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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#134: Look Up

This Friday, the 18th of February, marks the 92nd anniversary of Pluto being discovered — and though it’s no longer considered ‘big enough’ to be an official planet, it will always have a big place in our hearts. With it’s hot-to-cold cycles and snow-capped mountains, this almost-planet almost looks like home. (That said, we still wouldn’t recommend it for your next vacation!)

To mark the occasion, this week’s prompts are a love letter to our favorite forgotten planet, and the spirit of discovery in general.

This week's prompts

Your character, by chance or habit, peers through a telescope. They see something unusual — what is it?

Dystopian – 53 stories

Set your story beyond our own world.

Science Fiction – 50 stories

Write about a character who has a ‘hot and cold’ personality — or is affected by someone like this.

Character – 30 stories

End your story with a character looking out on a new horizon.

Narrative – 63 stories

Write from the POV of someone, or something, that experiences gravity differently.

Science Fiction – 27 stories

Stories

“the good, the bad, and the ugly” by Francesca Wieck

Submitted to Contest #134

It always starts with hope and ends in disappointment. The flitter of butterflies against your stomach, the flush of blood to your cheeks, the nervous glances, the thinly veiled stares. The giddiness overriding your entire system after one single compliment. Oh, how I wish I could hold onto that feeling. The simplicity of it all, of the way my body would respond to his touch, a simple nudge enough to send me spiraling. How I wanted nothing more to make him happy and to keep him safe. How I hoped and dared to dream that he could be mine,...

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“Moth” by Dean Atlas

Submitted to Contest #134

I work around a lot of people, so generally an individual doesn’t catch my eye. She did. The first time I saw her I was in the middle of struggling to change the trash. It seemed like everyone at the mall that day decided to throw their full drinks away. After a couple of minutes of persistence and on the verge of losing my temper, I finally hefted it out and I looked up. What I saw I will never forget. She sat at a cell phone cover kiosk thumbing through a tablet sitting on her lap. Her hair danced as she twirled bronze strands around her ...

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“How Far is Far Enough?” by Mason Hatton

Submitted to Contest #134

One night in San Francisco my girlfriend at the time had a “hot and cold” personality which laid waste to one particular night in all the worst ways. Laughing as we approached a tall silver pole about twice as thick as a street light. Attached to it was a metal ladder that made its way up the length of the pole into a basket up top used to maintain and replace the bulbs. I had climbed similar structures before, but I really was not completely confident in her capability of climbing. Made all the more risky due in part to the bottles of wine ...

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“A New Beginning ” by Angel Vargas

Submitted to Contest #134

Matilda and I stand together in silence, watching the sunrise in our favorite park, and the only thing I can think is “fuck this.”The day starts with the usual routine. Get up at 4am. Drink free-trade coffee. Eat a quick breakfast. Take a bleary-eyed perusal of emails and texts on my Obama-issued flip phone.. Then I flop onto my ancient, sweat stained couch and wait, a knot forming in my stomach. I’m expecting a call from a Portland temp agency to tell me if they need me to report downtown to yet another grueling factory job. ...

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“Ozzie” by A.L. Shilling

Submitted to Contest #134

OZZIEBy, A.L. Shilling**Ozzie furiously typed out a message on their phone. It was time to let the world know exactly how they felt. They had been silent for too long. If Ozzie didn’t speak now, they would likely never be able to again. There was so much to say, but a sentence or two would have to do. But it had to be perfect. Their message had to reach as many people as possible and it had to be absolutely clear. There could be no room for doubt. They deleted the message they were about to send, deciding at the last second that the exp...

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“I Will Build You a Bridge” by Victoria Luu

Submitted to Contest #134

Drowning is the risk you take. The descent into dark water pulls the breath out of you. In, you will your body and the lungs obey, filling with artificial air carried through a tube leading to the surface. Out the waste gasses go in bubbles that effervesce against your helmet's narrow visor. Your legs find their footing and your body re-centres under this new gravity. Your blind hand reaches out with a spark. She lays her fingers across the scrunched forehead. “Hot.” But not terribly so. The little mouth tightens and his face is etched ...

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“The day David Bowie died ” by Marie-Helene Verney

Submitted to Contest #134

On the day David Bowie died, Ziggy and I rode to Stone Beach to watch the Geminid meteor showers. I must say the news shook us badly. Bowie, dead? It could not be true. David was special, in a kind of other worldly way, so I guess we’d grown to believe that earthly laws of physics and biology did not apply to him. Turn out we were wrong. Janine sniffled about it all day. I wouldn’t have minded a bit of a cry myself, but I was too numb for it. Ziggy took it hard. He kept saying how unfair it was that on the day Bowie passed away...

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“A Good Night Hunting” by Nick Cevennes

Submitted to Contest #134

The snow was covered with his blood, like roses in frost. Around the corner, the din of Sharkmen with axes echoed through the misty haze. Not far ahead lay the ruins, interwoven with boulders, covered with gray snow like crisps. As his breathing grew louder, he felt his lungs overflow with boiling blood; he pulled his dagger from the bottom of his boot, hurling it. Hearing it land on the iron staircase, Aster charged at the other side of the ruins. He leaped over the wasteland and caught the blood dripping his lips with the hem of his g...

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“Sail Away” by Gwen Narus

Submitted to Contest #134

She scrambled around the store. Checking the items off her list. Her hair was piled up in a messy bun on top of her head. She was in her comfy black yoga pants. “Dang it. I forgot the laundry detergent. “ She hated when she had to backtrack. She started back to the other side of the store frowning. She saw the display of candy to her right. She had about forty five minutes until the kids were out of school. I’ll look real quick she thought. She eyed up each shelf carefully. She tried not to overindulge in sweets but she could not r...

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“Sela” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #134

Sela... her name sounded just like a melody. I miss her so much! We used to talk for hours about the differences between boundaries and horizons and seek holiness and mystery in the natural world. Sela loved horizons as much as I love deserts. I know where my love for the desert was born, where I was gripped by its spell: it was in the city of dreams and legends, where imagination is law. Past donkeys and camels, veiled women and snake charmers, there was a man in a white robe. He played the strings, and the rhythm would take me on a magic r...

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“Pine and Pancakes” by Allison Ross

Submitted to Contest #134

Trigger Warning: Multiple sensitive themes including abuse mentions, eating disorder mentions, and intense grief. I wake to your old beeper alarm, its stale and stunning shriek shaking the room, luminescent green numbers flashing through the dark. I groan as my legs shift heavily over the edge of the bed and lead me to the kitchen. With the robotic motion of muscle memory, my hands set the coffee pot. My back slides down the wall, and I hug my knees to my chest, focusing solely on the sound of the brewing breakfast blend. I know that I sh...

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“ARTEMIS” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #134

Artemis, a ship of wonder destined to take us to another world, a world beyond our own to start a new life, to build a new world similar to our own, a world that would save us from what we are leaving behind.As I look at Artemis, I see a wonder we humans built, but I also see a prison that will take me away from everything I have ever known, others see it as our salvation to something better, to a new world that will save us.To the many others we are leaving behind Artemis offers nothing but death and the lies that everyone will be saved, th...

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“The Blood of Gods” by Kjanela Fawcett

Submitted to Contest #134

Air filled her lungs, freedom filling her chest as much as the air did. Too-tight chains fell from her wrists, leaving bloodied skin behind. She stepped out into a world graced by twilight, heedless of the tears of blood that fell upon the ground.The sky spread out in front of her. The blue was fading as it fell into night; shades of red spread through the sky, rising from behind the mountains like streaks of blood. A remnant left behind by the sun as a promise to the world that it would return.That promise, however, was not meant for h...

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“A new horizon, a new home.” by Lillie Forteau

Submitted to Contest #134

One man recommended the west end beach, apparently a certain spot where you could see the whole world when the sun touched the water. Well, she needed to know if he was right. Her feet dug into the warm sand, a feeling she forgot she loved. In one direction, there was a park, with a rocky shoreline, and trees sprouting out of the small patches of sand. The other way, a long, sandy heaven, with the sun's glow turning the sand into sparkles, gleaming against the blue water. She was in pure bliss. The man certainly wasn’t lying. The clo...

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“Into Time” by Alex Fisher

Submitted to Contest #134

The telescope hadn’t been used in a very long time. Dust covered the lens with a thick film- reminding Darien as this generation’s appointed Scopist, he had a sacred duty to his people. He took a deep breath, trying to steady his nerves. The weight of responsibility settled on his shoulders, smothering him as he waited for the cue to approach his people. There. There it was. Zaren, his apprentice, motioned to him with a quick flick of his fingers, unnoticed by the hundreds of people surrounding the dais. He stood, resolute an...

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$250

Prize money

223

Contest entries

128

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 25, 2022 EST

Won by Story Time 🏆

Title: The Hovering Age

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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