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#113 Dreams and Nightmares

Different cultures and civilizations have been pondering the meaning of dreams for centuries. Whether you believe dreams reflect real life, or real life reflects our dreams, it’s difficult not to be intrigued by the personalized movies our brain creates while we’re asleep. This week’s prompts encourage you to explore what happens when we enter this liminal space between fantasy and reality — and how dreams can be beautiful, terrible, and everything in between.

🥇 Winner

Dream Weaver

Megan Lange

Winner of Contest #113 🏆

In the dust that settles at the end of the world where the only light is the dimness of dawn, there is a woman sitting on a wooden chair. It is not a throne; she is not a queen. It is not a rocking chair; she is not a crone. It is a wooden chair you might find anywhere in the world, straight-backed and uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time. She sits on it while she weaves with a cat sleeping lazily at her feet. There is a single flickering flame that lights her workspace, illuminating spools of thread in every imaginable color and...

222 likes

⭐️ Shortlisted

Out of the Blue

Bonnie Jay

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

Liv was tired. Goddam bone-tired. Another day on the lines and her eyes were aching like sagging balloons, ready to burst from the strain required to just stay employed at that dump. She laced her fingers together and pushed her arms above her head as she came to the end of her daily slog to the bus stop. The movement rewarded her with a series of satisfying pops along her cramped joints. The bench at the bus stop was hard and damp, mildew curled around the edges. But, her aching legs demanded rest. She pictured a plump, squas...

57 likes

drop off

Anna Hibschman Ferguson

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

This is my worst nightmare. My daughter’s hair is not brown but it’s not red either. Her eye color lives in the space where blue tickles green. She has one dimple on her right cheek and none on her left. She was born at 7:26 am on a Tuesday in October. 20 minutes after a sunrise that we wouldn’t have seen if we had wanted to look. It was cloudy. We were busy. My sister-in-law said she never saw a baby look so much like their mom. That is, secretly, very satisfying. She’s the neatest little human. She likes rocks, animal figurines...

25 likes

Awake

Shane Ransom

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

She fought against the pull toward consciousness, preferring to bask in the vague happiness that lived in the gauzy space between wakefulness and dreams. She held the glow, which was already slipping away, for as long as she could before succumbing, inevitably, to the pull of the world beyond her own mind. Gray, she thought as her eyes fluttered open. It was always the first thing she noticed. It was one of the only things to notice really, the grayness. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, her clothes, all of it the same lifeless shade. She s...

22 likes

Somnia Addicta

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

When my body surrenders to sleep, colors, smells and sounds coalesce. Magic grows from possibility to certainty. The intangible parts of my soul manifest into wondrous creatures and people and landscapes. Tonight, it manifests you. I’ve dreamed of such encounters before--strangers who know me better, love me better, than anyone in the waking light. So when your lips meet mine, I relish the sensation without restraint, worry, or guilt. Your caresses aren’t real. Your desire isn’t real. Such things never are. But I can feel you under ...

22 likes

Dream of me

Elia Kruger

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

I. Awake Do you know how to lucid dream? It's a skill, not a talent. The difference being, it's something you work on, not something you're born with. There are concrete actions you can take to practice, to train your brain and your subconscious into recognizing a dream state, and then take control. In a dream state, your brain seems to expand, to be limitless and all-powerful. There are certain, seemingly simple things that your brain does in a waking s...

21 likes

This week's prompts

Write a story about a character who believes their dreams predict the future.

Thriller and Suspense – 39 stories

Start or end your story with the line ‘This is my worst nightmare.’

Dialogue – 74 stories

Write about two people whose dreams are somehow connected.

Thriller and Suspense – 43 stories

Write a story about a character who interprets people’s dreams.

Adults – 18 stories

Write about a character whose dreams are portals to other worlds.

Science Fiction – 54 stories

Stories

Dream Weaver

Megan Lange

Winner of Contest #113 🏆

In the dust that settles at the end of the world where the only light is the dimness of dawn, there is a woman sitting on a wooden chair. It is not a throne; she is not a queen. It is not a rocking chair; she is not a crone. It is a wooden chair you might find anywhere in the world, straight-backed and uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time. She sits on it while she weaves with a cat sleeping lazily at her feet. There is a single flickering flame that lights her workspace, illuminating spools of thread in every imaginable color and...

222 likes

The Stuff that Dreams Are Made On

Deidra Whitt Lovegren

Submitted to Contest #113

“I don’t think he loves me anymore,” I say, buttering a warm piece of bread. The bread basket is almost empty, but the waiter will bring us another. We’ll say we regret ordering more. It will ruin our appetite. But we’ll eat more bread gleefully—slathering yellow smears of animal fat on empty carbohydrates. My oldest friend and I meet biweekly for lunch, mainly at restaurants with ferns whose menus have more pages than contemporary novels. “I don’t think he loves me anymore,” I repeat, trying to look sad. I wonder on some leve...

58 likes

Out of the Blue

Bonnie Jay

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

Liv was tired. Goddam bone-tired. Another day on the lines and her eyes were aching like sagging balloons, ready to burst from the strain required to just stay employed at that dump. She laced her fingers together and pushed her arms above her head as she came to the end of her daily slog to the bus stop. The movement rewarded her with a series of satisfying pops along her cramped joints. The bench at the bus stop was hard and damp, mildew curled around the edges. But, her aching legs demanded rest. She pictured a plump, squas...

57 likes

Let the Beauty Never Fade

Keya J.

Submitted to Contest #113

“Eli” I heard my name pass through the curtains, whispering to the walls, climbing upstairs and finally settling down around the corner of my ears, but I sat transfixed. Staring listlessly at the beautiful painting in front of me. The woman might be naked, people’s eyes might disgust, but the details were beautiful. The emotions were beautiful. I heard the call again but the living consciousness inside me didn’t dare. Yet she would smile, I know. She understood me, she could feel me yet she would compel me to these traps.24 August,...

40 likes

Daughter of Peace

Submitted to Contest #113

Emerald green eyes did not blink as it looked at Danielle. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to have eyelids. It had hair made of coniferous needles. As she watched the needles thinned, looking more and more like real hair but pine green. “This is worse than my worst nightmares,” Danielle said to herself. When it spoke, its voice was the crunch of heavy feet on dry leaves and the moan of the ...

38 likes

Children with Dreams

Submitted to Contest #113

Warning: Sexual Content. Returning to the abandoned home where they’d first slept together, Danielle and Lupita kissed passionately the moment the door was closed. Danielle’s hunting bow made the experience as uncomfortable as it was wonderful. The grip of the bow around her chest pressed against the armour she always wore. The warrior was fine. Lupita winced from the bow pressing into her but couldn’t seem to tear herself off, despite the discomfort. At last, they bro...

35 likes

Incident in Ward D

Submitted to Contest #113

Patient’s P.O.V: This is my worst nightmare. I’m not sure nightmare is enough of a description. Horror. Misery. Purgatory. No words can explain what I am about to tell you. The comforting fruits of love's labour had me questioning the validity of my reality. Having shared my body with my dream lover had seemingly put my mind in a state of eternal bliss. She was sleeping. I could tell by her breathing. The window was open to aerate the marijuana she had brought to serve as an aphrodisiac. Drugs of any form, outside of alcohol, were no...

34 likes

Portals Through the Fabric of Castine

Elizabeth Fenley

Submitted to Contest #113

“Portals Through the Fabric of Castine” by Elizabeth Fenley Lenonirie, her Unseelie head tucked under her arm, and Ritassa the Kelpie hovered over the human whose dreams had unexpected consequences. In the middle of the dream, she twitched and murmured incoherently. A dinner plate sized portal appeared in the wall over her head. Small objects on the nightstand were sucked into it before Lenonirie closed it with a word from her severed head and a flick of her free hand. The Wedgewood blue paint returned to its proper place. The woman sig...

33 likes

The Moon Girl

Andrew Sweet

Submitted to Contest #113

Corpulent flakes defy gravity, swinging like obese dancers in pirouettes as blades of the winter winds slice through my tan army coat, coming to rest on a conspicuous gap between two trees, each of which seem nearly as old as New York City itself. I fish the watch out of my pocket, hidden there because the strap had fallen off before I found it in the autumn leaves months before. At least it still keeps time mostly. Three seconds to go before Central Park finally sees something worth talking about, but the only person here to bear witness t...

31 likes

The Deception

Elise Aries

Submitted to Contest #113

I knew the pain was coming the second my eyes closed that night.Vivid images barreled across my consciousness, strangling my throat and squeezing the shallow breaths I could muster out of my lungs.You will hear me now.Silence is the loudest sound of all, Jonah.Jonah. Was that my name? Dang, I couldn't remember. My life felt like a distant memory, slowly drowning in a sea of forgotten thoughts and dreams.The scenes catapulting through my mind were like a thousand orchestras, all playing different tunes. I couldn't hear the racket of my ricket...

29 likes

See You in My Dreams

Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #113

Jeremy always had a vivid imagination, though he did not realize until later in life, how this would impact the world around him. Even as a child, Jeremy would insist to his parents that he had visited a vast array of people while he dreamt at night. His parents, of course, believed that his dreams were nothing more than an active imagination, until one morning, while at the breakfast table, Jeremy described a d...

27 likes

drop off

Anna Hibschman Ferguson

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

This is my worst nightmare. My daughter’s hair is not brown but it’s not red either. Her eye color lives in the space where blue tickles green. She has one dimple on her right cheek and none on her left. She was born at 7:26 am on a Tuesday in October. 20 minutes after a sunrise that we wouldn’t have seen if we had wanted to look. It was cloudy. We were busy. My sister-in-law said she never saw a baby look so much like their mom. That is, secretly, very satisfying. She’s the neatest little human. She likes rocks, animal figurines...

25 likes

Death by the sea

Ayushi Roy

Submitted to Contest #113

CW: violence/murderI took my jackets off that night, jumped into bed and my eyes drifted off into the dark of the night.Soon I was standing a little away from the seashore. The night sky had a dreadful shade of black with a tinge of blood-red in it. The silver claw of the crescent moon was sharply defined. My hair fluttered in the wind as I watched the waves beat endlessly against the rocks.I saw two figures moving near the shore, so, I started approaching them. Little did I know that it was the worst decision I ever made.The closer I w...

24 likes

Drop Zone

Linda Gruenberg

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare: heights. I’m terrified of heights.I know I’m not the only one. Some people are just drawn over the edge of things. Like the old woman I saw in Tepee Tonka Park last Saturday. She couldn't even walk across a high footbridge without lying down to keep from falling off. I think about that woman clinging to the edge of the bridge as I watch the Cessna climbing its way to thirty-five hundred feet. My husband, Tony, has just taken up skydiving. Today is his second jump. When the ...

23 likes

Awake

Shane Ransom

Shortlisted for Contest #113 ⭐️

She fought against the pull toward consciousness, preferring to bask in the vague happiness that lived in the gauzy space between wakefulness and dreams. She held the glow, which was already slipping away, for as long as she could before succumbing, inevitably, to the pull of the world beyond her own mind. Gray, she thought as her eyes fluttered open. It was always the first thing she noticed. It was one of the only things to notice really, the grayness. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, her clothes, all of it the same lifeless shade. She s...

22 likes

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Contest #113

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

228

Entries

138

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 01, 2021 EST

Won by Megan Lange 🏆

Title: Dream Weaver

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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