Start your story with a character finding an old heart-shaped box in their house.

Posted in Valentine's Day on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 78 stories

“The Box” by Joy Arnett

Submitted to Contest #133

Ruth Emory's attic was proof that when things were out of sight they were also out of mind. She had been de-cluttering up there for almost a week. She had made it through a mountain of boxes filled with old dishes, discarded pots and pans, clothes and half finished knitting projects gone awry. Now that the great wall of boxes had been reduced there were only a few pieces of furniture left. There were 2 rockers, Jim's roll-top desk, a bright yellow kitchen step stool (circa 1950) and an ancient floor lamp that was mostly brass and weigh...

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“Billet-Doux: Stronger Than Death” by Kathy Johnsey

Submitted to Contest #133

The hearse pulled away from the grave site. One petal from the red rose she was holding fell to the sidewalk. The rose was from the casket spray. His casket. Gone. Dead. "Passed away" they kept saying. Cindy could not believe it and did not want to believe it. In the ground. Covered up. Cold and dark. Still wearing his class ring. The class of 1976. Silent. Once so full of life and now lifeless. So young. Nineteen. His birthday was twenty-two days away. He would never be twenty. His life was just starting. Then it was snuffed out. For no r...

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“Small Hearts” by Olivia Case

Submitted to Contest #133

It was a Tuesday morning and, shut in by the inevitability of December rain, I had decided to shuffle some artifacts in the old attic. There was no one coming to the house for weeks and I felt a hazy sense of something waiting to be discovered. I donned a moth-eaten sweater and ascended up the house, expecting any manner of dust and termites–the ladder had grown rusty with neglect, and the attic itself had lain untouched for years. At the foot of the ladder, an old fear returned; as a child I had frequently prayed for safe passage when ...

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“The Tin Box” by Ariel Searcy

Submitted to Contest #133

Annaleigh is standing underneath the willow, peering towards the house as the branches of the tree coincide with the whipping of her long copper hair against the wind. The baby blue paint is peeling away from the old body of the farmhouse, falling onto the sun bleached flooring of the wrap-around porch. Although she stands twenty feet away, she can still hear the dissonant rattling of the fan blades that hang lazily above the line of rocking chairs facing towards the east side of the house. Sucking the last ember of her cigarette before thro...

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“The Timepiece” by Russell Susko

Submitted to Contest #133

The strange and inexplicable events of the previous few weeks were not to end as I had expected.As I arrived at my destination, I steered my roadster onto the grassy off-road of the sparsely inhabited village bearing the baffling name of Ernshire Passage. I rechecked the property’s information sheet. “Here, at long last,” I said aloud while shutting the car down. I hopped out and took in a broad view of the expansive space.A thick stone wall, patched by moss and topped every few segments by a carved stone urn, traveled off to each side for a...

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“Heart-Shaped Box” by K.J. Hanson

Submitted to Contest #133

My mother had told me when I was young to marry for love, but she should have been more specific. I married a man I loved deeply, so deeply that I couldn’t notice the fact that he always had one foot out the door. He told me he loved me often; it’s the thing I wanted to hear the most. Maybe that’s why he said it. If he was capable of falling in love, I’m certain that it would have been with me. But he was too removed from his own body to let himself fall. He dipped his toe into family life and would wade in the shallow end from time ...

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“The Last Letter” by Chester Sakamoto

Submitted to Contest #133

As a child, I used to hate staying with my grandmother. There was never anything fun to do over at her place but, whenever my father had a business trip (which, given his line of work, was quite often), he would take me to stay with her. Reluctantly, I would pack my bag, he would load up the car with some necessary provisions and we would make the eight-hour drive from Sydney down to Melbourne, where she lived in an old house just outside Royal Park. How I would dread every single one of those hours, knowing that each passing ...

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“The box” by Samantha Benson

Submitted to Contest #133

"Why are we up here? Attics are nasty." My sister Sheena grimaces as her hand skims along a dusty trunk. I just shake my head at her "Are you kidding me? Attics are awesome! You never know what vintage items or cool antiques you might find. Especially when you are looking in your crazy great-aunt's attic. I mean, seriously, look at this stuff." My aunt used to be a fortune teller traveling all over Europe plying her trade in her youth. Her attic is filled with random items used for fortune telling and rare antiques from her travels. I scan ...

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“Fossil” by Carmen Perez

Submitted to Contest #133

Fossil My eyes burn and tears have been soaked into my robe. I’m on my knees before the chamber. I hit the metal with my fist denting the side. The chamber holds the ribbon Lovata had held. I return to the biogenic mass on the table downstairs. I use the flathead screwdriver and the hammer, tapping into it with a tenacity I hadn’t felt before, loosening the rocks, and the glasses, and crushed shells allowing them to fall to the plastic tablecloth. A heart shaped box is revealed, and inside, a folded note: Dear Dr. Vespert...

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“Sara's Pardon” by Kristine Bone

Submitted to Contest #133

Sara's Pardon Maggie sighed heavily and carefully folded the silky blouse, placing it back in the dresser drawer. The day's chore was wearing on her, this sorting through all this old stuff of her moms. Had the woman never tossed anything? She thought she'd begin the chore in her old bedroom which mom had made into a guest room for every down and out relative. Now, she found that this dresser was packed with old clothes and junk. Whose she did not know. The old Victorian house her parents had lived in for nearly fifty years was hers now ...

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“The Love You Lost ” by Lily Elborn

Submitted to Contest #133

The box was hard to notice at first. Small and shallow enough not to catch the eye right away and pretty much the same wood shade of the attic floorboards. If it wasn’t for my crazed cleaning frenzy that day, I probably wouldn’t have seen it, tucked into a corner and completely covered in dust. But as it stands, I did find the heart-shaped, wooden box. And my life changed the second I did. **** When I first latched onto the idea of buying a fixer-upper, I had yet to absorb all of the side effects of such a venture. I must admit, I have ...

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“Matriarch” by Brooke Woodworth

Submitted to Contest #133

(Mentions of child abuse, and inter-generational trauma) A dark wood entertainment center sits unused in a living room with no source of light other than the broken sliding glass door, shielded by the awning of a hurricane-weathered porch. Inside the entertainment center (where a heavy box television once belonged) is now a cluttered mess. Amongst the Wi-Fi router, and an unused generator, is white heart shaped box. It is deep enough to hold all the burnt and dehydrated molecules of a human being. The box is empty, now. But you remem...

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“The Heart-Shaped Box” by Ramona Powell Poole

Submitted to Contest #133

“Mom, we found it!” yelled Becky and Natalie to their mother who was now resting in her bedroom. The girls, as mom called them, spent their entire Saturday, turning the house upside down looking for the wooden heart-shaped box that their dad Tom had given their mother back when they first started dating. Tom enjoyed working with his hands and loved tinkering in the garage with his father’s tools. Tom was so excited to work on his next project, a heart-shaped wooden box. He wanted to make it for Patty, the love of his life, who lived nex...

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“Love Letters” by Martha Meacham

Submitted to Contest #133

When I was young, even into my teen years, I used to go through my mother’s hidden things. For some reason I thought grown-ups would have something interesting stashed away, hidden from prying eyes. Adults were so mysterious. They had to be more interesting than they seemed. What was the point of growing older if it were as dull and tedious as every adult I knew made it seem. My mother certainly had secrets. I did not realize the significance at the time of finding wine bottles hidden amongst her things. As a child I thought it the n...

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“The Heart Shaped Box” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #133

Everything I learned about love, I learned from a heart-shaped box. As to how it came to me, I hope to understand one day. It all started the day I moved in to the Tic-Tac-Toe house.Driving in a rented moving van, we pulled up to a dusty, once-yellow house. It had an unkept overgrown yard, paint or something on the windows, and it was mine.“Andriy- that is a beat up house!” Danny says. My oldest friend, he was helping me get everything moved for the usual fee of beer and pizza. I had just received the keys to my new place, my...

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Start your story with a character finding an old heart-shaped box in their house.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 78 stories

“The Box” by Joy Arnett

“Billet-Doux: Stronger Than Death” by Kathy Johnsey

“Small Hearts” by Olivia Case

“The Tin Box” by Ariel Searcy

“The Timepiece” by Russell Susko

“Heart-Shaped Box” by K.J. Hanson

“The Last Letter” by Chester Sakamoto

“The box” by Samantha Benson

“Fossil” by Carmen Perez

“Sara's Pardon” by Kristine Bone

“The Love You Lost ” by Lily Elborn

“Matriarch” by Brooke Woodworth

“The Heart-Shaped Box” by Ramona Powell Poole

“Love Letters” by Martha Meacham

“The Heart Shaped Box” by Marty B

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about someone going on a search for a specific type (or brand) of chocolate.

Set your story in a confectionery shop.

Write a story about someone making a gift (chocolate or otherwise) for a loved one.

Write about a character who finds Valentine’s Day sickly sweet.

Contest #133

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

204

Contest entries

121

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: