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Write about a character doing something they’ve done hundreds of times — only this time, it’s taken on a new meaning.

Posted in Character on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 147 stories

Jump

Submitted to Contest #101

I stand at the edge of the platform, looking down at the view below. It’s dark, still a few minutes before daybreak, so I can only make out rough shapes and outlines of cliffs and trees. The waterfall plummets down the cliff behind me, its thunderous chorus filling my ears with the sound of crashing water. It is a powerful and terrifying sound and though I have made this kind of jump many times before, the sheer, violent speed of the water rushing down the cliff is enough to give me pause. Just as I am about to lose my nerve, the sun peaks ...

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Prep Work

Submitted to Contest #101

It was 1975 and my sister was getting married. Everyone thought it was wonderful; I thought she’d lost her mind. She had the perfect life at college. I imagined parties until all hours and concerts. Classes, papers, sulky professors, exams, and incessant poverty didn’t factor into my vision of her life.     The wedding would be small, out of doors. I would serve as bridesmaid, my sister’s best friend as the maid of honor. My mother would make our dresses for the event; floor-length, empire waist, spaghetti straps. In...

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Takeaway

Submitted to Contest #101

It had been about five days after they met that one of them had first stepped foot in the other's flat at the end of the day, ready to share dinner. He couldn’t remember exactly when it was or what had happened but he had always been bad at remembering first times, a weakness he hated. Always thought about it a year later and wished he had paid more attention, he had long since taken to writing down itineraries of holidays or important days so he didn’t need to store the memories in his head, they could just be prompted by reading about what...

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A trip to that house.. Again!

Submitted to Contest #101

She had done it a thousand times, a thousand for sure.she did it every time her parents were very busy at work, every time she missed her, every time at celebrations and festivals. She had always loved to go there and cried a lot of times too, to stay there for more time.Here was she sitting in the back seat of the car, her mother on driver's and father next to her mum, doing the same thing, going to her maternal grandparent's home once again."When will we reach there?" She asked her face gloomy and voice shaky with the tears she was holding...

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The Genie and the Garbage Man

Submitted to Contest #101

Drive to the next house, pick up the can, dump. Drive to the next house, pick up the can, dump. Drive to the next house..... Gary hated the repetition of his job. He hated ending his work day at 3 pm stinking like everything and anything the upper middle classes decided to throw out that day- funky smelling couches, leftover pizza, road kill, deceased family pets, and whatever else your wildest imagination could think of to throw out. Yeah, it was an easy job. Yeah, it was a decent paying job. But it just wasn't a very challenging or...

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Enginestart_Test (A Neo Kosmo Story)

Submitted to Contest #101

Kyler typed in the command to the shuttle’s console and slumped back in the chair, expecting to hear the engines roar and reverberate around the colony ship’s hangar bay as they span up to 100% thrust capacity. He’d lost track of how many times he’d entered it in the last month in an endless series of diagnostics on the colony ship’s fleet of shuttles. Enginestart_test, enginestart_test, enginestart_test. It was important of course. When the shuttles did get called up to descend through the atmosphere of the vibrant blue and green planet b...

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This Time Is Different

Submitted to Contest #101

This time is different. The hundreds of times I had gone with Aiyana it had been considered a result of our misbehavings. A punishment. But this time is different. It’s an adventure. It’s a new perspective. It’s a chance to save ourselves from a terrible fate.  ***** I follow Aiyana’s dark, chocolate-brown locks that shimmer from the water’s reflection. Her animal pelt dress glows in the dim moonlight like a lantern, trailing farther and farther away from me.  “Wait up, Aiyana!” I call, as I pause to gulp a breath of air. S...

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PRAYER -- OM SHANTI

Submitted to Contest #101

Lalita was reciting her daily prayers. As it was nearing its ending, she concluded by reciting the Shanti Mantra, --- Let all people be in happiness, --- let all people lead a healthy life, --- let all people see the noble things only, --- Let all people experience that which is good for all, --- let no one suffer, --- Let peace prevail everywhere. Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti. Then she prostrated on bare floor and showered a bunch of flowers on her favourite God Ganesha. She folded her hands and with closed eyes meditated for a few se...

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The Day His World Stood Still

Submitted to Contest #101

 The Day His World Stood Still Suzanne Marsh He stood stock still in front of the television; dear God what was happening? Tears began to trickle down his face. How could something so horrible be happening here in the United States? Will, was in the process of getting ready for his shift as an EMT, in San Diego County California. His twin brother Gil was there in New York City attached to the FDNY Tower Ladder One; he said a quick prayer that his brother would stay safe. He drove through rush hour traffic in Los Angeles; bumper to bumpe...

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The Truth About My Sister

Submitted to Contest #101

I really did not think it would be any different, Anna coming to school with me that day. I’d always thought that everyone would understand her the way I always understood her, the way our best friend Katie always understood her. Everyone always wondered why my twin sister didn’t come to school with me, I just said she had some issues going on and everyone just acted as if they knew exactly what I was talking about. Yet when Anna finally turned up for her first day at my school why did they behave so differently than what I had expected? ...

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The heart of the matter

Submitted to Contest #101

“Today, I will break up with my boyfriend.” I said as I lost yet another staring contest with the ceiling. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. I looked at my phone and it’s 4:31 PM. It’s been an hour. Time is a funny thing, the way it forces me to get out of bed is amusing. After washing my face and brushing my teeth, I went outside hoping to get warmth from the sun, even just a little bit. “Today, I will break up with my boyfriend.” I said as I went back inside, drank water and ate a banana. I made coffee and opened my computer, stared at ...

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When In Doubt

Submitted to Contest #101

It started out, the questions about the monotonous repetition of doing everything, anything. Eating, working, even sleeping, same dreams, nothing changes, always the same. I found myself counting my actions. Winding up the electric chord or hose; one, two, three, thirty-three. I realized that was, is, one of the cautions attributed to insanity. It has to do, or so I remember, with allowing yourself to be lulled by repetition into a state of subservience to routine. The less one objects to repetition the easier it is ...

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MY DAUGHTER SUSAN

Submitted to Contest #101

It was Sunday night, the rain has been shower over the day,I was sitting on the wooden chair looking my daughter Susan who use her 8th years of age, sleeping in her bed peacefully.Her Mom had died while she was just three months,so that I raised her up till today with my own hands, I do anything I can but can't be better as her Mom.We talk each other as a friend, smile,laught and eat chocolate in every Saturday.I drive her to School in every day.After school I take her with my blue Car.By the way She tolds me how she used her amazing day.I p...

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Life Without Her

Submitted to Contest #101

If you told me that the love of my life would be cursed by an ancient god years before our marriage I wouldn't believe you. But I wasn’t told that before I proposed to her I wasn’t told that before we had children I wasn’t told that until the god came to take her away Now I’m here Going through the same routine that we both went through Without her by my side I get up and head to the bathroom to start my routine Deep inside of me, I expect her to come in and nuzzle her chin at the crook of my neck as she usually does The brief minut...

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Breakfast with Jerry

Submitted to Contest #101

“It was awkward,” I said. Missy and I were having our pizza and garlic bread, carbo loading for the night’s activities ahead. I watched her shove a stub of bread into a plastic ramekin, smashing it against the infinite sides to get the last remnants of chunky marinara sauce. She popped it into her mouth then sucked the excess grease off her thumb and forefinger before wiping them on a napkin. I could see now that she was smiling. “Why was it awkward?” Missy asked with a raised eyebrow. “Was it not what you expected?” “It wasn’t at a...

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