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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 Sorting” by Sam Newsome

Submitted to Contest #49

The Sorting Saddam Hussein (b. April 28, 1937; d. December 30, 2006) Gerald R. Ford (b. July 14, 1913 d. December 26, 2006)             God must have a great sense of humor, or at least an appreciation of irony.             Allow your imagination to roam regarding events of a few years ago.             Envision a large anteroom.  This is a typical r...

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“The Snow Day” by Leonard Eckhaus

Submitted to Contest #49

The Snow Day September 1995 – In the Surgical Waiting Room, St. Joseph’s Hospital Mrs. Foster had been waiting for almost three hours. “Why is it taking so long?” she thought to herself. Her nerves at her wits-end, she would alternately stand and pace the room back and forth, then sit in a chair with her hands in her lap, twisting her fingers. Finally, the door opened and the surgeon, dressed in a white hospital gown and still wearing his surgical gloves, stepped into the room. “He’s doing fine,” the doctor said, “everything went perfect...

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“The Interrogation Room” by Glen Benison

Submitted to Contest #49

The poor bastard does'nt stand a chance.            I watch Watters, through our security camera, pacing back and forth in the hallway adjacent to the interrogation room. Zooming in from the camera’s remote control in my office, I see beads of sweat on his forehead.            I count the twelve strides he takes before he turns and retraces his steps. There’s a manned desk at one end of the hallway, a steel door with a wire-meshed gl...

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“Lost” by Hi U

Submitted to Contest #49

"Please help her" I begged as the doctors rushed in to the hospital with my sisters body on a stretcher lying almost lifeless. "You'll be ok Alex just hang in there" I kept saying balling my eyes out while rushing to keep up with the stretcher. My mind was racing a mile a minute trying to wrap itself around what just happened. I was brought out of my thoughts when one of the doctors stopped in front of me and told me I had to wait in the waiting room so they can focus on helping my sister. I wanted to put up a fight but didn't. Instead I j...

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“THE PEACH-WHITE ROOM” by Lunyzbreid L

Submitted to Contest #49

“Hey, who are you? What is this place?”“Hi. I’m Stephan. I’m not sure. I’ve been asking myself the same question.”“I wonder why I’m here. All I know is that I was at the clinic, waiting.”“What were you waiting for?”“I was and am waiting for a kidney, mine is broken. Still, I don’t know how I got here. I woke up here.”“Me too. I mean, I don’t need a kidney. First, I woke up alone, then lost consciousness, and the next time I opened my eyes I saw you. How should I call you?”“I’m Peter, so we are the only two guys in this room. Why do you ...

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“The Coast” by Anjali Klinder

Submitted to Contest #49

The man had grey leathery skin like the outside of a purse passed down through generations. Sunspots danced over the wrinkles of his hands, his cheeks, his forehead. His fingers were short and bulbous, the joints rusted over with arthritis. Bags crouched beneath his eyes, shiny and bloated and slinking slowly down his cheeks. His eyes themselves were a dull brown, cloudy with age. They flitted over every surface in the room - the cherry wood coffee table in the middle, the light pink chairs lining three of the four walls, the news magazines ...

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“Waiting for the Woe” by Ed Friedman

Submitted to Contest #49

I know this feeling. When nothing else has any meaning except for what is uppermost in my mind. Right now, the only thing that matters is what’s going to happen in the next few minutes when the doctor walks through that door. We’ve all, at one time or another contemplated our own death. But sitting in this sparse gray room with nothing to look at besides posters of the digestive tract, no doubt provided by drug companies as perks for doctor’s offices, I await a verdict that’s literally life or death. I’ve done nothing to prepare for good...

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“cry me a river” by Vivian Henry

Submitted to Contest #49

CRY ME A RIVER I awoke with a faint cry as was the norm, my body all tensed up as I waited for a stomach refill from the best pacifier known to man. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Could it be? I stretched out my arms in a bid to grab onto something, anything. I got nothing. My eyelids flew open. The white washed walls with its four-legged creatures of various sizes and colours sent a strong signal to my brain. I sat up. A quick scan of my surroundings confirmed my thoughts. Nene’s gone. Again. My gaze flew to the door and sure enoug...

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“Marley and Me” by Ramneek Dhami

Submitted to Contest #49

"Come on, Honey" Mom says. She helps me sits down on the cool plastic chair. "It'll just be a few minute wait. And then we'll meet Maria. She's here to help you. Remember that." I nod and take my seat. Grabbing one of the magazines from the coffee table. It's about trusting yourself. I flip through it, not really reading just looking for a distraction. I don't want my mind to wander off to that night. That nightmare. Shuddering, I continue to flip through the magazine. It's no use. My mind will wander back to that night no matter what I ...

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“Number 52 Please” by Babylon Jasmine

Submitted to Contest #49

“Number 27 please” I looked down automatically. I knew my number wasn’t 27. I knew it was 52, almost twice 27. Every time that voice came over the speaker, announcing a new number, I still couldn’t help but look down to see if that number had somehow, magically, made it’s way onto my slip of paper. It hadn’t this time, just as it hadn’t the previous five times that I had heard a number and looked down. I looked around. I wanted to see number 27 get up and go through the door, but nobody did. There definitely weren’t enough people in the ...

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“At Xenty.” by Bukola Detims

Submitted to Contest #49

Early Monday morning on Watford street, were busy heads moving up or down with different steps adding to the honk of vehicles and as usual, Jeff was running his way through the crowd,  "Watch it man" the man yelled with readiness to break his hand. "I'm sorry," he said, not giving a second look, he waved down a cab. "Xenty". "Yeah man" the driver replied. He blankly stared through the glass. "Here we are" he pulled up at Xenty Institute, "what do you think could be wrong here?" No reply.  With no light on Jeff's face, he un...

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“waiting on Thursday” by Harps Mclean

Submitted to Contest #49

"Mr. Meckett.  Mr. Meckett?"  The emergency room nurse is finally calling your name.  "Right here."   You raised your hand and spoke quietly.  "That's me.  I'm not ready yet, though.  Can you move me down the list and take care of somebody else?  Maybe that person with an ear in their pocket?"  It's too early.  There is no reason for the medical professionals to know you'd been awake all night thinking about it.    The receptionist doesn't need to know your alarm went off at midni...

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“Sketch” by Jhumki R Vincent

Submitted to Contest #49

My hangout was all set to be gloomy with the preconceived notion of having to spend the early evening in a badly lit and unclean waiting room of a railway station. These ‘refugee halts’ did not have much seating capacity; one such experience, about 5 years ago, had me standing in the waiting lobby for almost 2 hours before I managed a chair for myself; the regular commuters under such crises helped themselves by spreading newspaper or bed covers on the floor, almost setting up a feast for a picnic. The littered room infested with rodents for...

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“The Heart is an Imperfect Creature” by Priyam Saharia

Submitted to Contest #49

The worst place to find out that your wife is having an extra-marital affair is in a hospital waiting room—while she is dying inside. David wished Shelly had deleted those voice messages on her phone. Despite being married for twelve years, he knew there were parts of her that were always elusive, that he could never read. But he had never imagined that she could have an affair behind his back. How little we know the people we think we know. “She has serious brain injuries. At this point, we cannot say if she is going to pull through,” the ...

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“Rules Guy” by Scott Doran

Submitted to Contest #49

“It’s on airplane mode.  It’s the same as if I was sitting here using a calculator.  A calculator won’t haywire medical electronics.”  Even before my snippy little retort had hit the back of my throat, I knew it was hopelessly impotent.  The smug amusement exuding from the unctuous smirk of the receptionist told me immediately that my clumsy riposte (and obvious lie) had been lobbed right into the sweet spot of a Rules Guy, a niggling bureaucrat for whom exacting enforcement of meaningless controls is ...

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