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Write about an everyday object that has magical powers or comes to life.

Posted in Short Story on Mar 21, 2025

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✍️ 70 stories

COVID Falling

Submitted to Contest #295

"What's in that chicken soup of yours?" Stacy, a big-boned nurse in charge of the COVID wing, shook her head in disbelief. "All four of your patients took a turn for the better. They'll probably be able to leave soon." Irene had just exited a patient's room who was fighting COVID-19. She blinked several times and adjusted her glasses. She never knew how to handle compliments but answered with a sweet old voice, "I get my chicken from Walmart." "You're so funny. We all know the secret is you. You've been so helpful during this pandemic." "I j...

40 likes 28 comments 28
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The Meadow

Submitted to Contest #295

I’m lying on the ground. The bright sun warming my face. Squinting, I rise up feeling the grass with my hands. Strange, tall, smooth, with some green while most gold. Is it wheat? I’m not sure. Looking around, I’m in a huge meadow surrounded by trees. Deep rust red but smooth trunks under thick canopies of large yellowish leaves. The forest is thick and shaded. There’s something not quite right. The colors, lighting, textures, and scents all seem just a little off. Worse than that, I can’t remember how I got here. My last memory is puttin...

40 likes 27 comments 27
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Regolith

Submitted to Contest #295

That Was ThenIt is hard to think what the consequences might be if word got out that the Witch-finder General did not believe in witches. Miriam Lyons, who had begged to have her skirts bound at her ankles to stop the shit from escaping, was a bad bitch, but no conjuror of spells. They ask, always, why he doesn’t burn them as they do in the kingdoms and palatinates of Europe. Blessed always quips that firewood is expensive and that hanging is cheaper. If they want a spectacle, he is obliged to disappoint. There has never been a sin...

32 likes 32 comments 32
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Airing Cupboard Alchemy

Submitted to Contest #295

All the nice girls love a sailor,All the nice girls love a tar.For there's something about a sailor,(Well you know what sailors are!)Bright and breezy, free and easy,He's the ladies' pride and joy!He falls in love with Kate and Jane,then he's off to sea again,Ship ahoy, ship ahoy!But enough of that old English music hall song for a moment, we’ll come back to that shortly. For now, let me ask you a question…What springs to mind when you think of magic? Perhaps a showman in a flashy tuxedo with a corny catchphrase, a top hat, and white rabbits...

26 likes 27 comments 27
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My Recovery Object is a Marital Aid

Submitted to Contest #295

Content Warning: Some strong language, references to sexual themes and addiction-They say when Hell is full, the damned will inhabit the Earth. Well, it actually happened, although it was much less biblical than some had imagined.You can see it in the details - the subway preachers now holding exorcisms between stops, the corporate wellness retreats that smell faintly of brimstone, and the growing number of demons working in fast food (I know, you'd think they'd all be lawyers). There are too many of them. Us. Whatever.Hi, I’m Layla and I’m ...

24 likes 6 comments 6
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The Apple of Happiness

Shortlisted for Contest #295 ⭐️

Alfric met a beaming Samuel outside the cloister. “Blessed day Samuel. You look well.” “Alfric, my friend, I want to show you something.” “What is it? Where?” “Follow me.” Alfric followed Samuel, who led him to his cell and pulled out an apple from under his pillow. He presented it to Alfric: “Here!” “An apple?” “Yes. But not just any apple. This is The Apple of Happiness!” “A happy apple?” “No, an apple that makes you happy.” “So, you eat the apple and you become happy?” “No, you don’t need to eat it - you just think about it and ...

20 likes 16 comments 16
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Tanzania – The End of the Line

Submitted to Contest #295

“The new colonizers wear suits, not helmets. Laws and contracts are their guns.”– Ch.12: The New EraThe Indian Ocean surged in, its waves crashing against Africa’s shoreline. Furaha curled her toes deep in the sand, feeling the grit as she looked toward Zanzibar. The hot sun pressing down on her shoulders was offset by a cool offshore breeze.She clutched her dad's paperback in her lap. The book had been his and now it was hers. She opened to a page in the last chapter:“Western civilization has a single-minded obsession to “increase the GDP”,...

16 likes 9 comments 9
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The Offer

Submitted to Contest #295

"Jane, I got it! I got it! I got offered the job at Smithson. I went to the interview just to see Todd, but now, it's something to really consider...I need to talk to you, call me back."Walking into the office, 54th and Broadway, NYC, Koppel and Hamm, for her 5,125th time. This was the place she'd thought be until retirement. Landing the job right after college, Soni knew how lucky she was. Working side by side with New York's finest legal minds. Shattering the glass ceiling by showing up time and time again, taking the wins and losses like ...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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The Wish

Submitted to Contest #295

A dwarf stood at the foot of my bed, holding Mother Goose’s Fairy Tales book in his left hand. He thumped its spine with his right fist and Play Doh crumbs fell out.   “You called for us?” he asked. I rubbed my eyes warily. Another lucid dream. No big deal. Last night it was Prince Charming. This morning, Doc, his spectacles judging me for mismatched bedsheets.   “I did? I just read the book to Evan.” He cleared his throat. The others lined up. “You said our names, pointing to each of us, so we came.”  I sighed. “Don...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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Magic 8 Ball and I

Submitted to Contest #295

“Magic 8 Ball, will I get an A on my report?” I shake the ball and turn it over to await the answer. The little triangular object slowly floats to the viewing window on the bottom of the ball and lands with the word, “Yes.”“Jerome, you’re going to miss the bus if you don’t get your but down here now and eat.” My mother wailed up the stairs from the kitchen. I hated school and everyone in it. It wasn’t fair that I should have to suffer bullies every day to learn about stuff that would never make me happy or fix the things that were wrong abou...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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Witch of the Week.

Submitted to Contest #295

When Winnie walked home, she noticed a gleam hidden by some leaves. Winnie picked up a slightly dirty everyday ring. Gazing at it, she wondered, "Should I try it on? No, wait till I get home." "Home!" she called to her Mum, ironing at the kitchen table, ironing is easier that way." Snacks and drinks in the fridge. Good day?""Only ordinary," Winnie replied, taking her cake for afternoon tea."Yum, thanks, Mum." Her Mum was on her phone, chatting to her friend, while still ironing. She did not even answer. By four o'clock, Winnie was staring at...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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The Walk Back

Submitted to Contest #295

You ever seen one of those SafetyWalk lampposts? University installed them, like twenty years ago. Ugly little things; short and squat, a crude safety yellow, with a biiiig red button. It was a precaution. For people like me, walking home late at night. If you felt like it was dangerous, or you were at risk of being harassed, you could just press the button, wait, and someone would come help you walk home. Simple as that.I'd never used one. Never needed to. The fact of the matter was this: I wasn't afraid to walk home at night...

12 likes 1 comment 1
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The Åströms' Chronicles: The Notebook

Submitted to Contest #295

The rain had stopped twenty minutes earlier, and the streets of morning Tromsø smelled wet and chilly—the smell of an adventure.Well, of course, it depended on the attitude—for some, adventure meant nothing but a mess they had to deal with instead of peacefully watching TV in a small, cozy apartment at 718 Vestregata Street.Ari sighed and stepped into his kitchen, mourning his calm life that, as he suspected, was gone for weeks to come.“Cheese?” Ari put on an old apron with a Viking torso print and looked at Bjorn, sitting at the kitchen tab...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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Magical Powers

Submitted to Contest #295

The chipped porcelain teacup sat on the dusty shelf, nestled between a chipped gravy boat and a tarnished silver candlestick. It wasn’t particularly beautiful; a faded floral pattern barely clinging to its surface, a hairline crack spiderwebbing down its side. It was, in the grand scheme of things, utterly unremarkable. Except for one small detail: it held wishes.Melissa inherited the teacup, along with the rest of her eccentric Aunt Millie's cluttered Victorian house, a month after Millie’s unexpected passing. Melissa, a pragmatic accountan...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Arlo: A Story Told from the First-Wombat Perspective

Submitted to Contest #295

Content warning: martial arts violence involving squish toys and marshmallow candies, smoking, romanticization/glorification of poor eating. Note that, while raccoons can eat marshmallows, they should not. Nor should they smoke. Please do not feed marshmallows nor provide cigars to raccoons. Or anyone. Arlo: A Story Told from the First-Wombat Perspective“A prophet is without honor in his own country.”“A wombat squishy plush toy is without honor in his own house.”Those are more or less the same sayings, as far as I’m concerned. At home, I am ...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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