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Write a story that includes the phrase “under the weather” or “sick as a dog.”

Posted in Short Story on Dec 5, 2025

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✍️ 33 stories

When the Sky Calls Your Name

Submitted to Contest #332

Marta first heard the thunder the morning she finally tried to put his jacket away.The sky over Naples was clear. Sunlight bounced off laundry strung between buildings on Via Speranza. Scooters passed below, leaving the usual mix of petrol and coffee in the air. From the balcony she could see a thin line of the gulf.Inside the bedroom, the air was still.She stood in front of the wardrobe with Matteo’s navy windbreaker in her hands. His name was stitched inside the collar in uneven thread, her first attempt at sewing letters when he began los...

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What the Rain Leaves Behind

Submitted to Contest #332

Rain had been falling for three days straight on the small Cornish village of St Mawes; that thin, relentless drizzle that turns everything to mud and never quite admits to being real rain. On one side of the headland winter had gathered all its winds and was waiting to drive summer off the island. On the other side, though, summer still hadn’t left. It sat there like a slightly forlorn migrant under the lime tree on the stone bench, passport in hand, a bundle at its feet with three or five gold coins knotted in a cloth, wavering between sta...

35 likes 16 comments 16
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A Dog's Best Friend

Submitted to Contest #332

A Dog’s Best Friend "You've heard of the British Nation and the French Nation? Well, this is the Imagination. And when you get there, you can do almost anything you want."-Kris Kringle, Miracle on 34th Street Reality to dream to delusion. This was the life of Riley.“Riley, what’s wrong?”“I’m not sure, Scoots. I feel sick as a dog.”This was always hard on Scoots. He knew his best friend, Riley, a stout, tricolor five-year-old beagle, had struggled with it for years. Scoots had tried everything: gentle persuasion, fierce argument, video clips,...

22 likes 3 comments 3
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It's A Wonderful Death

Submitted to Contest #332

Thomas W. had been enjoying a lovely evening on the town with his wife when all of a sudden, they were accosted by a ghetto thug.“Gimme all yer money and jewels and stuff!”“No way, sir.”“Then die, you yuppie!”Bang, bang!And just like that, Thomas and his dear spouse were murdered, shot to death in the street like some mangy dogs.The explosion in population in the previous century had backed things up considerably at the Pearly Gates. Thomas had to wait in line for nearly thirty years for his opportunity to converse with the Big Guy. He was p...

17 likes 18 comments 18
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What Waits at Home

Submitted to Contest #332

Ryan watched the creek behind the office catch the late afternoon light. Trevor stood beside him, lighting a cigarette. “What’s on the horizon after you’re done here?” Trevor asked. Ryan was retiring from his construction firm in three weeks. Six years at this firm, and it would all wrap up with a handshake and a cake from Costco. Everyone kept congratulating him, talking about freedom and golf courses, but Ryan felt off-balance, like he'd lost his footing on something he thought was solid ground. "I don't know…" Ryan paused. "I have been th...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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The Special Button

Submitted to Contest #332

“Concern”“Concern”That was the button I pressed when something felt wrong, even if I didn’t know what. I cocked my head, ears twisting to hear better, but nothing in the house moved. The heater whooshed on. The fridge hummed. But Mama, the “she” I lived with, didn’t make a single sound. My eyes roved over the many buttons on the floor before me. Mama liked to brag to people, “He knows fifty words!” She’d smile so big, her whole face lit up. Sometimes I pushed buttons just to see that smile. She started when I was 4 months old, teaching me ...

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Would ASMR stream of consciousness about randy dogs at the dentist be unexpected, or sick, enough? P.S. It is raining outside...

Submitted to Contest #332

Author’s Note: This piece was read by an ASMR professional at last night’s poetry slam. She walked out on stage cloaked in an adult x-ray apron (with collar) and had jumbo-sized bite tabs in both sides of her mouth. Meanwhile, a nearby underweight “hygienist” in a full hazmat suit kept emerging from offstage, ramming the tabs deeper down the professional’s throat—triggering her gag reflex—then fleeing back offstage, only to return, still adjusting the tabs even further back in her mouth as she tried to read. Therefore, as a courtesy to the ...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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The Feeler

Submitted to Contest #332

‘Sometimes I wish a plane would crash into my flat.’ Theresa’s unbothered expression prevails as always, no matter how closely I watch her for a reaction. Since I started therapy with her, over three years ago, nothing about her has changed – nothing at all, from the way she plasters her hair to her scalp and her droopy eyes, right down to her pristine Mary Jane pumps. I often marvel at how she’s managed to keep her shoes unscuffed for so long: immaculate caretaking, or maybe she’s been buying new pairs without telling me? I thought our rela...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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The Red Winds of Mars

M P

Submitted to Contest #332

Macek Furey stood at the edge of the platform, watching the red clouds billow in the distance. A massive dust storm the size of half a continent was sweeping across the surface of Mars towards the Annex. He took a few moments to look at the storm. The storm almost seemed peaceful, like a giant soft cloud slowly lumbering across the red world. But the more he looked, the more he thought he could sense something deeper and more violent. It would not be accurate to say that he saw something. More like he could feel it with his eyes. It was usin...

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Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

Submitted to Contest #332

[Proceed without a dictionary at your own peril!] “Doctor, she’s here again. The hypochondriac.” Nurse Dweller sounded amused as she told the doctor I was in the waiting room. Again. Didn’t she know I could hear her behind the curtain? The stupid clodpate. My misfortune no doubt arouses schadenfreude in her heart. The thought of what the nurse called me made me angry. And dizzy. I swallowed hard, and grabbed the back of a chair in the waiting room to steady myself. I felt like shouting, ‘I am NOT a …’. But I couldn’t say the last word. Wor...

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You aren't alone

Submitted to Contest #332

I was sick as a dog. The thermometer said I had a fever of one hundred. I sat on my couch and slumped against a cushion. Earlier, I had attempted to make myself a cup of tea. I turned on the kettle and carefully poured a bit of milk into the bottom of the first mug I found. As I dropped in a tea bag, the kettle stopped working. I guessed that the water was hot enough. By that time, I was so ill I didn't care. I poured lukewarm water into the sugar jar, instead of my mug. Mortified, I was grateful no one was around to see. I opened the refrig...

10 likes 5 comments 5
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White Haze

Submitted to Contest #332

“Get up.”“It’s time to get up. We must leave now Vannie.”“Where are we going?” I whispered back to the soft voice. It beckoned me into the white haze that appeared before me.I looked for it. The person calling my name. I saw nothing, but a light drizzle of white, almost like snow. My eyes started to hurt and stung from salty tears that began to form. I took on an anxious nature, because I could not only find the serenading voice that felt so familiar, but I also felt deeply troubled listening to its appeal.“Please tell me who you are!” My vo...

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Over the weather

Submitted to Contest #332

Over the weather In Sweden, we call it The Wall. To ”crash into The Wall” is to be burnt out, exhausted, needing to rest and take time off from work and friends, the plights of the world and sort of restart your circuits. Your wiring has burst, and the need arise for tools to cool off from being constantly hot until overheated. (Something similar to that actually happens, a psychologist explained to me, causing a fear I’ve been carrying since then, ”your brain will never be the same again”). I write to you not from a Great Wall (a couple of ...

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Storm Credit

Submitted to Contest #332

Storm CreditBy the time the heat index hit 115 at eight in the morning, the city app pushed a cheery notification.GOOD NEWS, CITIZENS. RELIEF IS ON THE WAY. STORMBREAK 24 CONTRACTS NOW LIVE ON GREENFUTURES.The banner pulsed at the top of Mara’s cracked screen while her cheap fan shoved hot air from one corner of the kitchen to the other. The walls sweated. The fridge hummed like it was bargaining for one more day.“Relief,” she muttered. “From whom?”Her son was already up, bare feet on the linoleum, cereal collapsing into mush. He had GreenFu...

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Unladylike

Submitted to Contest #332

Tonight I cannot, will not, give you a plot. I’m as sick as a dog but at least my fist is healing. Fractured, I thought, when it turned green. Swollen, too, but it’s gone down now. I can press my thumb to my pinkie again, press a shampoo pump without pain. The stranger, he deserved it. Didn’t even catch his name. My electric heater might be making me dizzy – or maybe I’m dehydrated. A baguette and cheese for lunch probably didn’t help. McDonald’s, neither. Nor my thirteen-hour workdays which are, I admit, the best part of my day. ...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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