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

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✍️ 89 stories

“Holodomor” by Erin Olig

Submitted to Contest #138

Ukraine, 1932My name is Solomiya, and I have a story to tell you. I will speak it as I walk through the night, for it is dark and cold and the sound of my voice may fill the emptiness. Stranger, If you are beside me, I will not be alone. You are my mother, father, sister, brother. May I call you Mishka? I have done a terrible and wonderful thing tonight, and my hands are black and seared with the evidence of my crime. I was, at dawn, just a girl of sixteen, starving to death amongst my peop...

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“No More Darkness” by Jackie Palm

Submitted to Contest #138

Content Warning: Domestic Violence, Substance Abuse ReferencesHe shifted in his bed in the darkness. He remembered when he used to be afraid of the monsters he could manifest from his imagination. The scraping of the tree branches on the windows would be the long, gnarled fingers of some beast just outside his window waiting to strike if he moved a muscle from under his covers. Or under the bed would turn into more than just old socks and crushed soda cans in the mystery of the night and hold some creature waiting to grab his ankles if he go...

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“A Glimmer” by Emily Rutland

Submitted to Contest #138

I’ve always wondered where the stars hide. They say they used to fill the night skies like scattered jewels on a silken sable dress. They would twinkle and blink, acting as the night’s gleaming eyes, watching passersby go on their nightly trails. Whether it may be a late-night merchant wandering along or a creeping thief waiting to pounce. My grandma would always say that the stars had their own secrets to keep. She would say, if you were able to catch one then you could hear their secrets. Whispering secrets that no mortal could dare keep. ...

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“Nigh” by Brian Merrill

Submitted to Contest #138

The night watchman arose for his last shift at Horizon Theater. Its closing performance was underway. The following morning, the building would be prepped for demolition. Once a dark theatrical epic, “Lost Souls” had become its epitaph. A cast of caricatures trundled across the stage in random acts of mock comradery. Pervasive darkness manifested in players tormented by a sinister otherness: their out-of-body phantoms writhing and convulsing as sonic discord sailed through the auditorium. Fresnel lamps spewed surreal...

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“Dark Cycle” by Christopher Reifsteck

Submitted to Contest #138

Eyes creaked open to the black room. The dreaded alarm clock’s screeching beep, an undeniable call for Vitamin D. Kassinara popped two plastic bottles, one a pill, one a fruit juice, both combining for twice the daily value of Vitamin D.In the dark room, no one cold see the face she made from tasting the fruit juice. What retched planet could produce such a foul food source, she couldn’t say. What she could say, was that it was brimming with vitamins and minerals. All the things a human would miss on a half terra-formed moon. Probably, the f...

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“When Winter Came ” by Stefanie Grace

Submitted to Contest #138

When Winter Came When winter came it smothered the town in a tsunami of ice. Darkness flooded into every corner and rain dampened every surface. It was cold, very cold. The townsfolk hadn’t seen the sun in well over a year now, and they longed for it more than anything. She herself had become as cold as the winter, as hard as ice and invisible like a ghost, but oh was she still near. Her majesty’s presence was unmistakably felt amongst the bitter frost and depressing days in the dark. Of course, she could make it summer...

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“Life Without Light” by Rhonda Ellis

Submitted to Contest #138

Although there had not been light for years on end, I didn't allow that to affect the light in my heart and soul. One morning in 2455 12 years ago, we all woke up and I went to the kitchen for breakfast. I felt that we had something coming our way in the near future either days, months, or years. I felt this a lot, but I didn’t allow people to tell me that this darkness was permanent. As I walked outside to go to school I felt the cold, artificial air on my skin. It was dark as usual but I could still slightly see the electromagnetic field o...

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“'History Repeating Itself '.” by Leanne Drain

Submitted to Contest #138

I sat there listening to the open air, the sound of history repeating as I looked on into the light-filled street. Then, finally, I see the future visions, one that resembles the past. My past was never easy. It was always rocky, but as I look on through the once darkened street, I see myself in the reflection of the road Mirror is something I do not want to know as it reminds me of my past. The nastiness of it, the cruelness of it. What is it that is so frustrating about history? Is it the fact that I could never relive it? Or the fac...

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“The Light Within” by Keith Dale

Submitted to Contest #138

The Light Within Rising early I prepared my boat to go fishing. A boat made of aluminum sixteen feet long and five feet wide. Pushed by a fifteen horse power Johnson motor and steered by tiller which sounds small, but it will push you faster than a normal person would care to go. Regardless it has gotten me out on the water of rivers or lakes and into the smallest or largest places I’ve thought of going. Even into Copano Bay on the gulf coast a couple of times. Since it rained the night before my prospects of catching anything were s...

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“From Darkness To Light Again” by Valerie Preston

Submitted to Contest #138

“I know she has to go but I don’t want her to” she wiped her tears with the back of her hand. “Here” he said quietly thrusting a couple of tissues towards her, “dry your eyes”. She took the bundle of soft white paper, dried her eyes and blew her nose. She could hardly breathe. “You know we’re on the same page with this” he told her taking hold of her hand and looking deep into her eyes. ‘Yes I know. It’s just the guilt I feel. When I look back to when Rachel first changed I should have known. I just should have. I blame myself” she snif...

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“Please Keep Your Hands and Feet Inside the Class War at All Times” by Eli Giudice

Submitted to Contest #138

Above and around me looms an impossible expanse of metal- the curvature of which is riddled with metallic structures that seem to mock the topography of the Earth below. An affront to whatever mad god inspired it. The people all cried “progress!” “prosperity!” and “preservation!” Too few of us knew what this actually meant. Wars were fought to make this monstrosity a reality. Oil was plundered from neighbors, children were ripped from their mothers’ arms. People died to create Disney Planet. After ...

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“This Darkness Around Me” by Audrey Garay

Submitted to Contest #138

This Darkness Around Me Life was good. I was happy. I bounced around in the sun and nodded my head at everyone that passed by. I waved a cheery hello. It didn’t matter whether they were close enough to see me or not. I waved. I started to notice that my head was getting a little tired, bobbing it around wasn’t as easy as it used to be. Then suddenly one day I was ripped from my home. Someone grabbed me. I didn’t...

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“Hoodwinked” by DK Bluntworth

Submitted to Contest #138

The dreams only continued to plague me more so. I had tried everything. Fasting, prayer and even attempting in vain to drown them with unwatered wine, but the entrance to the tunnels remained vivid in my mind's eye. I was the companion of a friend of the great Hugues de Payens. I gained his acquaintance a Christmas mass in Paris several years ago now. The choir was singing in chorus as his firm grip compressed my hand, candles flickered deep in his pupils and I could sense the greatness of the man. Word made it's way to us that Jerusalem ha...

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“Old-Timey Petunias” by Andy Cockrell

Submitted to Contest #138

Old-Timey Petunias It was the middle of May, our fourth Spring as spouses, and I did not expect us to see a fifth. Our marital road had become riddled with potholes of unmet expectations and growing discontentment. We weren’t speaking one another’s love language, and we weren’t speaking much that was meaningful in the English language either. That was when a horticultural development threatened to usher in divorce proceedings before becoming the unlikely catalyst of renewed wedding vows. Going out to eat on Saturday nights should have fe...

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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

“Holodomor” by Erin Olig

“No More Darkness” by Jackie Palm

“A Glimmer” by Emily Rutland

“Nigh” by Brian Merrill

“Dark Cycle” by Christopher Reifsteck

“When Winter Came ” by Stefanie Grace

“Life Without Light” by Rhonda Ellis

“'History Repeating Itself '.” by Leanne Drain

“The Light Within” by Keith Dale

“From Darkness To Light Again” by Valerie Preston

“Please Keep Your Hands and Feet Inside the Class War at All Times” by Eli Giudice

“This Darkness Around Me” by Audrey Garay

“Hoodwinked” by DK Bluntworth

“Old-Timey Petunias” by Andy Cockrell

🌟 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: