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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#206: Phobias

Have you ever had that nightmare where someone is chasing you, but you can’t scream or run away? It’s a pretty common (and terrifying) bad dream, and it always makes me wonder how I’d respond in a scary moment of crisis.

Fight, flight, or freeze? You never really know what you’re going to get until you’re in that moment, staring down the object of your fear — whether that’s losing someone you love, getting stuck in an enclosed space, being surrounded by a massive crowd, or just finding a cockroach in your bathroom.

Fear is a powerful feeling to capture in writing, so this week, join me to study this lightning-bolt emotion as it illuminates the actions of your characters.

This week's prompts

Write about someone facing their greatest fear.

Dramatic – 109 stories

Write a story that contains a flashback of a nightmare.

Horror – 63 stories

Start your story with a character seeing something terrifying.

Horror – 53 stories

Write about a character in a situation where they have to be brave for someone else’s sake.

Character – 61 stories

Set your story in an eerie, surreal setting.

Dark – 87 stories

Stories

“End of the Night ” by Lenore Corbeau

Submitted to Contest #206

TW: Mentions of abuse, violence, and suicide. The old man laid flat on his back. Up and down, phlegm caught in his throat, his chest heaved, pushed breath through the tube of his c-pap machine. Outside, the darkest hour before dawn, still the grainy film of night's shadow hummed in the air, all gray. The thick drapes hung over the sole window, parted just barely. A weak ray of silver dripped out into the brown carpet; Maybe the moon, more likely a street lamp or a neighbor up busy, far, far too early. It was not enough to break...

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“Dear, Julie” by Malori Rachko

Submitted to Contest #206

Dear, Julie I’m addressing this letter to you in the hopes that when you read it, you’ll better understand why I did what I did to you and hopefully forgive me. Do you remember that one dream I told you about? The one set in the antique shop? Well, if you don’t, it’s the one where I met that older man. I remember strolling into his shop, the wooden planks creaking under my feet. A few rays of sun casted onto the floor, illuminating the layers of dust collecting onto the shelves. The oddest little trinkets… things I could never explain lined ...

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“The Laughing Man” by Virgil Winters

Submitted to Contest #206

TW: this is a story with an unreliable narrator who is suffering through various illnesses such as personality disorders, schizophrenia, auditory and visual hallucinations, and other mind altering illnesses. There is also brief mention of deep subjects such as emotional trauma, kidnapping, and multiple dead bodies. Images flash through my head at rapid speeds. A burning casket. Lavender plants. Shades of yellows and blues. A laughing man. Nothing prepares me for those. I lose my balance quickly. Landing on the ground doesn’t help...

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“He Knows the Building” by David B Fraser

Submitted to Contest #206

“The building is closed.” Altenhafen announced from a dark reception desk lit only with a reading lamp. Ginny approached in her uniform and placed her flashlight on the counter. “Final Line Security.” Altenhafen picked up the flashlight with his thumb and finger like it was a dead rat and handed it back to Ginny. “Where is Karl Bhaur?” He asked. “We’re separated. The company’s in my name. So, you have a contract with me, not Karl Bhaur. You won’t be seeing Karl Bhaur.” S...

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“Another heir, another mouth to feed” by David Drake

Submitted to Contest #206

Palazathar, the Dragon Lord, stood tall on the crevice overlooking this seasons’ coming brood. The smell of burning white-stone, the chants of his chosen Priests filling the echoes of the Sacred Breeding Chamber. The Dragons did the work, the Choosing and tending the Eggs, but Palazathar maintained the great spell that kept this Chamber sealed away from the rest of the world. Dragons, the demi-gods that were the anchor of magic in the world, were held as sacred tools of the creator gods. Every Mynian knew that since they were taken as...

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“5421 Pine Needle Lane” by KATHERINE HOLDEN

Submitted to Contest #206

It costs a lot of money to get your shit together. Too much, actually. That’s how all of this started. The money was good. Not great, but good. I had never had this much money. Every week, the cash and checks appeared in my mailbox, carefully filled out with my name and signed in a spidery signature that did not resemble any human letters. When the cash and checks first started showing up, my boyfriend did not ask nor did I tell him what had happened tha...

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“I Try to See Green Where I See Purple” by Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #206

We don’t know what’s the matter with me, but we know why I’m in bed and not at work. I lie here staring up at the white gotelé ceiling, but I can’t be sure it’s white; I can’t be sure of anything, really. Maybe the ceiling is like the green curtains that still glow purple no matter how hard I look; I could glare a hole through these dreadful, frenetic curtains, and they would never be green. I glance up at the lifeless clock on the wall, the limp hands forever indicating six o’clock. I don’t know why I still look, why I anticipate change. H...

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“A Nightly Walk” by Autumn Weiler

Submitted to Contest #206

“I can’t sleep.” Aerin rose from the mattress, sliding out of the covers and making to grab their phone. The time was 11:45. It wasn’t unusual for Aerin to find themself awake late at night. There was something comforting about the quiet brought by the dark. Aerin was content staying awake until the crack of dawn, opting for hardly any sleep most nights. However, tomorrow was an important day. Aerin had a job interview that couldn’t be missed. There had been struggles to make ends meet, even with the previous job. Now that Aerin had been lai...

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“Lockdown Loo” by Julie Mayger

Submitted to Contest #206

The stink of urine and ammonia in the ladies’ toilets was so potent that it should have been bottled as insect spray. Filthy green tiles on the floor and walls were chipped and slimy, the toilets blocked with God knows what, while human excrement had solidified on the sides of the enamel. There was no toilet paper in the holders, only torn pieces plastered to the floor. They hadn’t been cleaned for days. “Shit!” said Maddy appropriately. Crouched down behind a toilet door with its lock hanging off, and keeping a safe two-metre distance from...

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“Rat Trap” by Mark Gagnon

Submitted to Contest #206

Rat Trap Most people find rats unsettling, and Julian was no exception. After being forced to deal with one rat in particular, he now fears them. Julian Hawk is a successful writer; not in the Michael Connelly or Lee Child category of successful, but he has sold three books with a contract from a major publisher for more. The twist in his stories is that the bad guy always gets away. There is no Jack Reacher or Harry Bosch to save the day and put things right. His fan base seems to like it when a smart criminal wins. With fame comes distr...

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“Perception is the worst crime” by Charlie Chaos

Submitted to Contest #206

There are always mirrors in her home. Nobody could walk into that beautiful woman's life without being perceived. You don't just get to know her - she, intimately, knows you, before you even realize it. Those unearthly green eyes seem to pop out of nowhere, peeking out beneath her wavy, blonde bangs. "Do you want a drink?" She always asks as she opens the door for you. No greetings, no pleasantries, just the air of creature comforts, because of course you'll be staying a while. If you say no, she gets you multiple drinks to choose from as...

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“Embracing the Bat” by Nicki Nance

Submitted to Contest #206

I want to love you as I love all things in nature, as I love vampire lore and Gothicity, as I love true crime and horror, but our first meeting was – unnerving. ] You sailed past me uninvited, the size of an eagle – in my mind. I cleverly trapped you in the old house, jumped out of a window, locking me out and you in as darkness fell in a dangerous neighborhood. The dark, the neighborhood, the jump, and you swirled together, creating a storm of terror in my core. For weeks, I left the old house at nightfall and returned at daybreak, like a v...

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“Rehabilitation” by Peter Wyatt

Submitted to Contest #206

It was the bottom of the first inning, none out, bases loaded, and I’d thrown 9 consecutive balls – the last one, a flat curveball that hit the batter square in the back, making a soft plunk that probably inflicted less pain than a locker room towel slap. Sweat dripped into my eyes, nearly blinding me in the humid July heat. I squinted towards the catcher’s sign, an upside-down middle finger, expressing the obvious: fastball for a strike.I came to the set position and paused, taking a deep breath in the hopes it might quell the disorienting ...

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“Arachne Revisited” by Inge Moore

Submitted to Contest #206

ARACHNE REVISITED By Inge Moore Spiders. I am afraid of these small creatures. Even I realize that this is odd, because I am not afraid of lions or tigers or wolves. I am not even afraid of snakes. Yet I am afraid of these little arthrodpods. That’s all they are, I keep telling myself. Arthropods. Arachnids. Related to mites and ticks. Not dangerous, not scary. My fear began when I was ten years old. It began the day the "thing" came. Something woke me in the night. When I o...

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“Spitting Image” by Tycho Dwelis

Submitted to Contest #206

The house stood in eerie stillness, as it always did in the winter, the back room that used to be Grant’s practically screaming its secrets. It had been so loud since he left, especially in the wintertime. He loved the snow, and the room never let me forget it. The gray clouds muted everything, especially at night, and the streetlamp outside the second-story window cast a long, ink-black shadow along the wall. I hadn’t realized that the wallpaper had started to peel where the wall met the molding. My fingers trailed along the top of the old ...

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$250

Prize money

373

Contest entries

130

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 14, 2023 EST

Won by Parul Shah 🏆

Title: Shameless

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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