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Set your story in a snowed-in chalet.

Posted in Winter on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 56 stories

At the Whitemare

Winner of Contest #129 🏆

It was unclear whether I was supposed to continue my work. The guests sometimes left used dishes out on tables, and sometimes did the chore themselves, chatting with one another. Few things more grounding than housework, one said.The first night of the blizzard, the storm of the decade the radio broadcasts and cable news networks called it, some staff sneaked to the least used balcony to smoke a joint. We huddled in a shaft some of the others had dug out, up to our necks in smoke and steam.In the evenings, a few of the guests watched films i...

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Perilous Times Shall Come

Submitted to Contest #129

When the end came, it was the people in the cities who suffered the most.Barbeau lay low on the snowy roof of the abandoned ski chalet, focusing his 10x50 binoculars on the great plumes of black and gray smoke spiraling from the general direction of Washington, D.C. It appeared Interstate 66 was still blocked heading west. Exactly who had commandeered the roadway—Barbeau couldn’t hazard a guess. But the ice and freezing snow were making passage all the more difficult for them. He stoically watched a steady stream of heavy military trans...

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Seagulls

Submitted to Contest #129

Alex O’Hara doesn’t ski. Growing up in St. Lawrence with an overabundance of snow every year, one would think she would. But skiing is a privilege Alex didn’t grow up with. The closest thing to skiing Alex did was duct taping two pieces of trash can lids to her feet and walking around West Parishville State Forest when she was ten years old. She ended up almost getting frost bite on her toes and got a whooping from her dad for being out past dark.   Alex shakes the thought of St. Lawrence from her head as she takes a sip of her coffee ...

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Beautiful, What's Your Hurry?

Submitted to Contest #129

If you open the door, the snow is six feet high.Seven. Twelve.It’s high enough.Go back in and make some popcorn.Ask the man on the bright red sofa what he’d like.Would he like a drink?Could you make him a drink?He hasn’t spoken in an hour.You were having a perfectly fine conversation and then he just--Stopped.Stopped talking.If you engage him in conversation, he’ll ask you about the scar on your cheek. The scar on your cheek is shaped like the letter ‘S.’ Like a serpent. It’s head poised. It’s body lean. It’s hunger undeniable. It wraps itse...

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The Quiet Wooden Lady

Submitted to Contest #129

Hibernating beneath thick snow, almost invisible, she’s held captive. She waits. Patiently. When the first warmth of spring tentatively touches her after the long, dark winter freeze, she stretches. Her body creaks and groans in a way only an old lady’s can. She awakes. She welcomes the warmth and allows it to enter her. To soothe her. Every beam relaxing, respectfully yearning for the long hot summer. This is her place in the universe. This is home. This is where she belongs. This quiet wooden lady who sits by the lake. Perfectly wrapped ...

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Happy Birthday, Sandhya!

Submitted to Contest #129

In a handsome chalet, whelmed by dense snow of January, and miles away from the chaos of the metro city, Sandhya laid on her bed with an incessant gaze at the ceiling. She blinked after a long, and her puffed eyes reached the windowpane. White streaks of snow resembling cotton units, stuck on it, and the sky continued showering more and more of them.Sandhya mustered all the calcium in her bones to rise from the mattress, on which her husband Chirag was snoring. Her world whirled like a merry-go-round when her feet kissed the wooden floor. Sh...

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Just Like Mom

Submitted to Contest #129

“This is why we don’t go to ski resorts in December, David!” “I don’t have control over the weather, okay. Stop blaming me for every inconvenience that comes your way,” Clarise pouts, her damp hair gathering a smell underneath her grey woven beanie, “I told you, I told you so many times,” “It isn’t my fault we’re stuck in here!” David yells, frustration mixed in every word. David’s promise of being romantically secluded with Clarise during their one-year anniversary wasn’t really going to plan, but nothing really goes to plan when you visit ...

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Snowed in to Mend...

Submitted to Contest #129

She would leave. It was the best possible solution to their problems. Who was she kidding? A romantic getaway with a man who had given up months ago couldn't...wouldn't fix their problems. So she made up her mind. At first light she would leave their beautiful chalet and their relationship forever. She sat in the great window of their cabin and watched the sun come up over the silver-tipped mountains. It was amazing how long the sluggish sun took to make its drowsy appearance when the importance of one's fate was at hand. She had nev...

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Meet My Yeti

Submitted to Contest #129

“HANS! You’re back last… again!”It was ski season in the Swiss Alps and the German party of friends from Düsseldorf had been enjoying a week of the season’s best powder, providing lots of off-piste daring jumps, virgin snow, and the highlight of the week; The Inferno, an annual downhill race, attracting over one thousand ‘Franz Klammer’ wannabes.“Last one to return buys drinks all night,” gloated Valentin Kessler, a tall, handsome young man with curly blonde hair, sprouting a bruising discolouration above his right cheek.“Not so quick, Valen...

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Those From The Outside

Submitted to Contest #129

What you are reading begun in middle class quarters of Guangzhou city in southern China. If you regards that city as a place for people that came with money heart, you’re right. I happened to know this because I am one of those people. Those that came with another reasons don’t enjoy that city like us. Guangzhou is for buying and selling people mainly not for salaried people. People there don’t wear coats like others from other cities, coat is not for hustlers. As am sure you have guessed well, where there’s buying and selling in that...

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Skadi's Skrying

Submitted to Contest #129

The temperature plummeted. Windows frosted. Lights flickered. Skadi uncurled from before the crackling fireplace. A feat of engineering, it was a verticle hotplate, operated by a thermostat near the door. With smart technology, she could conjure any digital image with the tap of a button on the remote. If she could remember where the remote was. Moving with swiftness through the tiny chalet, she approached the thermostat. Nestled between the door and the master lights, she tapped it up several degrees. Moving to the window, she pulled the he...

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Snow In Hawaii

Submitted to Contest #129

It’s snowing in Hawaii. As we sit by a fire at the base of Mouna Kea watching the mounds of powder build up it never ceases to amaze me how things have changed. It has been five years since the world climates fully realized their shift. The palm trees that once covered these islands have fallen under the weight of a seemingly endless winter and the formerly green mountains now sit covered in a heavy white year-long glaze. Sweat is replaced with shivering, humidity offered up to cold dry air. The iconic beauty has changed but not abandoned us...

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Broken Chord Phone

Submitted to Contest #129

“Crap.” Thomas smacks his thumb against the buttons of the chord phone several times before accepting the soundless drawl on the other end. His heart thumps with agitation and anxiety as he realizes they are most likely stuck in the chalet until morning. All the two could hope for would be that someone would be able to get to the cabin. “What?” Alison narrows her eyes and slides around the corner. Her arms are crossed and the front of her hair falls onto her shoulders, making the young woman look more mature than 26. Thomas thinks about ho...

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"You Can Learn To Live With This."

Submitted to Contest #129

“This is a nightmare.”  Victoria felt a heavy weight in her chest as the realization of her current prediction slammed into her like a bag of bricks. She remained motionless on the top step of the stairs, looking down at the man who was standing near the front door of the chalet.  Adam, her sister’s fiancé, gave a sigh and shoved his phone back into his pocket. “Looks like it's just us here tonight.” He said, as he glanced up at her, seemingly unaware of the horror that was written all over her face. “There was a ton of snowfal...

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The True Hero

Submitted to Contest #129

Hope Stewart set down the receiver of the phone and sighed. Turning to the laptop on the counter, she opened the weather app, and stared at the screen. “Excuse me,” a smart looking man wearing khaki pants and a wool sweater said, interrupting her thoughts. “My name is Jasper Cooper. I am in town for the night to interview Mr. Marcus Cole. I’m wondering if he has checked in yet? My cell phone died.” Hope’s cheeks grew warm as she studied the gorgeous specimen in front of her. His black hair and baby blue eyes seemed like a contradiction of sw...

14 likes 3 comments 3
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