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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of black short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

780+ Black Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Discover the best new stories by Black authors, written to themed prompts and curated by our judges.

Black Short Stories – Page 51 of 52

The one they got right

Submitted to Contest #63

    It was Thursday night and I was comfortably tucked under my duvet in my one bedroom apartment watching an episode of friends while enjoying a cup of hot chocolate, it had been a long day it started raining in the afternoon but it was light showers but as the day progressed the rain got heavier and the wind got stronger it managed to destroy my umbrella when I was just a few meters from my apartment so I was at the mercy of the rain that had been rather unkind and had bitten me to the point that I was wet from top...

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Law of the Phoenix

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Dark green had been transformed to bright orange. The sunlight enhanced its iridescence, creating the sparkle that flickered in tandem with the wind. I closed my eyes and inhaled. This was freedom.    “Don’t hope to see you back anytime soon,” said the man behind me.    A short, reluctant chuckle burst from my lips. “Same,” I replied. At that moment, a black Honda pulled into the gates and stopped just inside. I strode towards it, refusing to...

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Writer's Story

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. I always knew a time like this would come, but I never expected it to be that soon.  I was born in a country where things weren't done to favour it's citizens, a country where only the government enjoyed the riches of the people while the governed, especially the poor governed suffered greatly both in the shadows and in the light. "Dad!" my four years old daughter Mariam calls, "what are you doing?" "I'm writing sweet." I look at the wall clock. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" "I c...

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Turned Away

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. Jennifer put a lighter to one to see if she could tempt the maple out of it and torched the rest. It was out of a senseless principle but it was a principle that smelled like burnt maple. Lord knew she thought this was a way to craft maple syrup but you couldn't sway her another way. I was stunned but not shocked because she first bought the lighter to burn a straw dummy of her college ex-boyfriend.  “I need maple syrup and Mother Nature won't tell the leaves to lend me some,” sh...

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Natural reality show

Submitted to Contest #63

By the time I stepped outside, the leaves were on fire. It was totally engulfed in flame like the type we witness in California and Australia each year. The only noticeable difference between the California, Australia and Achara fire is that: the formers were well known places but the later is not. Again, the Australian and Californian fires were shown in televisions world wide but Achara fire is known only in Achara and environ. There is record of durability, continuity,followership and stability to deal with too.But I guess ...

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Apple of My Eye (sequel to "Reunion")

Submitted to Contest #63

As it got closer to mid-October, the leaves turned from green to yellow, orange, red, and pink, as if the trees were on fire. I couldn't remember another Autumn as beautiful as this one was. All too soon the leaves would all turn to brown, but until then I was going to try to enjoy every moment.My daughter heard me whistling in my bedroom as I got dressed. My tie was being difficult as I tried to tie it. But even that didn't bother me much.She came in, smiled, and said, “I haven't seen or heard you be this happy in a very long time, Pa.”“I'm...

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MARKED

Submitted to Contest #62

Mama and Papa are usually be up at 5am to do their chores,while my siblings and I would wait for 6 am for us to be up. It gives me more time to read through my uncle Oto's diary especially during the week days,since he is out in the fields and also to stay as far as I can from the monster that grabs children up when they wake up at 5 am. I know it is a lie and there is no monster,I just love obeying my parents like we are taught in Sunday school. My uncle's diary just happens to be the best thing I have stumbled upon. He talks about his futu...

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Married to a man-eater

Submitted to Contest #62

MARRIED TO A MAN-EATER!! “Is it her?” “Yes, your majesty.” “She is a little tiny for someone with such a great destiny. Wouldn’t you agree?” He laughs side-splittingly.  By a hair's breadth, I could hear some indistinct voices. Trying to listen in closely, a sound of a man’s feet approaching took me a little by surprise. I had little to no time at all to prepare, hence in a tick of a clock, a bucket full of ice-cold water emptied on my bare skin on a chilly winter morning, got me screaming on the top of my voice. Mind you, up to this m...

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WHILE.... STILL IN THE WOMB.

Submitted to Contest #62

“What is growing inside you, the life you are carrying, the soul you are nourishing, the spirit that you are going to bring into the world is going to be both.... a boon and a curse. “ The exact words of my guru, that shook me to my very core. Who am I? And why was my child going to be both a boon and a curse for the world? How come my child was going to be a boon and a curse? A curse? A curse?Angelina Ray. That is me. A name. A lady of colour living in the world of whites. I was privileged to have been born and married into a family which h...

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The chosen Key

Submitted to Contest #62

“You must know that you carry the keys to this forest. The key is a human being not yet born, not yet conceived,” the old woman seated on a stool says after noisily blowing the thin tea she has been offered. She is holding a mug with her bony fingers, elbows resting on her thighs. The man and his wife watch her in disbelief. Perplexed, they had welcomed this alien creature earlier when she knocked at their door, walking in the rain when the red sun was setting as it formed a rainbow which ran across the sky touching two horizons like a ...

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The Blackout

Submitted to Contest #62

THE BLACKOUT Family members and relatives are considers to be the alternatives of your own parents, they should take or replace your parents’ place and duties when the parents leaves this world in terms of death. It is the inner part that determines your intentions, it can be kindness, hatred, love, peace, support and care we decide on our own accord. Though some events can leave you miserable, your natural personality will determine in which state you belong, whether you are heartless / full of hatred or you are kind and loving. In the capi...

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What Was Left Unsaid.

Submitted to Contest #62

Less than lovers, but more by a stretch than friends, Sam and Lou had escaped work for a stolen evening and reached a place where the skies were endless. Above them each cloud was perfect, a bilious accumulation of grey edged in bright sunlight. To the south the grass dropped away off the edge of the world and the tops of distant tower blocks rose like toadstools over the horizon line, above which darker skies threatened to erupt into a storm. A bottle of whiskey sat between them on the yellowed grass, a little less than half already gone. T...

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'IBA OYA'

Submitted to Contest #62

“…every moment with you has been some of the best moments of my life. You’re incredible, but my heart belongs to someone else.” I gasped as I watched the final episode of The Bachelor where Matt had just succeeded in shattering Gail’s heart to a million pieces. I could almost feel what Gail was going through in this moment through the television and the pain and heartache was almost too intense for me to keep watching without a few tears escaping my eyes.              This was ...

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Legacy or Team

Submitted to Contest #62

It was one day before the final squad for the 1st team at school was announced and everyone was waiting impatiently about it. It was obvious that Bafana would be the starting fly half for the team and Wikus would have to play fullback. For both Bafana and Wikus this was important for different reasons because if Bafana got the nod to play 10 he was promised by a big union that he would get a pro contract straight out of high school and well Wikus just wanted to play 10 because he‘s father also played 10 at that school. It would also give W...

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Village juries

Submitted to Contest #62

There were five in the family, three males and two females. The second son was the most enterprising. He had wholesale business that was performing relatively ok; he was lively, outgoing, fearless and has business acumen. He got married newly when civil war started. He left city like others and went back to the village. It was in the village that his wife gave birth to their first issue. Considering the situation of things in their interior village there and misinformation’s that usually accompany unrest like civil war, people that has shops...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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