Team chart:

📌 Team: Moonlit Dawn - LoveFairy878 & gregorybrazee
Challenged by Team Dazzling Dabbles

📌 Team: Curative Wordsmiths - AprilJester & LORAINEJD
Challenged by Team Brazen & Bees

📌 Team: Brazen & Bees - GiselleJaneZee & VinFowler
Challenged by Esthetique

📌 Team: Sunshine X Midnight Rain - @AnOtherFantasyGirl & LadyLynn69
Challenged by Esthetique

📌 Team: Moonlight Muse - Scarletblood27 & afro_pride
Challenged by Team Time Transcenders

📌 Team: League of Dreamers - XannaLurel & LyzDeWinter
Challenged by WhizKid & BoiLuv

📌 Team: Dazzling Dabbles - avian_Muslimah & julieorxeenie
Challenged by Team The Groundbreakers

📌 Team: Fiction Fusion - luvelleszzz & Thatgurlaturdoor
Challenged by Esthetique

📌 Team: Mentally unhinged Idiots - A_Z4_R & Seddiqi0990
Challenged by Team Sunshine x Midnight Rain

📌 Team: The Groundbreakers - stars_in_the_skies & @Fantasy_Author3
Challenged by Team Fiction Fusion

📌 Team: Time Transcenders - QuinceArchFortes & philouwrites
Challenged by Team Curative Wordsmiths

📌 Team: WhizKid & BoiLuv - WhizKidIz & BoiLuvBL
Challenged by Team League of Dreamers

Directions:

🌻 Each team needs to go through the Team List published in the starting of this chapter, and decide which team they wish to challenge for this round. One cannot challenge the team that has already been challenged once.

🌻 There are several prompts added further in this update; the teams will check them and then challenge the team they have picked by commenting next to that prompt in this manner:

"We are challenging Team xyz name with prompt number 1 from Mystery Thriller genre."

🌻 The team that has been challenged, now, can write the contest entry in any genre except Mystery Thriller, the prompt remains same. Same goes in general. The teams that have been challenged with any prompt can create the entry in any genre except the one the prompt belongs to.

🌻 One team can only challenge one fellow team, not more. If there is any odd number left, the community will challenge the last remaining team. It's not necessary for a team to challenge the same team they have been challenged by.

Drop the questions here regarding directions -->>

PROMPTS:

[Romance]

1: A stranger texts the wrong number, and accidentally sends you a declaration of love. The message is so sweet and heartfelt that you know you can't let it go.

2: After their catamaran crashes, a husband and wife on their anniversary trip are left marooned on an island in the tropics.

3: Write a romantic comedy. Difficulty: both lovers are emotionally mature and have excellent communication skills. - Prompt closed now.

4: You never would have guessed that in 48 hours you'd be married. - Prompt closed now.

5: You've been bumping into the same stranger for months. Finally, you decide to say hello.

[Mystery Thriller]

1: You were the oldest person still living in the town and you remembered things no one else did. – Prompt closed now.

2: Looking through old family photos, multiple generations back, you notice there is a cat in almost every group photo. The same cat - color, pattern, one docked ear - that is currently purring on your lap. - Prompt closed now.

3: "Guard this with your life." - Prompt closed now.

4: Local gravestones begin disappearing.

5: You find strange, muddy footprints leading up to your front door. - Prompt closed now.

[Sci-Fi]

1: The past and present timelines begin to merge. - Prompt closed now.

2: What if the world we live in is actually a computer simulation?

3: The universe as we know it is actually someone's imagination?

[Fantasy & Paranormal]

1: A magical world exists underground. To get there, you'll need to start digging.

2: You have the power to read the lost language, making you the only person to decipher the scroll.

3: Satan puts you in charge of Hell.

4: No, there's absolutely no way that ghosts are real. Sure, you just saw a mysterious fuzzy figure appear before you in your house, but that had to be your imagination... right? - Prompt closed now.

5: 10 cm of snow had fallen overnight, just as the weatherman predicted. The only thing is... the snow isn't white. – Prompt closed now.

6: A group of 5 death reapers have taken the upper floor of your house on rent. Why have they come to this silent town which remains untouched to the outer world?

[Adventure]

1: In a high-stakes game of poker in the French Quarter, you wagered your soul to a voodoo doctor on a pretty bad hand. The only way to null the bet is to find a woman in Port-au-Prince, Haiti who has an item - the only item - the man is willing to trade for.

2: You have to make it from Cairo to Alexandria (Egypt). You have no money. Your only mode of transport is a temperamental camel. – Prompt closed now.

3: A three day visit to Budapest becomes a maritime adventure down the Danube River to the Black Sea.

4: What do you say to your family in a postcard from a new location?

[Horror]

1: Strange murmuring sounds begin to come from the door that leads to your basement.

2: You're driving at night when you can't help but shake the feeling that there's a person in your back seat. – Prompt closed now.

3: You awake in a dark, small box and can hear strange noises outside.

4: You're on vacation in a new city for the first time. As you walk down a busy boulevard, you suddenly look up to realize you have no idea where you are or how you got there. Come to think of it, you don't even know who you are. – Prompt closed now.

5: A young woman goes to her grandmother's house for tea on Halloween night. They have a wonderful time together, sharing stories, joy, and the best times of family. The next day, the woman learns her grandmother has been dead for a week and no one could get a hold of her to tell her.

[Young adult]

1: A group of high school freshmen learn that the teachers and administrators at their boarding school are actually human-like AI working towards Singularity and human enslavement. If they don't act fast, the robots win.

2: A boy pursues his list of wildly ambitious New Year's resolutions, with hilarious and touching results. – Prompt closed now.

3: Your high school sweetheart dumps you suddenly because of something you posted on social media. But you didn't post it, and you have to figure out just how different - and difficult - your life is now that you've been hacked.

📌 Entry for this last round must be of 2000-2500 words. The entry should be one single chapter published in any existing collection of contest entries. All the three stages' entries must be published in one same collection, and not separately as three different standalone stories. The title of the chapter should be 'EC Contest: Stage 3'.
📌 Submission form will go live on 10th August and will remain open till 5th September. The teams can start submitting their 1st & 2nd round entries (if completed) from 10th onwards.
📌 There is no restriction on pov, writing style, tense form, etc. Use your artistic creativity and freedom.