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Write a story that has a big twist.

Posted in Dramatic on Sep 19, 2025

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✍️ 133 stories

The Bonus

Submitted to Contest #321

The only time Jade had ever seen a scallop was on television. She had certainly never eaten one, but when the cater-waiter in his stiff suit offered a tray, she smiled as though it were second nature and plucked one little pellet up. The thing wobbled on its toothpick spear like it could sense her hesitancy. Nobody else was eating. They clutched their Champagne flutes with white knuckles instead. The scallop hovered above Jade’s napkin, monogrammed with an “MV.” Should I throw this out? she thought. Chuck it in the fountain? She was used to ...

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Love Story

Submitted to Contest #321

I have always been a fan of the enemy to lovers trope. The Pride and Prejudice structure of going from I Despise You to Marry Me Now. It’s sexy. It is undeniably sexy. There is an established heat from the beginning. A very thin line between seething hatred and lust, and then the sweet transition into something softer. Something lovely. When I was younger, I didn’t really believe in love. But I read about it. Oh, did I read about it. Most of the books I read were romance. The same story told over and over again, in different ways, with a hap...

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ASHA AND THE POISONED FOREST

Submitted to Contest #321

The Root that Refused to DieAs told by Asha, Forest Goddess and keeper of the Verdant SilenceThey call me protector. Goddess. Warden of the green hush. I do not mind the names, though none are mine. I am not named-I am known. By the moss that curls around the bones of fallen deer. By the wind that forgets its direction when it enters my woods. By the roots that whisper secrets too old for language. I have stood here since before the first axe was carved. Before the first fire was begged to stay. My forest is not large, not famous, not mapped...

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0701

Submitted to Contest #321

Sweat beads penetrated Charlie's athlete t-shirt, attached to his skin like a clingy child. He bought up statistical data on his health watch. Swiped the data into oblivion as he teased his burnt calves to walk in an orderly fashion. He smiled internally with a sense of gratification for his task. Running helped to clear his mind of the ills of the world and the intensity of his role as CEO of Unicorn INC, his child cancer start-up that he'd started with his partner Bryce Camp. They were two ambitious students at Whitehall Medical, but neith...

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The Final Examination

Submitted to Contest #321

The room is a stark and sterile morgue designed for the meticulous work of a forensic pathologist. Stainless steel tables dominate the space, shining under soft overhead lights that create a calm, almost ethereal glow. The air is cool and carries a faint antiseptic smell, adding to the clinical atmosphere. A quiet hum reverberates softly, a reminder of the machines and equipment that assist in the autopsies. Shadows dance gently on the walls, creating an ambiance that feels detached yet strangely comforting to Dr. Samuel Grayson. This enviro...

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The Truth of Darkness

Submitted to Contest #321

On a silent night, Anamika was walking alone on a deserted road. Darkness surrounded her, with only a pale-yellow bulb flickering on an electric pole. The echo of her footsteps grew louder, and her heart filled with an unknown fear… as if someone was following her.Suddenly, a voice called from behind: “Stop!”Anamika froze. She turned and saw a man dressed in black, his eyes gleaming strangely. Terrified, she ran as fast as she could.The road ended, and an old appeared before her. Without thinking, she pushed the door open and rushed inside.T...

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Safety Lies Within The Home

Submitted to Contest #321

I have always enjoyed being at home. When I think of being at home, a warmth grows inside of me and spreads out to the tips of my fingers until I feel like jelly, unable to move from my bed. Plenty of other people feel the same, that’s why they can’t wait to go home or get work from home jobs or become recluses. Safety lies within the home. Never in my life have I liked the thought of living alone, all by myself, left raw and exposed for the world around me to beat, batter, and break. I was content with my life, the one I have always lived,...

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Hairy Situation

Submitted to Contest #321

Today was a good day. Today was a really, really fucking good, good day. A new client came into the salon this morning. Pretty young thing. Thick hair to her waist. The hair was black. Coal black. But unlike coal it was shiny, healthy, glimmering underneath the lights. She sat down in the chair and swivelled to face the mirror. “I’m looking for a drastic change,” she told Mark, looking up to his reflection. “A girlfriend suggested a bob to me a few months back and it’s taken all that time to work up the courage to get it done but I’ve made u...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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Of Actions and Consequences

Submitted to Contest #321

“What the hell?”I hear my coworker, Jimmy, whisper over my shoulder. “I thought we were supposed to be at the courthouse; isn’t that where the murder took place?” I say nothing for now. Our car arrives outside of the public library. The engine turns off, and a sharp January wind makes my eyes water. I pull my scarf tighter around my nose. I like winter, but even I have my limits. But winter is murder season. People falling left and right. Poison here, a gunshot there. This is the fifth case within a month; all bodies left with a mark from th...

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PETRUSHKA

Submitted to Contest #321

An explosion of color! A blast of joyful musicks! There looked to be hundreds of tents and kiosks set up for the Shrovetide Fair—the last chance to laugh, dance, and simply just enjoy life before the forty terrible prayer and fasting days of Lent (but don't let a priest here you tell that truth!)Today, from the highest to the lowest, there was no separation between the people. Had Tsar Nicky left the Alexander Palace he would not have found it inappropriate to join the khorovod circle with the lowest of his serfs and gladden their hearts.The...

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A Mother's Day surprise

Submitted to Contest #321

Disclaimer: Extremely graphic and disturbing content A Mother’s Day surprise Sarah couldn't believe how incredibly beautiful the woman still was. Her face was pale and crinkled. She had olive green eyes. And she kept brushing away the silvery strands of hair that blew across her face from the old fashioned circular standing fan.Mrs Marek was a second-generation Polish immigrant. She was half-Irish and her father was a metalworker in Warsaw who sailed to Staten Island in 1911 just before the war. Her mother, Henrietta, was a lacemaker who als...

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Stop 8

Submitted to Contest #321

Virgil was very, very tired. Each morning, he rolled over, groped for the button on the alarm clock, sat up in bed, stretched his arms toward the sky, and let out a yawn that did not sound like a lion's roar. The sounds that came from his mouth while he yawned were a moan. This moan was a lifetime's worth of dissatisfaction jettisoned each morning into the ether, and no one beyond Virgil would ever hear his unhappy braying. No one would ever rush to his side to offer to make things better, to make him better, to make his existence on this pl...

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The Ghost of Orion

Submitted to Contest #321

The dust motes danced in the slanted evening light, each a tiny ghost in the mausoleum of Frederick Brooks’ home office. For ten years, his life had been a collection of ghosts, but one reigned supreme: Lexi. Her face, a cherubic six-year-old forever frozen in a school photograph, stared out from the corkboard that dominated the room. It was a shrine to a ghost, a collage of maps, faded newspaper clippings, and timelines that led everywhere and nowhere. The case of the missing girl, Lexi, had been the magnum opus of his career as a detective...

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A Fishy Tale

Submitted to Contest #321

Wind-surfing the gnarly waves at Gazos Creek Beach had me amped up, stress-free, and hungry as a wolf. Driving back to The City, I veered off the Coast Highway towards Duarte’s Tavern & Restaurant in the tiny town of Pescadero.I stepped off the street into the near-empty barroom and got a welcoming hello from the bartender, a proper old-timer in a white shirt and vest with “Tom” neatly stenciled on a brass name tag.I asked if the restaurant was open yet. He said, Twenty minutes so I slid onto a stool and ordered a draft beer to pass the ...

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The Familiar

Submitted to Contest #321

“Are you sure this is it?” I asked, pacing beside Thomas. My yellow eyes narrowed at the house peeking over the brick wall. “Doesn’t exactly scream murder mansion.”“Yes,” Thomas said. His hands stayed tucked into his trench coat pockets as he studied the façade beneath the brim of his fedora. “The Ghost House of Baker Street. Six deaths in the past six years. All human.” His tone was idle, but his gaze didn’t leave the house.The building was an eighteenth-century Georgian, its multistory brick façade looming behind a weathered wall. Trees st...

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