Write about light returning to a place that has been deprived of it for a long time, literally or figuratively.

Posted in Christmas on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 89 stories

“The Color of Grief” by Shalon Atwood

Submitted to Contest #138

Content Note: This story deals with death, loss and grief. Gina’s body felt crushed down into her mattress by a thousand bricks. Every inch of her felt as heavy as stone. Her blonde hair clung to her sweaty forehead, stringy and unwashed. Peeling her eyes open to check the time required fierce determination and sheer will, but it was necessary. If she hadn’t feared losing her job for missing yet another day, she would have stayed in here, her leaden body unmoving until the end of time. But bereavement leave lasted only so long. With all of...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Light Returns: Forevermore” by Erica John

Submitted to Contest #138

Light Returns: Forevermore A Prologue It started off gradually at first, a match gleaming through the never ending darkness in which we call home. Then the flame grew, engulfing all of the terrors that stood before it moments ago. All of the nightcrawlers turned to ash, one by one, as fast as they had appeared when the lights went out. Here in our never ending dusk, most generations knew nothing more than the things that lived in our darkness. They had never seen any more than a glimmer of light that began at our matches, and ended in a di...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Total Darkness” by Ashley Lee

Submitted to Contest #138

Lisa Danbury looked over the dark town from her apartment’s tiny balcony. The light from the sun and moon had been lost to earth years before she had been born. Since the Government had forced everyone to use solar power a year before the sun faded, power plants and factories had only lasted for a year or two after. She had heard stories about people being killed over things that made artificial light until that was gone too. She had seen flashlights when she had been small but as with the sun and candles the batteries for the batteries died...

4 comments 4

Read story

“The City Of Drear” by Mark Griffin

Submitted to Contest #138

John Baker, although a man of a not very unique name, was a very unique person. This uniqeness was shown one dreary afternoon in a bar where he was resting with his friends after a long day. Slightly drunk, one of them, a tall, burly redhead called Frank, said: "Is anyone here daring to take on a bet?" They nodded, and the man continued, this time quietly, as if telling a secret: "If one of you manages to go the City Of Drear, stay in there for a night and come back, I'll give them 1 grand." He didn't think anyone would take on the challenge...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Prodigal Sun Returns Home” by McCampbell Molly

Submitted to Contest #138

Sila called out the headline title, “The day the sun will no longer rise.” The first line dramatically read, “At 1:30 AKST this afternoon, the sun will set, and Barrow will enter a 65-day period of polar night. The sun will rise again on January 22 next year.” It happened every year, but it never ceased to amaze him how the town reacted. It was like a scene out of Deep Impact where Morgan Freeman announces that the mission has failed. He gravely tells the people that they h...

5 comments 5

Read story

“A Season by any other Name Wouldn't Smell as Sweet ” by Jay Mosley

Submitted to Contest #138

You’ve kept the blinds over your window closed along with the ones over your eyes. More often than not, when you wake up you don’t bother checking the time unless you have to go somewhere where your presence will be accounted for in your absence will be met with repercussions. You put one foot on the side of your bed and it finds something that crutches and sticks to the bottom of it. A grimace finds your face. Today’s one of those days. All of November, December, all of January, February, and so far most of March (climate change right? You ...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Fallout” by Anthony Battaglia

Submitted to Contest #138

“You better run!” Scott roared. Teighlor raced toward the steps. She swung herself around the baluster as a half-drunk whiskey bottle exploded against the wall above her head raining glass and that pungent liquid down on her. She stopped and looked into the glazed over eyes of the pathetic excuse for a man as he swayed on his feet. She saw nothing left in them for her. “Go to hell,” she commanded through clenched teeth, then stormed up the steps and into the bedroom. She locked the door behind her, even though she knew he wasn’t coming aft...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Deprevation of my light” by Clare Knock

Submitted to Contest #138

A mine field of emotions swirling with colours. Bright and cheery, luminescent and glowing, solid and translucent. Eyes awash with cheer and happiness within, glistening and gleaming with contentment. Excitement and joy flooding through an active and alive mind. Family and friends filling a heart with emerald greens and blues, oranges and happiness yellow. Laughter and health in abundance. Smiles and cheerfulness feeding peaceful nerves with delight. Veins pumping love, adoration and affection to feed the hungry cells that turn the emotions...

0 comments 0

Read story

“See The Light Again ” by Knowledge B Shamuyarira

Submitted to Contest #138

See The Light Again For a long time, God knows how long, I have been physically staying in the dark. Worse, there was great darkness inside of me. At that time, I didn’t know when I was going to see the light again nor experience it inside of me. To call my situation hopeless, would be an understatement. I was dead but waiting for the day that my spirit would leave my body. I could feel the pain in my body, my mind, my heart and even my spirit. To continue breathing was a miracle I could not explain even up to this day. As I narrate my stor...

0 comments 0

Read story

“We Belong Here” by Leine V

Submitted to Contest #138

We belong here. The dark is where we live. We stay here. It’s damp, chilly, cold, but we like that. We like that. We wander in the dark, reaching, grasping, unseen and unseeing. And we like it that way. We know what it feels like down here, every crook and crevice, every drip of water and every crack or break in the wall. We know where we are. We don’t need to leave. We brush our hands against the wall, gently following the curve of the cool mossy stone as we creep quietly around the cave. We run our hand over a familiar bump in the rock. W...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Road Back Home” by Sylvia Luna

Submitted to Contest #138

“It’s red,” Henry said pointing to the sweater his wife purchased for him. His facial expression was candid, he didn’t even try to hide his dismay. “It’s really more of a magenta,” she pointed out matching his expression. “Why can’t you ever just acknowledge what I say, why do you have point out the inaccuracies or top it with something you know better?” To the world, Henry and Rita were always in sync, they were perfectly fitted like the words to a favorite song. They’d met by accident, Henry had been set up on a date with Rita’s sister, Ma...

0 comments 0

Read story

“There Shall Be Light” by Mark James

Submitted to Contest #138

A pool of blood formed as it spilled from the fresh wound on the side of Mika’s head. The sun was beginning to set on the Western horizon, off the coast of Anesh, sinking rapidly into the ocean. “I tried,” he thought. “I hope I’m remembered at least for that much.” The pain in his head was searing. He commanded his body to get up, to move, but it wouldn’t respond. His strength to continue his quest was reaching its end and he allowed himself to relax. As he lay helpless among the large stones outside the caves facing the Western shore, consc...

3 comments 3

Read story

“The Darklight” by Kelly Mesenbrink

Submitted to Contest #138

“What IS that?” Callana exclaimed, pointing upwards. Borrin gasped. A large source of light crested over the horizon, something he had not seen except in memory. His skin felt cold, and goosebumps rose quickly on his arms and legs. He looked down, and saw his hands in an orange-yellow natural light that felt soft and warm on his cool-toned skin. “It’s… the Sun!” he said in dazed bewilderment, eyes wide at the ascending orb of burning light. The Sun was the great ball of light that had gone missing from their world when Borrin had been littl...

1 comment 1

Read story

“A Passage From Isaiah” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #138

Igraine was too young to remember when the demons first came to her city. They only came after sunset and left before sunrise. At first they were dismissed as fantasies of the sleepless until they began leaving gifts. Soon folks were staying up to witness the wonders the demons wrought. They could cure afflictions. They would give gifts to those who asked the right way: gold, jewels, valuable things that had never been seen in the city before. No one knew wha...

2 comments 2

Read story

“Liquid Sunshine” by RRadical66 6

Submitted to Contest #138

It’s pouring. The sky is an endless tunnel of dark gray, with raindrops falling. Big, hard and angry drops. The minute they hit the ground they collapse into a million brilliant shards of water. Like glass being thrown against the asphalt. Again and again. The wind is unforgiving, cold and heartless. Blindly whipping things wherever it chooses, giving no thought to what anyone else has to say or even think. “Selfish.” That’s what my grandma always called it. I thought she was crazy. How can the wind have feelings? Much less be considered s...

0 comments 0

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story on a day when the sun never sets.

Dark – 26 stories

Write a story about an afternoon picnic gone wrong.

Fluff – 37 stories

Write about a character who doesn’t want to go to sleep.

Horror – 53 stories

End your story with someone saying: “What a day.”

Summer – 40 stories

Contest #138

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Days in the Sun

$250

Prize money

245

Contest entries

154

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 25, 2022 EST

Won by Christopher Kelley 🏆

Title: After the Rock

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Write about light returning to a place that has been deprived of it for a long time, literally or figuratively.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 89 stories

“The Color of Grief” by Shalon Atwood

“Light Returns: Forevermore” by Erica John

“Total Darkness” by Ashley Lee

“The City Of Drear” by Mark Griffin

“The Prodigal Sun Returns Home” by McCampbell Molly

“A Season by any other Name Wouldn't Smell as Sweet ” by Jay Mosley

“Fallout” by Anthony Battaglia

“Deprevation of my light” by Clare Knock

“See The Light Again ” by Knowledge B Shamuyarira

“We Belong Here” by Leine V

“The Road Back Home” by Sylvia Luna

“There Shall Be Light” by Mark James

“The Darklight” by Kelly Mesenbrink

“A Passage From Isaiah” by John Walsh

“Liquid Sunshine” by RRadical66 6

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story on a day when the sun never sets.

Write a story about an afternoon picnic gone wrong.

Write about a character who doesn’t want to go to sleep.

End your story with someone saying: “What a day.”

Contest #138

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

245

Contest entries

154

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: