Short stories are always meant to be read in one sitting. There 6 letter stories for people with short attention span and novels for people who love to read. I've met a few who don't want too minimal words and novels. Friends of mine, some of them, want stories that only have 500-1000 words. 

My prof liked 500-word story challenges a lot. And I hated it. Because it's easier to check. I hated it because it's hard to form a story within 500 words that has a conflict, climax, symbolism and whatnot. 

This contest is just purely for the fun in it that there are stories that can be written within 500 words that follows Freytag's triangle. 

I'll tag this R so you can experiment with different genres, styles and ratings. Add the rating on the title to let others know.