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Weekly Contest #372
Fatal accidents/roadkill Tess couldn’t sleep. There it was again. Scritch-scratch, scritch-scratch… She pressed her fingers into her ears and dragged the eiderdown over her head, but the sound only sharpened in the dark. Above her, something moved across the ceiling. Slow at first. Then urgent. She knew they were up there. Worse, she could smell them. When the scratching stopped, the silence was enormous. Tess held her breath. ‘What were they up to now?’ Something scraped overhead, heavy, and deliberate, as if something solid was being drag...
Weekly Contest #370
‘We don’t have time for this!’ I looked him in the eye, trying hard to keep mine dry. We stood on the edge of the cliff, the sea crashing far below, then looked back at each other. ‘Don’t look,’ I said. ‘Just do it.’ For a second, he looked exactly as he had when I first met him back in September 1967. Our first day at primary school. He was all teeth and shyness. I was blonde curls and non-stop chatter. We were always in the same class and became best friends. Then I passed my 11+, and he didn’t. I went to the Girls’ Grammar, he went to the...
Weekly Contest #369
There are references to a fatal car accident/child death in this story. Lottie had been up since dawn, at least, it felt like she had! She hadn’t slept a wink. She never did on the night of 14th July, and wouldn’t tomorrow, on the 15th. The date was ingrained on her soul. But today was the sixtieth anniversary. She glanced out of the kitchen window at the garage. At 93, she was too old to drive. Today, of all days, she wished she could have driven, just once more! The kitchen radio had played their song yesterday. Why couldn’t they have pla...
This story contains details of sexual violence, physical violence and suicide. I regret I never fought back sooner. I regret he was ever born, that I was ever born I regret I never killed him! You do not know my story. Why should you? You do not know me. And after you have read my story, you will wish too that I had never been born! Because I know everyone. I know everything. I see it all. I hear it all. I know it all. *** For I am the dust your shoes kick up on a dry day, making you cough, filling your throat. I am the uninvited wasp at y...
Weekly Contest #368
Lyra had desperately wanted to visit the Stones of Gawain so she could hardly believe she was finally standing right in front of them! They were exactly as she had imagined, full of majestic grandeur and a little mossy and crumbly around the edges. But then, they were thousands of years old. As she took her final photo using her phone camera, she noticed a figure hovering in the background. She tried to enlarge the photo on her phone, but her battery suddenly died. ‘Strange, I’m sure it was showing 30% a few minutes ago!’ It was quite a trek...
Weekly Contest #367
‘It was such a wonderful day. The sun was shining; the birds were singing and…’ ‘That’s enough of that soppy crap!’ Lottie Entwistle leaned out of bed and switched off the radio. She glanced at the time. It was already 9 o’clock and she was still in bed. A low rumble forced her to throw back the covers and stretch. ‘Come on, Lottie, it is just a day like any other day!’ Another rumble. ‘Okay, okay, I hear you!’ She put a hand on her stomach and patted it. Washed, dressed and looking smarter than usual, Lottie studied her reflection. ‘Not bad...
Weekly Contest #364
“I really do not know what this is all about!” I said indignantly from the uncomfortable chair opposite the nice young man in his smart uniform. He looked at me with surprise, and a little pity in his eyes, as if I were a confused old dear who had wandered in from the biscuit aisle. If someone had told me this time last week that I would be being interrogated by a Police Officer whilst wearing my favourite pussy pyjamas, I would never have believed them! I mean, me, Lottie Entwistle, a 92-year-old great-grandmother! For goodness' sake, the ...
Weekly Contest #360
Two more suns, two more moons, then finito! It was not as if I had accomplished anything untoward, well nothing serious that I could recall. Apparently, my time was expiring! What does that actually mean, and how very dare they organise such a predicament on my behalf? I do not remember agreeing to that! I gazed at the trees across the yard. Just standing there, swaying gently in the breeze. Every now and then a few yellowing leaves would hurry down to the ground where they would scuttle along the tarmac, looking for a place to rest. A bit l...
Weekly Contest #359
Norma’s Story It was my mum’s birthday today, and had she still been here, she would have been 52. I visited their graves whenever I could. Well, when I say graves, they were both in the same plot together. It was what they wanted, to be as close as possible to each other. I visited them on their birthdays, Christmas, Mothering Sunday, Easter, Fathers’ Day, and the anniversaries of their deaths. If I could make the time to come in between, then I would. There was always a bit of cleaning and tidying to do around the grave. The grass grew so...
Weekly Contest #357
The little black and white cat hid in the hollow of an old hawthorn tree. There was a fence behind it, and he could just squeeze himself through the gap. He slept here most nights now, he felt safe. A deep wound on one side of his face where a larger, territorial cat, called Missy, from the house across the road had bitten him four days ago, was festering and painful. But being attacked, by other cats and people too, was just something he had grown used to. Once when he had wandered into the garden of the house three doors down looking for f...
Weekly Contest #356
She bit her lip hard, wincing at the pain. A trickle of blood ran down her chin. She did it again this time ignoring the pain, if she could feel it, she knew she was still here. Whether she wanted to be or not. It made no difference anymore either way. She could smell the saltiness in the air, feel the breeze moving her hair around her face, but her heart was empty. The sky was the brightest blue she had seen it for a long time. The grey storm clouds a distant memory. She absentmindedly ran her palm over the wooden bench. She wondered how ma...
Weekly Contest #354
She knew what she wanted now. It had all become clear. Awake, listening to the sounds of the night. It was that time of year. Owls were midst courtship. The female with her familiar shriek that sounded as if she was saying ‘To-wheat, To-wheat, To-wheat,’ the male answering a deep melodic ‘Whoo hooo whoo, Whoo hooo whoo.’ The vixen screaming for a mate. Sounding like a call for help. As if she was under attack. She knew what that felt like. The dog fox tentatively replying with guttural barks. There were other vixens around to reply to. Then ...
Weekly Contest #353
Have you any idea what it is like to be me? Overlooked, abused, taken for granted, climbed onto, sat on, and even, scratched into! Why you humans think it is perfectly okay to wield your penknives and write ridiculous nonsense on my beautiful body defies me! Only yesterday two of you climbed up next to me giggling like idiots and thought you should leave your mark on me. My sparkling surface emblazoned forever with Jed + Kas! Well at least their names were short! It hurts too. Every gouge shoots through me, loosening my skin, pieces of my bo...
Weekly Contest #351
Sensitive Content: Traffic accident/Substance abuse/Violence My Gran had died and left me a collection of memories in an old case. She had spent her last few years in The Poppy Fields Nursing Home, just outside the Medway Towns. After I lost mum with Covid, there was only me left to visit her. All Gran’s friends had long since past. There was nobody else. The young nurse looked sympathetic as she handed me a battered brown leather case. All I had left of an amazing woman who had travelled the world. Gran had been one of the first women jour...
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