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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

“Smoke Rings” by R W Mack

Submitted to Contest #182

So much for his last refuge. The bartender hadn't bothered, but the older couple in back flinched as she walked in; tobacco smoke tail swishing behind her through dive bar door. Happily married ten years and surviving another forty, they recognized the pressure change. Poor Elliot turned to see the start of another bad night. Not that he hadn't already been in the shit since he woke up. He laid in a bed of it every night since Shanon left, again. Every time she came back, he'd remake the sheets for her to piss on again. She wafted thro...

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“Sweet Treats” by Elliot Moss

Submitted to Contest #182

The alarm rang through the house, startling Marcy to her feet. She hurried to the door, only to find Ariel standing in the threshold. Marcy let out an exasperated sigh and shut off the alarm. "Ariel, you gave me a heart attack. What are you doing?" The ten year old looked up at her and smiled, holding up a frazzled Barbie doll. "I left her in the garden." "You should've told me," Marcy said, pushing the door closed and resetting the alarm. "It's after dark." Ariel pouted. "I'm sorry Marcy, please don't be mad at me!" Marcy pursed h...

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“The Grasp of Darkness” by Star Eyed

Submitted to Contest #182

“You’re total is 23.46,” she said, bagging the last of the woman’s items. A cheap bottle of perfume, an assortment of candy, and nail polish. The woman lingered just a moment, adjusting her items and purse. Then she was all alone. Kas leaned back against the cigarette case letting her exhausted mind and body take a break. A peek at her watch and groaned. Her shift had just begun. It would be hours before she could go home. God, how she wished she smoked. Smoking meant 3 full 15 uninterrupted breaks. Her eyes found themselves draw...

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“Paranoid???” by Halimah Wright

Submitted to Contest #182

She lived in a state of perpetual paranoia or so it seemed. Mama was always looking over her shoulder, peeking under the bed, locking doors and windows and huddling with us in a tiny room every night. I couldn’t understand it, we had a big house with three bedrooms and yet, every night we all huddled together in mama’s room sharing a single bed. We were six siblings and mama. Dad had left us in search of a better life, a better job, more money and the hope of giving us a better life one day.Every evening at sunset mama would hurry us indoors...

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“The Unpleasant Surprise ” by Hannah Reed

Submitted to Contest #182

Tearing off the white duvet, I frantically moved to the window to see what intruder had sounded off the alarm of our home well past the witching hour. I quickly checked the bedside clock, realizing that it was officially now November seventeenth, the day of my thirty-fifth birthday. “Honey, it’s him,” I whispered frantically to my sleeping husband.Rubbing his eyes and reaching for his wire rim glasses, he lets out a yawn, “It’s who?”I see it, the white sprinter van that nearly took me down earlier in the day. The driver of the van...

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“The Old Man” by Stevie Burges

Submitted to Contest #182

This story contains stalking and potential threats to a juvenile.Even in my teen years, I found Cardiff (the capital of Wales) too small for my ‘adventuress spirit’, except Friday nights as these were booze nights. In my heady youth of the late 1960s, the law stated that only 18-year-olds were allowed to buy alcohol or set foot inside a pub. But when I was about 15 years old, my friends and I saw it as a badge of honour to lie to our parents regarding our whereabouts and get into a pub without being challenged. We were considered h...

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“The Book Burning In Hallowbrook” by Reece York

Submitted to Contest #182

Trigger Warning: Body horror, violence, and gross imagery The Book Burning In Hallowbrook In the vast and unlit corridors of space and time, where the maker of all undulates and quivers, its unholy essence seeps into and tarnishes the very light that travels the galaxies in flashes of pure and instant chaos. These rays skewer the fabric of reality and traverse the eons, mounting in malice, will, and hatred the longer and farther it travels. Impossibly fast and imperceptible, it hunts for sentience across the galaxy; to spread the know...

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“No One Dare To Cherish” by Alexey Williams

Submitted to Contest #182

Shooting a horse is something a man should never do. But sometimes you're shooting at a person and the horse is in the way. The alarm in the house goes off after I've already broken in, and when I see the man outside running towards me, I shoot in his direction. I miss him and hit his horse instead. When I leave the county jail, the officer tells me I should consider making it up to the man whose horse I've maimed. I don't know how he expects me to make it up to him. I'm charged with breaking and entering, possession of an unregistered firea...

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“Something is burning ” by Corina P

Submitted to Contest #182

Something is burning By C. Pitt ACT I Scene 1 Setting: We are in the bathroom of the Green Mansion next to the kitchen (first floor). A fire alarm is going off. In the background, the music is mixing with the siren sound. The two friends are paranoid that they started the fire and are considering their next steps. At rise: The two friends are sitting on the bathroom floor. They are sharing a joint. Next to them are leftover fries, plastic cups, cigarettes and some toilet paper. Friend 1: (stoned, slow-paced) “Dude, we can’t hide in ...

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“New Beginnings” by Marie Arrington

Submitted to Contest #182

Marie thought her life had changed for the better. Oliver was going to be her new start. Sitting on the enormous mustard-yellow sofa, she tells her children’s father she is leaving. Larry didn’t love her. He loved his drugs. Marie wanted to escape this life. It was too much she wanted better for her children. Bang, the gun went off and Larry went down. “What the hell?” Marie yelled as she ran to him; he may not have loved her, but he was the kids’ dad. The cops arrived and took Larry, in handcuffs, to the hospital. He had pulled the Colt pis...

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“The ghost detective” by Will Chu

Submitted to Contest #182

"Follow that car." "Oh, all right." I adjusted my rearview mirror, which reflected the empty front-passenger seat and back seats. Yeah, usually, my passengers can not use mirrors. In fact, they were invisible to all but me. "Tell me, miss," I said, starting the car and trying to lighten the mood with a joke, "what's your grudge against him? A terrible breakup?" The girl in the back seat looked up, the water plants tangled in her hair, the water drips down her cheeks, the pure black eyes seemed to absorb all the light around them. I...

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“Might As Well Have Been Wind In the Bells” by Sage E. Seever

Submitted to Contest #182

My vulpine ears twitch as I blink awake, eyes flitting around my small room, furnished only with my sleeping mat a mirror and a small dresser.The bells, the bells were ringing.I leap off my mat and land nimbly on my feet, someone’s in the house.Glancing at the simple mirror on the wall I meet my own starlight-blue eyes and handsome face, or at least that’s how I’ve heard people describe it. All of my race is stunning by others’ standards. Muttering something under my breath, I watch as my reflection fades away, starting with the gold tips of...

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“Runaway Taxi” by Mary Ann Ford

Submitted to Contest #182

Blaze pulled up to where a woman stood waving him down and put the taxi into park. He caught her eyes through his dark sunglasses and they held him. Dark and deep they held something that he couldn’t place. Something that shouldn’t be in any young woman’s eyes. She was around early twenties like himself but the way she held herself added age. She stepped into the taxi and pointed to a dark car pulling out ahead of them. “Follow that car.” He hesitated and the muscles under his eye twitched. She reached her hand into the pocket of her black d...

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“The Endless Highway” by Holly Pfeiffer

Submitted to Contest #182

Inigo Collins woke to the sun glaring on the dashboard and an acute, bone-deep pain in his head and neck. It took a moment for his vision clear enough for him to see the airbag had deployed from the steering wheel—and to see what he'd collided with. An old, red telephone booth. It was odd, a telephone booth like this in the middle of nowhere. It took only one look beyond the windshield to place himself there. Orange sand, knotted grass, and cacti made up the surroundings, and in the distance, dust devils spun against the backdrop of the blu...

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“The Watcher on Cedarwood Road” by Madeline Honig

Submitted to Contest #182

Jamie was ready to restart her life. She needed a change of scenery. She needed something to keep her mind busy. She had just broken up with her jealous boyfriend, Jed. In an effort of making this new start, she found an old farmhouse on Cedarwood road on the outskirts of town for sale for a nominal price. Jed had accused her of cheating on him after she came home late from work one day. He did not understand that lawyers sometimes need to work outside of normal business hours. He was a third-grade...

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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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