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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

“Milk Run” by Samuel Yates

Submitted to Contest #154

Milk Run Somedays, I really enjoy these so-called ‘Milk Runs’ to the Mars colonies. A Ten-hour flight there and back with an overnight layover at one of the luxury hotels under the dome. Easy peasy job; even a cadet could do it in their sleep. I made my run, delivered the twenty-four tons of cargo at the spaceport, and had a nice dinner at the little café overlooking the city. Life was good. The Martian government was doing a great job building more domed cities to make it feel more pleasant now like Earth used to be before overcrowding...

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“The Fog” by Kathleen Shapona

Submitted to Contest #154

The party was in full swing when I arrived. Most of the crowd were from my rowing club, catching up and swapping rowing stories. A few of us were standing in a small circle enjoying a glass of wine and chatting when Jonathan, our team captain, joined us. “Did you hear about Allison?” “No, what about her?” I inquired. “She took out one of the small wooden row boats two days ago and hasn’t returned. They sent a search party out but haven’t found her or the boat.” “That’s awful. What do you think happened?” “Who knows. No one has heard fro...

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“THE HITCHING POST” by Julia Corliss

Submitted to Contest #154

Lydiana’s love of horses seemed to have always been a part of her being. While in high school, most of the others in her birth group couldn’t care less about these long-ago legendary creatures that were often in stories from the Before Time. Her birth-groupers were passionate only about the latest tech inventions created for “Get-Aways,” where they could virtually exist as if in a real world without real world consequences. Admittedly, “Get-Aways” were tempting, but then, her birther group members hadn’t experienced anything else, so w...

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“Antientropic Artifact: Plastic Doll's Head, Found Third Millennium B. C. E.” by John Walsh

Submitted to Contest #154

Neela was getting bored watching the pigs when she looked down and saw lying against a stone, a thing with colors different from any she had ever seen. She hesitated; new things could be dangerous. It seemed harmless. It didn’t move and looked soft and smooth. Neela bent down and closed her left fist around it. She straightened up and brought it near her face to examine it more closely. I...

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“Fourteen Seconds” by Sean Sorce

Submitted to Contest #154

"We're running out of time. We have got to figure out a plan to run the clock down. Got any ideas?" asked Coach Pope as he gathered us around for a one minute private team meeting.It was the last quarter, we just use our last timeout, and there was fourteen seconds on the clock. The game was tied 3-3. The opposite team just scored one roughly a second ago. We only had one more point to win it for our first round of the high school playoff season. We're going against another team in a neighborhood town that was seeded number one for the seaso...

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“If Time had wings” by Jennifer Braveheart

Submitted to Contest #154

I looked at my sleeping 11 year old angel baby girl next to me. "We’re running out of time", I whispered under my breath, ferociously hitting my hands against the steering wheel. I let out a roar worthy of a lioness, no one in this jungle heard it; it was silent, not wanting to wake my child. Her time was running out, her life was running out, her childhood had come to a sudden stop. No turning back now..."keep driving, how much I should tell her, will she be in pain," My heart felt like it was ripping out of my chest. I couldn’t breathe. We...

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“The Grave of Cassiel” by Ash Tenebris

Submitted to Contest #154

TW: Minor gore and some violence, hints of suicide and related themes“We’re running out of time,” he snarled. “Hurry up.”They lifted their head, wiping sweat from their brow. “Do you want to come dig him up yourself? You’re lucky I’m even helping you!”“Keep your voice down,” he barked, storming towards the shallow hole.Nothing but the moon and stars were there to see the sin they committed, and even then, he felt the world’s judgment. He knew God would never forgive him, but he had long since cared what He thought. He snatched the shovel fro...

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“Takeover” by Geoffrey Saemann

Submitted to Contest #154

“We’re running out of time Owen,” I said over the burner phone. “We need to get out of here now! There are less safe passages across the border every day, and I speak, our people are staking out more of them!” I barely finished the sentence before my boss, Derek Morgan, strode around the corner. I reacted immediately, jamming the burner phone into my breast pocket. “Oh Derek, I didn’t see you there!” Derek remained stone faced. “You alright, Mrs. Bronson?” Derek asked kindly enough, although I knew he was probing my expression and body langu...

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“How To Blow Up a Safe” by Tionge Nakazwe

Submitted to Contest #154

"We're running out of time," said the anxious voice in her left ear. "Agent Bone-" "We're not running out of time. I'll be in and out of here in fifteen minutes," Bone assured the voice. Poppy had always been anxious. It's what pushed her out of the running for Agent status when they were trainees, but it made her the best eyes and ears on the outside. She noticed everything. That's why Bone chose her for this mission. That and the fact that she was the closest thing she had to a friend. Poppy continued to share- Bone could hear her pac...

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“"I Am The Setting Sun" ("I Am The Setting Sun")” by Aristos Achion

Submitted to Contest #154

“We” she slams her notebook and a few sheets clumped together onto the table, “are running out of time.”She stands across from me with her hands splayed on the table and I stare at her with even, if a little bit sleep blurred, eyes. I sip my tea. “Running out of time to do what exactly?” “To get back at my groomer, I’ve finally figured out what I want to do.” “Well,” I take another careful sip, awakening with each word that she says, “that’s one hell of a way to start the day.”… “So what you’re saying is that you want to out him.” She huffs ...

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“A Night in the Peruvian Andes” by Chris Rohe

Submitted to Contest #154

I was standing at a small tienda or store, if you can call it that, trying to ask the Quechua girl standing in the little box about Coca leaves. I am not sure she understood what I was asking, but she reached up to the back wall and pulled down this bag of leaves. “Es esta la hoja de coca?” I asked in my butchered Spanish, she smiled and gave a little laugh and nod, so I took them. I am always impressed at how pretty she looks. Even though her face was dirty, her colorful outfit, jet black hair pulled back into two ponytails under ...

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“The Door to Nowhere” by Jill Amari

Submitted to Contest #154

Underground bunker, location unknown, 1972"We're running out of time!"People hurried around the windowless room, chairs squeaking and voices shouting. Workspaces were abandoned, papers and charts scattered amidst the clunky machines all displaying the same word: EVACUATE.Technicians in blue overalls swept important documents into trash bags and loaded them onto a truck waiting outside the steel double doors. Over the intercom, a woman's gravelly voice yelled that they would push the button in one minute. One minute, she repeated, as if they ...

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“The Bond Between Twins” by Marilyn Briant

Submitted to Contest #154

THE BOND BETWEEN TWINS “We’re running out of time,” Detective Inspector Willis shouted into his phone, “I need a team here now!” He gazes at the small, stiff body on the stained mattress. Reaches out, gently moving aside long, dirty, blond hair. Bruising on her neck, redness in and around her large blue expressionless eyes. Strangulation? He will have to wait for the coroner’s confirmation on that. She looks about twelve years old. He hates that. Never could deal with the emotions that come with seeing a dead child. He swallows hard, ...

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“The Lookout” by Amanda J Brown

Submitted to Contest #154

‘We’re running out of time,’ said the wiry youth as he looked out over an increasingly choppy incoming tide from his vantage point at the edge of the cliff. ‘I reckon we’ve less than ten minutes until the rendezvous.’ ‘We better get down there,’ Pedro instructed his three compatriots. They slung their weapons over their shoulders and, with the aid of a single head torch, squeezed into the narrow crevice in the rocks and into the tunnel below. Progress was slow as they followed the markings painted on the rock face. ‘Watch your foot...

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“Untimely” by R. N. Jayne

Submitted to Contest #154

Warning: the following story contains sensitive content, including brief violence, gore, body horror, substance abuse, and substance abuse. Reader discretion is advised.***“We’re running out of time,” I murmured, breaking our kiss. Magda’s full lips held the flavor of bittersweet fruit.She reached for my hand through the iron bars separating us. “I’m scared.”“Don’t be.”Diving in for another taste, I pushed my tongue inside her mouth, passing along the beeswax-coated pill Granny Annie had planted in my biscuit during yesterday’s afternoon tea...

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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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