Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story about two people living together who have opposing sleep cycles, and only cross paths at dawn and dusk.

Posted in Character on Nov 10, 2023

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 48 stories

Night Falls - Day Breaks

Submitted to Contest #224

T/W: Mentions of sex, suicide, child abuse, mental illness, offensive languageHow many ways are there to suffocate? It’s a question I lock inside a cage in my mind and pretend it isn’t there. I do this on the drive home from work. It’s a mundane trip on the same streets Monday through Thursday. Images of gnarled trees rush past my car windows with twisted arms and sagging bodies. Early morning joggers hit the trails underneath them with spirit in their steps. Toward the end of my commute there’s a pedestrian bridge with an ebony river runnin...

43 likes 56 comments 56
Read story

Third Shift

Submitted to Contest #224

“Third Shift,” Jimmy says. “Up and attem.” I rise from my bunk and dress. Jimmy trudges through the bunkhouse jackhammering the wooden paneling with his heavy steel-tipped combat boots. The last rays of divine light dim to a palette of unnumberable oranges, sunset crashing through the bunkhouse windows. The bunkhouse is like that. Noise and beauty. Frenzy and leisure. Holies play cards, watch videos, and chat at the feet of the bunks, while their brothers sleep just feet away.“Big night tonight, moonie,” Jimmy says. “You’ve got two souls to ...

28 likes 14 comments 14
Read story

Allondial and Remu— a myth

Submitted to Contest #224

To hear the stories told by old women over the fire, one would believe the world to be inhabited by ghouls and hobgoblins. This is not true. The world is full of magic for sure, but the magic has been here longer than the old women, longer than humankind and longer indeed than memory can express.In the beginning of time, Allondial was born. Her first breath was a gasp that awakened humankind from the eternal sleep of non-existence. Her smile was gentle as she gazed upon all creation as it woke, and humankind smiled back, enthralled...

26 likes 29 comments 29
Read story

The Invisible Roommate

Submitted to Contest #224

Finding a roommate – especially when you’ve just moved to a new city – is like playing a slot machine. You might hit the jackpot and make a friend for life, or you may end up stuck in very close quarters with a creature from the depths of the abyss. When you’re desperate, though, you just have to pull that lever and hope for the best. I got matched with my roommate, Jon, on the Roommate Finder app. It seemed like a relatively safe proposition - Jon worked second shift, and I worked first shift. Worst case scenario, we w...

20 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Alien Love in the Age of Platypus

Submitted to Contest #224

Men, women, cyborgs, androids, and one hyper-intelligent beluga. Yanni G has loved and been loved by them all. Yet neither Yanni G, nor any man before him, has ever known the love of a Platypus."Third person. Narcissist." So says Bartholomew, the raven perched upon Yanni G's… my left shoulder.Yes, it is Yanni G, Saturn's only three-time Grammy winner, who writes this. Music is my voice and love my sustenance, yet now I find myself mute, starved, humbled before the Platypus. Rest assured, I don't mean the duck-billed, egg-laying, mammalian cu...

17 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Passing Ships in Parallel Lives

Submitted to Contest #224

When you get married, you have this naive expectation that you’ll just cuddle a lot, see each other in constant quality time, and have ideal work schedules that never conflict with meals and date nights. Not so much. Maybe at first, but not for long. It’s brief and sporadic at best. It’s not naive in the way that in marriage (as you share a home and combine lives) you will inevitably rub shoulders and keep company more often, but you forget that adulting and real life interrupt those moments more often the older you get. *** “Hon...

14 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Whose Girl?

Submitted to Contest #224

“Why do you want to see him again? We’ve been going out for six months and now you’ve arranged to meet with your ex? I just don’t get you, Verity. Everything is going so well between us.”Verity twisted in her seat. She had never said anything nice about her ex, Laurence. “He pleaded with me to have dinner with him. Wouldn’t take no for an answer. I told him to meet me at Healthy Cravings, where you work. He doesn’t even know about you. I’ll feel perfectly safe if you are there.”“What about him? If he upsets you, I’ll want to go over and knoc...

13 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

Quicksand

Submitted to Contest #224

She caught sight of him at dawn when the sun woke from its slumber. He for a brief moment saw her at dusk when the sun peered over the horizon, and the moon rose to take its place. Like passing trains in the midst of night they traveled separate journeys. Neither spoke much these days, buried by the silence, and the reluctance to resolve their troubles. Puppy love turned to malevolence quickly after the weights of life beared down and reality sank it's teeth deep into their teenage fantasy. Brenda and Damon, almost thirty, no longer relis...

11 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Nocturnal Bonds

Submitted to Contest #224

The sun was still well below the horizon as Ansel exited the BART near his flat, and despite the city already beginning to take on a pre-dawn light, the nightwalkers were still out in force – shooting up, smoking dope, and acting generally insane. Rounding a corner onto Market, Ansel felt a gust of wind blow through his open jacket. He tugged it closed unconsciously even though he couldn’t really feel the cold. Instead, he was consumed by a dread-tired feeling, accompanied by the constant body ache, sore throat, and low cough that he’d had s...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Moonlit Tea by the Stove

Submitted to Contest #224

Slippers and a dressing-gown can only do so much to sway the bite of air that has not yet been warmed by the sun. Still she pulled them on, wrapping the fleece of her gown tightly around her body and curling her toes into the soles which never quite forgot the shape of her footprint. Dawn would not be rising for a good hour, and the moon sat comfortably among the stars that glittered over her countryside home. A little run-down—little more than a small farm house—and with no central heating to speak of, but home nonetheless. She did not liv...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Shifting Shadows

Submitted to Contest #224

In the quiet suburb of Maplewood, nestled among rows of nearly identical houses, the home of Joane and Robert stood. It was a modest two-story dwelling, with a small garden that Joane tended to on her rare days off. The white picket fence, once a symbol of their achieved dream, now felt like a barrier, holding in their mounting pressures and unspoken frustrations. Joane, with her gentle smile and hands that were always busy, juggled her roles as a mother and a grocery store clerk with a grace that belied her exhaustion. Each evening, as th...

10 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Cosmopolitan

Submitted to Contest #224

Cosmopolitan says the way to a man’s heart is, “Two sunny-side-up eggs, greasy bacon, and a Cup O’ Joe. You will be his forever if you bring it to him in bed!” Elaine knocked over spices in the cabinet while searching for the instant coffee she swore she brought home months ago. She stood on her heeled tiptoes and felt around with her hand, her nails recently manicured, and let out a bit of laughter when she came in contact with a glass bottle. She read the label, recognizing the brand Sanka from an “I Love Lucy” episode. Often, she would tu...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Where Night Meets Day

Submitted to Contest #224

“Tell us the story of the sun and moon, Grandpa!” Shell smiled her best smile at the old man and he returned her smile warmly. Faun, her older brother looked up from his play and scowled, “that isn’t right. It is the tale of day and night, not the sun and moon.” Grandpa smiled again, the same smile for the boy as he had had for the little girl, “both are right in their own way. After all, you cannot have day without the sun and the moon lives in the night.” “Please tell the story, Grandpa!” she tugged the leg of his trousers as thoug...

9 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

The apartment of two rivals

Submitted to Contest #224

When you've been living together for two years but you never catch a glimpse of each other, When you only see each other in the passing of dusk and dawn in that crazy cycle, what is the story of Adrian and Ethan. Well Adrian goes back a very long time his dad and then his grandfather and then his great grandfather and then you get where those pictures going it's part of the gang and when I say part, I mean the boss their called the Valencian and have been at war with Kamandag. While Adrian, the son of Marcus, has recently passed after what's...

9 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Cereal and Steak

Submitted to Contest #224

I used to be a night owl. I’d stay up reading under my covers with the contraband flashlight my godmother bought me. I would wait for my parents to go to sleep, I’d slip into the living room and put on my favourite record at the time, a weathered copy of Hooked on Classics, and I’d snuggle back into my bed with one of my favourite OZ books (there are fourteen from the original series, most folks don’t know that). My favourite was one about a boy who’s island was attacked and he was left alone with a talking goat, the ridiculous king who rode...

8 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story before dawn. Your character has woken up early for a particular reason.

Fiction – 93 stories

Start your story with someone saying “I can’t sleep.”

Dramatic – 87 stories

Write a story about someone pulling an all nighter.

Fiction – 35 stories

Write about someone who can’t sleep due to jet lag, and decides to set out and explore their new city at night instead.

Adventure – 20 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel