Yeh I wrote it quite late at night. It could do with an edit if I'm honest, a few little bits of clunky language like that and some repetition. I'm happy with the ideas behind it though.

Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Thank you very much. I had CS Lewis's The Great Divorce in mind as I wrote it. If I had time I'd love to write something exploring these wider themes. I especially like this idea that the final act of a loving God is to still give you a place even if you totally reject him. It's an idea that appeals to me more than the more common interpretation of hell.

Hahaha. True. Since you were the second person who commented on that, I've edited a sentence. The edited sentence now reads:

"I walk back across the room, poking with my finger the time-frozen bullet so it aims to the ceiling, then stop in front of Lina."

Doesn’t like civilian casualties

Not interested in destruction

Enjoys their friendly bouts as a mental exercise

Very clearly a bad guy, but not a bad guy - And that’s why Aurora is the leader! Her sparkling intuition

But I sure wonder what his ultimate goal is here:

• Observe their powers, invent more things, get the power source returned to him, power his inventions

• Help them with the day-to-day troubles so that he can be their one and only antagonist, but not because he likes them or anything, baka!

• Legitimately just help them! Fighting bad guys is also a mental challenge, right?

He could also set up The Perfect Betrayal^([TM]), but that’s not really in the cards

Edit: oh yeah, loved it! Great job 😊

This is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

God’s right hand

The look of shock was obvious on my face. This place didn't seem like the Hell that was depicted by everyone. The scenery was as if it were a utopia, and the people were full of glee. It was as if it were a vacation that would cost a lot, but all it took was my death.

The streets were being roamed by those who also ended up in Hell. People who did bad deeds. Albeit that, they still ended up in such a beautiful place. This couldn't have been real.

“Child, what made you think this was heaven?” A person in front of me appeared and I flinched backwards slightly. They came out of nowhere. Their tone and their choice of wording could only make me conclude that this was, in fact, a demon. There was nothing that truly defined them. They seemed very androgynous, and so was their voice. Hair cut to their chin, and plain clothes that you would see on an extra in a high school movie. A blank white shirt, light colored jeans, and a black pair of Converse scuffed up with wear and tear.

A sheepish look was obviously on my face as I looked at the being in front of me.

“This isn't exactly what I was expecting Hell to be like.” The only way I had heard of the afterlife was Heaven and Hell, and that Heaven would be a place where you could live out your afterlife with joy and nothing wrong with you, and Hell would be a place where there would be screams filling your ears, being mercilessly tortured. This wasn't like that at all.

The being's eyes trailed over my face, and then I saw what the otherworldly features were on these demons. The black eyes that really showed the void in the world were the most notable, other than the tiny horns protruding between the being's hair. At the base, it was the person's skin tone, although it faded the farther it got up into a dusty red color. I didn't doubt that there could be more signs, but it was all that caught my eyes.

The being's pale hand was extended, as if I were to take it. Reluctantly, I did. The flowing sensation that I could only describe as anguish filled my system. Adrenaline raced throughout my body as all I saw was what could be seen as static. Ringing filled my ears, along with distant screams that we're relentless. They got louder and louder, only then taking the form of the people I knew before my death.

Mumma. She was yelling at me, disappointed for how I was failing with my grades, and yet again me not finding a job. She truly believed I refused to get a job as a sign of disobedience.

Dadda. He was an alcoholic, and his words slurred into the familiar argument of me becoming a failure. He would encourage horrible things, and often yell for my removal from this household.

I forced my eyes open, beginning to see what took the form of demons crowding me angrily, ready to cause my greatest fears to become true. An afterlife full of torment.

And then the grasp left my hand, and I could finally breathe. My lungs felt as if they were on fire, and the ringing in my ears stayed consistent. My eyes slowly looked up to see the being with a finger across their mouth, a coy smile spread across their face.

“This place is only nice on the outside, child.”

It seemed as if the being was gone in the blink of an eye, leaving only the reminisce of smoke in their wake. My jaw clenched anxiously with the thought of this afterlife. There was no way for me to die again, as I was already dead.

I was stuck here.

[removed]

Thanks for reading!

Love is like a whirlwind. All the happy moments swept away in the now cold breeze that my girlfriend brought to our attention. We have so many plans, one of which is to spend our lives together and have a family.

But that's when the realization hit. She'll, in good health, outlive us all. Me, any children we have, all the friends we've made since she left her home. The reason? She's an Elf.

Elves are long lived, especially the tribe my love is from. We met while I was gathering some herbs in the forest near her home settlement. I had stumbled into an animal trap left unattended by hunters and she just happened to find me while passing by.

I don't know if it was the shock fron all the blood rushing to my head or from seeing her but I lost all sense and thought except one, and that was how I fell in love at first sight.

As she helped me out of the trap I tried to thank her but stumbled my words. She thought it was endearing and asked if I had time to spare. It was the summer solstice and her tribe was celebrating, which is the only time outsiders are welcomed easily.

Once the festivities began she offered me a drink made of fermented nuts and berries that only grow in this region, it was dry and tart, but most of all it helped calm my nerves. From then on we chatted about our respective culture, dreams and goals. A good few of which lined up. A quiet life filled with small adventures and a family to come home to being the biggest one of all.

A few weeks pass and I'm back to gathering more herbs and there she was, right were we first met. "You weren't waiting for me were you? Sorry I'm a few weeks late if you were." A small laugh trailing the end of my sentence

She gave a warm smile and said she was just on patrol as usual but had saw me and wanted to talk more.

This led to her visiting the small village where I was living, sharing a meal at one of my favorite restaurants and enjoying the night and the stars above.

From then on we met often and ended up dating

A year passed and I proposed and she said yes. A few months later she came to the realization that she'd outlive me and everyone she had come to love, brought on by the fact that she was by human years older than my mother. The Elves age in stages, some have shorter active times than others. An elf's active time is the period when they hit maturity and will look that way until that period is over. Generally it starts around regular human adulthood 18-25 of full maturity, and lasts around when they're at least 300, where they begin to age, albeit slowly. Their average lifespan is often double or more so than their active period.

My love is currently 96, and we had been caught up in so much of enjoying each others company and all the new experiences from our culture that we failed to even bring up ages. But such is blind love, hiding the details that try to rip you apart from the one you want to be with.

I tried to console her, but she wouldn't have it, knowing that she'd watch me pass, and any children wouldn't be able to live nearly as long as she would. It was heart breaking for us both but for her even more so.

That day I vowed to put into motion what I had only thought if as a wild baseless and impossible fantasy

For the sake of my love, the sake of our future and her happiness I would go to any lengths. That day, I vowed to make an elixir of immortality, or at least one that would let me live as long as she would.

Months, and then years went by. My research bore fruit and so did my now lovely wife. She believed in my capabilities and put her faith into my goal, even if I was to fail she would still rather spend whatever life I had together with me than to have not at all.

I moved us to the outskirts of my village and the forest of her origin, where we enjoy our quite life with our children. My research led me to looking for exotic plants and minerals, some of which brought us to new lands, new sights and new memories. All the while I got closer and closer to the elixir. No matter what, I had to make this potion to savor every moment we could together.

In the end, our children grew, I aged and she was still as lovely as the day I met her.

I lay on our bed in the quiet little home we shared, my hand clutched in hers. Our children, 3 of which were standing behind their mother, tears in my oldest daughters eyes and her 2 younger brothers crying into her hug. We all knew it was my time. My love gave a warm smile, then a kiss on the forehead.

"In all my years I have and never will love another like I love you. Thank you for being clumsy and being caught in that trap all those summers ago. For as silly as our encounter, I wouldn't change anything from that point forward. You took my small world and filled it with so many wonders. You my dearest, I will always remember and so you shall live as long as I."

As she says those words I can see her heart breaking, but even with tears rolling down her beautiful cheeks, I can't help but remember how I felt when we first met. I wish I had the strength to tell her how much she means to me and thank her for going on all my endeavors to spend her lifespan together. I had a very long and wonderful life, and can honestly say I've truly lived it to the fullest and have known true undying love. And as I'm dying now, I have no regrets.

This was a lovely read. Thank you!

I follow Toby until we get to a black taxi cab. A faceless man is driving the cab.. I get scared and step back, Toby just rolls his eyes. " he won't hurt you his face is that way as it's his punishment." I climb into the cab and can not take my eyes off the man.." What did he do to get that kind of punishment?" I Whisper ask Toby.

The man replies in a kind but tired voice." I was vain in life so vain I ended up bullying people and calling them ugly and thinking myself better than everyone else because of how I looked, I died on the operating table getting another unnecessary surgery...as my punishment no one but me can see my face, to others I'm faceless" Toby smiles at the man " that's right but being vain is not a unforgivable sin...for this sin the person will work off their sin for a set amount of time..how long do you have left Frank...1000 years ? " 957 years left to go," says the taxi driver. I look at them, both confused. " But why a taxi driver? " I ask. Toby gets an annoyed look on his face. " The l sinner does not choose the kind of job he must do to work off their sins, but most of the time, the sinner is assigned to help a Demon..in this case Frank is my driver"

I get the feeling that he walked back in front of the path of the bullet to talk to her.

I Cloned My Wife

That's a good one. This reminds me of a story I wrote once about a character who was never honest with himself and always acted out of impulse, saying the first thing that came to mind, agreeing and disagreeing with others for the sake of being part of the conversation, never looking deeply inside himself to find the truth. One day he was asked a very important question, one that he had always asked himself deep down and he decided to find the truth. He closed his eyes and thought about it, ignoring all the voices in his head that tried to answer for him until he found a voice that he couldn’t ignore. Without saying a word he thought This must be the truth. When he opened his eyes he saw his sisters face, the same girl who had asked the question smiling at him and said “that’s right”. That was the day he learned the truth. She could read his mind. In fact, everybody could. From that day forward he never lied ever again.

The most recent one that's even similar to this one is six months ago, from what I can see. There's definitely not a recent word for word copy that I can find. That said, Reddit's search definitely does suck.

If you can find one posted within the past 14 days, let me know. Our rules allow reposts after that because what we want are new stories and 14 days gives a good chance for new writers to find the prompt and write for it if they missed it the first time around.

You're more than welcome to read through our rules to refresh yourself on them.

No I was envisioning an emotional story

I am not much of an expert on guns, but I know a bullet when I see one. Its rounded head was staring me right in the face. I had not even thought to pause time, but it seemed like my ability had activated unconsciously.

I looked past the bullet and the gun smoke and clearly saw that it was Peter. I did not know Peter all that well, all I knew was that he was my wife Eliza’s ex. I did not need to know anything more. He got jealous and snapped and my forehead was about to get a shell full of that jealousy.

Anxiety coursed through my thoughts because none of my body was moving, not even my heart. I could not move any part of my body while the ability was activated, and if I deactivated it my body would not have enough time to move. The plus side was that I had all the time in the world to think because my body felt no soreness or even pain while in that state. The downside was that I could not think of any solution to get out of this.

It was a choice of death or staying like this forever.

I thought of all the good times I had with Eliza. Sure the big vacations were fun, but I could not help but think of the little things. Our spontaneous night walks that we used to go on. Her laughter after I showed her a stupid internet meme. The way she would run her fingers through my hair and tell me I could do anything. All of these things I took for granted and as normal when in reality they were so much more special to me.

If I stayed the way I was, I could live those memories forever. Joy flowed through me as I laughed in my mind about the situation.

“You thought you could get me, Peter, but you never will because I’m going to keep time frozen forever. There will be no more pain or suffering in the world, just me. Maybe it’s selfish, but you just helped me save humanity,” I thought.

If I could have grinned I would have. I was now a god in a frozen masterpiece. I had saved humanity from itself, even if it was for entirely selfish reasons. I replayed scenes from my life over and over again. No more work, all I had was my memories.

Why you...

sobbing

I'm so confused right now, you wanted my story to hurt you?

"On the origin of planets"

Your prompt caught my eye so I had to try it and you're welcome. And the reason why I chose gold because it somehow sound good without even thinking that gold is actually weak on its own and there are other stronger metals .X.

Alr thanks for explaining. I get it now.