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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of contemporary short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

Contemporary Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. All the newest modern day stories to thrill and inspire, all in one place.

Contemporary Short Stories – Page 10

Different Objectives

Weekly Contest #365

Different Objectives. This story contains violence. High in an anonymous grey building in Amsterdam, James Scott paced his office. In his right hand, he held a sheet of white paper. This tall, middle‑aged man stood erect. He moved his head in rhythmic jerks as he walked, keeping time with his feet. James stopped at a window and looked down into the street where people, plain, ordinary people, went about their business. A tramcar passed with its accompanying clatter. The sun reflected off the canal, and the surrounding cafés, ador...

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Bonded.......by the love of Music

Weekly Contest #365

Bonded… by the Love of Music The orchestra’s woodwind section took center stage, creating a sound so perfectly pitched that the audience sat on the edge of their seats in admiration. The music floated up to the concert hall's dome and then fell over the listeners like soft, gentle summer rain. As the woodwinds ceased, the first violinist stood to play his part, enhancing the evening with resounding success. His playing was technically brilliant, producing a tone that could only come from an instrument of exceptional quality.If any slight cri...

3 likes 0 comments 0
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Return of the annoying

Weekly Contest #365

Write a story about two rivals/enemies forced to work together. RETURN OF THE ANNOYING “Thank God that’s over”! I said to myself, as I departed the college gates, “and now I have the dilemma of either getting a job, or to extend my education, by eventually going to University”?“What a tedious ordeal that was, enduring ‘those bunch’ of giggling female imbeciles, or pathetic immature girls for two years”! I said to myself with relief, “and hopefully, I won’t be seeing their faces for years maybe, or if ever again”?My college classes had most...

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The writers of eternity

Weekly Contest #365

If Delaram's life was a book, she would bury the first page deep within the ground, somewhere no one else could find. Although even then there was a chance for an author to destroy her plan.One thing was for sure. No one was allowed to read her story.That was the first thing that came to her mind when she stepped into the old-style office of professor Hekmat.The assistant gave her a once-over from behind her round glasses before asking her name.“Did you have an appointment? ” She asked while typing something on the keyboard.“The professor as...

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The Rumor Collector

Weekly Contest #365

By the time I was twelve, I had collected one hundred and thirty-five rumors.I kept them on three-by-five index cards and in an old metal recipe box my grandmother no longer wanted. Every rumor got its own card, written in my neatest cursive handwriting, because serious collections deserved serious record keeping.Some were ridiculous. Some were terrifying. Some were so juicy they simply had to be true.I believed every one of them.Well… almost every one.I’d wanted to be a detective ever since I saw an advertisement promising an official junio...

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Margherita

Weekly Contest #365

I Lucas Baker is the most boring guy you'll ever meet. So boring, you probably don’t even want to meet him at all. Listen to the name alone. Feel it on your tongue. Round and sticky like a chewed gum. And just as plain in flavour. You'll meet a hundred Lucas and you'll meet a hundred Bakers as well. How common does this guy want to be? Do you see how boring he is? Lucas Baker lives in one of the white shoe-box houses on Oak Street. A brown door, about six apartments. Lucas Baker lives on the first floor, of course. The most interesting thin...

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Hearsay Justice

Weekly Contest #365

“Well, they buried Vernon Boreman last Wednesday,” declared Sally's mom during their weekly phone conversation. “Oh, what happened? Did he die suddenly, or had he been sick?” Sally was surprised. “Heart attack, died sitting behind his desk at the bank. It's no surprise really, he'd been over weight for a long time and his smoking didn't help anything either. But there was one surprise at the funeral,” Sally's mom baited. “Oh, what was that?” Sally bit the bait. “Well, all 12 kids were there including Fred. And accompanying him were two priso...

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Reliable Sources

Weekly Contest #365

Jane “Don’t repeat this, but…,” Tonya said, hoping to invoke the absolute opposite behavior. “I heard Ava and Leo are getting divorced.”“Why would anyone think that?” Jane countered. The idea was absurd. She and Todd had dinner with them just the previous week and everything seemed fine, was fine.“I’m not sure, but I heard it from a reliable source,” Tonya answered. Her eyes flickered toward the clock. “Shit! I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes. Talk to ya’ later.”Jane squinted as Tonya disappeared through the door. What fresh hell was this...

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Overheard

Weekly Contest #365

“Hey Frank, hang loose, I have to make a phone call.” Security Officer Travis Tuttle waved to a large man who was racing down the hall. “Alright, but the briefing is in three minutes which means we are already late.” Frank was already sweating from the exertion. “I gotta tell Debbie that I’m gonna be late.” He picked up the receiver and put it to his ear, but what he had planned to be a routine phone call home turned out to be anything but. “Yeah, we will be launching the ballistic missiles at fourteen hundred hours.” The voice at the other...

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HAVE YOU HEARD THE RUMORS ABOUT BRINEHAVEN CLIFF?

Weekly Contest #365

“Casey, thanks for making the trek out here to check out the house. Too bad the weather is kind of a shit show. We’ve had a lot of rain and wind, more than usual for Rhode Island in late spring. Watch your step in that mud. What the hell are you wearing ?”“These? Prada sneakers. Nice, huh? It’s ok. You’re talking to Casey, the guy who hiked Mount Washington last year, all 6288 feet of it in near hurricane weather. You’re talking to the dude who ran a full marathon in Oahu in 3 hours of pouring rain on New Year’s Day, 2019. Remember me, Ca...

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Loves me, loves me not.

Weekly Contest #365

"He's a lady's man. Don't get your hopes up," the blondie suggested to Fleur. She was sitting on the garden seat beside the gym, catching her breath. She gazed absently at the pretty flowers there. A daisy was losing its petals. Slowly, one by one, each lovely petal drifted onto the match. Fleur was recalling a childhood chant, as young girls plucked off each daisy petal, saying, "He loves me, he loves me not."'Good question," she thought. Just because her gym crush, Beau, had coached her today and corrected her bench press technique, did no...

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Josie, 12A

Weekly Contest #364

Josie moved into apartment 12A on a rainy Tuesday afternoon. She didn’t have much furniture, only one car-boot full. In fact, most of what she did possess were collections. Seashells for the windowsills. Blue glass bottles for the countertops. There was a shoebox filled with tissue-wrapped knickknacks. She owned a French press, a grinder, one suitcase of clothes, and books. An abundance of books. Her grandfather had given her his old blue-and-white striped army bedroll. She’d sleep on that until she had the money for a used bed frame, a new ...

19 likes 7 comments 7
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Everyone Knew

Weekly Contest #364

It was a perfectly arranged wake with perfectly ordered people in attire that perfectly suited the occasion. Black dresses and black coats. Shiny black shoes and long velvet sleeves. The long hall was covered in flowers that were not bright enough to be cheerful but alive enough to remind the living souls that they weren’t dead yet. Not like the woman lyin’ stiff in the miniature funeral barge in the ground. Big John, a distant cousin of the deceased, decided to perch right there on a distant corner of the last pew while the slower relatives...

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The Murder of Doctor Dragonfly

Weekly Contest #364

The circus was packed to capacity. Blue and green lights sparkled off the iridescent leotard of Doctor Dragonfly as he flipped and careened through the air. The audience gasped and cheered each time he made a leap from one bar to the next. Until his left hand slipped off his target, and he fell momentously down to the net. But instead of bouncing harmlessly back on the net, the man’s weight thudded into the sand below. The audience went silent, as if holding its breath. Doctor Dragonfly did not move. A woman pointed and screamed when she saw...

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The clean up

Weekly Contest #364

“Write a story with the lines-‘I know what you did” The clean-up I could hear their screams from ‘two, maybe three, blocks away; Such high pitched screams that could only be detected by ‘the likes of us’! We could not retaliate, nor could we escape the forthcoming onslaught, being forever contained in this circle of darkness and coolness, but these restrictive conditions suited us- “this was the way that it was, this was the way that it had always been, and this was the way that ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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