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#232 Polar Night & Northern Lights

Winter solstice has come and gone here in the northern hemisphere and we’re slowly heading towards brighter days. Above the arctic circle, however, inhabitants will have to wait a bit longer to see the sun. There, polar night — where the sun doesn’t rise for months — still keeps its grip. Inhospitable as this may seem, entire communities have adapted to the long night, and the northern lights playing across the sky provide a reminder that light will eventually return.


This week's prompts are inspired by polar nights, human resilience, and, most of all, the glimmers of hope that make it all worthwhile.

🥇 Winner

The Lantern of Kaamos

Winner of Contest #232 🏆

The melting Arctic is a crime scene, and I am like CSI Ny-Ålesund. Trond is the anonymous perpetrator leaving evidence and clues for me to discover, like breadcrumbs leading back to him. “Jonna,” he had said, the day we first met at the research institute, “If you are going to make it up here, don’t lock your doors.” It seemed like a life philosophy, rather than a survival tip.It is ironic. Out on Kings Bay, the coal miners came first, then the science outposts. Trond was already out here mining the Arctic when I was still just a bright-eyed...

101 likes 66 comments 66
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⭐️ Shortlisted

Svalbard

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

In the summer its Midnight Sun, but in the winter its Polar Night. Two months of darkness! That was David’s way of introducing me to Svalbard.My pre-teen relocation to northern Virginia from Florida had never quite settled in me, both socially and meteorologically. On snow days, when my friends were gleeful with plans to meet at the park to sled, I would opt out for reasons of awkwardness, but mostly: it was too cold. As an adult, I hated the darkness of winter, and I hated driving in precarious weather, and I hated having a job that I could...

37 likes 15 comments 15
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Souls in the Sky

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

Zack Kaudjak was crossing the open snow laced fields of the Yukon River with his fourteen dog Iditarod sled team as the sun began to set below the birch tree line at three in the afternoon.  The days were short during the first week of March which meant the temperature would be dropping nearly forty degrees below zero.  He was prodding the team hoping to make it to the Galena rest stop by dinner time. Wrapped in a thermal body wrap, seal skin gloves, mukluks, his extremities still felt the impact of the cruel wind as his sled dippe...

30 likes 16 comments 16
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A Crying Shame

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

Trigger warnings: main character death, murder, implied suicide.            The sun was always there, and it was an unsung luxury to not have to think about it. I wish I knew enough about it to tell you why we started to. I wish I had known enough about it to do something. Maybe I did. Maybe we all did.            The concern began long before I was born: Global Warming. Always talked about in big, important letters, everywhere that...

25 likes 11 comments 11
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The Thief

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

I duck behind a crumbling wall, dropping to my knees on cold dirt. The sharp edge catches my shoulder, the jagged brick ripping open my skin. Burning pain shoots through my arm, a silent cry squeezing its way through my throat. And that’s all it is: a soundless echo of pain, a reverberation that I refuse to give voice to. I clamp my mouth shut, hoping my moment of shock was inaudible in the night air. The taste of metal– of copper– coats my mouth and I realize I’ve bitten my tongue in the frenzy. I open my mouth again and spit crimson onto t...

23 likes 6 comments 6
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Northern Lights

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

The taste of mint was stinging my mouth when you phoned me. We’d see them if we were quick, you said. I bundled layers over the top of my pyjamas and raced to your car. You were waiting with a spark in your eye, drumming your fingers on the wheel. In the darkness we felt forbidden, like children skipping curfew. I didn’t know where we were. I joked that now would be the perfect time for you to kill me if you wanted to. You laughed; you must really trust me. Our spot was vacant. Black pooled around us, disappearing into the dense tree line...

19 likes 13 comments 13
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Light in Time of Darkness

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

Here's a word: Entoptic. It means that what you are seeing is entirely within your nervous system, your brain. It's not 'out there'. You've experienced it: Before you go to sleep; when the curtains are drawn and the lights out, and the room is totally dark. Stare into that darkness and watch the brilliant spots and sparkles wandering in the air.  Only, they aren't in the air. Now rub your eyes and watch the fireworks; the streaks of blues and bursts of orange. The scintillating world that isn't there. Now imagine you're in a cave, a rea...

18 likes 9 comments 9
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Nighttime Heartbroken Souls

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

I looked out the living room window of our twelfth-storey apartment. The roads were no longer busy, only a handful of cars coming in from the direction of the highway. I wondered where they were headed at this hour; were they going home to an empty apartment, or were they going home to their families? And if so, would they have to tiptoe into the house? Would they be afraid of waking their spouses, for fear of inviting unwanted questions? It was, afterall, one in the morning. I checked my phone again, the fiftieth time in the last fifteen mi...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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Forever Ochre

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

To be honest, I feel a little hornswoggled. That’s a great word, isn’t it? Roll it around in your mouth a little bit, “Hornswoggled.” It’s a mouthful and sounds lovely, so impressive and playful. It simply means hoaxed. And if you think about it, the word lives up to itself. It’s a game of a word, sounding cute and fun, that you can use to trick someone into doing things. Pretty sneaky, if you ask me. Anyhow, paint me hornswoggled. I took the job—well, l was talked into taking it—by my very persuasive agent, Stella. “Girl, it will be gre...

17 likes 4 comments 4
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This week's prompts

Set your story during polar night.

Winter – 34 stories

Write a story set in a world with a dying sun, or where light is a scarce resource.

Science Fiction – 63 stories

Write a story about someone witnessing — or trying to witness — a celestial phenomenon.

Adventure – 38 stories

Write a story about someone who has been tasked to keep a flame burning, surrounded by total darkness.

Character – 83 stories

Write a story about someone looking for a sign in a dark sky.

Angst – 53 stories

Stories

The Lantern of Kaamos

Winner of Contest #232 🏆

The melting Arctic is a crime scene, and I am like CSI Ny-Ålesund. Trond is the anonymous perpetrator leaving evidence and clues for me to discover, like breadcrumbs leading back to him. “Jonna,” he had said, the day we first met at the research institute, “If you are going to make it up here, don’t lock your doors.” It seemed like a life philosophy, rather than a survival tip.It is ironic. Out on Kings Bay, the coal miners came first, then the science outposts. Trond was already out here mining the Arctic when I was still just a bright-eyed...

101 likes 66 comments 66
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Next Time

Submitted to Contest #232

Harry McMunn, Supreme Reverend, shook hands with Andrea List, clapped Ray Blackburn on the shoulder, and patted little Jimmy Nairn on the head. He traded a smile with all his congregation, finished his cup of punch, and started a familiar chorus of “Next time.” Then, when they began singing their favourite hymn, he excused himself and went outside the temple, before his heart completely broke. The cool night air shattered his composure, and he clutched his vestments to keep an unexpected sob from escaping. Walking the well maintained paths o...

46 likes 39 comments 39
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The Darkness

Submitted to Contest #232

“Darkness is upon us, Will. Throw me another log for the fire, would you?” Father Beacon requested. “There is no moon tonight, so we must remain vigilant at all times. On the morrow at daybreak, we shall continue our journey to the safety of Castle Divinity.” I questioned not, the decision to undertake a journey so late in the day. Father Beacon had successfully trapesed through the forest of Dean on several occasions. However, on each of those times, he had never had to camp in the woods after dark. So, it was surprising to me and our other...

43 likes 18 comments 18
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Five Minutes to Midnight

Submitted to Contest #232

January 1st, 202411.15pmI was five hours into a twelve hour drive from Edinburgh to Penzance, on my way down for Gran’s funeral. A gran I didn’t like and hadn’t seen since I was a kid but had still been harassed into showing up for. I was doing it under duress. It was New Year’s Day for God’s sake. Who has to travel on New Year’s Day for a funeral on the 2nd of January? Who dies on December 30th necessitating the need for said funeral? My inconsiderate, miserly, reclusive Gran on my mum’s side, who used to shut me out in the cold and shout a...

43 likes 35 comments 35
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We, The Left Behind

Submitted to Contest #232

We are the left behind, the ones who didn’t make the cut, the unlucky.When The Arc was created, they said the positions on board would be determined by ballot. Funny how that random selection process took one hundred percent of the rich and famous, the billionaires, the influencers, the celebrities and politicians. Oh, they took others too, the unnamed and unknown. Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, all randomly selected. Families were torn apart by the horrible choice, either stay together and die, or separate for a chance at life. M...

43 likes 50 comments 50
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Semantics

Submitted to Contest #232

“We’re done, Eric!” “Bit over-dramatic, mate.” “This is the last time I do anythin’ wif you or follow your stupid ideas. There’s nothin’ down here.” “How do you know? You can’t see anything.” “And why is that, Eric?” “Not my fault the batteries went dead… in both our flashlights. We’ve been down ‘ere longer than expected, so it’s only natural that the batteries would run out of juice.” “Before we left the car, I asked you if you had new batteries in them.” “No, you asked me if the batteries were good.” “Same thing.” “Semantics, Tom....

41 likes 36 comments 36
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The Northern Lights

Submitted to Contest #232

Cecilia sits at a desk most days, surrounded by a forest of reference books. We ran out of shelf space for her library some time ago, but instead of extending her domain, allowed the books to become the room. Low piles of them function as tables, vertiginous stacks decorate the walls and a couple of her horticultural catalogues double-up as door stops and window props, but only in the summer. During the endless winter months, when it’s minus twenty outside, we lock all our windows, turn up the heating and convert our home into an arboreal re...

40 likes 25 comments 25
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Evening Light

Submitted to Contest #232

The girl who holds the candle never showed up. Scarlet was supposed to be done at five. The manager promised her that by five o’clock, she’d be all set, because the girl who works the night shift never bails. That was three hours ago, and Scarlet’s arm is beginning to grow tired. She’s allowed to put the candle down, but only for a minute. Then, she has to pick it back up again, and somehow, after resting for a moment, it always feels heavier when she retrieves it. Short, sputtering breaths dribble out from the woman lying in bed. Scarle...

40 likes 25 comments 25
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Svalbard

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

In the summer its Midnight Sun, but in the winter its Polar Night. Two months of darkness! That was David’s way of introducing me to Svalbard.My pre-teen relocation to northern Virginia from Florida had never quite settled in me, both socially and meteorologically. On snow days, when my friends were gleeful with plans to meet at the park to sled, I would opt out for reasons of awkwardness, but mostly: it was too cold. As an adult, I hated the darkness of winter, and I hated driving in precarious weather, and I hated having a job that I could...

37 likes 15 comments 15
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Too-Cute Magic

Submitted to Contest #232

Too-Cute MagicChrissy Merriman stepped out onto the small balcony off her upstairs bedroom in the stately Victorian home she shared with her grandmother. She hugged her warm, cozy bathrobe around herself as she gazed into the dark winter sky searching for the peace eluding her this starless, cloudy night that held promise for more snow to grant a white Christmas. Chrissy felt lighter than air unsure if she would ever come down to earth again after the unexpected embrace and out of this world kiss from Mr. Kool himself.A brief time before she...

32 likes 34 comments 34
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Smiling Skies, Storming Skies

Submitted to Contest #232

Chloe scowled at the pile of wilted broccoli on her plate. She sighed, picked up her fork, and stabbed at one of the limp florets. The prongs pierced the rubbery stem, and she shuddered. With her free hand, Chloe pinched her nostrils shut. She closed her eyes, opened her mouth and brought the fork to her lips. She bit into the broccoli, refusing to taste as her teeth ground the bitter vegetable into soggy mush. She choked it down as fast as she could, then took a big gulp of water. “Can I be excused now?” Chloe asked. “Yes, clear your pl...

30 likes 13 comments 13
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Souls in the Sky

Shortlisted for Contest #232 ⭐️

Zack Kaudjak was crossing the open snow laced fields of the Yukon River with his fourteen dog Iditarod sled team as the sun began to set below the birch tree line at three in the afternoon.  The days were short during the first week of March which meant the temperature would be dropping nearly forty degrees below zero.  He was prodding the team hoping to make it to the Galena rest stop by dinner time. Wrapped in a thermal body wrap, seal skin gloves, mukluks, his extremities still felt the impact of the cruel wind as his sled dippe...

30 likes 16 comments 16
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Everything In Heaven Is Already Here on Earth

Submitted to Contest #232

Nora walked home through the snow with the ingredients she had bought to make her daughter a thick brown stew, as she always did around this time of year. She passed the frozen statue of a famous explorer in the town square, up to its shins in snow, with his rusting copper features illuminated by the glare of lighting from the stores. Her daughter, Astrid had been born on the official start of winter, the 27th November, although the wintery darkness was always present for more than two weeks in the lead up to the da...

27 likes 5 comments 5
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Signs From Above

Submitted to Contest #232

“Who’s up next?”“We have someone new at station three.”“Stats?”“Fifty-nine year old female. Stress level 8, depression rising quickly threatening 10, suicide risk 2.”“You want to give this one a shot?”“Me?”“Why not you?”“I’m still in training.”“You’re ready. Start with observation.”***“I just can’t do this anymore, I really cannot do this anymore,” Ruth thought for the millionth time. She still heard her boss’s commands in her head. “Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.” Like a woodpecker tapping at her brain. It had taken ...

27 likes 16 comments 16
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The Sinners of a Planet Gone Dark

Submitted to Contest #232

[Content warning: mild physical violence, death] Apocalypses don’t happen in sudden, drama-injected catastrophes like in the movies. They happen slowly—painstakingly—while half of the planet tries to convince the other half that it’s all a hoax, that the sun can’t possibly go out, that it’s just a government plot to drive up stock prices or hide trackers in our drinking water or whatever the conspiracy theory of the day is. The sun might not have technically ‘gone out’ yet, but it’s close. Each morning grows that much darker. Kids don’t e...

26 likes 11 comments 11
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