Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story with a huge surprise, either in the middle or the end.

Posted in Short Story on Feb 21, 2025

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 81 stories

Eggshells and Sea Glass

Winner of Contest #291 🏆

Dear Raven, What’s your name? My mama doesn’t know, and I asked her to ask your mama, but she said she doesn’t want to go anywhere near your house. I told her that’s mean because she doesn’t know you. None of us do. I’ve only seen you from across the street. You have black hair, and it’s very dark, which is why I call you Raven. If you tell me your real name I will use it. Is black your favorite color? You wear it a lot. I’ve never seen you wear anything but that black dress with the poofy sleeves and lacy collar. Or are you sad because some...

196 likes 73 comments 73
Read story

You Can't Read in a Dream

Submitted to Contest #291

We only have about ten minutes to get him to Everett. Awake, the ride takes forty-five minutes, but we don’t need that long if he’s asleep. I once trained a guy who quit on the third night, because he didn’t like the pliability of it all. The way time wasn’t the only flat circle, but everything. Nothing but circles. Speech, behavior, and emotion--all could bend if you knew which way to pull and how hard. I can get anybody to Everett in twenty, but sometimes you have less than twenty, and that’s when it gets complicated. I showed up at around...

41 likes 23 comments 23
Read story

To Kill a Line Cook

Submitted to Contest #291

Alex held his jacket over Leila as the thunderhead above rained down a firing squad. His hands were busy, so Leila rang the doorbell. Lightning flashed. Thunder clapped. Icy beads hit them at an angle, outflanking the protection of the eaves, their only line of defence. While they waited, his fingers went fishbelly white with cold; he felt his kneecaps freezing over like two small ponds, and when the door finally opened, he was swept by a chilling horripilation.  “Come in, come in!” cried Mrs. Amin. “It must be awfully cold out there.” ...

25 likes 13 comments 13
Read story

My Friend, Matilda

Submitted to Contest #291

She did it!But I’m getting ahead of myself. This all started when Sadie moved into a new home. 25 years old, a nice car, a new house, and a cat. She liked cats. They are self-sufficient but, at the same time, loving balls of fluff and affection. Her cat was always with her and followed her from room to room. Her cat, Matilda, was also her best friend. Not just words, they really were friends. They talked to each other and slept together.Moving into the house and setting it up was seriously the first adult thing she ever did. She got the hous...

23 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Big Easy Rain

Submitted to Contest #291

New Orleans in the rain suits Cal and his ever changing moods. The city is at times brash and festive, and at others, tawdry and shameful, like a perpetual partier who overindulges and wakes up with sharp stabs of pain in his head – a hangover that lasts all day. The thought of sunshine, really any kind of bright light, causes Cal to wince. The rain and darkness allows him to wallow in well deserved misery. Laissez les bons temps rouler has run its course. The good times aren’t rolling at the moment, either for him or for New Orlea...

19 likes 15 comments 15
Read story

Hong Kong

Submitted to Contest #291

Terry had crossed a city he barely understood, among people whose language he could not speak. And yet, with her, none of it felt foreign. They had only just met, but it was as if they had lived a lifetime together in these few hours. The tangled streets, the neon lights shimmering in puddles, the weight of something unspoken between them—it wrapped around him like a spell. He followed blindly, mesmerized, as she led him deeper into the labyrinth of Hong Kong’s backstreets.Then she stopped.The stench of rot hung in the damp air. Weeks-old ga...

16 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

In the Dark

Submitted to Contest #291

In the Dark She can feel the darkness enclosing her like a heavy cloak. The night is chilly, and she is sure she can see her breath, but the dark room provides no confirmation. She begins feeling along the walls, slowly moving herself around the room, feeling for a door, a latch, anything that could free her from the crypt-like space she is in. Only minutes before, she woke up, teeth chattering, muscles tight and atrophied from the damp cement floor. It took her a second to realize that she wasn’t at home. Like trying to wake up from a bad ...

16 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

~Betrayal~

Submitted to Contest #291

~Betrayal~It was called Hollow Earth in Upworld literature and considered complete and total fantasy by modern civilization. But like most aliens and its own inhabitants; Jimmy’s Hybrid kin, the Callan Clan of Deep Creek, called it the Bloworld. The Callans were a hybrid race. Humans fused with extraterrestrial DNA by the Grey Aliens and bred as Holy Warriors for the Catholic Church of old. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Callans went their own way. First to Scotland and later to the new British Colony called America. There they sett...

15 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Invitation

Submitted to Contest #291

I snatched the grinning skull out of my mailbox. Even before reading the scroll wedged tightly in the plastic mandible, I knew it was an invitation to LA’s pre-eminent Halloween party. It had red wax tears dripping out of the eye sockets and a jaunty gold ring clipped to the nasal cavity. With shaking hands, I pulled out the scroll and read: Have a blast at our Monster MashOctober 31, Ten o’clockThe Orlock HouseCome dressed as your favorite monster(You, too, Jeremy!)Prizes for best costumes     I suspected that my invitat...

14 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Kushan, The Eskimo, Dead.

Submitted to Contest #291

T/W. This is based on a true and gruesome story reported in the New York Times in 1898. I could barely keep up with Gustafsson. He handed me his hat and cane, and his heavy portmanteau for safekeeping.  “I will need you to do the paperwork when all is said and done,” said Gustafsson, absent-mindedly. When we entered the dimly lit basement, it was like walking into a steam room, and I was struck by the irony and the stench. Gustafsson didn’t miss a beat. He was kneeling beside the body before my eyes had properl...

14 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Ink Against Oblivion

Submitted to Contest #291

The journal lay open on Leah's desk, pristine pages gleaming under the lamp's harsh glow. No coffee stains. No grocery lists. No half-formed story ideas. Only emptiness stretched across page after page, as if something had devoured the words she knew should be there.Her hands trembled as she traced the leather binding, remembering how she'd written in it just yesterday–hadn't she? The memory felt soggy, dissolving at the edges like wet paper.She slammed the journal shut and reached for her coffee, fingers brushing empty air. In the kitchen, ...

13 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Light

Submitted to Contest #291

He could not believe how disorganized things were in their offices. From what he could tell after a short tour of the different areas on their floors, Claude thought that Hikari and Co. were used to just throwing everything everywhere at any time. They did have one system that worked: the garbage disposal. But even this was slowed down by the fact that there was only one set of plastic garbage cans on wheels. These were taken down to the dumpsters every other week so that the city could handle that mess.  It was almo...

12 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Gotcha: The Cat

Submitted to Contest #291

Write a story with a huge surprise, either in the middle or the end.  It had been an extremely bad year for any stray animal living in the streets, but for a certain cat, it was getting worse in small increments. He was not just a cat; he was a cat on a mission. He had just completed his third round of the block that he called home and had found very little to stave off his hunger. Earlier, he had picked up the scent from the building across the street and had made a beeline to the back of the building to the refuse that was being tos...

12 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Free One Week Trial

Submitted to Contest #291

Free one week trial New character development tool with relatability/likeability measure and 3D printout. Recommended by all top 10 Future Unknowns authors. ‘So good I bought the company’ ~ I. Wright“Ooh, ooh! You must get it!” yelped Psycho Motor Dabrowski, one of the five Dabrowski Dogs, the overexcitable canine companions of Little Plump Jo, the current Artisan in Residence in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies.“Well, I. Wright is one of my favourite authors. If they recommend it, I would like to try it” replied Jo. “...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Grimoire

Submitted to Contest #291

“Slap!”  Back pressed against the wall, Lucky Louie grabs the wrist of the man who has him by the throat. “This is your final warning! If the Boss don’t get his money by the end of the week, let’s just say you won’t have to worry about it no more! Capito?” Louie nods vigorously. “He’ll get it! Tell him I’ll do my best to raise what I owe him. I promise.” “Never mind the friggin’ promise shit! Just get it!”  The henchman raises his meaty fist but turns Louie loose with a shove instead. “...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story inspired by the ultimate clichéd twist: it was all just a dream.

Short Story – 91 stories

Center your story around a character’s addiction or obsession.

Angst – 77 stories

Write a story that keeps a key detail hidden from the reader until the very end.

Dramatic – 66 stories

Center your story around a character who successfully — or unsuccessfully — escapes their fate.

Dramatic – 78 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel