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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#22: Auld Lang Syne

From the Times Square Ball drop to the old Spanish tradition of trying to fit 12 grapes into your mouth at midnight — New Year's Eve comes with a host of different rituals and traditions.

Maybe a new one of yours will be submitting a New Year's-themed story to the Reedsy Prompts contest? 😊 In which case, we don't want to keep you any longer! So...

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... write! And have yourself a Happy New Year.

This week's prompts

Write a short story about a person who goes to bed on Valentine's Day and wakes up in 1920.

Holiday – 41 stories

Write a short story about someone with unconventional New Year's traditions.

Holiday – 44 stories

Two strangers meet at a New Year's Eve party. They spend the party together, and then never see each other again.

Winter – 79 stories

Write a short story in which the last line is the countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve.

Winter – 97 stories

Write a short story about someone who does not spend December 31st celebrating New Year's Eve.

Winter – 77 stories

Stories

“Safe Haven” by Emma Lee

Submitted to Contest #22

Heavy bodies dance to the booming bass, reeking of alcohol and pushing against me. I navigate the crowd, rubbing against more skin than clothes, and reach the kitchen. It's unrecognizable as our house now. The white-marbled counter is littered with plastic cups and dirty plates, and I start grabbing stuff and shoving it into an overflowing trash bin, with which the party guests must've made a game of to see how tall it could go without falling.I see my sister Cecil dancing a couple feet away, blonde locks and white smile bouncing above a sea...

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“New Years Party” by Unknown User

Submitted to Contest #22

Kim Plasket5602 Silver Star RoadApt 529Orlando, FL32809 New Years I really hated going to parties but my best friend Grace told me I had to go to this one since nobody wanted to spend New Year’s eve alone. Little did she realize I preferred my own company, it was so much easier to say “I’m going to bed” when I was alone.Nobody cared if I sat on the couch and ate a bag of potato chips while watching earthquakes ruin someone’s plan. Going to a party meant I had to get dressed up and act as if I wanted to talk to people but I ow...

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“Reality” by Samantha N Bishop

Submitted to Contest #22

RealityI hear my rapid, shallow breathing intensify with my grip on the medicine bottle. Yet again, I try to fight off the doubts filling my mind. The decision I’m about to make isn’t one to be taken lightly. Even if this gets me away from Him, I might never see my daughter again.The bedroom is so dark that I strain to see the time on the clock. For the thousandth time, I find myself questioning why, in this day and age of technology, He didn’t have a Digital Clock.With bars on the window, bolts on the outside of the door, and a passcode for...

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“Answering Fate’s Call” by Michala Banton

Submitted to Contest #22

The dining room of the restaurant was crowded, despite the fact that it was New Years Eve. At every table there were the usual date night couples along with small parties of friends, and in the corner there was a single table, with a single man, waiting. This was the table. The table he would meet her. The girl. He looked again at his watch. They hadn’t said how long it would be before she arrived, they had just been clear on two things, the table, and the girl. A blon...

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“Queens Passing” by E.J. Katigbak

Submitted to Contest #22

The party was drawing to a close. Barry had never met someone as gorgeous and illuminating as Regina. “This night is no ordinary night,” Barry thought to himself. There were a quiver and restlessness in Barry’s stomach. He was wondering if Regina felt it too. A traditional New Year’s Eve party always ended with a kiss, but this kiss was different. Barry and Regina’s kiss would surely be something to remember. “3… 2… 1… Happy New Year!” Barry and Regina kiss. “Happy New Year your grace!” Barry whispered. In the h...

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“" It is not always what you see"” by Thaamarai Selvi

Submitted to Contest #22

It was new year’s eve. Grace placed herself tightly under the comforter and hit the sack at seven ‘o clock. Grace’s mother Evelyn was busy baking her mixed penny cakes and a huge chocolate cake covered with white and chocolate fondant. Evelyn was at her best in baking cakes. Her cakes will not only be a feast to our tongue , but also to our eyes. Evelyn thought of calling Grace as she was in a mood to visit St. Paul’s Cathedral. But she didn’t because she was waiting for her cakes to come out of the oven. She gently took out the c...

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“Happy New Trespassing ” by Meli Mangos

Submitted to Contest #22

Munir climbed through the broken first floor window and dropped to the dingy tiled floor. Glass and leaves creaked under her light feet. She checked her phone. December 31, 2019. 11:13pm. Perfect. She silenced her phone and put it in her black drawstring backpack and took out her flashlight instead. It shone off the brick walls of the abandoned building. The building was located behind the new casino, separated by an overgrown field. Munir guessed the casino was an attempt to hide the building, as if the uncut trees didn’t do that. Wou...

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“Just Breathe ” by Allie Pittman

Submitted to Contest #22

I walked into the Ballroom and immediately felt like I was being assaulted.The music was too loud, pounding my eardrums until I thought they’d surely bleed.The lights flashed brutally into my eyes, so forcefully ,that I thought they had penetrated into my brain.Then came the abuse of hundreds of people, coming from all directions, talking, to me, to each other, each one seeming to echo off the walls and scrape my already frayed nerves, like nails on a chalkboard.Everyone felt too close to me, I could smell each one’s sweat, their deodorant t...

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“Annie” by Lyena Monis

Submitted to Contest #22

The mute woman walked around the party. She had been invited by another woman who claimed to be her “friend”. She probably wanted the good way it made her look. At least, that’s what the woman thought, because who would want to be friends with a mute person. She was trying to find a place to sit down and write in her journal. As an aspiring writer, she was struggling to find material to write her first book. She finally found an empty bench and started brainstorming.After five minutes, she had the feeling someone was watching her. She looked...

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“Pillow Party” by Emily Showers

Submitted to Contest #22

My brother had invited me to one of his yearly New Year’s Eve parties. I was skeptical about going, since last year’s fiasco. He, for some reason I’m still not sure of, had lit one of the couch pillows on fire and we had to call the fire department to put it out, but not before the majority of the living room was destroyed. I only agreed to come this year to make sure nothing like that happened again. I arrived around 9pm. As I walked up to the front of the house, I could already hear the loud music. At l...

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“A Whole New World” by Elaine Leet

Submitted to Contest #22

Frankie gazed down from a second-floor balcony overlooking the ballroom. Her burgundy evening gown, that cost a month’s salary, flowed above her new satin slippers. Her gold necklace complemented the blonde highlights in her auburn hair. For nearly a year she had worked to create a New Year's Eve bash that would get environmental scientists rubbing shoulders with the financial powerhouses of the United States. The location had been a sure shot: the most exclusive hotel on a California beach north of Monterey. The oceanside amenit...

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“An Average Day.” by Kai Kenny

Submitted to Contest #22

People love moments. They capture them. Hold them. Re-live them. It's those moments in which Andy never experiences, it's not because he's an outcast neither just a spectre of society. Andy contributes, he donates to charities, like Living a dream and Call me Sandra.Andy, a man of many talents. Though if you asked him he could only mention about the time he drank his dog under the table, now, as I and yourselves can find that hilarious, (A dog shouldn't drink alcohol), Andy considered such a moment an achievement above anything. Moments...

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“It was like I had met you a long time ago.” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #22

It was like I had met you a long time ago My dad and I were always close. He put himself through a lot of grief being my father. I am not much of a rule-follower. He had to bail me out of trouble a good number of times – at church, at school, and even once with the police. During the last named experience, When I asked him, somewhat sarcastically, why he did all this for me, he gave an answer both strange and beautiful. He said, “When you were a baby, and I held you in my arms for the first time, it was like I had me...

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“Forgotten Acquaintance” by Christina Truman

Submitted to Contest #22

Urine-coloured cocktails. High-pitched clinkings of wine glasses. Conversations that gets louder by the minute.The background music of the televised fireworks sings gloriously:Should auld acquaintance be forgot,and auld lang syne?You scan the room, from one lustrous wall to the next, imagining how each face would look if not for the constantly changing light. The people on the dance floor throw their limbs out like insects under a hypnotic spell while the anesthetized world outside awaited beyond the curtains. The trees are bare, like naked ...

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“Seeing Things in a New Light” by Laura Besley

Submitted to Contest #22

I stand on the doorstep. In one hand I’m clutching a carrier bag with a medium-priced bottle of wine and two tubes of Pringles in it, and with the other hand I ring the doorbell. Around the doorframe is a string of flashing multi-coloured lights. You’d be forgiven for thinking they were Christmas decorations, but I can assure you, they’re here all year round. The door is opened and someone who doesn’t live here, someone I’ve never met before, beckons me in. For some reason this is perfectly acceptable when you’re going to a house party ...

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$50

Prize money

338

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 03, 2020 EST

Won by Emily Hemmings 🏆

Title: Pagliacci on the Q Train

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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