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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

“Mottephobia” by Daniel Scott

Submitted to Contest #206

Jed was only 6 years old, but he had the largest collection of rare insects in the continental United States. Jed had been obsessed with insects from the time he was born. Or perhaps it was shortly thereafter - very shortly thereafter. Before he turned 3, he’d learned to read from watching Sesame Street. If there had been a steady stream of insect shows on the tv, Jed probably never would have watched sesame street. But, when flipping through the channels, he’d never found anything interesting, so he just watche...

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“Stella is not afraid of the dark” by Ellie Radant

Submitted to Contest #206

Branches scrape against the window casting long shadows across the dimly lit room. A stark contrast to the yellowing bunny night light that resides in the corner. But any warmth that might have come from the familiar object is swiftly blown away by the winds’ chill that seeps in through every wall. Far more terrifying to Stella than branches and wind is the complete darkness that blankets the world around her. Everything is louder in the dark- the ticking of the grandfather clock, the rustle of blankets, and the creaking ceiling above her be...

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“Pulling Back the Shroud” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #206

A full night’s sleep had become virtually impossible for Jeremy Stuart since he moved into the apartment above the Barcom & Sons Mortuary three months ago. Of course, one would expect trouble resting in a building housing the remains of the dead, and possibly their spirits. Jeremy’s sleeplessness, it seemed, stemmed from much more than battling with the occult. Every time the newly-appointed funeral director attempted to close his eyes, around midnight. a loud howling sound assaulted his ears. The eerie noise, apparently coming from t...

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“Losing My Treasures” by Patricia Williford

Submitted to Contest #206

LOSING MY TREASURES They are coming today to take it all away. Their battalion of army ants will strip me of my possessions and my value. Their mops and brooms will wash away my defenses. They will rip the very life out of my soul and leave me without the armor that has shielded me for so long. There will be no way to protect myself. Everything that I have lovingly collected, stored away for rainy days, and caressed with my eyes and hands each day as I walk the narrow but ample pathway from room to room...

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“The Color of Mud ” by Kailyn Jones

Submitted to Contest #206

I remember what I felt. What I felt when she looked at me. She was beautiful, no doubt. Her eyes, they were brown, and I remember because I always thought a girl that beautiful would have eyes the color of the sea, just like all the clichés. Eyes the shade of sapphire skies tinged with gleaming sunsets. But hers, they were brown. Not just any brown though. They were the color of brown that holds no sense of poetic being. They were the color of mud. And as I stared into those muddy eyes, I couldn’t help but think of that old saying,...

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“Emergence” by Richard Seven

Submitted to Contest #206

The moment day turned into night; they came.Flits of black on black. Outlines of whooshing wings. Wafting wind fanned by veering and swooping. Darkness paralyzed me and I was awed by their speed and commitment. I sensed them dropping from their roost below a rotting pier and zooming off to the trees behind us to gobble as many insects as they could before daylight returned.My therapist arranged this outing to help me overcome or at least temper my fear of bats, known as Chiroptophobia. She called it a type of immersion therapy.“They aren’t i...

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“Saponification” by Aciano St. Florent

Submitted to Contest #206

He wore the calm seawater like a thin and delicate veil. The briny film clung to his face with dreadful malice. Despite the gentleness of the water on his face - fine as a doily - the weight was intense. In this moment as he desperately fought to breach the water, he could not even remember his own name. The primal urge to survive had pressed itself against the walls of his skull and displaced any other thought. He was lying flat on his back in some forgotten tidepool formed off the coast. He could hear the break of the waves somewhere behin...

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“Coulrophobia” by Maizie Bymers

Submitted to Contest #206

Coulrophobia "Seriously, Dawn it's not the end of the world," My friend, Gia, said with a smirk on her face. I gave her the most annoyed expression I could muster. She rolled her eyes, checking the time. I looked back at the old abandoned Circus Day Care as a wave of fear shook my body. I could feel Gia's happy smile as we approached the Day Care, while I stood still frozen in fear looking around hoping someone would see us and stop us but the street we were passing by was deserted. “Seriously, Gia,” I said, mocking her sentence before. “W...

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“The Eelinad Princess” by A Inge

Submitted to Contest #206

The Eelinad girl clapped her hands as she twirled, delighted with herself. A mane of light, sometimes silver and others gold, spun with her. “I am clever!” Pinching her lips in disapproval, her mother lowered the velvet spined volume and raised a brow. “Cleverness ceases to impress when it is not governed by self-control.” Clear as crystal and shaped like diamonds, two youthful eyes fastened on her mother in protest. “But I don’t want to impress anyone. I just wanted to beat the riddle.” This time, her mother couldn’t hide her smile. “Ese...

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“The Destroyer” by RD Smith

Submitted to Contest #206

The sedan carrying the double date eased into the parking spot. It might be the gentlest part of Grant’s day. His nerves were palpable. Adrenaline coursed through his body like ants slowly gnawing away at his stomach before making their way to his heart and throat. They hadn’t even entered the park yet. The torrid mixture of his anxiety and the August sun beating on the concrete beneath his feet was already causing beads of sweat to run from Grant’s scalp through his gray T-shirt – an admittedly stupid wardrobe choice in retrospect. Lucy...

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“The Numbers” by Tamarin Butcher

Submitted to Contest #206

Carol shut her eyes to block out the ten glowing numbers, laid in front of her in exactly the right sequence for the dreaded ritual, but she knew that they were still there. For months, her excuse had been that she didn't know the numbers, couldn't find them, they were hidden, but now they had been revealed to her and she couldn't put it off any longer. Do it now, do it now, DO IT NOW. That was Anxiety, screaming that the world would end if she didn't get her act together and do what needed to be done. "It won't," Carol whispered to hers...

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“Spectre” by Amanda Atkinson

Submitted to Contest #206

It chose me one frostbitten winter, in the dead of night. The monster groaning in the shadows of the forest outside the window, fogging up the glass with its muggy breath. I can sense it pressed against the window behind the cigarette-stained curtains, trying to feel for cracks or crevices it can squeeze and ooze through. — What if your lungs give out and your heart gives up? — That’s the kind of thing it whispers. Its voice is barely there but it snakes through the air like smoke and burrows into my ears to soak my brain in its fumes. My...

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“Solar Eclipse” by Alice Jayden

Submitted to Contest #206

There was a time when I thought my biggest fear was spiders. Don't get me wrong, I am afraid of them, just not in the way that can qualify them as my biggest fear. It didn't even take me that long to realize. See, spiders would make me scream and jump and even cry a little if they were big enough, but at the end of the day, if it was between me and them, I could still run up and squash them, even if I did feel squeamish afterwards. I thought that the screaming and crying part was what made them my biggest fear, but then t...

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“Blood Brothers” by Amanda Rantanen

Submitted to Contest #206

Growing up in the seventies was about as "un-woke" as you could get. For starters, my kindergarten teacher punished a girl who probably had a learning disability by making her sit under the teacher's desk. It was an old style desk with a solid back panel and stack of drawers on the left and right. Almost daily, the poor child was forced to crawl down in the dark, cramped area and sit by the teacher's stinky feet. Back then, a lot of the older teachers wore pantyhose and heels with skirts. I would guess the child had a close up...

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“Ballad of A Sailors Wife” by Corey Joyce Henderson

Submitted to Contest #206

The woman was a tragedy. Ever since she was a young girl, she had feared the water. The soft foam gathering on the gaping mouth of the shore, the crash and roar of waves fighting within each other, and the sickening grayish-green color which polluted the entirety of the sea sent a sickening disgust into her core. And yet, within the safety and comfort of her emerald green hills, she had been drawn, unbeknownst, to her arch nemesis. She had met him at a tavern in town. He was almost otherworldly in his presence. A tall man, well built but ...

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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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