Thank you all for participating in this contest.

The submissions were outstanding. A special thanks to @carolkean for judging the contest! She spent a lot of time going through all the submissions. She kept exaggerating how close it was.

Finally, the winners of the @OriginalWorks fiction writing contest!!! Thanks to the famous @carolkean for agreeing to judge this contest!

@sazbird with this submission.
Takes home the first place prize of 15 SBD!

"Incursion" by @sazbird struck me with the high energy of a video game, the intrigue of virtual reality, and a caffeinated character who leaps into action, taking the reader with him on a whirlwind mission that suddenly bumps (literally) into trouble. Another invisible man? Clever and well-crafted, this story follows the prompt and delivers a fresh twist that makes it worthy of being published in Perihelion Science Fiction or any other professional sci-fi zine. The writing is first-rate. I'd read a sequel. (Who is Liz?)

@jonknight with this submission.
In second place, goes home with a 10 SBD prize!

Tear-jerkers are my least favorite story, so one would think @jonknight's "Going Home" was doomed. Alas, even though he writes the sort of story I swear I wouldn't read, his prose reels me in. Fans of Nicholas Sparks should love this one. If only it had been poorly written, I could have kept this one far, far away from the coveted realm of Top Three. (Darn it Jon, if you must write so well, write me a happy ending next time!)

@lenadr with this submission.
In third place, takes away 5 SBD!

From the first words, @lenadr hooked me with "Invisible."
And it just kept getting better.

"Apparently, he hadn’t done enough in his life to warrant being a 'Haunting Ghost.' He wasn’t mean enough or fringe enough, or whatever. Instead, now he was just a 'Wandering Ghost.'"

Lena had me laughing out loud at this character.
I would have liked to see the story end differently, but it could have been worse (see "Going Home").

Notable Mentions:

It was very close for @spokerman12!
His submission was amazing.

For the longest time, I wanted to squeeze @spokerman12's entry into the Top Three. I have a weakness for all things German, especially mad scientists and the unbelievable inventions of World War II. Weaving history into your fiction is a sure way to endear yourself to the Rhino. This story, however, uses contemporary living people, and Lockheed, to perpetuate an urban legend, and it took the "fiction" into another realm (for me). Oh, I would be thrilled (and terrified) to learn that the urban "legend" is true. But when a contest allows only three winners, I have to start looking, selectively, discriminately, for reasons to eliminate one story versus another.

Congratulations!

This was great guys. The submissions were spectacular.

Thank you guys for participating! Have suggestions for the scenario in the next fiction contest? Leave it in a reply to this post!

Thanks again to @carolkean. She was very meticulous in reading and analyzing all the submissions. You should know that all your submissions were thoroughly read and debated! @carolkean is a senior editor at the Writers' Block on discord. Make sure to stop by and give her a big thanks!