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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#224: Night Owls and Early Birds

I’ve never been much of a night owl. I can stay up late, but always live to regret it the next day, and you’re unlikely to ever find me burning the midnight oil. Instead, if there’s something urgent to attend to, I’d rather do it in the quiet calm of a pre-dawn morning.

It’s interesting how, as a species, our preferences vary so wildly in this regard. Some of us are up and moving before the rest of the world has even rubbed the sleep from their eyes, while some of us rarely are awake during daylight hours. Two people’s waking windows may only overlap at dawn and dusk, before going their separate ways. This week’s prompts are a celebration of the night owls, the early birds, and anything in between.

This week's prompts

Set your story before dawn. Your character has woken up early for a particular reason.

Fiction – 94 stories

Write a story about two people living together who have opposing sleep cycles, and only cross paths at dawn and dusk.

Character – 49 stories

Start your story with someone saying “I can’t sleep.”

Dramatic – 87 stories

Write a story about someone pulling an all nighter.

Fiction – 35 stories

Write about someone who can’t sleep due to jet lag, and decides to set out and explore their new city at night instead.

Adventure – 20 stories

Stories

“Chasing the Dawn” by Crosby Bingaman

Submitted to Contest #224

The cabin alarm buzzed gratingly, burrowing its way into my subconscious and roused me from the depths of slumber. I had been dreaming of holding you in my arms, feeling the warmth of your body against mine as we danced together on a gravel road, “Cheek to Cheek” by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong playing from our van speakers.I rolled over in the full-size bed to shut off the alarm. The alarm read, “5:00 AM”. Sighing sleepily, I sat up and rubbed away the gunky evidence of my rest that had built up in the corners of my eyes. I stood up ...

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“For Love of Unforgotten Times” by Kathleen Capacci

Submitted to Contest #224

*Trigger warning-death* I woke up with the pager screaming on my bedside table. Lifting my head, I glanced at the clock while I reached for it. “4 am, so close.” I groaned. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes, read the number and called back to the answering service. “Hi, this is Mary Murphy, RN on call, what’s the message about?” “We have a phone call from Lizzy Schmidt, daughter of Sarah Schmidt, your patient.” I turned on a side light, thumbed through my on-call notebook, quickly finding Sarah’s file. “Thanks, I have the number, I’ll c...

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“Life at Mystic Beach and a Meetup with the Rebuilt Time Machine ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #224

The storm whooshed in. Waves surged up covering the beaches.Rain and sleet slammed the Oregon Coast rainforest wilderness.Wind roared. Douglas Firs swayed and creaked. Heavy rain hammered the roof. Water drops hit the windows like bullets. My little blue cottage deep in the forest shook in the gales.It was a good day to stay home. But that is not how the day unfolded.What happened is absolutely true. This is all in my new book “Visiting with Sasquatch - And Other Surreal but True Stories from Mystic Beach on the...

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“Of Roots and Stars” by Noe Gmbl

Submitted to Contest #224

The end of my cigarette burns dimly against the inky night. The thick smoke rises in tight whirls in the cold air. I take a deep breath, letting the familiar sting singe my lungs—then deeper and deeper yet. As I exhale, I wish the smoke would enfold me, coil around me and hide me. Erase me. I have always liked the peace and quiet of early mornings, when the night feels like a blanket sheltering you from the mess of other people, when the stars watching over you and the wind softly blowing whisper I won’t let them find you yet. When I was ...

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“The Prowler” by Juliana Zalon

Submitted to Contest #224

Sensitive Content: Child death The living room is bigger than he imagined it would be or at least it feels that way once he is inside. Gary steps out from behind the heavy drapes and takes a deep breath, inhaling the musty scent of the brocade. Although he is in almost complete darkness, he cannot help but admire the room, its impeccably placed furniture and framed artwork. The house’s brick exterior, which he has scrutinized for the past two weeks, seems modest in comparison to what’s inside. He takes a flashlight from the pocket of his sw...

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“The Wishing Pyre” by Jack Brooks

Submitted to Contest #224

The development of one’s lifetime personality and behaviour is predominantly shaped in their childhood through events largely out of their control- the core belief of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development. The towering sycamore was awoken at first light, this day as all others since before it could remember. As for what it could remember, it recalled the learning that a morn’s new light meant a new day. It summoned the crowing of the cockerels and the stirring of the animals and automatons from their slumbers. The sycamore coul...

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“Fat Town” by Don Tucker

Submitted to Contest #224

I could still hear my leg groaning and barking at me, it felt like pieces of my femur were rubbing against each other, spurting off bone shavings into the nether regions of my body. It sounded like an old screen door at a beach house, withered away from years of salty air. According to the latest X-Ray, I was fully healed. Good to go was the term Dr. Thibodeau used. I asked him are you sure? He said yes. I asked for another X-Ray and he said no. I asked him to recommend another doctor and he told me to get out. &...

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“"The Quiet Steeps of Dreamland"” by Jen Boyle

Submitted to Contest #224

This story deals with death by road traffic accident "I can't sleep" she said to the cat. Her voice sounded hoarse, as if she might have been screaming in her sleep. Perhaps she had. The bedside clock, a present for her twenty first birthday from her mother, blinked steadily. 4.21 am. The cat, Dickens, surveyed her lazily through narrowed eyes. Yawning, he stretched and smoothly jumped to the floor with a thud. He padded out of the bedroom door, and headed towards the kitchen. Jenny swung her legs out and sat for a moment, anxiety ...

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“I can't sleep” by Bill Soest

Submitted to Contest #224

I should be asleep right now, but I can’t allow myself the luxury. My lack of rest for the last 48 hours has nothing to do with not being tired. I am absolutely exhausted and would give just about anything for even a few minutes to nod off. I can’t let myself fall asleep for even a second because I know they are close by now, and intent on silencing me forever. Their plan worked too well, and I am the collateral damage in the plan. I represent their worst nightmare come true and I am now nothing more than a thing which must be removed at all...

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“Hope” by Darlene Watson

Submitted to Contest #224

“I can’t sleep,” throwing the blanket off in a huff and staring at the ceiling, Clara whispers into the darkness, “you’ve got to be kidding me.” She reaches blindly for her phone that she’d left on the floor beside the thin mattress. Squinting at the sudden glare, she groans at the time, “Shit, 2:25 and I have so much to do in the morning and instead of sleeping I’m laying here…talking to myself apparently.” Clara swings her legs around and sits, resting her head on her bony knees she scrubs her hands through short messy hair. She stops to ...

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“Final Hours” by Daryn Schvimmer

Submitted to Contest #224

“I can’t sleep,” Miriam says, slipping onto the pull out couch, and bumping her head against my arm to get my attention. She gets me, at least, to notice her. Before this interruption, I’d been staring off at the crumbling motel walls. I’m the only one who’s supposed to be awake right now. Mrs. Forsythe told me to stay up until 3 AM tonight, as she was going to call between the hours of 1 and 3 in the morning, and needed me to be ready to anticipate the call. “There’s nothing better than a prepared employee, 213,” Mrs...

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“"I can't sleep."” by CINTSA LIS

Submitted to Contest #224

"I can't sleep."After learning that I was selected to enter King Chivkeeb's consort elimination cycle, I took a cold shower to help scald away my frustration. Regardless of how much I look like a woman on the surface, I am still male, through and through. Each household had to send one woman to participate as young as 17. My older brother Adas entered my name in the drawing because participating would mean that our family would receive food rent-free until I got eliminated. The goal was to stay in the run for three months, but that wasn't th...

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“MY MOTHER FOUND JESUS FOR THE FIRST TIME AND I AM SO HAPPY” by Terry Gartner

Submitted to Contest #224

MY MOTHER FOUND JESUS FOR THE FIRST TIME AND I AM SO HAPPY I can't sleep-I just cannot sleep--I am so worried--I am at the airport now--I've been here for three hours--I am here to see my Mother--She is coming home.--Thoughts have come into my mind and I have not slept. My Grandmother -My Mother's Mother is with me--She brought me here--I got her up early -I was anxious and I could not sleep.--My Grandmother is the one who raised me when my Mother could not.--My name is Tim--My Mother's name is Julie--I am 8 years old--My Mother has struggle...

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“In the Dead of Night” by Shirley Good

Submitted to Contest #224

The hands of the clock glower back at me in the darkness. 2.15am. I can’t sleep. I’m standing at my bedroom window in the dark, staring down into the street. One or two houses show lights on here and there. Perhaps they can’t sleep either, or perhaps they live tranquil lives and are sleepily watching the end of a film on Netflix. I usually fall asleep on the sofa for a couple of hours during the day. I try not to, but I do. Then, come midnight, I creep around the house like a thief in the night. I do this until the grey dawn leaks under the...

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“Lessons in Interplanetary Realty ” by Katherine Chupik-Hall

Submitted to Contest #224

“I can’t sleep.” Dex says, hands hovering limp over the keyboard. Polly raises her eyebrows and slowly approaches the chair opposite him. It is an uncomfortable rounded fabric thing, something one might find in a bank or, in this case, an office. She slumps into it all the same, pushing her cat-eye glasses up her nose in what appears to be judgement. Despite her temperament, she is a good secretary. She has been with Dex for many years, and is oftentimes the only thing preserving him from ruin. “Not until this job is finished.” He ...

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$250

Prize money

285

Contest entries

136

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 17, 2023 EST

Won by Mallory Jones 🏆

Title: Goldfish

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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