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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#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.

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

“The Morpheus Gate” by Aaron Bartholome

Submitted to Contest #113

James Griffin bolted up in bed, the veins in his forehead throbbing with each rapid beat of his heart. Sweat poured from his scalp as he fought to bring his screaming mind back into focus. The chair in the corner. The window by the bed, its curtains waving gracefully with the steady hum of the A/C unit. The door to the hallway standing ajar just enough to let in the light from the bathroom. James fumbled around the bedside table for his phone and shrank back when its bright screen attacked his sleepy vision. After a few moments of rubbing ...

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“The Porch” by Elena Pitsilidou

Submitted to Contest #113

Alice? ALICE? Can you hear me? The last time we met was approximately one week ago. I believe I managed to make contact but it was too brief. The nurses in the hospital managed to get you out from the REM state and the portal disappeared. I only saw you standing in front of a door but you were staring at me in, what I suppose, must have been a mirror. So, you were staring at yourself but in reality it was me. Reality; HUH! You remember I had been debating whether reality is the correct concept to describe our surroundings since I was a chil...

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“Into The Wonderlands” by Dmitriy Galashin

Submitted to Contest #113

..the waves of crescendoing waltzes filled the ballroom, the chandeliers were on fire, and the reflections in the shining mirrors amalgamated with the dancers in endless revolutions. The sugary, floral fragrances hovered over the hall, mildly exciting, tenderly intoxicating. “Fourteen, just a little too early for the balls?” “Oh, I come for the desserts,” I say, smiling And another dessert cart rolls by, the first tray taken by marble cakes and berry-covered pies, the second housed marzipan tartlets, and crispy pastry, third lodged w...

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“The Recurring Dreams of Victor Dumoure” by Olivia Snead

Submitted to Contest #113

On an August morning as the sun cast its rays through the window, Victor Dumoure awakened from a dream. The handsome and successful singer got up, stretched, and crossed to his favorite chair, a Vintage from the Renaissance period. He sat down and crossed his silk clad legs. I haven’t had a dream like that since I was a young hard rocker, he thought. I was so terrified after that unforgettable performance, that I hired a private investigator to find out if someone had tried to kill me. How cunning my agent and Lenore were, slipping that drug...

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“Clairvoyance” by Autumn McGiveron

Submitted to Contest #113

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had this… thing. It didn’t start off as much. When I was about three I had this dream about a dog and saw the same one the next day; normal kid stuff you can write off, y’know? Then it started to get a little weirder, like knowing my sister was going to fall off the slide at the park or knowing what my cousins had gotten me for my birthday before they had even come to my party. By the time I told my parents I knew they were going to separate before they had even decided, they all knew something was up. ...

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“The Dream” by Jennifer Braveheart

Submitted to Contest #113

The dream is floating, lazily along the recesses of my brain. It is rolling gently along the banks of my memory. It is fluttering as softly as butterfly wings delicately tapping on the windows of my soul trying to awaken the recollection of it. I am sure that the dream is coming from someplace within the depths of my being. I try and remember the dream. It is sliding like the morning tide back into my memory bank. It is gliding swiftly through the recesses ...

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“False Awakening” by Ryan Shaw

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare. Is what Ethan said to himself when he woke up. It was only a few nights ago Ethan and Isabella arrived. Deep into the dense woods on the Maine mountaintops. Now sitting at the seemingly lifeless body of Isabella in their tent. He desperately tried to wake her, shaking her as hard as he could. It was far too late at this point and he knew she had passed. Trying to look past the tears in his eyes he looked for a cause. Nothing he saw explained any of this. He wondered if he was too rough with her last night. He knew...

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“It's Good To Touch the Green, Green Grass of Home” by Jethro Pili

Submitted to Contest #113

Everything was loud and quiet at the same time. The air was deathly still as everyone waited for the jury to finish deliberating. The ticking clock on the courtroom’s wall sounded like miners’ pickaxes against solid rock and I could hear the rush of my own blood in my ears like the waters of the mighty roaring Niagara Falls. My heart beat as deafeningly as a battering ram against an ancient castle’s wooden gates. My pulse raced like a thousand charging cavalries in battle. Despite the cold airconditioned room, I felt sweat form under my hair...

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“Great Balls of Spitfire” by Andrew Bruton

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare.In retrospect, karma was never something I ever really bought into. I always assumed that it only appealed to people who delighted in the misfortune of those who had wronged them. I can see its appeal as a concept; someone cuts you up on a roundabout and the universe is supposed to flip their car or give them cancer. It has a strong USP. I'm not sure it's really a thing though. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's all bullshit, how could I know? I just think that the people who really deserve to get shafted...

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“Jokes are Half-Meant: Musings, Meditation, and the Pandemic” by Kathleen Manarang

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare! What is it? The COVID19 pandemic! It’s what most people would call a nightmare – Well, isn’t it? People are anxious and scared everywhere! Maybe we would be more hopeful if we focused on the number of recoveries rather than the deaths from the virus. Yeah, okay, but I mean! We’ve only read about smallpox and Spanish flu in history books. Like, no, that’s history, it can’t happen to us. Like we’re so scientifically advanced to be hit by any pandemic! Well, now we’re part of history, too! Laughs. ...

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“The one-time people” by Kerry Goldsworthy

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare. Consciousness has come to me for another day. I lift my head up and sigh. I look around, my eyelids heavy, perhaps from sleep, perhaps from the expectations of another long day ahead. I wonder if anything different will happen today. This is how it has been for weeks now, maybe months. I’m not sure. I don’t know why I am here. No one has tried to explain it to me. I am homesick. What happened to my family? Why was I taken from my house? I miss my family. I miss my toys. I miss the grassy backyard with the swi...

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“This is my worst Nightmare! or Das ist mein schlimmster Albtraum!” by J. J. Fauria

Submitted to Contest #113

I Off the southwestern coast of California, hidden away at the bottom of the ocean between Terminal Island and Catalina Island is an underwater structure in the shape of an upside-down pyramid. Its color is dark blue and its size is roughly the same as an average two story house you might find on the west side of Long Beach. The tip of its sky blue apex is approximately one micrometer away from fully touching the underwater soil below. It appears to be suspended perfectly straight as if by magic. Arriving outside of it, encased in a dark...

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“The Nightmare's Protege” by Alli Castellan

Submitted to Contest #113

Content Warning: Witness of attempted physical assault and on-screen panic attackConnie Elizabeth’s life was this: Wake up, drink coffee, put on gloves, go to school, try to smile, run until it her feet bleed and her mind stopped thinking, stare at self in mirror and say “I will not have a nightmare. I will not have a nightmare. I will not- “, go to bed, have a nightmare, wake up, drink coffee-Her life had distilled down to a series of numbers:Two thousand ninety days since the nightmare began.16 foster homes- a girl who wakes up screaming e...

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“Golden Eyes” by Francisco Seoane

Submitted to Contest #113

She woke up abruptly and touched her sweaty face. The image of that boy was still completely clear on her retina, his golden eyes glittering and his immaculate smile against the light.- Anna! Breakfast! - called her mother.She didn't know the boy she'd dreamed of, but the dream had been so clear that Anna turned the memory over in her mind as she got ready for school.She was sitting at the desk, staring at the blackboard and the teacher's words passing through her head without being understood. She absentmindedly glanced across the room wher...

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“We Build the City” by Ashley Slaughter

Submitted to Contest #113

New Orleans, 2021 Camille wakes with a gasp, just before the boy took her hand in his. Why do dreams always end just before the most heart-wrenching part? Closing her eyes against the gray morning light one more, Camille stubbornly tries to fall back into her dream. Just a few more minutes . . . But her phone’s alarm breaks her resolve with a not-so-gentle tinkling of bells, and she wants to cry. Couldn’t she get just a couple of more minutes with him? With a final, frustrated harumph, Camille rolls her limbs one by one out of bed and pads...

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$250

Prize money

228

Contest entries

139

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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