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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#154: The Right Timing

It has come to our attention that Backstreet Boys (you know, the famous boy band from the 90s) recently announced that they'll be releasing a Christmas album. Naturally, this week's prompts are all about timing.

In a rapidly changing world, it can be hard to keep up sometimes. The newest TikTok is old almost as soon as it has gone viral, and trends come and go quicker than the seasons. And yet, some things are timeless classics. Taking inspiration from the ebb and flow of time, here are this week’s prompts:

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone saying, “We’re running out of time.”

Middle School – 77 stories

Write a story about someone who feels increasingly irrelevant.

Sad – 57 stories

Write a story — romantic or not — about two characters who can’t find the right timing.

Romance – 32 stories

Write a story about an object that has been around for centuries or passed down generations.

Kids – 46 stories

Write a story featuring an element of time-travel or anachronism.

Science Fiction – 68 stories

Stories

“Tea and Me” by Karen C

Submitted to Contest #154

Anachronism. I repeated it. Jessie’s blank face stared back at me, and I couldn’t help but smile. “Look it up on your fancy phone there,” I said as we both sat on the edge of my small bed. In the next 15 seconds she had tapped at least 40 characters on the screen. She read aloud, “Anachronism: An error in chronology.” “Or?” I prompted. She looked at the second definition. “A person or a thing that is chronologically out of place.” She looked up at me and I could tell she was a little sad. “You feel like that, Nana?” “Sometimes,” I ...

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“The Other Side ” by Kevin Alphatooni

Submitted to Contest #154

The day was quiet and the wind blew cold. Sunlight glittered through the frosted window as Kyle and I sat in the middle of hundreds of tiny Legos. Occasionally we reached for a few, instinctively knowing where they lay within the scattered mess, and quickly snap them to our make shift rocket ship. Guided only by our imagination, we laughed while we struggled to give our construct a uniform structure. We kept going back and forth, theorizing where to place blasters and scientific doo-dads. Just about to have a break though, Kyle’s mother crea...

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“The roses in the rows” by MJ Payne

Submitted to Contest #154

Alice gazed absentmindedly out of her kitchen window. Without even looking, she turned off the faucet and wiped off her hand on her apron. She had been looking out the window at this kitchen sink since she needed a step-stool to see out. The aging farmhouse she owned was once owned by her parents and she had inherited it as expected. What wasn’t expected was inheriting it the day after her eighteenth birthday when her parents had perished in a terrible automobile accident when their car plunged off the little bridge that ...

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“Once I was a Warrior” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #154

At one hundred and five, the apache native White Buffalo sits in the reclining chair, looking out the nursing home window. He can’t see much, just the asphalt parking lot and a few blurry trees beyond. His failing eyes see a dot moving about in the sky and assumes it’s an eagle. “Tell me, friend eagle, when will the Great Spirit come and take me to the land of peace and plenty? I have lived too long and serve no purpose. These people here treat me like a living artifact, a credit to the nursing home. Even though I ...

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“The explorer” by Daniel Sentinal

Submitted to Contest #154

His day started the same as each that preceded it. He awoke to the gentle sound of surf breaking over the beach, as early morning sunlight glowed around him. Groaning into a sitting position, he cupped his face in his hands and sighed. His bed was on the sand in the middle of a beach, which stretched out to the left and right, framed by palm trees on the one side and an azure sea on the other. The call of gulls and the smell of brine caressed his senses. After a few minutes he got up, bed and covers sliding down into the ground. As he walked...

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“Blue” by Kate Kilbee

Submitted to Contest #154

My dad had beautiful blue eyes. He was also my hero, very sensitive, so funny and he loved to cuddle me to sleep, but none of that stopped him leaving me when I was six. Even so in my teens, twenties and beyond I was only attracted to men with blue eyes, but just the ones who were sensitive, funny and liked to cuddle. Also like my dad they soon showed their true colours. I learned that sensitive meant weak, funny meant they had baggage but I kept searching for the right man. I was convinced he was out there but time after time it was...

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“Squirrel Blood” by Cajek Veilwinter

Submitted to Contest #154

It has been forty years since our cult has met. I am still here in the woods: carving the visage of our God - missing my friends but missing my God even more. The pine trees outside swayed as the lightning and thunder remarked on the wind. I refresh and refresh on my rectangle... and the trees outside sway. My eyes. I could feel my eyes burn as the blue light filled me with things that I had not felt since the Visiting. I could hear screams deep in the forest. I could see the rectangle’s feed and I feel the harbinger of my god feeding...

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“Two's Company” by Gigi Gibson

Submitted to Contest #154

Emma put on her favorite red lipstick and smoothed out the wisps of hair that fell from the French Roll at the back of her head. "Something's just not quite right," she said to herself. "What's not right?" asked Mariss, holding a gift behind her back as she entered the guest room where her sister was staying for the week. "I don't know," said Emma. "It seems like I've done everything that I should have – my make-up is on, my hair is done, I bought this new dress and these shoes, and I put on my sparkly necklace and earrings.&n...

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“A Near Miss” by Tes Wolffe

Submitted to Contest #154

“Tess?” comes a familiar voice from behind me. I turn slowly and see the face I’ve both been dreading and hoping to see for years. “James!” I gush and go in for a hug. I feel his arms close around me and it brings me a sense of joy I haven’t felt in a while. “How are you?” “Yeah, I’m good, I’m good. How are you? How long has it been?!” “4 years,” I answer, just a little too quickly. “What are you doing right now? We should grab coffee,” he states emphatically, not allowing me to say no. As if I would. I’ve b...

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“Pickles and Ice Cream” by Brad Heald

Submitted to Contest #154

Content Warning: This story has brief sexual content and two cuss words.Pickles and Ice Cream The engine purrs evenly as it propels the Mercedes C-220 through Connecticut meadows and stands of Birch and Maple. The headlamps spread light over the wet pavement and on curves captures a damp scenery and snowflakes mixed with the rain. Outside it is ice cold. Jacob admires Gin, his wife, sunk down and asleep in the passenger seat. A wholly erotic vision crawls into his head showing them at home joined together in their warm bed.&nbsp...

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“The Last Time” by Meg White

Submitted to Contest #154

I hold my hands of ice in a cross over my right knee, my ankles wrapped around each other under the café table. The pink frou-frou of my dress clutching to the back of my calves and tangling around my ankles and long socks, the white delicacies adorning my underskirt intwined with the full-bodied fabric, and a simple hat atop my head with a single pale-yellow feather sticking out the top. My coiffed hair coiled beneath perfectly and my face not revealing a single stitch of emotion, buried so deep past my tight skin and open lips. A real-life...

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“And then, but not just yet...” by Joe O'Callaghan

Submitted to Contest #154

“So does this mean I’m your boyfriend now?? “What?” Her eyes do a quick search for something in his, “Of course not, no, I could never break up with Brett.” “But we just made out for, like, an hour.” “Ah, that was nothing. That was just us being friendly. We tried to study, the sun and the warm breeze and the people of the park made us do it. You’re ok with that, right?” “Yeah, sure, I’m ok with that.” “But I would like it if you’d write me while I’m gone.” “Where are you going?” “My family goes to Hawaii during the summer, remem...

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“Delphinium, the Bold” by Xiomatli Diaz

Submitted to Contest #154

(Trigger warning: This story contains themes based around loss and death of a loved one. Please read with caution.) “Aren’t most heirlooms supposed to be like a necklace or something? I can’t show this off.” Dahlia had been ranting about her supposed inheritance for the better part of the last hour. She was absolutely furious with the lamp she’d received. Delphi, on the other hand, couldn’t stop thinking about the funeral they had just attended. Her older sister was cruel, and selfish but she’d never imagine it to be this severe. To be la...

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“The Family Heirloom” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #154

The heirloom was presented to the new owner with great ceremony and loud applause and even a little shouting. The crowd was very much engaged in following a long-standing family tradition. When the one who had possessed the much revered heirloom decided, “It is time for a transfer” (which were the actual words spoken at the beginning of the ceremony), the object would be passed down to the oldest grandchild, be it a him or her, at a formal family gathering. The act of handing it over would be photographed, the decided-upon bes...

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“Dragon Lamp” by Debra Koffski

Submitted to Contest #154

Trying to furnish a house after getting married was a pain! And my new husband was No help at all! He just said go with whatever you want, I don’t care. I Don’t Care!! What?! What if I wanted to decorate the house in all cat merchandise, knowing that he didn’t like cats? Men! I called my friend, Tami for a shopping and lunch date. She could help me sort my thoughts. We met later that day; we had just finished our lunch when I picked her brain. She did know a lot about me, considering we had been best friends for 10 years. “Okay, why are you ...

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$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

112

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 15, 2022 EST

Won by Suma Jayachandar 🏆

Title: Moonlight and Madness

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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