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“Write about someone who’s granted one wish. What do they wish for?”

Posted in Fantasy on Aug 14, 2026

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✍️ 51 stories

Meant to Be

Weekly Contest #368

‘I wish people meant what they say.’ I say this because my brother has just promised our mother he will visit on Sunday, and he won’t. Bram hasn’t visited our mother on a Sunday in fourteen months, though he has promised to on eleven separate occasions; I know the number because Mum marks his visits on the kitchen calendar before they happen. BRAM — LUNCH is written this Sunday in blue ink, beneath a small drawing of a chicken. “You don’t know that,” she says. I tell her I absolutely do.“He might come,” she says. I tell her he won’t. She loo...

60 likes 81 comments 81
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The Perfect Wish

Weekly Contest #368

The old guy had been patting his pockets for long enough that Jared had started to feel embarrassed for him. The waitress stood beside the table holding the black plastic check presenter against her hip, doing her best to politely hide her mounting frustration. “I know I had it,” he said. “I wouldn’t have ordered if I didn’t.” “It’s okay,” she told him. “Take your time.” Jared watched over the rim of his coffee mug from the adjacent booth. The entire scene was playing out three feet to his left. When the man removed his jacket to more tho...

31 likes 26 comments 26
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The Optimization

Weekly Contest #368

Water foamed over the rim of the pot and hissed on the burner. Scalded starch, burnt garlic. Her laptop sat open on the counter to a column of numbers she still hadn't checked. From the living room, a cartoon chase blared, xylophone notes hammering through the wall."I can't," Micky said. His voice was a small, frayed thing. "The nines are wrong."Marla turned from the stove. Her son's pencil was a pale stick in his grip, his knuckles tight. His math worksheet was a field of smudged graphite and angry erasures. On the refrigerator behind him, ...

29 likes 15 comments 15
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Mercy

Weekly Contest #368

Beau Navarro woke in the prison infirmary with six stitches in his abdomen, three broken ribs, a tube draining blood from his chest, and enough morphine in his system to make the ceiling breathe. That was how the nurse explained it anyway. “The ceiling isn’t breathing,” she said.               Beau watched one stained tile rise slowly, then sink. “You sure?”               “Yes.”  &nbs...

27 likes 8 comments 8
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The Melittan Paradox

Weekly Contest #368

The first thing Professor Veylan told them about the Melittan Paradox was that none of them would solve it.Which was a reckless thing to say to Avira.Rain worried at the high windows, blurring the quadrangle into something imprecise. Avira disliked the effect. The university was designed around symmetry—four black-stone towers, four walks, four reflecting pools—and now all that geometry dissolved into gray smudges.Lumen-glass lined the walls in iron brackets, one already clouding at the edges from spent salts. Avira noticed because apparentl...

21 likes 14 comments 14
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An Orphan's Wish

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...

19 likes 3 comments 3
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The Careless Wish

Weekly Contest #368

No loose eyelash was safe around Carrie Strait. No fountain in her path was left penniless, and she had permanent claim on the Thanksgiving turkey wishbone. Wishing was a near-daily ritual for as long as Carrie could remember. As a child, her wishes were silly and materialistic, ranging from the newest toy to a pet unicorn. The wishing continued as she aged, but the suffocating weight of adulthood led to far more practical and desperate desires. The weightiness of the birthday wish stayed consistent through her years of wishing. Carrie made ...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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Rain Mirror

Weekly Contest #368

Lungs heaving, I tear through the knee-high grass of Tamarack Bay’s oldest cemetery. A broken marker catches my foot, its cracked edge gouging another chunk from my shin. I gasp but bite my lip so I don’t cry out. The Ice Wraiths are somewhere behind me, stalking me through the maze of stones. For one endless second, the world is a silent abyss. No roaring power mowers. No birds. No leaves crunching beneath my feet. Just my breath, my blood, and the rain. Then laughter erupts behind me. The Wraiths weave between the headstones with dark bott...

17 likes 7 comments 7
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Correspondence Upon a Star

Weekly Contest #368

I sat alone, atop the world it seemed. Winter had just set in. A newborn snow bank filled the valley below me. I sat against a boulder, still pondering what to do about the letters that sat slightly crumpled in my hands.They had found their way to me by a very confused courier mere hours ago. He had tried to explain their origin, but I knew. I knew the moment I glimpsed the seal. Like lips to paper, it was a sign as clear as any other.The first letter sat atop the stack, a small date smudged in the corner.“I guess I should start with you.” I...

16 likes 8 comments 8
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One Last Wish

Weekly Contest #368

The contract in their hand was a long one, spooling out from black nails and down onto dusty church stone. Renata had heard, once, that demons would burn on sacred ground. She supposed Heaven and Hell must be a lot closer together than anyone thought, because the demon stood right in front of the church altar without the slightest bit of discomfort. “Is all this paperwork really necessary?” Renata asked. “After all, it’s just one little wish.” “Hell,” the demon sighed, sounding almost bored at the question, “is full of people who love to arg...

16 likes 4 comments 4
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The Ginkgo with Fan-Shaped Leaves and the Aspens Beyond the Yard

Weekly Contest #368

Daniel’s alarm sounded at 5:00 a.m. He turned it off, looked at Meredith asleep beside him, smiled, and got out of bed. Thirty minutes on the treadmill. Shower. Shave. Navy suit, white shirt, gray tie. In the kitchen, he drank black coffee while checking the weather and markets on his phone. Daniel worked in risk management for a financial firm. At exactly 7:35, he left the apartment and walked toward the E train. *** Meredith woke when sunlight reached her face. It slipped through the window in a warm gold stripe, and she stretched beneath ...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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The Armorer's Wish

Weekly Contest #368

Another sunrise had pried its way through the barn windows before Theobald Stoneson realized that he’d been at it all night. Again. Bleary-eyed, he found his workbench and put each of his tools in its place: widger, raffler, lift-em-upper. No tinker nor gadgeteer in the realm could’ve guessed at their names nor their functions, because Theobald had invented them himself.The burgeoning fruit of his long labor stood there in its ugly beauty, gleaming from the night’s polishing, almost as tall and broad as the barn itself. Theo’s joints ac...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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A boy and his gods

Weekly Contest #368

Once upon a time, a time not so long ago, lived a thirteen-year-old boy called Shakir, and his best friend Asim. Both were from a beautiful little village in Hwt-ka-Ptpt. This was before all the pyramids and other tourist traps littered the land, so “not so long ago” is, admittedly, relative. If you are one of the old gods, like me, it feels like only yesterday. If you are human, unlike me, it was a very, very long time ago.Asim was only two years old when he lost his best friend. But that is fourteen in dog years an...

14 likes 12 comments 12
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Fly North

Weekly Contest #368

Getsy stared down at her catch. The green slimy frog stared back up at her with beady eyes. "Did you just say something?" The frog stared back, "Uhm, yeah. I said I'm the Frog of the Pond. Whoever catches me will be granted one wish." "You're not serious." "Pretty serious. Why else would I be speaking to you know?" "Because you're a regular 'non-wish granting' magical talking frog just trying to get away from being eaten?" "I could see how you would think that, but that's not the case. I am magical, I can speak, and I can grant wishes." "Pro...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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I Am Radiant

Weekly Contest #368

Forget-me-nots grow in the neighbor’s yard. Plush bushes, held up by lattice fences on all sides. They were unlike any flower Andy had seen, shining with their bright, bold centers. In the right light, they gleamed gold in the sun.Andy never met the neighbor, never saw her gnarled face between the boarded windows. If not for the manicured lawn, no one would know that anyone lived in the house at all.The neighboring children say the flowers are magic, that each one grants a wish. “The flowers make people forget who they are!” They’re forget-m...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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