Start your story with a character saying “Listen, …”

Posted in Valentine's Day on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 57 stories

“No Ordinary Sign” by Robin Owens

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen,” Tara mouths and tap-taps her finger to her earlobe. I resist rolling my eyes because she’s my best friend, and she can get away with more than most. When anyone else tells me to listen, I punch them in the face (in my mind) because they should know better.I’m deaf. I can’t hear you, idiots.“Becca overheard Rick telling Alex that he likes you. Like, likes you likes you.” Tara says this aloud faster than she can misspell our classmates’ names with her fingers. She uses the word like so much her face resembles a robot that’s shorted o...

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“Sickness” by Keith Brooks

Submitted to Contest #119

"Listen, what you did was dangerous." His belt whipped through the air and bit me. I screamed out in pain, tears blurring my vision. The belt popped me again, and I fell to my knees. Daddy jerked me back up, his rough, calloused hand clamped around my wrist like a dog's teeth. "This hurts me more than it does you," he said, and struck me one hard, final time. The hell it does, I thought as he let me go. I dropped to the bathroom floor like a sack of wrenches. I lay on the cold tile in a heap, rubbing my searing bottom. I ha...

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“Juns Guilt” by Holli Walsh

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen to me for once,” I said forcefully to the small bakeneko. Despite my frequent refusal to help the kid, they continued to follow me like a lost puppy. Kare, the young Bakeneko, was someone I chose to help when they happened to be injured, thanks to me. That was the only thing I wanted to do with this kid. However, ever since then, for an entire week, Kare kept following me. “I helped you out once, kid; now you need to go away.” Kare’s ears lowered, upset at my harsh words. The determined look never left their face, though, as ...

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“Roommates ” by Shevach Obahor

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen,” Charlie said quietly. A mere whisper. His head was bent to the floor. Focusing with such intensity that transformed his whole body. His eyes were squinted shut, his legs dangling to the rhythm of what seemed to explode from the floor beneath. His lips moved, trying to imitate what was being heard. He failed to carry a single note. The sound was loud enough yet it didn’t stir feelings of irritation or displeasure. Rather the opposite. If I was Charlie, I would do the same thing. I am not. I am Savanah. A woman whom I would say too...

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“Voices” by Eric Holdorf

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen, can’t you hear them?” Dan heard a woman’s voice coming from the production room. He waited for a response, as if waiting for the crash after something fell. When the crash didn’t come, he went back to work. His boss got the order on Thursday a week before Thanksgiving, and somehow they managed to get the materials printed and delivered on Monday, and the temp agency came through with two workers for the three day week before Thanksgiving. It was a risk, but it was go temp, or go home. Most ...

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“Listen, Look, Open Your Book” by Kelly Robic

Submitted to Contest #119

Listen, Look, Open Your Book By Kelly Bostrom Robic “Listen, mom. It’s just not that hard,” Arthur said. Oh, the sage words of a bilingual four-year-old, Grace thought. Sure, it wasn’t hard. For him. On that day, his go-to advice had referred to the fact that the boulangerie, the bakery, would open an hour late. This had been a wrinkle in Grace’s immediate gastronomic future, because her pint-sized translator would be in school. “Just listen a whole lot to every word he says, and when it’s your turn to talk, you say, ‘Deux baguettes...

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“Listen” by Sydney Holt

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen- if you’re quiet enough, you can hear the earth breathe.” That’s what Dad would say to me at summer camp-outs. He would wait until I was tired enough to stop making any sound, all nestled into my sleeping bag. I would strain my ears over the din of crickets to hear the world inhale. Exhale. Maybe I just fooled myself into hearing it. Maybe I was just tired. But I swore that on those nights in woods so secluded it seemed like we were the only people on the face of the planet, I could fee...

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“Sofia Unpacked” by Lavender Marigold

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen!” The word jostled Sofia awake. The forest, like a catacomb, enveloped them. Night had come, the world dark, only a thin sliver of moonlight cast a beam into the murky river at Sofia’s feet. “What am I listening for?” She thought to Hira, who paced nervously within Sofia’s mind, the tapping of shoes on a tiled floor echoing in her chambers within. “There was a rustle behind us.” Hira’s thoughts came across as a voice bolstered with the strength of motherhood: a role that had never applied literally, but one she had grown ...

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“The Secret of the Woods” by Gerard Watson

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen, sheriff, I didn’t murder my wife!” “You’re a liar, Mr. Martin! If you didn’t murder her, where is she?” The two men were nose-to-nose. Finally, Martin broke eye contact and stepped away. “I… I don’t know. Anna just disappeared.” “Bullshi...

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“When the Willow Weeps” by Sumaya Osman

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen, it wasn’t supposed to turn out like this.” Francis could feel his grip on reality start to slip. How did it turn out like this? He dropped his head to the steel table. Just what went wrong? He could feel the disgusted look she was giving him, even with his head hung low. The small room left him no room for escape, she made sure of it. Nothing he could use as a weapon, only him, the table, the chair and her.“Well, that much is obvious,” she said in her curt, straight-forward manner. Mai Willows was a cynical woman, a woman who had ev...

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“Just you, Carina” by Tara Hoover

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen… You’re only here for a short time, Carina. There isn’t much we can do about this until we know exactly what’s happening, okay? I’m so sorry… Please look at me…”___________________________________________Yesterday I was asked the most irritating and frequently asked question…“So, as a writer, what do you do?”If I had time I would tell you that I create new worlds.Humans, and non-humans that interact intelligently or stupidly… because I want it to be that way.Outlines that infuriate me, plots that bring me to tears and characters I’ve...

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“A Western Landscape” by Chris Worland

Submitted to Contest #119

“Listen, you just don’t get it do you?” Werner leaned over to make his point. “She’s seeing someone else.” “Don’t say that.” I interrupted. We were driving, speeding really, northbound on the sinewy Angeles Crest Highway, before sunrise. Visibility? Foggy, so not much. “But it’s true.” Werner said. “No, I mean don’t say listen.” The tires screeched. I had the hi-beams on but still struggled to make out the road through the morning mist. “Don’t say listen,” I repeated, “especially if you’re going to say something stupid after, like you just d...

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Start your story with a character saying “Listen, …”

Submissions are closed

✍️ 57 stories

“No Ordinary Sign” by Robin Owens

“Sickness” by Keith Brooks

“Juns Guilt” by Holli Walsh

“Roommates ” by Shevach Obahor

“Voices” by Eric Holdorf

“Listen, Look, Open Your Book” by Kelly Robic

“Listen” by Sydney Holt

“Sofia Unpacked” by Lavender Marigold

“The Secret of the Woods” by Gerard Watson

“When the Willow Weeps” by Sumaya Osman

“Just you, Carina” by Tara Hoover

“A Western Landscape” by Chris Worland

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with an unusual sound being heard.

Write a story inspired by a piece of music (without using any lyrics).

Write a story that involves eavesdropping.

Set your story in a silent house by the sea.

Contest #119

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

232

Contest entries

160

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: