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Write about a secret that could thaw — or shatter — a relationship.

Posted in Dramatic on Nov 28, 2025

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✍️ 32 stories

Nothing freezes faster than trust

Submitted to Contest #331

Nothing Freezes Faster Than TrustFrozen to the bone, he walks briskly from the gym toward home. The falling snow tickles his collar and crackles beneath his shoes. David looks forward to curling up with Olivia by the fireplace, a good glass of wine within reach, wrapped in her sparkling enthusiasm. The thought alone warms him straight through the cutting wind.He crosses the frozen pond and slips as he steps from the ice onto the snow-covered grass. “Fucking ice,” he mutters to himself. Just as he’s about to get up, he sees something black ly...

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The Tale of Red Ford

Submitted to Contest #331

Snow hammered the walls of Hearthwatch Fort hard enough to fill the arrow slits.Korax sat close to the long central fire, palms stretched toward the heat, watching sparks rise into the rafters. The hall smelled of smoke, wet wool, and a faint tang of orcish tallow from the other side of the hearth. Humans and orcs both hunched over bowls, shoulders formed in the same exhausted curve, their respective armor stacked against the far wall in untidy rows.Outside, the winter wind howled. Inside, someone was telling a story.“—and then Sir Edric spu...

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A Cold Winter's Heart

Submitted to Contest #331

Keeping track of her lies had become a full time job. Ellie sat on the end of her bed, hairdryer in one hand, her phone in the other. A dirty-blond bird's nest formed on the side of her head as she scrolled through her notes app trying to decipher her frantic memos: 89 bday not 83 bro in the SAS??? vgn 3 yrs Marathon 2019 & spk French morning person 5am! :o Had she really told him her brother was in the special forces? Heat accumulated on her scalp. Ellie yelped and swapped hands. The most troublesome lie was her age; everyone said she ...

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Happily Ever After

Submitted to Contest #331

‘Would you like to see the house?’Lise smiled. This was their third walk around the estate. It was springtime and everything was loudly in bloom, scents competing with one another, vivid yellows and greens replacing winter’s greys. She tossed her hair back, knowing the sunlight would pick up its golden glints, then felt embarrassed at the gesture.‘Won’t your children mind?’‘No, the boy won’t be home.’‘And your daughter?’‘She’s always home. But she won’t mind a guest. We don’t have many. It will be nice for her.’The gamekeeper’s cottage was a...

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The Ice Maiden

Submitted to Contest #331

That Winter was a hard one and no one was prepared for it. Previous Winters had been busted flushes. They flattered to deceive. There was a pattern to it all, if anyone cared to look. History was the original Google. But it never got the hits. The hardest Winters took their time coming and the longer they prepared the harder they were. They were the payback for all the good, soft times. The news of my Father’s death was unexpected. As far as I was concerned he’d been dead for a long, long time. There was a fork in the path of our lives and w...

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Winter Reunion

Submitted to Contest #331

Wind shrieks as snow skates over the frozen lake. Hot cocoa warms my throat, my stomach. The window I watch from rattles. It’s the same one I sat at each season we came here growing up.I wait.Waiting is my specialty. I wait for my new hot cocoa to steam (one mug, never enough). Wait at this frosted window. Wait in fear for winter to thaw.I waited for him.For three months.Planned everything with precision. Winter is a complicit party in my excitement.His face the last time I saw him terrified me. Those eyes. Hollow. Gone. But here? I’ve been ...

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Long time no see

Submitted to Contest #331

CW: Mature themes and sexual content Long time no see She lets me in murmuring something like Hello and leads me through the corridor to the kitchen. The whole apartment is like a shrine. All the walls are plastered with photos of him, and I mean all the walls. It’s as if she gathered all these memories, these moments frozen in time, and couldn’t decide which ones mattered most, so she printed them all and plastered them across the walls, arranged them carefully in frames on tables, on shelves. The sight is not unpleasant, after all he was ...

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Almost

Submitted to Contest #331

Kate I’ve loved Liam my entire life. Most of it, anyway. We met when I was seven and I was at my first slumber party. His little sister, Claire, and I were in the same grade and were best friends. We had begged our mothers for weeks to let us have a sleepover, and they had both finally conceded. Claire and I had spent the entire evening hulled up in her room making pony bead keychains and singing along to her Jonas Brothers cd at the tops of our lungs. When Claire’s mom called us down for dinner, Claire and I came bounding down the hall, gig...

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Thawing You

Submitted to Contest #331

My heart freezes as you pull the sleeve away. Your eyes are solid ice. My eyes start to sting. I try to pull away, but your eyes are so damn cold as you ask me,“Why?”One Day EarlierI couldn’t help but notice how blue your eyes were. The new girl in school. You radiated confidence. Strutting from place to place. Wearing those sweater tops with big gashes down the middle of the chest. You would leave jaws on the floor. Then those icy eyes fell on me as you marched to my locker. I felt like a deer in headlights. I wanted to get hit.“What’s your...

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Aunt Maggie

Submitted to Contest #331

The last time I saw my Aunt Maggie was New Years’ Eve, 1999. I had just turned 10 a few weeks before that, and Aunt Maggie had joined us at our house for my birthday celebration. Up until then, I hadn’t seen much of Aunt Maggie; she “hadn’t been feeling well,” according to my mom. But after she left the party, my mom remarked that she had been “on her best behavior.” I had found it strange then to hear a grown-up talking about another grown-up like that. I had thought that only kids were instructed to be “on their best behavior,” like when a...

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The doomed life of Edward Heeley

Submitted to Contest #331

CW: Contains themes and/or references to murder and distress At exactly 6.58am his darling wife Sandra places a steaming mug of black coffee onto their teal set of matching coasters.At 7.05am his wife and the boys flee to school in the family's Mitsubishi Outlander while Edward soaks in the glorious twenty minutes of serene silence before leaving himself.He rides the tube until 8am with a hand tucked into his tweed jacket and the other wrapped around the hanging rail, it’s always busy.He passes the stall next to the office building at 8.15am...

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The Safe

Submitted to Contest #331

The Safe “Just don’t touch it, Candace.” I stare at him, expressionless. The pitch of his voice, the tremor of his hands, the way he just refused to meet my eyes. Where was my husband? I don’t say a word, but he reads me like a book. “Sorry, honey. Sorry – It’s just… “ He sighs, puts his hands in his pockets, takes them out again. “I just need you to stay out of this. Promise me. Please.” This time, he looks at me for five short seconds, but I’m the one who looks away first. “Mhmm.” It comes out softly. I can see the relief in his eyes as...

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Winter Secrets

Submitted to Contest #331

Winter SecretsBy Cher Stonestreet I can see out my front window the snow has started falling . The flakes are big and fluffy. If we get enough snow, this will be great for the children sledding and making snowmen. I wonder what I’ve done with the scarf and hat we always used when we made snowmen? Maybe it’s in the basement in a storage tub. Why do I keep things like that? They are of such little use. Who is going to want that? Not Sabrina; she never liked playing in the snow. Maybe her boys would like them. I must stay conscious. I...

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Secrets

Submitted to Contest #331

“Aaaaand now we’re outta here,” Tanya said with a wry laugh, she and Serenity rushing out before Katelynn or I could say anything else. I only shook my head, rolling my eyes, before confronting Katelynn. “I know that since last year, you’ve been tricking Donna into giving you some money. Hell, at least once or twice I’ve caught you stealing from her! There’s nothing you can say or do now to deny it because I know you very well.” She scoffed, folding her arms. “Oh, yeah? Got any solid proof of my so-called ‘money theft’? I’ll wait.” She had...

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The Elven Dancer

Submitted to Contest #331

Through another set of eyes on the only girl, who hung outside of the newly built dance studio for humankind and elves alike. Curious about when she'd actually join it, he followed from a great distance behind her most of the week, to get home everyday. Never seeing nor crossing paths to notice where she lived around that neighborhood. Yet on this particular day, as he set foot on the concrete of the concrete. He glanced over to the art along the wall which the young girl peeked past. Eillieena tilted and tilted some more as he watched her s...

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