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Weekly Contest #368
It is the boy’s 9th birthday. A yellow cake with chocolate frosting sits on the table in front of him. At the other end of the table his father’s seated, and the boy’s mom stands behind him, holding a camera, trying to snap a picture as the fire from the candles light up her son’s face. “Smile, Ian!”The boy smiles awkwardly, as if he doesn’t know how. He widens his mouth too much, forcing his teeth out, and his eyes remain fully open.“The wax is gonna drip all over the cake,” his father says.“How many ninth birthdays is he going to have...
Weekly Contest #367
The insatiable desire for a nap overcomes me, but alas, my eyes do not shut for more than a blink. No, I have a long night ahead of me. Too long. A night from which there is no return. The mere thought of it overwhelms me with a voice saying the journey I’m about to embark on will never end. It will swallow the rest of my waking days.But I must finish this. If I don’t, then what am I? I would no longer be a man, nor even human. Perhaps some form of insect, somehow able to survive every hardship thrown at it, yet never able to make a name for...
Weekly Contest #298
Your words written in the fog on the glass of my shower haunt me.Dream of me, it reads, in all caps. You’re careful not to get that part of the glass wet, or to squeegee it when you finish. The hot water hurts, but not enough to make you forget.You realize now it’s at eye level and you picture her short stature reaching up to write it with her fingers. You wonder if she did this intentionally, and your tears are rinsed away as quickly as they come.You think about this person, as a kid. Like a baby, almost, in a way. The most vulnerable side ...
Weekly Contest #48
A character slowly uses the black lines on the paper to form himself, tearing a word from the page. The word of his name. Twisting the 90 degree angles in the letters into straight forms, the letters crack like bones. Somewhere, a linguist screams in agony. He moves like a cloned human, who sat in a vat for his entire life, learning to walk for the first time. But he learns quick, looking around, at the rest of the page he stands on, the words beneath him. The words of his story, told the same way all our stories: by the intertwining lines o...
Weekly Contest #44
"They said she was smiling, when they found her."I remain silent, unsure how to respond with anything besides anger. "Your mother fought her entire life, and handled it better than most. She's finally happy."I doubt that, I think, struggling to hold my tongue. My mouth remains closed, and eventually they leave. No final words. No last memory to hold onto. Just absolutely nothing. I don't remember the last thing I said to her. It was probably, see you next week, or something meaningless. The day of the death is always los...
Weekly Contest #43
Gideon was about to start his third of four final papers when the doorbell rang. Probably for someone else in the house, he thinks. Matt, his roommate, goes to the door, and looks out the peephole. “Yo, Gid, it’s for you!”Gideon gets up and sprints over from his room to the hallway, and then starts walking at a socially acceptable pace to the door. He looks through the peephole, and opens the door as fast as he can.“Petra!” He yells. Behind the door, a blue, wrinkled pterodactyl stands. Her wings are folded in around her front...
Weekly Contest #42
Light. Piercing, white light, blinding. My eyes flutter open, taking in the world. My wings beat back and forth, but I stay on the ground. I am a bird. This I know. I have wings, but they don't work right now. I am in this green plant, hiding from the bright, and the predators. I do not know what exists out there. I need worms if I am to survive, but I have found no worms. No mother to bring them to me, or to chew them up. I have a vague memory of my mother feeding me worms, a few days ago, but now she's gone. A predator may have gotten her....
Shortlisted for Contest #12 ⭐️
7PM-6AM. That’s the truckers shift. Assuming the driver doesn’t take any breaks, and tonight, he isn’t. Richie’s the one on the road. Carrying a double trailer on the back, this one weighs 120,000 pounds. Richie needs to make sure the back is secure on the truck before he sets out on the road. That takes about a half hour, after which, he is soaring. He starts driving at 7PM. The sun is just beginning to set. It’s the summer, so Richie isn’t enveloped in total darkness yet. He loves watching the sunset while he drives. The sky is a pale...
Weekly Contest #11
A boy sits inside his home watching a cartoon on television. He is eleven. His father comes in the front door, having picked up barbeque food. To the boy and his two brothers, the father says,“Help yourself guys. I’ve got the runs.”The father goes upstairs into the bathroom while the boys eat dinner together. Afterwards, they each go on their separate paths. The oldest, Jimmy, invites his girlfriend over and they go to the basement to “watch TV”. The middle child, Danny, goes upstairs onto the computer and plays some game. The youngest, the ...
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