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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

620+ Western Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Hitch your ponies, shutter up the saloon, and watch the tumbleweeds roll down Main Street. There's a showdown at high noon — and the weapon of choice? Short stories.

Western Short Stories – Page 35 of 42

Jonas' Party

Submitted to Contest #93

Deep chillwave bumps from speakers laying on the wooden deck of Universe Coffee and Beer Garden. They were delivered for the event tonight. Jonas Jones, Austin's coolest tech artist, is turning 30 but officially tonight he is hosting a summer solstice party. Being the premiere art party of the summer, Universe is packed with Austin's finest groups of grungy weirdos and other uber clean-cut folks who look like they came from the future. A freelance social media duo was hired to capture live content of the event from unusual angles and get clo...

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Longhorn

Submitted to Contest #93

The barman stood behind the highly polished countertop of the saloon bar, rubbing a glass with a chequered tea towel, when the stranger pushed through the slatted swing doors. He was tall, at least six foot three, and lean. The covering of fine, red dust, which coated his clothes, indicated that he had been riding for a while. His leather Stetson hat was pulled low over his eyes, obscuring his face in shadow, although close scrutiny showed that his chin was covered in several days’ worth of dark stubble. He wore fringed leather chaps, and th...

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Shadow World

Submitted to Contest #92

      I grew up on a house atop a hill. Far above our little town below. I lived there with my Ma and Pa. And they taught me how to shoot shadows.            “God damnit Jedediah!” My Ma shouted one night, “You let the shadows out again!”            I remember that night my Pa came into my room and shoved a sawed-off shotgun into my hands. I was eight. “‘Bout time you learned how to kill a Shadow.” He to...

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What it takes to see the light

Submitted to Contest #92

Jeb leans back against the wall and cocks the hammer on his double-action revolver. The click~click his pistol makes gives him a sense of false security. Sweat drips down into his eyes causing his vision to blur. He is upstairs lying on his side in the moonlit hallway between the bathroom and bedroom door. The rustle of leaves can be heard skittering across the roof just beyond the peak. “Show yourself.” Jeb yells down to the floor below.No answer comes as lightning cracks a brilliant tear in the sky, illuminating the entire house....

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Being a Detective's Mentor...

Submitted to Contest #92

  I was looking on a moonless sky but the stars were as if you sprinkled paint on a midnight blue sheet. The sky looked incomplete without the moon. Suddenly my sharp ears pricked on hearing a shrub move. I should say I have got really good hearing sense. I could literally hear people talk even when I’m a mile away. I looked down bending on the bottom edge of my window. Then I saw the shadow of a person move through the front wall of my house from my backyard. It was dark and merely a blur. Then through whatever my eyes could catch...

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UP NEPA

Submitted to Contest #92

Have you ever been to Lagos, the only city in Nigeria with an English name "Lagos" and local name "Eko"?. Have you been to Lagos, the most populated city in Africa?. Have you ever been so previledged to visit Lagos in the sweet month of march?  "You know I haven't" was the only response I could give, I couldn't understand the sudden infinite questions James was asking me, could it be something I said? Oh I remember just few minutes before his rain of questions I had shouted "UP NEPA" , nothing is wrong in me saying that. It's what ...

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The New Neighbourhood

Submitted to Contest #92

The new neighbourhood is so damn creepy…better,creepiest.I grew up in a place with noisy neighbours,full streets and jolly children.So,shifting to a completely new locality after 18 years of staying at a place is a BIG deal.Although,it generally wouldn’t have mattered if the neighbours were noisy,uncles would have been music addicts or Mom would have been able to cope up with the talkative aunties living by or behind.This new neighbourhood is like filled with backdated people and I?-Don’t even like it one bit. He leaves in the morning.Mom le...

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A Rose , a book and life .

Submitted to Contest #91

As Rose wandered in the alleys of knowledge as she called them, she felt at home, among her friends that truly loved and cared for her unconditionally .In the library halls she felt the most fulfilling sense of belonging .She could spend hours and hours reading to the point that everything loses meaning except for her existence and that of what she is reading .Funny enough, that made her encounter some troublesome situations at home and school .People nowadays are too narrowminded to appreciate how precious and enriching reading is .They pre...

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Long Past Dawn

Submitted to Contest #91

He was resonant and firm as the wind. His vigilance was comparable to a mountain, and those calm eyes seemed to appear as if they are waves dancing in raging seas.As he walked, the aura he yielded was beyond immeasurable, men were intimidated, and women were captivated. His paces were perfect as the fair skin he had.The man looked at his watch, waiting for the next train to arrive.‘3 minutes and 48 seconds before the train arrives.’ He thought.The train came perfectly after 3 minutes and 48 seconds. The man’s stern eyes furrowed as he entere...

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Wild West Book Club

Submitted to Contest #91

 The week had already been long and was going by slowly, with each day seeming like it took a week to go by, while it was the same ole hum drum daily churning of school work and classes with the usual lack of excitement. That is when things started to change because in their History class they took together that day John and Billy had been assigned a book report on their favorite subject by their teacher to be done over the weekend while they was off from school. They had decided to do their report on a famous gun fighter from the wild ...

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Tacoma Straits

Submitted to Contest #90

The man wasn’t European. Probably from the East coast. Shannen knew the minute the words tumbled out of his mouth. His native London accent once again reminded him that he was a little fish in a big pond.   “It’s rather noisy, isn’t it?”  Shannen looked up. “Yes, it is, rather.” That wouldn’t be right. He masked the way rather came out, enunciating the r’s. He stared at the man in front of him. He only carried a satchel, bulging with something bulky. “Would you take a seat?”  “If you’d oblige me,” the man said, and took t...

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Thirst Forever

Submitted to Contest #90

Water?  There’s no water?   Why’s there no water?  How are we supposed to go on living without water?  All these questions kept swirling around as we were gathered at the local town church. At the time, I unfortunately, was the “Peacekeeper” I would call it since I had to handle the hard stuff like these questions.   How can little old me the local town cop keep peace with no water for all these people? I know that a little town like Archabalm holding 75 people...

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Journey to Earth's Heaven

Submitted to Contest #90

He took his seat and waited for the long black hunk of metal and gears to start on its journey. He was a people-watcher rather than a social butterfly, so that's what he did. He watched people, observed them. "Stop that, Mylo! Miranda, don't even!" He heard a blonde mother reprimand her blonde children."Mary! What're you doing, Darlin'? We're sitting..." The man was cut off by the dark-skinned conductor."All aboard!!! Train leaves in three minutes!""We're sitting here, not in the next car, Mary!" He watched as the red-skinned man took her sl...

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Faith in the Mirror

Submitted to Contest #89

It is said, "Life blows like a wind, with no signs of direction of where." I thought before that it would make me happy, but I was mistaken, greatly mistaken. I should not have leaped, the leap of faith.Five years have passed, yet everything was still fresh and tears-flooding. How could I forget the memory of loss which yields unexplainable dementia on me? All I could remember was the banging, scraping of mystic nuances in the middle of the night. The sound was creepy-odd but very enchanting that I couldn’t resist the snooping. I was captiva...

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Breaking the cycle

Submitted to Contest #89

Jamie looked over his shoulder and noticed a beautiful girl. Hazel skin with a thick curly head of hair, eyes of a deep earthy brown. His eyes fluttered with images of her as his fiancé and the mother of his children. Him coming home from a long days’ work and seeing her, right there on the porch of their brick house, waiting for him with a smile on her face and a kiss to give away. What he did not see was the same girl, now looking at him with her big eyes, confused because she hadn’t seen him before. She smiled at him, thinking he would n...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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