Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

11170+ Contemporary Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. All the newest modern day stories to thrill and inspire, all in one place.

Contemporary Short Stories – Page 690 of 745

A Promise to Future Me

Submitted to Contest #74

I wake up in the middle of the night, my body jerking upright. I just remembered something. And I know that I cannot get back to sleep without handling it. I ignore the fact that Benjamin is not in bed, even though it stings, more than the cold tonight. I walk over to my desk, shivering due to the cold, pulling on my sweater tighter. Turning on the lamp, I flip feverishly through the pages of my journal, the smell of ink as familiar as the back of my hand. I land on the page I’m looking for, the list of goals I had written down carefully exa...

65 likes 20 comments 20
Read story

Countdown to Execution

Submitted to Contest #74

“No blindfold, please. I’d prefer to see my death coming.” The guard let out a cynical laugh. “You think you’re so tough saying that, don’t you?” He stepped in front of me, leaning his face inches away from mine. The minty-fresh smell of his breath was quite a contrast to his psychotic grin. “Nearly every person executed here has said the same thing. And you wanna know something? They all died the same way, with their brains splattered across the wall that you’re leaning on. You’re not anything special.” He turned away from me, stuffing ...

7 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Just Say Yes

Submitted to Contest #74

“Will you marry me?”“Oh, God. It’s beautiful.”“Just say yes, and I’ll make you so happy.”One Mississippi. It’s a heart-shaped diamond, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so stunning or expensive up close before. “Are you surprised?”“I think I need to sit down.”Two Mississippi. Yes, I’m surprised. We’re only eighteen and nineteen and six months out of high school. Right now though, I’m mostly cold. I wish you wouldn’t insist I wear skirts all the time. My knees are freezing. We sit down on a park bench under a street light. Every word ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Tracking It

Submitted to Contest #74

Teeshoe was walking up the corridor and then down it. ‘ I must be imagining things’ he said to himself. His mind was racing fast. He took a sharp turn at the corner when he bumped into a side wall. ‘ Holy shit, what ever has happened to me’ he muttered under his breath. He didn’t bother and continued walking. A few minutes later, he decided to settle into a cozy couch with a book. He took a quick shower and changed into comfortable clothing. Fixed a few items to eat and ran his fingers through the mini library he had at home. There...

12 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Old Place

Submitted to Contest #74

It was still sometimes hard for Selene to believe she wasn't eight anymore, both her parents gone, all but one of her kids in college moving on with their lives. Someday perhaps they would make a trip like this of their own. Hopefully they wouldn't have to do ninety the whole way though. Selene knew she was risking a nasty ticket if she were pulled over, but somethings were worth paying for, this being one of them. Her aunt was selling her family home, it was just sitting there collecting dust. Selene thought it was more that she wanted to u...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Dear Diary

Submitted to Contest #74

May 15th Thursday 9:37 PM Dear Diary, Today was an awful day. It couldn’t have gone worse. I told Uriah that this marriage wasn’t working out. He tried to convince me otherwise but ended up being more pro-divorce than me. He pointed out everything about me that bothered him, from my long working hours to my ‘obsessive need to clean’ to the fact that I still write in a diary like ‘a little angsty teenager’ when he was apparently ‘right here’ for me to talk to. I’ve never met anyone more annoyingly logical than Uriah. He always...

61 likes 18 comments 18
Read story

New Year's Surprise

Submitted to Contest #74

I think I am finally getting my writing groove back! I woke up with this story in my head and instead of going back to sleep, I got up and wrote it down. Hopefully, I can finish up The Long Walk Home this week. This has been a hard year in so many ways for everyone and I don't think that anyone will be sorry to see it end. I truly hope that next year will be better, but I'm deeply afraid that we may wish for 2020 back before the end of 2021. I sincerely hope and pray that I am wrong. This story has reminded me though that we get to decide...

32 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

SCRAMBLING TO FINISH

Submitted to Contest #74

Working on the laptop I looked at the clock. It was past 11 in the night. I felt sleepy and retired after closing down my computer. However I kept thinking of the novel I was writing and the date 4th January 2021 by which the editor said it had to be completed. I had revised the draft keeping in view the editor’s suggestions. My novel starts in America and moves to Bangalore in India. My hero Pablo, with his fiancée Carmen arrive from America in search of buried treasure. I had written much about their doings and adventures in the novel. Now...

7 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

An evening I only heard you

Submitted to Contest #74

6: 30 p.m.'Piyush let's go,' Shishir told me.​ 'Shishir, you can go. I have a presentation with Boss tomorrow morning,' I replied.'Sir, I don't know what reminds you to start your day at 6 p.m. and now this is a daily ritual for you,' he replied in a sarcastic tone.'Please leave,' I said with a wink.'Ok, we'll see you tomorrow, but sir, I have a request and you can take that as a piece of advice, start with a little less work so that we can do something,' he winked and left.'Piyush, Shishir has a point. Nowadays, things are not going we...

7 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Discussion Questions for The Ten Commandments

Submitted to Contest #74

We know religion studies can be boring, especially when you really just want to go outside and play, but before you head into the fourth grade, we need to make sure you have a solid understanding of some of the most important rules ever put to paper--or stone, as the case may be. A little Bible humor there for you, even though you should never ever joke about the Bible.  Ever. Please answer the following questions in three sentences or less. 1.  The First Commandment says that “The Lord is the Lord and that you shall have no ...

23 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

counting down your hearbeats

Submitted to Contest #74

The beach will be small. But somehow, it’ll be enough. Two lonely strangers will tumble over its coast like driftwood into the clutches of low tides. Deep within their rib cages, their hearts will be crumbling sandcastles, awkwardly patted together by the children they once were.The woman will stash sand dollars into her coat pockets, saving them to play checkers later with her daughter. There'll be scallop shells wreathed into her hair. The man will have plastic wrinkles melting from his eyes. Years will be carved into his face, making him ...

59 likes 42 comments 42
Read story

Rain, Dust, and Final Chimes

Submitted to Contest #74

From the grandfather clock in the hall, the one technically stolen despite family lore of it having been loaned, came the first chime at the hour of three o’clock.  The resonant sound, a G sharp that was supposed to be an F, echoed nicely over the oak floors downstairs despite their growing blanket of dust, spreading into the rooms in turn.  The living room.  The entryway.  The dining room.  The kitchen.  The small study off the kitchen, a room full of windows that should have been full of light. An overcast d...

7 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

A Cycle Affair.

Submitted to Contest #74

A loud rap on the front door made Ann jump. She was in the middle of her Saturday morning cleaning routine. Her husband, Jason was sat on the sofa reading the days newspapers “I’ll get it” He rushed to his feet cheerily. Ann frowned; it wasn’t like Jason to be so keen to disturb his reading of the mornings papers. She heard the brief conversation between her husband and the delivery man. It was a parcel being delivered, she had not been expecting anything and Jason had not mentioned ordering anything. Curiosity piqued, Ann put down her clean...

19 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

A Time to Sew

Submitted to Contest #74

I had planned, we had planned in case of trouble, that we would meet here. It is a root cellar on the old farm. It is built into a bank, and but for the door, invisible. It is its protective facilities that we considered, when deciding on a meeting place. The first military vehicles arrived about a week ago. They come and go, so we didn’t pay an abnormal amount of attention to their presence. But after a week, and the continued addition of troops, we began to worry that something out of the ordinary was about to happ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

In Just Ten Seconds

Submitted to Contest #74

Backgrounder Three Friday Nights Sam met Sue at a party. It was on a Friday night. They were both reaching for the same butter tart on the treat table, the last one. Their hands met unintentionally. They both laughed and then divided up the tart into two equal pieces. Thus began a conversation that lasted until the end of the party. They discovered that they had so much in common – love of hiking, canoeing, dogs, and beer. It seemed to Sam that he just might have finally met the woman he could spend the rest ...

8 likes 0 comments 0
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.