A contest with a pot of 10 STEEM + 4 @steembasicincome shares? You're in the right place!

212 @steembasicincome shares awarded till now, plus 22.558 SBD and 113 STEEM, through the contest in 45 weeks!

What awaits within the Bananafish treasure chest?

1st place: n. 5 STEEM

2nd place: n. 3 STEEM

3rd place: n. 2 STEEM

popular vote: n. 2 steembasicincome share (remember to vote your favorite!)

Best comment to the stories: n. 2 steembasicincome shares

The week, I am joined by the incredibly talented @dirge who has crafted a real gem of an opening for you, packed full of potassium potential, a story that could go many ways, where will you take it!

Good luck, brave storytellers; into the depths we go!

---

Map of the Bananafish Realms from a piratey perspective!

• Share the love and tell a friend about the contest!

• Join the Bananafish Realms discord chat for fresh updates and other amenities.

• Vote, vote, vote your favorite story in the comments below!

• Use the #finishthestory tag.

• Try to post your story as early possible and not at the last moment (or after the results! argh!) to give people chance to read yours before they vote

• Respect the dreadful 500 words limit! o_0

• Help our contest & workshop to grow by giving it some visibility and consider linking back to this post in your entry.

And now.. let's dive into the story!

Leitner

^{by @dirge}
Benjamin Leitner, son of General Reinold Leitner, grandson of Count Dietrich Leitner, stepped from the stagecoach and lit his pipe. The night was cold, the sky a vast black emptiness. The moon, if it had shown itself at all that night, was gone, and nothing but the light cast by Benjamin’s lantern offered solace from the creeping dark.

He’d reached the graveyard, home of his family tomb and its historic dynasty. It was a forbidden place, the site of his late mother’s suicide, where Leitners were entombed stretching back centuries. He hated this place, more than anywhere else on earth. But he’d come, alone as ordered to. He’d come, as he had no other option but to do so. And he’d brought the gold.

The letter was written in her typical style. Loquacious, expounding on the nature of their relationship, apologizing for her affairs, thanking him for standing by her throughout it, remaining at her side despite all the controversy of the town. Despite even her own parents telling him to abandon her as a lost cause.

She’d not only dragged herself down into the mud. But him as well. Benjamin the financier, of Wolfstone and Kauffman, now the cuckold of all of Austria. But worst of all, she’d tarnished the name of Leitner.

And when the accusation came, of witchcraft and devilry, of black magic and the most bestial of sacrilege, of whoring in the night endowed with opiates unto madness. Well, it was no wonder when Kauffman wanted out.

And still he stood by her.

Should he have been surprised when the letter came, demanding the last of his finances or else she’d accuse him in the papers of having masterminded it all? Of being an original scholar of the black arts?
That would render the Leitner name into devilry.

No. He couldn’t allow that.

Benjamin finished his pipe, the tobacco charred and ashen. He cast the ash into the wind then slipped the cherry wood pipe into his coat pocket, beside the letter crested with her seal.

Melinda. Oh, you wench.

I’ll be in the crypts, waiting.

He suspected she wasn’t alone. Benjamin suspected the whole carnal tribe to be down there, waiting for her.

Well, so much the better. Let them all wait for his arrival. Let them all see the truth, the forbidden history denied to the world. Stretching back into the foundation of the soil. Let them know who it was that the Leitner’s may be.

He stepped across the grass, peering at the graves of his forbears till he reached the central crypt. The iron gate was ajar and the darkness seemingly impenetrable. They were down there, waiting for him.

“Melinda,” Benjamin said to himself. “It could have been different. So different. But you threatened my name. For that, I cannot forgive you.”

He entered the crypts.

“Time to meet the family,” he thought to himself, almost with a laugh.

Let’s grow together!

The wise pectin-packed Bananafish wants all of its beloved people to benefit from rich upvotes. The more of us join the trail or delegate SP, the more our vote on your entries is worth.

Unity is strength, if you would like to contribute to the cause, click here to delegate 25 SP, 10 SP or find out here how to delegate an amount of your choosing!

Following the voting trail is an effortless way to make sure you always support the other participants to the Bananafish contests, automatically upvoting the posts (but not the comments) @bananafish upvotes. It only takes a few minutes to join, you can find all the instruction on how here. So check it out and make the most of your voting power while supporting your fellow bananites!

Let’s raise a glass to @foffelius, @steelochlaver, @f3nix, @marcoriccardi, @anixio, @gwilberiol, @calluna, @ntowl, @dirge, @seesladen, @theironfelix, @letalis-laetitia, @vdux, @felixgarciap, @tristancarax, @khasa, @stever82, @brisby, @drazeus, @robinsonr810, @michaias who are already in the trail.

Join the fun! Here is how this contest works:

• An unfinished fiction story or a script is posted.

• You finish it with your own post or a comment in the comment section. A limit of 500 words is recommended.

• WIN 10 STEEM + 4 @steembasicincome shares to the writers with the best endings and comments.
  
  

GOOD LUCK, BRAVE STORYTELLERS!