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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#182: Feeling Watched

Being self-conscious is one thing; being paranoid is quite another. Feeling eyes on you changes your behavior, simultaneously casting you in a reality TV show and a dystopian horror film. Do you thrive in attention, feel jumpy, or overthink your every move?

Let’s don our trench coats, take a furtive glance around a street corner, and search the unmoving darkness for answers. Don’t forget your torch.

This week's prompts

Start your story with a home alarm system going off.

Dramatic – 49 stories

Set your story in a society where everyone is constantly aware of unwanted surveillance.

Dystopian – 27 stories

Write a story where someone’s paranoia is justified.

Mystery – 78 stories

Write about a character who wishes they could just disappear — and then they do.

Mystery – 50 stories

Start your story with someone entering a taxi and saying ‘follow that car.’

Dramatic – 33 stories

Stories

“Eumelia and Kallais- A story in the style of Ancient Greek Mythology ” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #182

Hera, goddess of women, I beg you to help me!But Hera had other issues to contend with. The desperate pleading of one little, abused mortal did not register with her as she raged at her faithless husband yet again. Eumelia was on her own, the man holding her down was simply too powerful. She was merely a woman, and as such, she was powerless to do anything but plead silently to the goddess for a reprieve.Artemis, please save me! Daphne had escaped the amorous advances of Apollo. She had run, cried and begged, and eventually he...

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“I KNOW YOU SEE ME” by Helen Karas

Submitted to Contest #182

I see all. I am poised in many places. In the stores downtown. In your phones and watches. In your world I will always see you. You. You who works the days and nights at an office building, high up over the world. I see you through the glass from a bird's eye view. It is not something I haven't seen before. Every day I see you. And you knew it. Everyone knew it. I see all people. I watch them sometimes. I prefer you, though. You, a simpleton of the metropolis. Like a field of flowers. Like how all of them are the same to those superior few...

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“Birth” by Rama Shaar

Submitted to Contest #182

Beep, beep, beep. SHIT! BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, the house alarm seemed to get louder and louder as I fumbled with the digits. I suddenly could not remember the code I’d been using for the past six years at least once a day. It was made worse with my hair wildly flapping around my face and my flimsy dress slapping my legs. “Are you sure you live here?” he mustered a weak smile. “Yes, of course I’m sure!” I said, growing even more nervous. I never function well when I’m being watched. Focus, focus, the whole neighbourhood is waking u...

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“Forever Good Night” by Mike Rush

Submitted to Contest #182

“He forgot to turn the damn alarm off again.” She said this aloud through gritted teeth as she threw off the covers, but there was no one there to hear her.As she stomped down the stairs, she tried to remember just how many times this had happened in the last month. Her husband always left for work early. He was the first one out of the bed in the morning, and she was the last one in it at night. It’d been that way since they married.She entered the four-digit code and the alarm stopped. A voice from the base, which she referred to as “Bitch...

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“A Rebirth” by Nathaniel Miller

Submitted to Contest #182

I could hear it ringing. Gradually crescendoing, becoming deafening. While I sat solemnly in the attic in a circle with the people who had become my family. It was the alarm. Alex had finished, then. Had begun to lure them out from their sleep. The owners woke and we could hear them running around downstairs. Like mice. It helped to dehumanize them. I could see the excitement building in my comrades’ eyes. They’d done this before—not this exactly, they liked to keep their ideas fresh. But this—the whole crime thing. It was my first ...

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“A New Home” by Julia Durran

Submitted to Contest #182

Laying in my warm bed, I gazed towards the window across from my bedroom. The rain patters at the screen, making rain droplets race to the bottom. The street lamps greeted me, glowing a warm orange, filling the room with comfort. I felt safe for once, but it's when you let your guard down; there is something you least expect. I never really felt safe. Being in an abusive home, I felt like something was going to happen. It can't be helped. Sooner or later, the darkness will immediately follow. I take a deep breath feeling no doubt about...

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“Grave New World” by Patricia Merewether

Submitted to Contest #182

“With technology tracking us everywhere we go, “cosplay” may be our best defense against surveillance” Annalee NewitzDear Violet, 06/03/2055I hope you are well and happy. I wish I’d emigrated to New Zealand when you did. Americans can’t get asylum anywhere! So I’m in the same little house at the edge of Detroit where you and I grew up. It is much safer in this part of the country. Florida is practically gone and is almost an island. People left Florida in droves, mostly old folks like you and me, and migrated to nearby states, which are unha...

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“Influenced.” by Hilary R. Glick

Submitted to Contest #182

Skimming through today’s Featured Filters, I smile, then frown, then purse my lips and blow a kiss into the smart mirror. I spend fifteen minutes tilting my chin and twirling my body, examining the different filters’ effects on all the angles of my face and figure, eventually settling on “Retro Sunrise”, a golden glow that illuminates my skin, smooths my wrinkles and blemishes, extends my lashes, and bleaches the tips of my dark blonde hair to a shimmering ombre sunrise of creamy yellows and soft orange. It is a very conservative look; no bo...

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“Disappearing With The Devil” by Lindsay Flo

Submitted to Contest #182

“Let’s take a walk, shall we? And you can tell me why you wanted to disappear.” He offers his arm, like a gallant knight, and inexplicably, Kate takes it, because she doesn’t know what else to do. The devil doesn’t look like she expected him to. There are no horns, no teeth glistening with drops of blood, no maniacal laughter. True, he is shrouded in black, cloaks and hair and even his very skin seems shadowed. He—Kate is not even sure it is a he—looks more like a middle-aged emo-wanna-be than the devil. “Tell me,” he urges, and Kate rem...

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“Mississippi Magnolias” by Amber Prohaska

Submitted to Contest #182

Every time Jenny Bennett smelled the sweet, airy smell of champagne it brought back the magnolia trees of the 1950s; it brought back the childhood that was ripped from her hands at the innocent age of 7; it brought back the little town of Natchez, Mississippi. Magnolia blooms used to be her favorite part of spring; now they were a gentle yet bitter reminder of what she had lost. “Life is nothing without love and forgiveness and the good Lord intended us to practice both ” her daddy used to say. She supposed that eventually, she would find fo...

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“Screams from Above” by Steffen Lettau

Submitted to Contest #182

A whistling was heard, like a distant scream. It meant one thing for the stirring Bernard Felwood; the house alarm had been tripped. Carefully, he rolled out of his side of the bed, with his Elaine undisturbed. He grabbed his revolver near the foot of the bed, within reach, and he slowly opened his bedroom door. He dared not grab for any lights attached to house or battery, as such would alert the intruder; he was accustomed to see in the dark, as his years in infantry helped him adapt to the night and to poorly-lit shelters. He hoped that...

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“Sighting” by Karen Kinley

Submitted to Contest #182

“Follow that car,” Mitch barked to the cab driver after hurriedly climbing into the back seat. His pointing finger indicated a green sedan that was already maneuvering its way to the outer lane that offered a fast exit from the airport.He leaned as far forward as the plexiglass divider would allow and watched the sedan weave in and out of traffic along I-95. The cabbie stayed right behind it in the middle lane. Mitch could only make out the silhouette of a man in the passenger seat. It appeared that he was having a conversation with whomever...

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“Alarming” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #182

Megan jerked awake to the blast of the house alarm. It didn’t stop. She turned to her husband, Cameron. She couldn’t believe he lay snoozing when she felt her head about to explode. “Cam! Wake up! Fix this!” She rolled him back and forth until he stirred. “What?” “The alarm! Burglar! I can’t stand it! Why is it shrieking?!” Uncomprehending, he peered through the gloom. “It’s three a.m.…!” “Cam! Don’t you hear it?” “What? Maybe… I don’t know… Be quiet. Let me listen.” “Are you crazy? It’s screaming. Is there a burglar?” “Oh, that… I’ll lo...

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“Robbing Hookers” by Tara Leigh Parks

Submitted to Contest #182

When the cab struck us, Mecca ricocheted off Seventh Avenue South and died. Mecca was a stupid nickname for a first-generation Chinese guy from Queens. He always said that any woman would make the journey for his love. Even dead, he looked like a heart attack waiting to happen. Maybe he lost control of the motorcycle because of a heart attack. Overeaters should not be getaway drivers. A siren wailed. There's always a siren in the city. But Mecca was past that siren's help and me, I didn't want it. I picked up the bag and limped toward the Bo...

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“Dodged a Bullet” by T. C. West

Submitted to Contest #182

I chirped a whistle. Zed pounced through the clear teal water. “You catching fish girl? Hmm?” I rubbed the long fur at her neck. “You might have earned the Purple Heart, but that dog is the real piece of art,” McCall snorted and slapped Zed on the back. She fell back on her haunches and snarled at him, dashing through the sand, taking nips out of the air. “Yeesh, I don’t remember her being this feisty on duty.” Zed sneezed to let McCall know she was only playing, but he backed away a few steps. Clearly, one of my colleagues was more intell...

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$250

Prize money

237

Contest entries

154

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 27, 2023 EST

Won by Liv Chocolate 🏆

Title: Careful—You’ll Slip, Fall, and Die on Those Slippery Slopes

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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