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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

“Christie” by Vesna Georg.Todevska

Submitted to Contest #22

This was the first New Year that Sarah wanted to spend with her, in a cafeteria on the quay of Vardar where the two ships were built. They had music, dances and countless Christmas fireworks. Sarah was only fifteen years old and began studying in the Gymnasium. It was a new city, bigger, more life than the peaceful little town we used to live in. And I was normally afraid. There are all kinds of people here. Drunken, drug addicts, thugs ... That's why I found it hard to let her alone, even to the main stop. We left with Sarah from home. I de...

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“A Window of Hope” by Sasha Senaratne

Submitted to Contest #22

Swim with flaws and you’ll sink. That’s what they told her. But she swam anyway.The squeeze of a plastic cup made her Diet Coke rise and fall in a rhythmic pulse. Thousands of excited bubbles danced to their music. A year ago, Bonnie Law was the life of a party. Tonight, her shoulders sagged, and she dressed in casual blue ripped jeans with a purple sweater, instead of the glamourous polka dot mini dress of last year. Bonnie was a stranger to her reputation. She’d vowed to rebuild her life today—a new Bonnie, a fresh start. Yet all she’d don...

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“Only a Moment” by Lainey M

Submitted to Contest #22

Some people have paths that were meant to connect, to intertwine and to be together. Others only pass each other for a small fragment in time. Have you ever thought about how many people in this world that you don't know? We only have such a small amount of the world that we do get to know and love, so we should appreciate it while we have it. That's what Cami Rodgers learned on December 31st, 2003 She stood in the airport waiting for the quickest flight out of Kentucky. Yeah, she may have grown up in the country-side but she was a ci...

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“Moonstruck” by Annaliese Baker

Submitted to Contest #22

“Is this seat taken?” Elizabeth turned to face the person beside her, spilling a bit of champagne on the ground as she did so. “Sorry, I’m not looking for anything like that tonight,” she said to the man standing next to her. The man chuckled, carefully holding his cocktail. “Me neither,” he said. “Does that mean I can have this seat?” A deep red invaded Elizabeth’s cheeks. “Yeah, sorry,” she replied. The man laughed. “You say sorry too much,” he told her. Elizabeth shrugged. “I don’t know. Perhaps it’s a force ...

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“Eternity” by Jean Lagacé

Submitted to Contest #22

Write a short story in which the last line is the countdown to midnight on New Year's Eve.I retired to bed early. Christmas is a bad time for me. To much food and booze. When I awoke, there was someone, not my wife, sitting on the bed. It was the middle of the night. I hadn’t slept too well and I more sensed the intruder’s presence by the pressure he applied on the box spring than by seeing who it was. Then my eyes adjusted to the semi obscurity in the room and I realized that it was God that had come to visit. This put me in a kind a stupor...

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“A Rough Start to the New Year” by Alaina Cantrell

Submitted to Contest #22

We fell in love on December tenth two years ago Allison. What has happened between now and then? Right now you’re tied up to a chair. You’re screaming in my head about how I am the sick man who ruined your life. How I was the one who pushed you to murder our unborn child without you even telling me it existed. You say that I stalked you in that last argument, that I was wrong for breaking into your house multiple times to install cameras that you were never supposed to find out about, by the way. You blame me for your boyfriend m...

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“A New Reality” by Ellie K

Submitted to Contest #22

A new world. A new life for us all, they promised. A new way of life, a new society, a new economy, a new government system. And they promised the delivery of it all in the new year. Half of the world had waited for this day for months, years, decades. Of course, we honored and respected those in the centuries before us, the generations of people who did not live to see this momentous occasion. And we pitied the young folk, the children who knew nothing but the corrupt system and war-filled world we lived in. They were young enough where the...

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“Strike” by Laura Atherton

Submitted to Contest #22

She needed to find him. In five minutes, the killer would strike. In five minutes, this New Years’ Party would turn into a war-zone. In five minutes, everyone could be dead.No one knew of Jay Lawson’s plan, apart from those who had read and been informed of the contents of a sinister note found on the desk of the receptionist at HQ. It would have been carnage to tell the public, but to inform them may well save lives. In five minutes, she would find out whether she had made the biggest mistake of her life.It had been her call. To not tell pe...

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“A New Year, New Beginnings” by Robin Owens

Submitted to Contest #22

The streets of Morehead City is bustling with workers getting last minute things ready for the festivities that will begin at 8 PM. The crab pot is checked over. The lights work now to check the timing of it coming down. They need to make sure it is exact.Morehead City is nothing like New York City. There are about a third the people if that many. A small fishing town with many privately owned shops and restaurants, a quaint town that the people living there and around there love.One such person moved to Beaufort, NC when she was a...

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“The Shell Gone with the Night” by Nathaniel Strong

Submitted to Contest #22

Thomas had spent the past seventeen New Years Eves of his life staying inside as if he were a caged animal that wasn’t to be allowed out. In fact it was like that for the vast majority of the holidays that he celebrated. But tonight would be different. Tonight was the first time he had ever been invited to celebrate the new year outside of his room, listening to the ball drop on the TV downstairs while his family meddled in their own separate affairs.He put on a jacket and left his house at around 10:30 as to not be late. Thomas was very kno...

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“Countdown to New Year's” by Linda Hallstrom

Submitted to Contest #22

Driving in South Dakota in the winter is always a gamble.Lisa thought about that as she walked across the apartment parking lot to her garage. She planned to beat the grocery crowd by getting to the store before 8:30 in the morning.On that morning the apartment parking lot was free from ice. Grains of sand dotted the main entry steps and the lot itself. But whatever snow and ice the sand had been intended to eliminate was gone. The pavement was dry.Lisa’s hometown had already suffered through a couple of December snowstorms but now all trace...

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“Perchance to Dream” by Monica Haynes

Submitted to Contest #22

Eva frantically rummaged through her blue leather tote. They’ve got to be in here somewhere, she thought, as she pulled out old CVS receipts, gum wrappers, an extra phone charger, hair pins, unused Kleenex, notepads, pens, everything she seemingly needed to hold her life together, except the one thing she desperately sought. Why couldn’t she find her sleeping pills? There had to be some left. She only took them once or twice a month, max. Those were the nights that she knew if she didn’t take something, she’d be sitting in fr...

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“A Deadly New Year's Resolution” by Cassie Perman

Submitted to Contest #22

My hands are aching. My feet are aching. My arms, legs, everything. The climber kept thinking while she moved her muscles. She had never felt such pain before. Nothing compared to this. Her teeth hurt from clenching so hard from every move of her body. The rope had snapped a while back, but to her it felt like years had gone by. She had known the carabiners were fine, in fact she had just bought them last week. The pitons was also not to blame. Everything had been in perfect condition. She was so sure of herself, yet, there was one thing tha...

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“Countdown to Extinction” by G LaSpina

Submitted to Contest #22

Countdown to ExtinctionBy Giana LaSpina Ten. I’m just clocking out to go home when my cell phone emits a terrible emergency tone, at the same time the PA connected to the company laptop does. It’s a sound that I only associate AMBER alerts and emergency weather bulletins with, so, fearfully, I walk out of the break room clutching my phone. My coworker, Dave, who is the youngest after me at 19, locks eyes with me and hustles over. “What is happening?” he whispers into my ear. “This is not a good sound.”&nbs...

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“Auld Lang Syne ” by Noel Thomas

Submitted to Contest #22

Auld Lang SyneHave you ever had that feeling when you’ve met a random person that you could become the best of friends if circumstances were different? What causes people to not go through with pursuing a relationship in these cases? Is it due to shyness or inconvenience? Is it because it is better that the person remains a good memory of an illusion instead of unveiling the real person? Relationships take work and people, even good people, are complicated and chaotic. I keep asking myself these questions as I replay the events of last New Y...

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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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