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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#138: Days in the Sun

If you live in the Northern hemisphere, now’s that time of the year when the days begin to feel a little longer. The start of Spring means you can look forward to afternoon picnics in the park, long walks while the sun is still up, and days that feel endless — like you have more time on your hands, even though that’s not technically true.

Celebrating this turn of the season, this week’s prompts take inspiration from these longer and sunnier days.

This week's prompts

Set your story on a day when the sun never sets.

Dark – 26 stories

Write a story about an afternoon picnic gone wrong.

Fluff – 37 stories

Write about a character who doesn’t want to go to sleep.

Horror – 53 stories

End your story with someone saying: “What a day.”

Summer – 40 stories

Write about light returning to a place that has been deprived of it for a long time, literally or figuratively.

Christmas – 89 stories

Stories

“Chipper in the Old Folks Home” by Kara Hunsdon

Submitted to Contest #138

Clouds hovered above in an ever-present gloom, while the slow stream of time ticked onward. Bennington Residential Care, the Nursing Home with the highest turnover rate of medical staff in the county, sat between two great mountains in a quiet valley. If you were to look up the definition of dreary, the cracked gray bricks that were more at home in prison, and the faded glass doors opening into the facility would be the first reference image. Working here felt more akin to being a vulture waiting for sickly animals to finally stop stirring....

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“Staying Wistful” by Connor Avila

Submitted to Contest #138

Darkness emits a comfort to me. In times of strife, worry, or complete mental undoing, all of it can be remedied through this masking of reality. My reality is unique in a way. I wake up to a room of arid, dry gray walls. The dimensions of the walls and ceiling are perfectly even and inside it is only myself, and a bed. Sound is nearly nonexistent in this prison, confined to the vibrations I create by moving around. Likewise, if I do nothing, the world reciprocates my ambition. Lacking is a peer or alternative member to create cause, to inst...

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“Age of The Void” by Rose Z.

Submitted to Contest #138

[Warning: Themes of blood and violence]The darkened sun, known as the Everwatchful Eye, peered through the veil that draped over the world in eternal night. Its gaze fell upon a mountainous basin where a battlefield raged, and a vagabond was left to die. Blood trickled onto ashen soil and congealed with remnants of dust and bone.The vagabond, Helia, sharply inhaled through clenched teeth as weary lungs expanded within a fractured rib cage. Tanned skin was tinted purple as a coolness crept into her wounds. The wind nipped at the scar across h...

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“Still Here” by V Lauria

Submitted to Contest #138

The church basement is dark. The nursery school teacher asks if there are any questions. My three year old hand shoots up. She calls on me. I might be the only one with my hand up. My question is sincere and simple. Why are you round like a planet? The teacher has no verbal response. She leaves the room as her assistant takes the helm. I know something’s wrong with my question. Still I’m disappointed to not have an answer. Give it all to Jesus is the sermon du jour. I find J...

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“the shadow men” by Jolie Ma

Submitted to Contest #138

The sky is bright, it has to be. Whenever the ball of flame falls under the mountains an arsenal of bright lamps switch on, if they don’t… The shadow people have been tormenting us long before I was born but not infinitely, nothing goes infinitely. The reason behind our infinite day is that since we refused shelter to a witch when she was being burnt by the sun on she cursed us by ensuring we have to keep the light on and would suffer the pain of the sun, always. Wherever the smallest patch of darkness touches the shadow people will gather,...

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“Prisoners of the glass cloche” by Jorjah Drysdale

Submitted to Contest #138

The reflected light from the cheap glass face of my watch strikes my eyes, staining my vision shades of purple and grey as I check for the time. The hand shifts to 12: 72. A sudden dry taste burdens my mouth and chokes my breath into an airy cough. I sip the last of the water struggling at the bottom of my flask. Living inside the glass cloche dome sets our world ablaze with the light which never surrenders and the ever thick atmosphere. The fat drops of built up condensation on the surface above spontaneously fall to instantly die upon impa...

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“Day Trip” by Caleb Fitting

Submitted to Contest #138

“How does your ship keep up with the Sun if you never leave Earth’s atmosphere?” Cade immediately regretted his question. Within the thin line of people who stood in front of the carnival stage, faces turned and eyes cut in his direction. That he liked. The loud, angry, and in some cases elderly, adults acting like two-year-olds were about to witness Cade’s smooth intellect. It was what was happening on stage that made Cade want to walk away. The older man on the platform lifted the tiny, multi-colored hat he held and placed it on the tip ...

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“A NARROW ESCAPE” by Vijay Likhite

Submitted to Contest #138

A NARROW ESCAPE Satish and Vidya landed at Boston Logan Airport to spend some time with their daughter, Rachana. She with her husband, Navin had come to receive them and to take them to their house. “So, how are you Baba and Aai? Was the wheelchair service at the airport okay, Baba?” “Yes. Did not have any difficulty. We both are good.” “Okay, let us move.” Rachana and Navin loaded the baggage in the car. In half an hour, they reached their home. After relaxing for a short while, they had some refreshing tea. “Baba, Now...

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“Transcendental Pizza” by Douglas Wright

Submitted to Contest #138

It was the day of the family reunion, back in the summer of 1984, and we were having a picnic on the village green. Everyone had shown up; all the uncles and aunts, all the cousins, grandma and grandpa, everyone. It was absolutely marvelous. I love those big Italian get-togethers, they’re full of laughs and lots of food, and in my family everyone brings a specialty dish. My uncle Antonio had told me, in his conspiratorial way, that instead of bringing a lasagna or something, he had planned a special surprise for the picnic; one that he knew ...

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“The Sleepless Girl” by Siti Sufiza

Submitted to Contest #138

The clock struck twelve, and Sita sighed. She watched Rei, her girlfriend of two years, get up and head to the kitchen, humming purposefully. The sound of the kitchen tap took over the space in the air where the clock’s ring had filled, but it failed to ease Sita’s heart. She hated it when the clock struck twelve. A long time ago, an old man had told her that if she was scared, she should pray to the Gods, and they would take away whatever worried her. She loved and trusted the old man with all her heart, but somehow, his advice had never ...

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“The Longest Day” by Cindy Strube

Submitted to Contest #138

The Longest Day “OK, honey, time for bed.” Jack’s eyelids are drooping. He sits in the big chair, idly stroking the velvety upholstery. Up the arms, skimming with his fingertips; down the arms, grazing with his knuckles. Toward him, it is prickly and rough. Away, it is soft and smooth. “Jack, let’s get your pajamas on you. You’re falling asleep!” The voice doesn’t sound quite right. He opens his eyes wide and stares at the woman. She isn’t Mama. She doesn’t look familiar at all. What is she doing here? Where is Mama? An...

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“A LIFE IN THE DAY OF” by Gloria Murray

Submitted to Contest #138

1973 wds A LIFE IN THE DAY OF… That August morning the milk in my cereal began to curdle and form little grayish blobs. My tongue touched a painful sore on the inside of my mouth which I assumed was a canker sore. It was only 9 a.m. and the thermometer outside had already hit 90 degrees. Opening the fr...

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“Chocolate Bar in the Sun” by Pat Spencer

Submitted to Contest #138

Chocolate Bar in the Sun Pat Spencer My father, Ubaba, worked as a guide at the Ilanga Safari Lodge in South Africa. He left before my sisters and I awakened, but never before tiptoeing in and kissing our foreheads. I would wrap my arms around his neck and wait for the warmth of his love to seep from my head to my toes as he whispered in our native tongue, “Jongani iintombi zam. Watch over my girls.” The times I failed to awaken, I worried how my day might go. That morning, Umama’s voice broke through my dreams. “Get up, my daughters. Yo...

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“From Blades to Chains” by James Grasham

Submitted to Contest #138

Two score men milled about in the dark, stinking chamber. Every few yards, a torch burned in a sconce on the stone walls to light L’Beira’s weaving path through the ragtag bunch of gladiators. Some sat leant against walls, bound by chains, and watching in sullen silence. Others, strutted about proclaiming themselves the alpha amongst alphas. One such boaster, bare chested and muscular, shouted to no one in particular that he had been victorious eight times in the coliseum. Some laughed and shook their heads, others shouted vulgar insults, bu...

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“Heaven and Hell” by Ashley Frerichs

Submitted to Contest #138

When the darkness takes hold, it is relentless in its grasp.This bout of black nothingness was more intense than any Audrey had experienced in the past. Her bipolar diagnosis was a distant memory now and she thought her psychiatrist had finally struck the right balance with her meds. Three years had passed since her last episode, since her dosage had been upped. Luckily, last time, the manic portion of the process had occurred on relatively stable ground. Peter was there; he was home from the rigs for the winter months. He’s the only person ...

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$250

Prize money

245

Contest entries

154

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 25, 2022 EST

Won by Christopher Kelley 🏆

Title: After the Rock

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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