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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

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✍️ 49 stories

“Hunger” by Rose Sultan

Submitted to Contest #224

Golden sunlight bled through the gap in the curtains, and with it, there was a harsh knock at my bedroom door. “Thanks, Morpheus, I’m up,” I muttered, voice gruff with the remnants of sleep. Five minutes later, I was dragging myself out into the cold, stale air. Wearing slippers softened the sound of my feet padding against the wooden floor with every step I took towards the living room. Cereal? Outside the window, a performance of delicate birdsong was ongoing. Early, early enough to make french toast, perhaps some eggs… A corpse lay in the...

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“Rises and Sets” by Teigen Bond

Submitted to Contest #224

We share the same sky, yet we hardly ever see each other. He rises only when I set, though sometimes you can see me lingering in the predawn hours while he peeks over the horizon, hoping to catch a glimpse of his glorious face. I can never manage to stay around long enough to view anything other than a cheek, an eyelash, the tip of a strong chin. I always wonder why it seems like he is so scared to be seen with me. It’s not like I have any hope of outshining his brightness. Even when my face is lit round and full; when Venus herself pales to...

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“Meetings at the Threshold” by Ashley Huls

Submitted to Contest #224

My roommate and I have this simple thing we unintentionally do every day. We pass each other in the living room at 6 am. He’s going to bed and I'm getting ready for work. Soon we nicknamed each other little night owl and early bird. Completely as a joke because why not. This simple action is how we make sure we both are still alive. Seeing as we live life at opposite times of the day. I work during the day as a secretary to a random CEO of a prestigious company.  My roommate, Jerald, is a complete night owl. He plays games all night and...

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“Poor, Poor, Placida” by Xylianna Clay

Submitted to Contest #224

Placida missed the sky.  She missed her gaze being held by someone who spoke with her.  In the same language.  He missed her in return.  Their days slid by each other like oil and water.  He did not sleep.  She slept like the dead.  By nightfall, she left with the moon.  He dozed and dreamt of her return in the cool of dawn.  She would slip back into their rhythm unobtrusively.  Today, the composer of their little orchestra missed a beat somewhere, and they stood at opposing ends of the kitch...

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“Twilight's Embrace at Dawn” by Kilala Benson

Submitted to Contest #224

Harold and Jase were an odd pair living under the same roof. Harold was a morning lark, rising with the first light of dawn, while Jase was a night owl, thriving in the deep, mysterious hours of the night. They were like two ships passing in the night, or more accurately, ships passing at dawn and dusk. Their encounters were rare but special. Harold would brew his morning coffee just as Jase was wrapping up his nightly gaming marathon. It became a routine: the clinking of Harold's coffee mugs coincided perfectly with the sound of Jase yaw...

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“Shifts of Fate” by Shelby Carrie

Submitted to Contest #224

4:30 a.m. Knowing there were only thirty minutes left in his shift made Jacob stand a little taller. The clunky metallic body armor he wore was getting heavier by the hour. On paper, a six-hour shift seems easy. Yet, standing watch outside a kitchen door, with only the rhythmic ticking of a grandfather clock for company, anything beyond six hours would drive him to the brink of insanity. The only light in the hallway came from scarcely places sconces on the marble walls, enhancing even the smallest shadows of movement in the otherwise still...

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“Vampire Coffee” by Sarah Rae Pruitt

Submitted to Contest #224

“So how’s the vampire?”           25-year-old Mona scoffed. “Don’t call him that!”           “But you knew exactly who I was talking about, didn’t you?” came her slightly older sister, Beth’s, smug reply.           They stood in the kitchen of Mona’s apartment. Mona was making dinner; Beth stood beside her and sipped from a huge glass of rosé.      &...

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“Dawn and Crepuscolo” by Jenni Bradshaw

Submitted to Contest #224

“Hi Liz.”“Hey Dawn. Did you hear about the company’s holiday party yet? Do you know what you’re gonna wear?”“Ah, no. I haven’t checked my emails yet. I just got home.”Balancing my luggage and take-out Chinese food in one hand with my phone lodged between ear and shoulder, I dig through my purse for my apartment keys. It’s been a month I haven’t had to think of this place, or work.I traded my mediocre reality for a fairytale life traveling throughout Italy, which has been a bucket list item for me for quite some time now. I’m glad I finally w...

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“Troy's Dawn, Hello Again” by Andrea Corwin

Submitted to Contest #224

“Hello again, Troy. I trust you rested well. End of the week again – yay, Friday, right?” Amelia was chatty in the morning, being a morning person. Troy grumbled, waved his hand in a Miss America-style wave, and slipped past her on his way in. “Geesh, a bit grumpy, are we?” she called out to him. Amelia strode onto the avenue, wending between commuters and street vendors. Selecting a handful of flowers, she dropped a five-dollar bill into the jar and continued, passing a homeless woman who slept on the bus stop bench, wrapped in ...

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“Horizon Kiss” by Akshaya SR

Submitted to Contest #224

After a long day, going home is something everyone desires for. This heaviness of work life, the gravity of peer pressure and the magnet I am, for the bugs and defects, are way too much to handle at the end of the day. I closed the laptop and wanted to fall down on the bed and get cozy but the sun is almost ready to come up to its work.    Ironically the usual day of work is actually alongside the workspace of our mighty golden ball- but the day works differently for me, it starts with the sun going down and I work with t...

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“Sol” by Marten Norr

Submitted to Contest #224

Aro shared his office with someone he’d never met. In the ever-churning, ever-changing labyrinth of the Caretaker Bureau, he walked in a door that led into the office at dawn, and the same door at dusk, but this time it let out into the cloister. Between those times, he sat in the office with its two three plaster walls and one brick wall and saw nobody. His work came to him through pneumatic tubes that extended into the ceiling and disappeared, on their way to some unknown terminus. He removed the scrolls from their little capsules and sen...

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“for now i'm only, people watching” by Lennon S.

Submitted to Contest #224

NOTE: Please read my other stories, due to the entry fee I don't normally actually submit my stories. Therefore they don't get to many other people, I really enjoy writing and am looking for ways to get better. Most of my stories are just over 1,000 words so they don't take very long to read. :) Happy Reading!There she was, writing in her diary like she always did. I wonder if she’s ever mentioned me in it, not like I’ve ever done anything too memorable. We’d been living together for three years, it was both our senior year of college and we...

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“Caregivers” by Edward Roberts

Submitted to Contest #224

Warning  This story contains graphic and disturbing content. Dusk He will be in with my medicine any minute. My body and mind have adapted to this new and peculiar schedule so I almost wake up automatically now. It’s dark in the room. I can’t read the expression on his face because of the mask. I think it’s a he; I feel the roughness of his fingers as he puts the pills in my hand. Yes, it’s a he. Even in my half-dreamy state in the darkened room, I can make out the wide shoulders filling his shirt. They want me to sleep. That’s wh...

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“The Blank Slate of Nothingness” by Samantha Dearn

Submitted to Contest #224

The sun had barely risen when he returned home. He was welcomed by the smell of eggs and toast, signalling that Alex was making breakfast in the kitchen. The long night shift at the museum had taken its toll, and Jonah wanted nothing more than to fall into bed and sleep until dusk, when he would rise once again and head into work. Jonah dropped his bag by the door, kicked his shoes off and hung up his coat before he walked like a zombie to the kitchen, wrapping his arms around Alex and taking in his warmth. Alex melted into him, leaning his...

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“Night Shift” by Sam Wilson

Submitted to Contest #224

In the parking lot, it is the summer of 2019 and Anna is offering me a drag off a cigarette she bummed from Louis the short-order cook. Classic Anna.Anna had never bought a pack of cigarettes in her life. She would bum them off strangers standing outside at bars. She’d take one when offered by a friend at a party and she’d always whine at Louis at the end of a shift. Louis was a sucker for Anna’s groveling. He’d pop up around any corner with his hand outstretched in service, casually rapping the pack against his palm. Without fail, she would...

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Contest #224

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This week's theme: Night Owls and Early Birds

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Ended on 23:59 - Nov 17, 2023 EST

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Title: Goldfish

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