Unnamed: 0 int64 0 12k | prompt stringlengths 4 324 | story stringlengths 587 7.18k |
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3,500 | The villagers call it the 'death cave ' , a monster lives inside . You decide to end your life and enter the cave . You fall in love with the monster .
| The monster eats mushrooms-the fat ones that grow in empty skulls and the soft ones that sprout between ribs. These smell sweet, sweeter when they are cooked, but they are poisonous. It told John this. It told him the names, destroying angel and death cap, with one of each perched between its canines. The monster eats ... |
3,501 | So the good news is you will most likely survive the experience | "So the good news is, you will most likely survive the experience," Dr. Hargrove said, adjusting his glasses.
Todd blinked, staring at the squirming mass that had once been his arm. It bubbled, pulsated, and was that an eyeball? "What’s the bad news?"
Dr. Hargrove flipped through his clipboard nonchalantly. “Oh, well... |
3,502 | The prophecy said that the king would meet his end, not by an enemy or uprising, but by his own child. Having heard enough of these stories, the king raises all of his kids as well as he can and decides to see how the fates play this one out | I screwed up. Oh man, I screwed up.
The doctor told us Father was still so weak, we might have to say our goodbyes soon. My older sisters, Elizabeth and Margaret, began to weep harder as my eldest brother, Jonathan, demanded the doctor to find out what caused Father to fall so gravely ill.
My stomach churned as guilt... |
3,503 | A mysterious entity decides to bring peace and equality to humanity by force . The world is informed that in two weeks everybody over the age of ten will have their conscience transferred to another random human body anywhere in the world . This shuffle will then repeat every 24 hours .
| My name is Maria. I am nine years old. My brother Tommy is seven years old.
Our parents are missing. They're being replaced with new people every day.
My friend Kate's mom emails and calls her every day, even though she's different every time. I have n't heard from my parents since they first disappeared. I'm a... |
3,504 | The lights flicker out as you walk down the long, dark, mysterious hallway. A shrill scream can be heard from a room down the hall... | By all accounts, this hospital was closed and had been for nearly forty years.
I was the only one who was still alive who held a key to the building, all the others had vanished or died of questionable causes. My fingers fiddled with the rusty key in my pocket as I kept walking down the hallway. Above me, the iron lam... |
3,505 | : A caterpillar has no idea it will become a butterfly, it simply has instincts that commands to start building a coccoon. In a similar fashion, you have no idea why you are compelled to start digging this really, really deep hole, but it feels verry important. | “Marius, stop this!
Please!”
Half whispered memories floated by. My Wife was shouting at me again. People were gathering at the edges of my vision, whispering and pointing. They came and went, and so did the minutes, the hours, the days.
It didn’t matter. They didn’t understand. The ground had such wonders to show u... |
3,506 | `` Zombie Apocalypse Averted ! '' read the headlines a month ago . `` Only 47 countries lost . Estimated casualties are a third of the world 's population . '' Oh how wrong they were .
| In what government officials are now admitting is an incredible misunderstanding, the hordes of zombies have, according to WHO spokesperson Astrid Smorgasbjord, been misclassified. Smorgasbjord appeared before the UN with a preliminary report detailing the zombie virus was in fact a mutated cold virus, whose symptoms r... |
3,507 | We dug too deep and too greedily, but no balrogs awaited us. | We dug.
It started out easy—we dug with our hands into the soft dirt, setting aside any small treasures that any of us happened to find. We moved that loose soil over to piles that were well enough out of our way that we wouldn’t need to deal with it until later.
When the ground turned a bit too hard to use our finge... |
3,508 | You 're the person who keeps mowing lawns during the zombie apocalypse of The Walking Dead .
| I never expected to deal with this kind of thing. It's kind of funny in retrospect. One night I go to bed after a barbecue, the next day I wake up and the world has gone to total shitstorm. There are people walking around and yet their not people. I find someone's foot in my pool. I had to drain it.
I found someone... |
3,509 | ''There is something in the sky ! ''
| “ Bye bye Nana, ” I said as I left her house. We just finished watching my favorite T.V. show, Popeye cartoon. I live at the front house and my nana lives in the back house. The houses are connected but I still have to walk outside and walk a bit to her door.
20 Minutes before I would go to her house and she would ... |
3,510 | The most depressing back story that you can come up with in a few paragraphs
| It started out simple enough, as it always does. A little nip here, a little nip there; just to keep the edge off, you know? I don ’ t need it, I can quit whenever I want.
So my wife, she was this gorgeous creature. Seriously, I still have the ring. I don ’ t wear it anymore since it just doesn ’ t seem right with ... |
3,511 | A mother on a boat with her child . There 's something in the water . 350 words .
| She leads her child by the hand, onto the boat, onto the water. The lake is lifeless and still. It merges with the starless night. Now there is only a boat and its lantern, lighting up the void, a flickering glow against black. It glides towards the center where nighttime is thickest.
“ Mama where are we going? ”
... |
3,512 | Write about a character that is convinced that they are dreaming .
| Five days ago I tried to kill myself.
It was 3 in the morning. All was quiet, except my head. The night was long and I could n't sleep. Again. I was floating and the world felt like a big, painful, scary dream and I just did n't want to deal with it anymore. So I took a bunch of dads ’ pills and fell asleep. Now I'... |
3,513 | A man 's wife urgently needs a heart transplant , he goes on a murdering rampage to ensure she gets it .
| He studied the latest case. The victim had been a young lady, 5 ’ 5 ”, 120 lb, Caucasian, just turned 28, web developer, runner, San Francisco resident, organ donor. It fit.
He skimmed the notes. 911 had been called from a landline, 10AM, the location was the victim ’ s home, the dispatcher reported only silence, f... |
3,514 | The toys from Toy Story wake up one night to find that the zombie apocalypse is in full swing .
| One of the few laws for a toy is to remain still in the presence of their owner.
So Woody could only watch as Andy frantically barricaded his door, his hands shaking as he pushed his treasure chest full of toys against the entrance.
“ T-They killed Mom! ” A young Andy choked, as his eyes desperately looked for ... |
3,515 | You can only meet the love of your life during times of horrendous personal tragedy .
| He still talks about her from time to time.
He tells me he remembers the red-headed girl standing on the sidewalk when his apartment burned to the ground—her hair blended in with the lick of the flames, and his draw to her was almost as hot as the fire that engulfed the building behind him—the building that I had... |
3,516 | You find various clues that show that you are part of some experiment , but you do n't know what the experiment is about . You slowly start to question your whole life so far .
| Welp, here is my attempt
I was sixteen when I first noticed the clues. Like most teens my age, I had reached the'rebellious' stage of life, and I would get into constant fights with my'mother.' So one day after a pretty bad fight, I decided to leave home. I packed some things; soda, frozen pizza, trail mix, and... |
3,517 | A close pass with a planetary body has left earth 's orbit highly elliptical , and only habitable every 50 years . During the years spent away from the sun , the human race goes into cryosleep , electing one random person to stand guard in case of emergencies . You wake up . You are the last one .
| In the years after the first awakening, cryo drills joined the pantheon of earthquake, fire, and tornado drills. On cryo days, the school gym swarmed with students working in teams to seal each other into mock-pods. Later, when I went to work for Ellipsyce, I marveled at the accuracy of the pods we had used in school. ... |
3,518 | Write an incredibly light happy story with an extremely dark twist .
| Lisa cut off her fingers, one by one, the blade pointed down to slip neatly between the metacarpals, snicking through sinews. There was the soft, satisfying pop of joints being prised loose of their sockets, the silky sheen of synovial fluid. Lisa hummed softly as she worked, making the blood into melody. She peeled of... |
3,519 | "Boy, I am not ending up on some podcaster's list of unexplained disappearances. You wanna go in the spooky cave hole covered in creepy cave paintings and symbols, you feel free. I, however, brought this cement mixer for a reason." | I stopped the truck just before the cave's entrance.
The paintings and symbols...seemed to have moved.
"Look! Old man, it seems the cave changed!", the boy exclaimed taking out his phone, recording once more.
I sighed, and took out the cement mixer, the generator, and started pouring the diesel in it, ready to start ma... |
3,520 | Sunday Free Write : The Darkest Night Edition
| There was a flickering of light that crept into the inside of his eye lids. He opened them slowly, finding that he hadn ’ t the strength to do much else. His body felt heavy, like it was being stretched and pulled by a team of unrelenting horses. Air found the passageway to his lungs to be tight and almost impenetrable... |
3,521 | Write a horror story that takes place in broad daylight in a crowded area .
| It was dark.
Darker than ever.
Tom awoke confused and scared.
He walked down the stairs of his small but quaint house and headed towards the front porch. He could hear a lot of murmuring and hushed whispers coming from outside.
He yawned, looking around but saw no one.
Although uncomfortable, Tom felt... |
3,522 | A family taking a drive into the countryside looks out the car window to see this .
| “ Mommy, what ’ s that? ” asked the little boy looking out the window. “ Probably just a cow ”, she responded in a way that hinted that she was already annoyed by the parade of questions brought on by the boredom of the long trip. She was stuck driving while her husband got the privilege of napping in the passenger ’ s... |
3,523 | It has finally happened . The Zombie scourge has caused the recently deceased and corpses to rise from their graves . Yet rather than being the tide of teeth and hungry gullets , they turn out to be as annoying as fruit flies , ever present and no real threat . What is life like in this world ?
| I have n't slept in 56 hours now.
56 hours of ear splitting screaming.
Zombies. The apocalypse. It began three days ago. It was an exciting prospect, with all of the zombie shows and movies, who does n't feel they are well prepared to take on an undead horde. The freedom it would bring to do whatever you want, ... |
3,524 | You acquire the power to travel back in time and decide to travel back to the day of your birth . Upon entering the hospital room , your own mother recognizes you .
| ... I wipe the starry residues from my eyes as my vision begins to return.
White walls, stark and unadorned greet me with silent unwelcome. Confused by my surroundings, could have sworn I was sitting having a coffee with Hannah. She was telling me something, it's fuzzy now.
The room is small, empty; there is a cl... |
3,525 | You work at a morgue . One day a dead body comes in with a tattoo of a phone number . Call it .
| It's been pretty slow the last few months; not that it's a bad thing, it just gets pretty boring. I remember someone talking about how the Klan has been stealing all of the bodies to burn. After all, I do live in a prominently black area. I assume they do n't want them to have a proper burial. Sorry. Am I rambling? I j... |
3,526 | `` My son woke me up in the midst of night to tell me he was dead . ''
| My son woke me up in the midst of the night to tell me he was dead.
Having just gotten off a near 24-hour shift, I was tempted to tell him to fuck off and go to bed, but since I was his dad, and he was only six, I figured I'd go easy on him.
`` You're not dead, go back to bed.''
I heard his tiny feet scramb... |
3,527 | Write a story of lost love , hate , a murder and a suicide in less than 500 words . The first and the last sentence are the same .
| That dark miserable day I lost a part of me. It was always the same routine: come home from working my ass off to find my “ love ” piss drunk in front of the TV. She often abused me when she was in this state, both physically and mentally. I guess one day, one dark, miserable day, I snapped.
“ NO MORE ” I screamed,... |
3,528 | Write a story that seems normal on first sight , except for one small detail that makes it extremely creepy on a more careful reading [ WP ]
| I loved to play with raggedy Ann ( I just called her Annie, my parents called her Raggedy Ann ). She was my best friend until I was seven when I lost her. My parents said I never went anywhere without her, even before I can remember.
We found her outside just on the sidewalk, without an owner, according to my paren... |
3,529 | You are notified every time something you do inadvertently leads to someone 's death , or life .
| When William Folding had first starting getting the letters in earnest, he thought it was a prank. They were always nondescript manila envelopes with his name and address on them. No return address. No postage.
His childhood home was on a walking delivery route, so his parents had a small black mailbox with a latch... |
3,530 | Imagine a boy meets girl situation with as little setting and detail as possible , with only one action/event happening .
| I have seen you many times before, gazed upon your roots, fiercely embedded in the soil of this too-small town. I have seen you in the market testing peaches for their ripeness, seen you in my dreams, imagining the ripeness of your flesh. I look at you and I see possibility upon possibility upon possibility. You are en... |
3,531 | You have angered a witch doctor ( spirit , demon , etc . ) and been cursed . The curse appears oddly specific and insignificant , but will bite you in the ass in the worst possible moment and way .
| `` You have trespassed on sacred ground! You must suffer for what you've done!''
Candles flickered around the perimeter of the room.
`` Sacred ground?! Your little room down here? I came in here because the neighbors have been complaining about the smell! Which, by the way, is rank! I assume it's that pit!''
... |
3,532 | "You murdered me for five bucks?!" | (First WP. Here goes.)
So that was it. The muffled shots bled out into the night sky, slowly mixing and blending with the city ambience until it was too distant to read. Finally, I’d done it. I’d killed my former boss. My teacher. My rival. The man who’d got me into this shitty line of work and then left me for dead h... |
3,533 | I know why I 'm in Hell . I know what I 've done . What I do n't know is why my dog is there , waiting for me when I arrive .
| `` You?!''
There's a lot of things that cause hell to be the worst thing I have ever endured in my short life and long death. The sheer irony of the torments is never lost on the sufferer ( the overseers ensure that ), and thus daily I am forced to feel the leash upon my neck, the spinal torsion which forces me to ... |
3,534 | The monsters under your bed are there to protect you against the monsters in your closet | I hear the gentle snoring of the little girl that rests above me.
Wait, wait. That sound creepy.
Let me start over.
I can hear the girl...okay none of this is going to sound good.
I'm a Guardian. We're not pretty sorts, you might even think of us as "monsters" but we're pretty nice people. Valkar loves to knit. Ing... |
3,535 | All your life you’ve found that the weather reflected the emotional state you were in. Having a good day it was pleasantly sunny, feeling sad and it rained. You’ve managed to keep your emotions in check. That is until today, as your girlfriend left you, your dog died and your house burnt down. | My stupid ex didn’t think it was enough to leave me when she knew I was planning to propose, she had to take it one step further. I was at work when she texted me that ominous message, “I’m leaving you, you won’t have anything left”. I managed to get the rest of the day off when I explained the situation to my boss thr... |
3,536 | One day while on your routine walk through the woods , you see a statue that was never there before . As you look at it , its eyes move .
| One day, on my regular walk through my neighbor's woods, i spotted a statue that i'd never seen before. it was a beautiful statue, of some sort of grotesque ogre, intricately carved, so detailed that for a moment it seemed half real. I inspected it for quite a while, taking note of every fur, and the claws, tensed as t... |
3,537 | A member of your family has been kidnapped , and you 've received a phone call by the kidnapper , demanding money or else . Unfortunately for kidnapper , you actually do n't care about that particular family member .
| I came home from school to an empty house. `` Good.'' I said to myself. `` A little more time.'' I wandered to the kitchen, hoping that maybe he'd forgotten to lock the fridge or a cupboard before he left- I had n't eaten all day because he'd slept in and left them locked, and I did n't have any money to buy lunch in t... |
3,538 | On the fourth floor of your elementary school there is n't a swimming pool , there is n't a bowling alley , but there 's a ...
| dead body. It's not of any of the students or teachers, it's just... someone. It's been decaying for so long, no one can really tell whether it's male or female. One time, little Josie Sue went on the fourth floor and started dressing up the maggots located in its rib cage with tiny paper dresses. It was actually prett... |
3,539 | As soon as I opened my eyes three things became abundantly clear .
| As soon as I opened my eyes three things became abundantly clear.
1. The holes on her side of the walls weren ’ t from hanging multiple pictures in the same place. They were the evidence of her sleepless nights when my night lamp was still on at 4AM as she repeatedly pierced the face of my picture with the push pin... |
3,540 | You wake up one day and everyone thinks it 's your birthday . This continues forever ; every day is your birthday .
| Somebody wakes me up with a loud knock on the door. Getting up, I'm still not dressed. As I unlock the door, all my friends barge it, holding a cake. They are all holding birthday presents. I ask them for whom are the presents for. Surprisingly, they say me. Thinking this is a prank, I tell them to go away, and they do... |
3,541 | Write the most elaborate , over-dramatic , and exciting story you can think of that all just turns out to be a set-up for a pun so horrible I 'll want to punch you
| Every morning I wake up and go down the stairs and trip over my son ’ s wrestling toys. For some reason he plays with them right at the bottom of the stairs and keeps them there. We bought him the special ring and playsets and everything, but he continues to play at the bottom of the stairs.
He has all the classic ... |
3,542 | Make me smile
| When I was four years old I was playing at the park with my brother and sister. I was playing alone because as the youngest child my siblings did n't like playing with me because they thought I stole mommy's love from them. Nearby that park there is a fairly good sized forest and I wondered in to it. Of course this cau... |
3,543 | Write about a survival situation .
| I was babysitting my brother. As I sat watching family guy the screen switched to the noise the TV makes when there is severe weather, or an AMBER alert. They said 3 nuclear missles are heading towards the U.S. and one is going to strike near us. Horrified, I grabbed my brother and locked us in our basement. I called m... |
3,544 | You commit a crime. Time passes and it seems like you have gotten away with it. One day you are called to jury duty and when you the trail starts, you realise that the trail is for the crime that you committed. | I walked into the courthouse to a flurry of lawyers, paralegals, reporters, and regular citizens scurrying about.
The case was one that had gathered national attention. The body of a girl who was missing for three weeks finally turned up. A single suspect had been apprehended and the governor wanted this case to be de... |
3,545 | A particular set of twins have the ability to communicate with each other telepathically . One of them dies , but the other can still hear his/her thoughts .
| Think I misunderstood the prompt a bit... ah well.
-- --
From an outside perspective, my brother Dave and I were always a little different. Our parents were first time parents, and while they loved us very much, I know that they were overwhelmed. It didn ’ t help that we acted so different from other children. ... |
3,546 | You actually happen upon a goose that lays golden eggs . They start hatching and laying more golden eggs at a rate faster than you can manage .
| Some people call me a philanthropist; I call myself a selfish, immature douche that happened to hit the lottery. Behind me is not some work of art that I created; it is a freak of nature. It is the mythical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and should only ever be discussed in fairytales. But this is not a fairyta... |
3,547 | Nobody is quite sure how Fluffy , the Destroyer of Worlds , earned his title , but there are many rumors . Which one did you hear ?
| **Fluffy – The Real Story**
**Fluffy ’ s my** gerbil, at least he used to be, before the spider bite. Fluffy was a normal gerbil. He ate, he pooped, and he ran in his wheel. Then one day he got out of his ball, I looked everywhere for him with no luck. I found the ball just no Fluffy. Three weeks later I had al... |
3,548 | Write a story , any story , that does not begin with someone waking up and going through their morning routine .
| Can I talk to you for a second?
Great, thanks so much. Look, before I start talking, just, well, please don ’ t think I ’ m weird.
Ha ha yeah I know “ don ’ t think I ’ m weird ” is never the best start to a conversation is it. Heh.
Well, I honestly don ’ t know how to put this into words. I ’ ve been feeli... |
3,549 | On Earth , we have Daylight Savings Time , a cultural phenomenon that persists despite how little of a purpose it serves . As it turns out , humans are n't the only ones with useless cultural niches like this .
| “ DON ’ T. OPEN. THE. DOOR. ”
“ I ’ m sorry, what? ”
“ Don ’ t open it. ” Said Xjunzi.
“ If I can ’ t open the door, then how are we supposed to go outside? ” I asked, bewildered.
Xjunzi looked at me like I had two heads, which was particularly odd seeing as he had three. Extending one besuckered tentac... |
3,550 | You wake up to a demon hovering over you, complaining that you summoned them. You have no idea what they’re talking about, until it hits you: people have always said that you talk in your sleep. | The dream had been a tortuous experience in and of itself.
In it, barren hell-scapes of dust spun out endlessly to the horizon in all directions. The smell of sulphur and the rank odour of end-stage rot was carried on the furnace breeze. Above the field of dust, three red suns hung, casting the world in a crimson hue.... |
3,551 | When all the snow melts in NYC , they 're gon na find all the bodies of the people they thought were n't getting murdered .
| Elaine swirls the remnants of her red wine around in circles, watching it wash over the sides of the glass. She sighs, draining the last bit in one swift motion. Her husband, Dan, sleeps on the couch, unkempt from his recent layoff. Setting the glass down on the table, she closes her eyes.
“ MOM! ” Tony screams, ba... |
3,552 | Give me a bit of that story you 've always wanted to write .
| “ Speaking of Danny—where is he? ” Gabe asks.
“ Inside doing a video presentation for one of his classes, ” I reply. “ Alex called so I came out here.''
“ Did he say something to upset you? ”
I shake my head. “ I saw something. ”
He gestures for me to continue.
“ Remember when we were seventeen and ... |
3,553 | tell me of a childhood nightmare that has affected you even as an adult
| Throughout my childhood there were two recurring nightmares I'd have. They'd alter now and again, swap certain details and the endings would always be a surprise. Both are centred around the stairs in the house I grew up in, which curved around following the wall, to a landing which was about 15 feet from the ground fl... |
3,554 | `` I am the last human ''
| I am the last human.
All I can do is walk.
Nobody knew who dropped the first bomb. Truth is, I guess it didn ’ t matter. The human body is often triggered not by our rational decision-making but by instinct. When faced with danger, our natural inclination for self preservation kicks in to protect ourselves and ... |
3,555 | Write an innocent story with a terrifying message encoded inside it .
| I hated having to go to bed early for school. Being only nine years old, it was such a drag having to crawl in to bed at 8:30 pm and forcefully shut my eyes. I counted sheep to fall asleep. I used to have dreams about going to the beach where I would bask in the sunshine and feel the sand underneath my feet. Sometimes ... |
3,556 | Someone hands you a box of all the items you have lost | I stare at the medium sized box in my hands. It’s no bigger than most produce boxes found at food drives. The top flaps are still sealed shut, but my name is crudely written on the side in black marker.
“What...” I looked up to see the mystery person has already disappeared, as though they never existed. Dim street la... |
3,557 | A scary story with an even scarier twist .
| Hi. I recommend reading it out loud.
~~~~~~~~
It started with a smile while facing my reflection in the mirror. I took a second to let the shower fog get clearer, but even after the first, second, and third take, there I was - wearing a shit eating grin that stretched across both cheeks to the tip of my chin.
... |
3,558 | A revolutionary new algorithm can match you to your perfect soulmate, with a 100% success rate. You sign-up and get matched with your ex-partner, that tried to kill you. | “You never did let me explain.” I couldn’t identify the feeling in my stomach. Was it anger, fear, nausea, hope, or maybe a combination of all of them. She always was able to confuse the hell out of me. “I never wanted to hurt you. I didn’t even know you took the bus home from work early. Do you remember how I had been... |
3,559 | When humans die, they freeze in place, like a statue and completely immovable by any force. Today you froze in place, yet somehow you are still conscious. | I was never scared of death.
Not until I’ve experienced it myself.
Before you will ever know what’s going to happen, your brain starts to pound and your limbs start to burn, leaving you to let out a loud cry of pain.
You freeze in the place you were standing, running, jumping - any movement will be stopped when your... |
3,560 | There are multiple stages of Hell; a human can descend them by killing themselves in each layer. Each stage is worse than the previous one, but hell-suicide is humanity's greatest high. | Being in the 478th level of hell really isn’t much different from being alive.
It’s shitty, but only as shitty as you can handle, because when it gets too shitty, you die. You off yourself.
Down here you have the power to make things worse. Infinitely worse. Bad in ways your upstairs self would wet themselves at the ... |
3,561 | You're an angel. You like to sneak out of heaven and watch Deaths work harvesting the souls of mortals. Today a young girl died in a car crash and you sit there waiting for the poor soul to be freed from its mangled vessel, but something is wrong. This time the Grim Reaper does not show. | “Where have you been, I’ve been worried sick for you.”
“Father, why does death let souls suffer?”
“My child, what happened.”
“I visited a pure soul. The soul died today, death, he was supposed to show up to take care of her. The soul began crying ‘mommy, daddy, where are you?’ I- Father how was I supposed to look th... |
3,562 | Before death , someone vowed to `` haunt you until your dying day '' . That person 's ghost has been with you constantly for years now . This morning , however , you woke to find that the ghost was gone .
| His name was Elin Vanderbilt. I had pee'd on his face for kicks. He died of a heart attack and shame.
Before he died however, he made it clear that he'd haunt me till my dying day.
His ghost usually spent the night in the rocking chair in my bedroom as I slept. And that is where I saw it every morning when I wo... |
3,563 | on their 16th birthday , humans are given a box of 20 heart seeds . Eating someone else 's heartseed means you are gauranteed to meet them at least once more before either of you can die .
| As I fell onto the living room couch I pulled a box out of my bag and looked inside.
Thirteen heart seeds sat at the bottom of the box.
It was customary to give one to important people when you move away. After all, you ’ re guaranteed at least one more meeting. It was customary to give one to your parents when... |
3,564 | It was once common knowledge that any sufficiently labyrinthine structure will eventually manifest a Minotaur at its heart. Today, your local IKEA opened its newest extension. | The original Labyrinth was built to hold the monstrous half-bull, half-human creature that was cursed upon this world by Poseidon. When it was defeated by Theseus, the fragments of its soul seeped into the structure of the Labyrinth. The Minotaur’s vengeance was drilled into the structure.
Fast forward a few thousand ... |
3,565 | Write the second half of a story whose first half does n't exist .
| Perry focused intently while sharpening his knife. Jennifer could hear the scraping from outside the bathroom door. Scrape.. “ I ’ m sorry Perry.. let me out please ”. Scrape.. “ my nose is broken you asshole!. I need help ”.. Scrape… Jennifer spit blood at the mirror while she studied her wrecked face.. Scrape.. The b... |
3,566 | You have 10 sentences to tell the scariest story possible .
| Mercy was walking home from school one Friday afternoon.
With no sign or warning, she disappeared.
Something from beneath the hot summer asphalt had dragged her away, and just as briskly this `` thing'', had disappeared.
The last one to see her alive, after school, was Erica.
Mercy's mother became frant... |
3,567 | You call 911 , but nobody answers .
| > What happened last night? It is all so fuzzy.
I woke up in my bed, rubbing my temples to try to alleviate my massive headache. All I remember is going to my bud ’ s goodbye party before he headed off to basic and now… How did I even get back home, that is like a 2-hour drive. As I stumble into my living room that... |
3,568 | Humans live in a time where technology in the brain allows the user to see the calculated risk of every single decision they make . It is illegal to make a decision above a 50 % risk .
| **Guava: the best possible you. **
The train tore through the tunnel, breaking the silence in the air and leaving squelching sounds in its stead.
I stood between the rows of seats, filled with elderly passengers that alternately slept and fiddled with their ancient smart phones. A fidgety guy had joined me two ... |
3,569 | Your 'friends' just slammed the door on you, leaving you in the room with the crazed axe murderer. "Damn, that's a dick move. Want to get revenge?" The murderer offers you their hand. | This was supposed to be my birthday party. I can smell the extinguished candles and the killer’s bad breath. He is not saying anything, what is there to say anyway. It’s me and him. The door is shut and my friends are long gone.
The radio playing my favorite song and the killer humming, moving his head left and right.... |
3,570 | You are a sleep walking murderer by night . During the day you are a detective unknowingly hunting yourself .
| 12 months I ’ d been studying the murder of my one true love. 12 months I ’ d fall asleep with my work devoting every single breath to discovering who could be so atrocious. Except today, on the anniversary of her death I believe the murderer must have struck again. There was the same clutter, the same lack of struggle... |
3,571 | Kitchen Stories ...
| “ I thought you would have, at least, stayed with me in bed another hour or two. ” It sat snug behind me sipping on the steaming green tea. “ I mean, this was the first night we ’ ve been alone together, in our own apartment. ”
“ I know that. ” I said scrubbing the pan hard. “ I guess I ’ m just not used to sleepin... |
3,572 | Describe your nightmare ( IN COLLABORATION WITH /r/SKETCHDAILY )
| The painting was mostly browns and oranges— some tan highlights here, some black shadows there. The severe auburn woman sat in the foreground, fluttering chestnut curtains to her either side. Her hands clutched each other tightly in her lap.
I did n't know why they kept the painting in the attic. It was n't beautif... |
3,573 | `` But that 's where you 're wrong , my friend ! '' The shopkeep said . `` This is n't just any normal weapon ! ''
| “ Give me all the money! ” Yelled the robber with his gun held sideways and an open bag at his side.
The old man behind the counter sighed and pressed a button underneath his desk. The one next to the button that signals police. Confetti loudly was released from a corner of the store. The robber turned in surprise wh... |
3,574 | A prisoner woke up to find the cell door open, upon looking around, he discovered the prison is empty. | He awoke abruptly to the sound of a ship’s horn. He had a horrible headache, as if someone or something had hit him in the head with a blunt object. Hard. He was tangled in some chords as well, and had vomit on his chest. It was dry, so he’d been unconscious for several hours at least.
He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and ... |
3,575 | A zombie apocalypse , from the point of view of a zombie
| Light has suddenly flooded my eyes. Something must have been wrong. Last thing i remember was a gunshot. As i tried to look around i noticed i was tied to the table. Some people are looking at me. They are all wearing these doctor masks. Now when i see them this place really looks like a lab. Their eyes are wide open. ... |
3,576 | When a teleportation spell goes terribly wrong, a demon is teleported to Hell, Michigan rather than home. | “This muh-fuher gon get one!”
Terrel ran in through the front door. Glock in hand.
“That’s my fucking sister man!” He was searching for the killer. “Ay! Show your fuckin face, man! I know you here, bro.”
He was sweating from the chase. In the house he was turning corners quickly and searching the main floor first.
... |
3,577 | You have the special ability to involuntarily tell people what they need to hear , not necessarily what they want to hear , whether it be an insult , complement or harsh truth . After 20 years you 've heard yourself say so many things that your words no longer surprise/shock you , until ...
| There it was- that compulsion. My doctors had labeled it tourette syndrome and I named it verbal diarrhea, until I realized that it wasn ’ t random. I always told people what they needed to hear. Sometimes that got me laughed at, at times it got me punched, but I couldn ’ t help it. I saw the woman on the bus and I fel... |
3,578 | As a priest you naturally bless all the water bottles in your house for fun and one day a friend of yours drinks some of the blessed water and they start screaming in pain
| I have to practice blessings somehow, and water bottles at my house are convenient. I bought a pack a few days ago and realized it would be perfect to practice. I do that hand motions and say the stiff over each water bottle. None of them look different. It's kind of disappointing, but then again, I think I'd be freake... |
3,579 | An angel who sends souls to heaven is tired of working with the dead . S/he ca n't handle seeing seeing death everywhere .
| The boy ’ s soul is light. He didn ’ t have the time to soak it up like the older ones. There is a man, naked and sweating. He ’ s standing over the tiny decapitated body, stiff – a shell. There is hunger in the man ’ s eyes, and it reverberates off the walls of the basement, the red orchestra, a tin-tasting hue scream... |
3,580 | Oops, you tried to stop the wrong wedding and the couple at the altar are strangers. Red faced you turn to leave. As you do, you hear someone timidly say 'Um. Actually...' | Ellie hated every single person who named their child “Emily” or “Matthew” in the 90s, and this disaster is all their fault.
Those are the first and only thoughts in Ellie’s head as she stares down the pack of angry wedding guests. After an agonizing few seconds, Ellie recovers - she has been trained better than to p... |
3,581 | Your long term SO has always disappeared at noon on Sunday for three hours , and never tells you where they go , even denying that they ever leave . This Sunday , you decide to follow them . What do you discover ?
| That is it. I'm following him today. For the past six months, my husband has been disappearing at noon on Sunday. He leaves for three fucking hours and does n't tell me what he is doing or who he is with.
`` We've been married for five years! Why are you hiding something from me?''
`` I'll tell you again, I do ... |
3,582 | NonSensical WP : There 's a giant hole in your kitchen , your toothbrush is missing , and for some reason you have a machete .
| I woke up with a machete on my side table. I have no idea how it got there, but it was there, and it was covered in something sticky. I didn ’ t really register it as I had just woken up and all, so it kind of just stayed where it was.
As I walked out of my room and into the bathroom I smelled something. ‘ Must be ... |
3,583 | For years , the only radio station available in Gerregery , Massachusetts was WMAS Top 40 . One day , the station announces that it has been bought out by a company you 've never heard of . From then on , the station only broadcasts the same cryptic number sequence every hour on the hour .
| As nervousness swept through the village from the numbers calmly read off on the radio once an hour, in a calm voice. 9.7 seconds, then static for the rest of the hour.
I was the only one in the town of 759 people who had heard of Geotracking, a game where people place small treasures in areas with clues leading ... |
3,584 | Atlantis returns . Why ? How does the rest of the world take it ? Or , how do they react to our technological advances ?
| Atlantis. The sunken continent. We all thought it was just one of Plato ’ s crazy stories, but we were wrong.
Of course, Plato hadn ’ t really gotten everything right either. He said it was a vast continent located near the Pillars of Hercules. In fact, it was about the size and shape of Chicago. And it was located... |
3,585 | [ wp ] reinvent the mythology of Santa Claus
| John nodded at Martha. She threw a match onto the tall lighter fluid soaked wooden berm and shut the thick iron gate, locking it to the thick wooden beam above, the solid slab of stone below, and closing the clasp on the edge. She turned the small key in the center of the door, hearing the gears turn into the wall behi... |
3,586 | You are the serial killer , and you 've found a family in a house in the woods . . . have fun
| Darkness envelops me.
My fingers tingle with excitement.
I grip my bat with fierce strength.
I slink up to the side of the house.
It's dinnertime.
The family is sitting down, hands clasped, in prayer.
I look at my reflection. A mask agape with fear stares back.
I'm filled with excitement.
... |
3,587 | You 're eight years old and there is a zombie outbreak . You are hiding , locked up in your bedroom on the second floor of your house and outside your window is the entire neighborhood turned , including your family .
| `` Come outside, Luisa,'' her father said. `` The whole neighborhood's here.'' Outside on the lawn, dozens of shuffling feet trod dead grass into the dirt. Her father's milky eyes stared up at the window pane.
Her mother shambled over and touched her father on the arm. `` Now do n't make a big deal about this, Osca... |
3,588 | People are born covered in tattoos that describe major life events that they will have , your child is born with `` disturbing '' tatoos
| “ Stop! ” I shrieked. He didn ’ t look back. He just kept on pulling our child, my child, bound tightly in those chains. Those cold, black, god forsaken chains. “ Please don ’ t do this. I beg of you! ”
He turned to look at me. His tired, blood shot eyes bored into mine. “ Don ’ t do this? Don ’ t do this? And sit ... |
3,589 | World Peace has been achieved for over 190 years . The worlds last soldier is a nursing home telling his war stories to his great grandchildren .
| The panes rattled, posing a rickety protest against the gusts beyond.
A pair of glazed, opaque eyes gazed in the general direction of the sound, staring yet not seeing. A whimsical smile whispered from his lips.
He felt something warm clutch his arm – a solitary hand, small and alone.
“ Tell me about the ol... |
3,590 | You live in a post-apocalyptic Earth and humanity is on the brink of extinction . You are one of the few humans left and notice that someone is following you .
| The world was quiet here. The only sounds were of howling wind through broken glass, a long, lonely whistle from a dying city. Glass crunched softly under my feet as I moved to the window. Lifting my head slowly above the windowsill, I peeked my eyes out over the ruined town. I was only three stories up, but I could se... |
3,591 | You ’ re a regular at Starbucks . This time you go , the lady writes `` RUN '' on your takeaway cup .
| After a whole night sitting the in library my dissertation was finally finished, with not much time to spare as it was already fast approaching 7am with the deadline being 9am. However seeing as the university did n't open until 8am I had to somehow kill an hour, which I decided would be best at my local Starbucks conv... |
3,592 | You have the ability to see subtitles in your head for real conversations. You usually just use it to freak out your friends by finishing their sentences. But today you read an alarming conversation between two people trying to keep their conversation quiet. | The sky was pale blue, a calm breeze running through the leaves of maple trees lining the streets. Charlie had woken up early today, his first day back to a morning routine of coffee and light reading, allowing for a small amount of personal time before work.
He and his wife had been on leave with the new addition to ... |
3,593 | In a world where a person 's mental health is shown on a person 's face as physical damage , society has adapted by making masks a common article of clothing . You are picking out a new mask .
| I eye the large array of masks that hang neatly on the walls and sit delicately on the shelves. Many of the masks have extravagant designs, some tacky and tasteless while others are flawless and beautiful.
I gingerly pick up a sleek, metallic mask and run my fingers over the smooth gloss. Upon the right cheek is a ... |
3,594 | Free write ! Write whatever ideas for a story you 've had in your brain or just start writing and see where it takes you .
| The old man bowed and rose over and over as he shoveled out sand into the small dilapidated courtyard. His face and neck were soaking wet under the ashen sun and it seemed like every profound trench creasing his skin was full of mud and dust. The hole he stood in was already elbow deep and wide enough to fit a large so... |
3,595 | A woman is happily married to her husband in spite of his erratic personality . Until she found out that she was actually being shared between two twin brothers .
|
Today he didn ’ t love me.
Just like yesterday, and the day before that. I think he stopped loving me from last Wednesday. Last month, he only loved me for two weeks, too.
I could tell. He thought I couldn ’ t, but I definitely could.
It was from the way he came home from office. As per usual, he ’ d call... |
3,596 | Aliens arrive on Earth and mistake our most mundane objects for the dominant species and completely ignore humans
| Coffee maker rumbling and hot coffee filling up small carafe.
• “ Dad, you have time to catch ball with me? ”, Jimmy, asks while looking through the hallway closet.
• “ Hey, Jimmy-boy, sorry little dude, got to run. I ’ m late for the practice. ”, Ben answers.
• “ Hey, did anyone see my baseball? ”, Jimmy... |
3,597 | Create an original monster . Make its own rules as to how it works , and how it has to be destroyed . Explain all of this when people run into it for the first time ever and how they deal with it .
| The Porcelainheads are never referred to in singular for they are never alone. These small creatures resemble babies due to their small, vaguely humanoid form and the scrabbling, crawling method of locomotion they favor. However, they are often mistaken for children's dolls due to their smooth, white, calcified, and of... |
3,598 | Two friends search for food in the post apocalypse but instead find something else .
| “ Hey, Eddie! There ’ s some kinda potato down here! ”
Eddie dropped his pack and sprinted down a shallow incline into the serried ranks of pine trees. Under the roof of interwoven branches, the dirty grey sunlight cast a shifting network of skeletal shadows. Charlie squatted in the lee of a rusting tank, blackened... |
3,599 | Write a murder from the perspective of a cheerful inanimate object
| I do n't have a long life. I'm fine with it. What choice do I have anyways? I'm a candle and I'm made to die fast. But it angers me if a human dies fast. I love humans! They're always happy around me! But the day I died I just could n't take the screams as anything happy. I was being lit up at a dinner in the apartment... |
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