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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#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.

This week's prompts

Set your story during polar night.

Winter – 37 stories

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

Science Fiction – 65 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 – 84 stories

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

Angst – 56 stories

Stories

“Butcherbird” by Brad Chessum

Submitted to Contest #232

I will write out my story here, one I have told before but this time it won’t be regulated or altered. I shall tell it with no regard to how it can influence the outcome of my life, because now, it can’t. I will write with no care as to whether anyone will believe or even read my story, because they probably won’t. Forty years ago, a public defence lawyer had listened to my story in a small interrogation room. The truth, he said, doesn’t always help in a court of law. “It’s done for ‘til tomorrow when it’s light and then I can take a...

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“Trapped Among The Stars” by Kaythi Oo

Submitted to Contest #232

6pm:Tonight is a lunar eclipse. I gaze up at the moon for a few seconds. The first of the year. The last one was half a year ago.Felt more like an eternity.I swipe my keys from the table and clamber into my black Jeep, turn the ignition on, and back out of the driveway. I know Mum isn't going to come. She's on a date.Turning up The Best Day by Taylor Swift, I drive along the lonely road as rain begins to fall."Danger: severe weather warning up ahead," chirps my car system in an unfittingly happy voice. "Please seek shelter immediately!"I nar...

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“Whistlin Boreas” by Jennifer Newton

Submitted to Contest #232

A fogged eye hung high above the snowy archipelago, for once its vision crystal clear with nary a cloud in sight. The sea surrounding reflected countless lights, spiraling galactic arms which played home to Earth. And in a flash, they were gone, as a bright flood lamp stole away the stars.The crunch of ice turned to the deep thuds upon preserved concrete. Boreal winds sang through the unearthed structures, stripped bare by calamity and clocks. From the dark strode a figure, taller and larger than any human man, one who struggled to fit throu...

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“An Arctic deal” by Rikki Club

Submitted to Contest #232

I was walking through the Antarctic polar night with a pick axe and a backpack full of needs. I was on my way to collect some more ice samples for the winter season and I wanted a last sample of the blue historical ice in the last day of the polar night in Antarctica. I wanted to see if I can find anything then a simple clear ice with frozen insects or dirt in them. I wanted to find something amazing! A discovery that could be legendary. Something to find and to profit out of for my little sister’s medicine. I heard that they p...

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“In Pursuit of Fire” by Joe Sweeney

Submitted to Contest #232

Denya paused in front of the door to the Meckleton Research Center and looked at her reflection in the glass. This building has aged about as well as I have, she thought. It had been nearly twenty years since she had left, and she'd sworn to never return. And yet, here she was at the express invitation of the Director of Atmospheric Research, her former subordinate Jerrol. She opened the door and entered, clothes dripping a bit and shoes sloshing on the floor. A light, warm rain had been falling all day, and there were no Fires in the ...

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“Red Skyline” by Dev Solovey

Submitted to Contest #232

Arch-chancellor Kemet Nova traced the release latch with his finger, staring at the button beneath the clear plastic shield. He briefly entertained the grim possibility that, should he decide to press it, he would go down in history as the man to bring about the end of the world, an idea which sent a stab of pain through his gut. He looked out the window at the dim, once-bustling metropolis of Hallas, ancient capital of the Astenethan Empire. His country in ruins, due not to conquest, but to the dying embers of what used to be the sun. He re...

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“CRESSIDA'S LAST SUN” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #232

Warmth, light, beauty, that's what our sun used to be. Never in my dreams did I ever imagine this would happen. The biggest most beautiful star in the sky is dying. I never believed the sun could die. The sun is strong and powerful. Our scientists believed this would happen. Long before I was born Cressida's most celebrated scientist predicated the sun's death. Most believed it. Others did not. Those who did began preparing like my family. Our government and its citizens began looking for a new home and began building ships. To save the ...

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“Our Love In The Light” by Anna Cobb

Submitted to Contest #232

We only get thirty minutes of sunlight. Every day, people wait. Wait until the sun comes out so they can finish their barely started projects of the days before. Oh we have artificial light. We live our lives in artificial light. But it’s easier to read a book or take a test with a flashlight, much easier than trying to plant a garden or work on the car with the same. But I’m different. Others wait until they can plant roses. I wait until I can see his eyes. Because there’s just something about sunlight that brings a whole different look to ...

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“Nothing Stares Back” by Susan Bateman

Submitted to Contest #232

Nothing Stares Back Ever since the Great Cascade the sky has never been more dark. I tilt my head up to the sky and send out pings, hoping for anything, but it’s all for not. I keep thinking to myself that I'm doing something wrong, that everyone else can do it. But of course just like my friends and family all they see is nothing. Just like me. I bring my head back down as I feel the movement of an object. I hear it approaching faster and faster as the seconds go by, waiting for its arrival. I feel a round object to the side of me, I p...

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“Daughters of the Sun” by Ameliese Clifton

Submitted to Contest #232

Seated on the roof of our old house, I watch as the sun begins to stagger to the horizon. In a few minutes, when the night emerges, omnipotent and inevitable, the family will gather to hear Nan’s stories of the sun. A crowd of us will huddle together, packed tightly like Uncle Jack’s cigarettes. The kids, though many of us are no longer children, sit on the floor, cross-legged on the dingy carpet, while the adults squeeze onto various decades-old lounges, chairs, an...

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“When a Light Dies, Does Everything End? Perhaps.” by M Modest

Submitted to Contest #232

Pale, nimble fingers reached out to the sky.The sky was dark, like an abyss, and dull, like his own eyes. He could say little, nor could he see that much from his spot on the ground. There was hardly anything left, the few traces of life scarcer than half what it once was.He let his arm drop.The once bright light from the sky was now reduced to rare streaks up above, and all signs of life feeding from its existence were hard to come by.Eyes as bright as the sun once was peered down, onto the vast and empty drylands below.Nature relied on the...

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“Ember Rain” by Mim Anderson

Submitted to Contest #232

EMBER RAIN The liquid gold that fell from the sky was a grotesque show of beauty. The drops that formed of molten lava hissed and spat as they destroyed life, melting into the fissures of the earth and leaving the smell of death to climb smoothly into the back of my throat. However, the gradual destruction I can see now pales in comparison to that first day. That day we realised that the sun was dying. It had been hot, so hot. The kinds of temperatures that sap all moisture out of you and leave a nauseous pounding feeling in your body, will...

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“Shadows in the Silence” by Thomas Bernhard

Submitted to Contest #232

As I stepped into the underground facility, the walls, a sterile grey, seemed to close in around me, whispering secrets of forgotten experiments. My footsteps echoed in the hollow corridors, each sound amplified in the haunting silence. The facility was a labyrinth, a maze of corridors and rooms, each identical to the last. The air was still, heavy with a scent I couldn't place, something metallic. I tried to focus on my task, to remember the importance of my research here, but the oppressive atmosphere was a weight on my mind, smother...

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“A Lucia to remember” by Anna Frederiksen-Washington

Submitted to Contest #232

A Lucia to rememberWith the passing of time, you have the luxury of perspective, and those moments you shared with others long ago take on a different meaning. Usually, it is the nice things we remember pushing the more unpleasant moments behind. I was born in a small rural town in the heart of Sweden. Warm, long summer days and cold, dark, snowy winters. Frozen lakes, skiing and skating, building snow men and watching the snowflakes fall outside my window, imagining the world outside. Traditions were something we held close to us, especiall...

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“Gnashing of Teeth” by L.A. Crum

Submitted to Contest #232

I still vividly recall the day he emerged from the water – a truly beautiful day filled with joy and peace. In a moment years of sadness and heartache washed away, all within the refreshing coolness of about three feet of water.Yet, as he celebrated this glorious moment, I heard it for the first time. It began as a low rumble, akin to the early tremors of an earthquake, but it grew steadily. What was it? Then, a deafening bellow echoed from the depths – just as Reverend Timothy had described it in my youth, only worse. This was not of this w...

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$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

106

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 12, 2024 EST

Won by Jonathan Page 🏆

Title: The Lantern of Kaamos

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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