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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

150+ Sad Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Do you ever need to break your own heart? We see you. Grab a tub of ice cream or a box of tissues and settle down with some of the best, really sad short stories to make you cry.

Sad Short Stories – Page 4 of 10

Waiting in Eternity

Matt Coleman

Weekly Contest #348

Thump, thump. Thump, thump. My heart starts to race as I glance at the clock on the wall. It ticks by with each second sounding like a rapidly intensifying heartbeat. Tick, tick, tick. Thump, thump. Thump, thump. The seconds are all equal, but the growing anticipation as each second passes makes me increasingly nauseous. My heart is struggling to keep up with the anxiety; its ever-increasing beating feels like it is about to leap out of my chest. A pit is forming in my gut; a black hole whose only existence is to suck my heart, my lungs, my ...

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According to Plan

Kevin Swift

Weekly Contest #348

I'm a neat freak, and I hate hospitals. It's passing strange. I think there's just some recess of my brain that can't reconcile the fact that a place so clean could also be so depressing. We walk past an elderly couple in the lobby who call the security guard by name without having to stop and move with the resigned familiarity of frequent visitors. My niece is walking next to me. Well. Walking is an imprecise term. She's bouncing along the sterile tile floor with a youthful spring that makes my own joints simultaneously achy and jealous, i...

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CAN A HUMAN HAVE HUMANITY ?

Carolyn Petersen

Weekly Contest #348

What makes us human ---or can a human have humanityLuna lies on her bed, eyes half open as she takes her morning snooze and ponders the world.This of course is my interpretation . Luna is my four year old golden retriever. I don't know what or even if she is pondering anything. As I type this her eyes fly open as though she reads my thoughts, she does read my thoughts by the way. Somewhere I had read making an animal use human communication skills was poor writing. Our race or species has no idea what the other is thinking. I don’t believe t...

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Draft Messages

S. Styles

Weekly Contest #348

My father was not a sentimental man. I want to say that first because it matters. He was the kind of person who showed up and fixed things and left. He came to my college graduation in a button-down shirt that still had the fold lines from the packaging, and when I walked across the stage he clapped, and afterward he took me to a diner and we talked about the drive and the weather and whether I wanted the eggs or the French toast. We were there for maybe forty minutes. He drove four hours to be there.That was my father. Present in the way a ...

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Dial Tone

Tom Salas

Weekly Contest #348

Asher breathed out heavy and slow. Only two more hours. Two more soul-crushing hours…“Hello, thank you for calling Cadence. How may I assist you today?” An automated greeting left his lips like parts off an assembly line. “I don’t know if he can hear me…” The voice came out raspy and strained.Asher’s hand gripped his silver stress ball, fingertips digging in, leaving tiny craters. The liquid inside strained against the rubber threatening to explode. “Yes, I can hear you. How can I help you today?” Each word practiced and devoid of life.“I do...

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Take the Plunge

Alexis S.

Weekly Contest #348

The only source of light comes from the street lamps outside, giving the otherwise dark clinic a burnt-orange tint. I keep my hand on the door as it gradually comes to a close, guiding it so as not to slam and awake the patients. The reception area is where most of the cameras are, but I’m still taking a huge risk coming in through the side. That’s fine though; I knew that I could lose my job and face potential jail time the moment I offered Cecelia to do this for her. I’m confident that I could make my way to the medical cart in the dark, b...

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Choices

Eric Manske

Weekly Contest #348

(content warning: consideration of abortion) “Who are you?” I carried you for six months. I agonized over whether to finish the race or stop it short. I rode the roller coaster of emotions fed by hormones, faith, and mistakes. I loved you, but I feared the responsibilities and changes that you represented. In the end, that decision was removed when my obstetrician informed me you were no longer a living entity inside of me. Were you simply developing tissue or a growing living being? Did you have a soul already, or was there suc...

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A Resting Place

Elizabeth Zakaim

Weekly Contest #348

I am alone.My hands hold nothing. They are jellyfish-tentacle fingers that pulse aimlessly. My eyes dart about, flashlights piercing the absence of light. Sometimes a phantom sleep haunts me. It wrestles with my consciousness. Its periodic victory is hard-won yet inevitable. I am resting for the last time. I was allowed to request where I’d like my rest to take place. I chose my childhood bedroom, but the room as it exists now was booked up by whoever occupied it in reality. The only version available was the room as it existed in my memorie...

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The Last Time I Let You Go

Dara Baguss

Weekly Contest #348

[Warning: This story is surrounded by child loss.]The letter arrived on a Tuesday, folded with unnatural precision, its edges so sharply creased they looked machine-made. It sat alone in Victoria Harper's mailbox, wedged between grocery coupons and a water bill, as if it had always belonged there—quietly waiting.Her name was written on the front, Victoria Harper. The handwriting stopped her. It wasn't elegant or messy. It wasn't rushed. It was familiar in a way that made something deep in her chest tighten—like hearing a voice you haven't he...

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Hello, Mr.Hitman

Bachman Hugh

Weekly Contest #348

100,000 dollars. If I killed her, I would get paid 100,000 dollars.It was the highest paying job I’ve ever received as a hitman. It was so simple as well. I didn’t have to hide in buildings or bushes, or go undercover at an event. All I had to do was show up and kill her. At first I was skeptical. It’s obviously too good to be true. But my client is bold, they sent me all their personal info, and told me I could kill them if they didn’t give their half. Fine by me.It was too easy being a hitman, it was just the perfect job for me. The adrena...

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Paper cranes.

Weekly Contest #348

My heart is beating loudly in my ear. It's faster than what I was taught is normal. I can tell that much.I feel I am about to throw up. I want to throw up, so bad, somewhere I feel it somehow will fix the heartbeat. It will fix everything. It will fix whatever is broken. It’s not logical I know, but I stopped taking comfort in understanding a long time ago. Understanding just hurts. Knowing just hurts. I want to be a kid again. I want to stop knowing.I want to stop understanding. I wish he would leave. I wish I could go back to this morning....

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I Tried to Help, But I Ended Up Feeling Used.

Anoruo Omoyoloye

Weekly Contest #348

I Wish I Didn’t Help Last week Sunday, I was already running late while getting ready for fellowship. My mind was on prayer, worship, and the message I was expecting to receive. Then there was a knock. At first, I pretended not to hear it. I told myself, “Whoever it is can come back later.” Time was not on my side, and honestly, I was not in the mood for distractions. But the knock came again, slow, weak, almost tired. Something inside me paused I don’t know how else to explain it, but my spirit felt uneasy. It was like a gentle voice sayin...

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Born With a Heart

Anna E

Weekly Contest #348

It was an unfortunate thing to be born with a heart. If there was one thing an average person pitied the most, it was those unlucky few infants that bore a lumpy mottled mass of muscle some doctors controversially defined as an organ. Of course, the medical classification of this tumor-like weight had been debated since the very beginning of time, and it seemed there were never two who behaved exactly alike when one introduced the subject into conversation. Some were very vocal about their fervent disgust at the thing and some had a visceral...

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Heartbeats

Laura Greene

Weekly Contest #348

Thump thump. Thump thump.My chest ached as my heart raced.Thump thump. Thump thump.I never thought it would be this scary. Well, I guess I never really thought about this part of it… you know, I only thought of how it would be easier to do this instead of trying again. It was just too many sad days. I took a deep breath. It would be over in a few seconds. Surely a few seconds of terror is better than a lifetime of misery, right?I inched my way to the edge, taking a long look at the ground, which seemed higher than I thought it was before.I s...

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A human body sitting on the floor of a dark room

Weekly Contest #348

A human body sitting on the floor of a dark room,Gazing at the moonlight reflecting off the furniture,And pondering life and deathAnd survival,On consciousnessAnd what makes us who we areWithout ever reaching an answerWithout ever getting up Why is it that peace only comes in the darkness? Why do the demons fall silent, yet the voices scream?Where can one find something that doesn’t exist? Something that doesn’t want to be found? (A human body sitting on the floor of a dark room) And in darkness there is no form; everything is shadow. It off...

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