Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Center your story around someone who will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Posted in Dramatic on Jun 13, 2025

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 49 stories

Whiskers

Submitted to Contest #307

There wasn’t just a cat.There was the cat.A legend in his own litter box. A whisper in the cupboard. A shadow with claws, fur, and a vendetta sharper than a can opener. This wasn’t a lazy windowsill ornament or one of those cucumber-fearing fluffballs that yelps at the sight of a vacuum. No, this was Whiskers.Jet-black from nose to tail, his fur absorbed light like a tactical stealth suit. His eyes? Two crescent moons, thin and glinting, filled with secrets. Muscles taut like piano wire. Movements surgically precise. If James Bond had a tail...

27 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

That Would Be Bad

Submitted to Contest #307

“You might get kaiju’ed.”I tilted my head to the side. It’s a social cue that means I’m really listening. “I’m not familiar with that verb.”“You might get crushed by a rampaging monster,” the monitor clarified, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Or evaporated in a ray of radiation, crushed by a collapsing building, et cetera, et cetera. This campus is highly susceptible to kaiju attack, and while you are a lower-level student, you will be particularly vulnerable until you join a House.”I realized I’d been neglecting to make eye contact while ...

19 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

What I Wouldn't Give

Submitted to Contest #307

Day 1I’m almost at the fourth marker.My sister, Lizzie, would be so proud of me right now. Even though she always said that you aren’t supposed to hike this late in the season. Not at my age. Autumn is just about over. Leaves are starting to fall off the trees and the nights are getting colder. So cold you could end up with frostbitten fingers.But I made this promise. I’d finish the trail through Melaleuca Mountain. No one else my age will hike 200 kilometres, even for the prize money. No one. I told my friends that I’ll be the first one to ...

18 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

drywall

Submitted to Contest #307

The room is silent. Not the kind of silent where you could hear a pin drop, or the kind that includes air and gives into the moment. It’s the kind of silence that breaks, the kind where nobody dares to breathe. Except for me. I stand at the center of the courtroom, the wrinkles of my suit freshly pressed away, hair gelled without a flaw. Despite the tension, I am comfortable. Confident. All eyes rest on me, looking for a breaking point – a chink in my armor. But I know – they know – there is nothing to find. The judge watches me, poised at h...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

A Million Different Pieces

Submitted to Contest #307

I’ll admit it now—what I wouldn’t admit then.I was wrong.I didn’t come back to win her over. I didn’t even think I’d talk to her.But I saw her face on a poster taped to a light pole outside the diner.“Live Tonight – Ember Calloway.”Her golden hair. That same smile I remembered. I stood there in the heat, staring at it like a fool.So I bought a ticket. Just to be in the same room.When she stepped on stage, it was like the lights bent around her. Her voice carried through the room like something holy—smooth, aching, proud. That girl I once hel...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

At Any Cost

Submitted to Contest #307

When Jenna suggested to her best friend that they move off-campus together, Mallory was all for it. Their dorm had become a party palace full of constant distraction, not to mention fire alarms going off at 2 AM. They had met as first-year psychology students, and Mallory hoped Jenna’s good study habits would rub off on her and they could finish their four-year psychology degrees together next June. But things changed quickly when Jenna met Gavin, a grad student who casually mentioned he was working for the hottest new talent on campus, Pro...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Darling, Worm. You Promised.

Submitted to Contest #307

Darling, Worm. You Promised. His eyes were cold, like everything in this place. They were gray and placid and unmoving and they stared straight through Daniel. The mouth hung open in abject horror, face contorted in throbbing anguish, and hand still white-knuckled around a pistol that could no longer protect him. Daniel knew the stranger had died terrified and most definitely screaming. His body had been ripped in half by the land mine, though it hadn’t done the courtesy of killing him instantly. Part of Daniel felt sorry for the man. Part ...

10 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

For The Touch of Death

Submitted to Contest #307

The firstborn son of every Henrichson is cursed to live forever. I wasn’t born just to suffer with my many forefathers, who barely breathe as rotting skin and bone in our family’s catacombs. I was born to inherit the responsibility of granting our family a touch of death. As a doctor in philosophy and science, I’m certain the cure for our cursed immortality will be found in the science of death, not the worship of it. I, Levi, am the first Henrichson who hasn’t uttered a prayer. At President Marbas University, I’m the Head Librarian of The L...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Possession

Submitted to Contest #307

They say if you boil a frog slowly, it doesn’t jump out.That’s how I explain it, sometimes, when people ask.When they tilt their heads and say, “Why didn’t you just leave?” But I didn’t realize that I was boiling.Not at first. He wore cologne that smelled like smoke and amber.Drove an old car with torn leather seats and a tape deck that worked only if you tapped twice on the dash.Said things such as “You’re not like other girls” and “I’d kill for you.” He had battered knuckles when I met him.Said they came from defending someone’s honor.That...

9 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The Red Room

Submitted to Contest #307

St. Cyprian’s College for the Arts stood on a hill, its sandstone walls streaked with pride and monsoon rot. Founded in 1893 for the daughters of East India Company officers, it had long since rebranded itself as a premier co-ed academy for the “arts and excellence.” Its drama programme was a crown jewel, full of jargon, imported light boards, and teachers who quoted Stanislavski between bites of quinoa salad. And yet, beneath its curated elegance, the place smelled of varnished wood, mothballs, and something older — like dust caught in colo...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The wanting

Submitted to Contest #307

It began, as most things do, with a longing.Not a loud one. Not the kind that breaks doors or screams into voids.This one was quieter. A pulse beneath the skin.A shadow behind every other thought. A wanting so old it didn’t need a name.It found her when she was twelve.A girl with too-wide eyes and silent hunger.She stood at the edge of the school auditorium stage, behind red curtains that smelled like dust and dreams. The other girl was center stage, speaking lines she knew by heart. Lines that were supposed to be hers.The applause when the ...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Rilestone: Jenny's Hunt

Submitted to Contest #307

The flash of white hair flit between the trees as a pair of sneakers fitting for a ten-year-old boy pounded upon the dirt. Eyes of light-blue scanned the left and right directions before focusing ahead, trying to look around the many ground foliage protruding from below, either guarding potential falls or hiding places. He couldn't stop, not yet. Somewhere, out in these woods, someone was out to get him. The sound of a little girl's scream erupted unexpectedly, barely half a mile to his right. "Hanna", he whispered, and then he placed a h...

9 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Possession

Submitted to Contest #307

The crimson glow of the neon sign painted the dive bar in hues of danger and desire. Hazel, a creature woven from shadows and centuries, watched from her shadowed booth. Her eyes, the color of ancient sapphires, fixated on a woman perched at the bar, nursing a cheap beer. The woman, plump and unsuspecting, exuded an aura of naïve sweetness. Hazel craved her, deeply. Not just her blood, though that was a given, but her very essence. To claim her as her own- body, blood, and soul was a hunger Hazel hadn’t felt in decades.As Hazel moved, a pred...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Your Goddess Weeps

Submitted to Contest #307

“How long do we have to wait here? This place smells like rat shit and mildew,” a small woman said.She was equipped with a mid-sized blade sheathed at her side and wore light armor.“Until we see 'em,” a portly man grunted, taking a long drag from his cigarette.He was outfitted with the same blade and armor as the woman.“Why can’t we just leave this to the Saints stationed at the capital? That’s where the priestess resides anyway.”“Because—”“Because what, Yacob?”“Because we can’t let those inkskinned bastards get anywhere near the priestess, ...

7 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

No Bell

Submitted to Contest #307

Lorenzo was a Golden Gloves boxer from New York. He was a typical male in every sense. Around the world, boys fight, grow older, fall in love, or find a suitable partner. Then they get married, have kids, and buy a house– not necessarily in that order. This being the case, Lorenzo met a young lady in his 20s, had a child in his 30s, and bought a house in his 40s. And, as most men do, Lorenzo walked into his midlife with a suit and tie and left hobbies in his past. But, as most men do, he brought his past with him into his future. He could p...

5 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone who discovers a mysterious object in a seemingly ordinary place.

Short Story – 76 stories

Center your story around someone or something that undergoes a transformation.

Dramatic – 108 stories

Write a story about a test or exam with a dangerous or unexpected twist.

Short Story – 50 stories

Write a story about a secret group or society.

Short Story – 95 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel