the smell of blood, sweat, tears and vomit by spraying on far too much perfume, but even after layering up on all that artificial scent, you could still smell the things it was trying to cover up. That’s what it smells like in here. In the waiting room of St. Marina’s Hospital. I glanced up from the book I was reading and sc...

4 comments 4
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Contest #49

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