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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” by Megan Lange

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 ...

73 comments 73 WINNER 🏆
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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Out of the Blue” by Bonnie Jean

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...

6 comments 6 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“drop off ” by Anna Hibschman Ferguson

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 neve...

4 comments 4 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Awake” by Shane Ransom

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 ...

7 comments 7 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Somnia Addicta” by Brandi Sellers

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 wit...

1 comment 1 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Dream of me” by Elia Kruger

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 ...

6 comments 6 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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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 – 76 stories

Write about two people whose dreams are somehow connected.

Thriller and Suspense – 44 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 – 59 stories

Stories

“Dream Weaver” by Megan Lange

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 ...

73 comments 73 WINNER 🏆
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“The Stuff that Dreams Are Made On” by Deidra Whitt Lovegren

“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 t...

42 comments 42
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“Out of the Blue” by Bonnie Jean

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...

6 comments 6 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Let the Beauty Never Fade” by Keya Jadav

“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 wo...

52 comments 52
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“SPIRITUAL JOURNEY, OR DREAM?” by Joseph Malgeri

   One night after going to bed early, it was rare form, but I had fallen asleep practically instantaneously. I slept soundly, but then at around 4:00am a bright light shining on my closed eyelids had caused me to awaken. Upon opening my eyes, I found this bright light radiating from the spirit of a little girl standing alongside my bed. She appeared to be approximately seven years old, had on a blue dress with white lace trimming, a white hair-band in her long medium brown hair, and wore white knee-socks with...

14 comments 14
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“Incident in Ward D” by Kayise Mosotho

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 sle...

2 comments 2
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“Daughter of Peace” by Graham Kinross

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 ...

20 comments 20
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“Portals Through the Fabric of Castine” by Elizabeth Fenley

“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 close...

6 comments 6
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“The Moon Girl” by Andrew Sweet

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....

4 comments 4
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“The Monster's Playground” by Jon Casper

(CW: gore, torment, abuse)“I’m at my wits’ end,” said Marie. She blew an embarrassing amount of something from her nose and added the soggy tissue to the rapidly-filling wastebasket. In the adjacent room, little Zoe sat cross-legged, moving colored blocks along their circuitous wire path and making raspberry engine noises. Both mother and daughter had dark circles under their bloodshot eyes.Doctor William West finished some notes on his tablet. “Take a deep breath, Marie,” he said. “I think I can help h...

18 comments 18
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“The Deception” by Elise Aries

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 we...

21 comments 21
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“Children with Dreams” by Graham Kinross

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 se...

6 comments 6
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“See You in My Dreams” by Greg Gillis

           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 mornin...

4 comments 4
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“Death by the sea” by Ayushi Roy

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. ...

7 comments 7
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“drop off ” by Anna Hibschman Ferguson

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 neve...

4 comments 4 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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$250

Prize money

236

Contest entries

144

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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