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Write about a character trying to hide a secret from everyone.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 28, 2025

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✍️ 56 stories

It Was Only an Appetizer

Submitted to Contest #296

We wandered with purpose. However, the purpose wasn't always noble, and it wasn't always physical wandering. My feet wandered. My mind wandered. But, they wandered with purpose. This evening, we wandered in the car. We went with friends to meet up with other friends for dinner. Three of the six of us for dinner were old friends with a zillion mutual connections. The remaining three of us would smile and give up on trying to be heard over the television and patron buzz of the restaurant.And then Old Jiminy was in my ear, "You won't be heard, ...

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Curse of the Killer Instinct

Submitted to Contest #296

The entire time the woman with shiny red hair is telling me about her plans to save the world, I am plotting her death and let me tell you, it will be a painful one. It’s hard to reconcile this optimistic and seemingly capable woman with the gruesome death I can’t help but imagine for her. We’re sitting near each other in the airport, having what I’m sure this perfectly nice woman named Courtney thinks is a normal conversation while she tells me about her humanitarian journey to Yemen. It would be an otherwise pleasant conversation if the da...

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A Secret Amongst Witches

Submitted to Contest #296

*Trigger warning: curse words, physical violence* The three of us regarded him with disdain as he tried his best to act normal, his countenance indicating culpability. Even my familiar, Wiz, the bright emerald-eyed cat with soft ebony fur, sat in the corner of the room, looking upon the villain with scorn as he sat in the circle of judgment. “Untie me, witches!” Aiden exclaimed hoarsely, his face red, his forehead beading with sweat. Winter, Delaney, and I looked at each other solemnly before bursting into a fit of laughter. “Fucking bitche...

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The Unsung Hero of Red Shift

Submitted to Contest #296

I had to be the logistics man, you see, because my comrades couldn’t organise a slam poetry night, let alone a cyber attack on a healthcare corporation. They were talented, all right - they all played their parts. Jenna, Victor, Glyph and the delightful Fatima. They were a nice bunch, for lefties, but Christ alive, did they need telling what to do when. Steve Glubman to the rescue. There we were, after-hours in an out-of-the-way flat in Cowley, Oxford - found by Mr. Logistics: yours truly. Someone with a bit of nouse had thought to pre-order...

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The Secret Crush

Submitted to Contest #296

Ted Farmer was excited about his high school class 20th reunion. He hadn’t seen most of his classmates for nearly all of those 20 years. Two months after graduation, Ted’s father was transferred to another location about four hours away. So, he was isolated from the rest of his class.But he had recently heard some news about Brenda Gibson. Brenda was very pretty and very popular in his class. She could pick any boy in her class she wanted for a date.“She is out of my league,” Ted thought back then. However, that didn’t keep him from having a...

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The Last Page… The First Word

Submitted to Contest #296

BookCity was built on silence; on stories; and on secrets. A city completely isolated from the whole world, stretching beneath a criss-cross of bridges in a seemingly endless maze of dusty bookstores. To move around, the citizens had to walk on the roofs of the stores, and jump from roof to bridge and back again. Even though there were escalators, they rarely worked, and when they did, they groaned under the weight of the people; and the stairs leading to the top were no different. People moved around in the labyrinthine corridors, looking t...

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Snack

A G

Submitted to Contest #296

[TW: graphic violence, mentions of sex] "Mariah, are you sure you'll be okay getting home?" "Sierra, I swear to God I'm fine." Sierra looked skeptical still. Mariah had quite a bit to drink at dinner, only ordering drinks and no food. While the other girls offered to drive Mariah home in her car, she insisted on driving herself. "Okay, fine," Sierra put her hands up, defeated. "You let me know the minute you get home, girl." "Yeah, yeah, fine." Mariah used her fob to unlock the door and start the car. Every light seemed bright as hell and bl...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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Hidden Friends

Submitted to Contest #296

If you had ever asked Crystal Smith what she would think of the little people who lived in her walls, she would have called you insane. It’s a well-known fact that little people — fairies, brownies, pixies, or others of the sort — didn’t exist. But as her radio turned itself on for the third time in as many weeks, blasting the Queen’s Greatest Hits CD she’d been forbidden to remove, to wake her up, she would say her answer had changed.“Up! Up! That thing is coming again!” A squeaky but somehow still booming voice called out. Crystal groaned,...

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Fae Awakening

Submitted to Contest #296

Most considered the Fae merely myth or legend. Others claim the Fae are merely fantasy or the stuff made of dreams. A small few know the truth. The Fae are real.The Fae were more than real, although their existence was always kept a secret. While many held the belief that the world had seen the last of the Fae. They survived, remaining dormant for centuries until the relic met one with a drop of Fae blood. This is her story. Her Fae awakening.Revanna had grown up hearing all about the Fae and their tremendous power. Since the death of parent...

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In the Den of the Lion

Submitted to Contest #296

You had to ruin everything, didn’t you? With just a few weeks to go, I almost made it out unscathed and undetected. None of you had a clue what was underneath. Yes, I, Daniel Owen, had infiltrated the ranks. I had fooled you all. But in a single moment, you destroyed all those years of work. At first, the fake persona was hard to create. But watch a few spy movies like I have, and you slowly get the hang of it. Besides, seeing how the ones that had been discovered were treated, there really wasn’t any other option. There was no way I would ...

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The Labyrinth Walk

Submitted to Contest #296

Warning-mature themesI never expected to see her here, Lance thought, then chided himself for judging Jamie Fentress on her past.“Officer Strubhart!”The tall, husky man in black sweats and sneakers smiled, waved a hand, and said, “I’m retired. Call me Lance.” He ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair, feeling a little awkward knowing that Jamie was unaware he knew her secret.Jamie, equally casual in a blue-gray jumpsuit and sandals, looked different from what he remembered, with her blonde hair in a pixie cut. She lowered her voice as t...

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The Secrets We Keep

Submitted to Contest #296

No one ever questioned Hannah’s perfect life, and she intended to keep it that way—no matter the cost. Every carefully curated detail, from her perfectly manicured lawn to the impeccable family photos on the wall, painted a picture of success and happiness. She had the job, the house, the husband, and the two kids who always smiled in every photo. No one knew about the cracks that lurked beneath the surface, not even her closest friends. But today… Today, everything was about to change.Hannah sat at her kitchen table, staring at her phone, h...

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Fast Forward/Slow Rewind

Submitted to Contest #296

My wife has gone missing.I must have stepped onto that pile of words hundreds of times in the last four days. It sounds almost insincere. I can barely repeat it anymore, and yet, I’ll say it again. My—wife—has—gone—missing. Nora’s clothes are all here. I don’t think she ran away. The police don’t think she ran away, either. They think I’m a suspect. A suspect in what? They always suspect the husband.I don’t know what happened to her because her closet is full. All Nora’s shoes are still piled in a tangle on the floor. She owns at least eight...

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Who, when, where?

Submitted to Contest #296

Lancelot, King’s Son, Galahad, Red Knight, Black Knight, Le Chevalier Malfait, Jenner Sapper – whoever he was supposed to be at this particular present moment – was pacing in the writing room of Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies. There was not much room to pace – five steps – turn- five steps- turn. The fifth step in one direction inevitably brought him to the window. And every time he reached it he felt a strong urge to climb over the bookshelf and exit the cabin through that window. Of course it would be much simpler ...

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Cheating

Submitted to Contest #296

Cheatingby Lori McCloskeyI had known Frank Irving for twelve years. He was a muscular man who liked to work out in the gym and played football at the local university. Frank had a well-kept mustache and beard and didn't have a blemish on his face. He was so handsome and robust that he attracted women wherever he went. The only thing was that the women didn't see Frank for who he was.I met Frank when we were in grade school. He was not a good student. He excelled only in the gym and couldn't care less about academics. He thought academics wer...

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