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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#234: Time Out

Often, it feels like there aren’t enough hours in a day. We juggle dozens of warring obligations — work, home, friends, family — alongside our own wants and needs. At one time, you might back out of a friend’s birthday to visit an ailing family member. But at another, you’ll go to an important work conference rather than visiting your mother across the country. You never know how much time you have — to make your career, to follow your dreams, to spend with your family. It’s an uncertainty we all learn how to live with, one way or another.

In the spirit of this uncertainty, this week’s prompts focus on time. Who has it and who doesn’t, and who is trying to carve it out, minute by minute.

This week's prompts

Write a story about someone whose time is running out.

Angst – 112 stories

Write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time.

Character – 70 stories

Write about someone taking advantage of some unexpected free time.

Fluff – 31 stories

Start or end your story with someone saying, “We have all the time in the world.”

Dialogue – 71 stories

Set your story in a place that’s frozen in time — literally or metaphorically.

Narrative – 56 stories

Stories

“Jacob’s Choice” by Martin Marriott

Submitted to Contest #234

May 14, 1974, was just another Tuesday. Tuesdays for me, a twenty-two-year-old, meant having a burger, fries, a few cokes, and a night of smashing the pins with my best buddy since kindergarten, Jacob Oliver, at Papa Luke’s Lanes. “Can you swing by the 7-Eleven on Whitmore?” Jacob asked me, his window wound down, arm resting on the door as he smoked a cigarette. “What for?” I asked. “Papa Luke’s is only two blocks away from Whitmore.” “I’m thirsty. Like really thirsty,” Jacob grinned back at me. The charming look in his eye gleamed as ...

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“The Prognosis” by Aryann Roloff

Submitted to Contest #234

“Left, Left. Left. Left”, I sigh in an annoyed tone as I swipe through Love. Nobody on these dating apps seem genuine. Most don’t even look like real people through all the photoshop and filters. I am interrupted by my regular oncologist Dr. Victoria Cunnings entering the room. She is wearing the same facial expression she has been for the last month since I relapsed from remission. “Judging by your expression I am going to have to delete cancer survivor from my Love bio aren't I” I chuckle, trying to keep the mood light which always makes h...

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“The Devil Makes Another Deal” by Rene Volpi

Submitted to Contest #234

Holiday travel is the busiest for all airlines. The airports are abuzz with people coming and going, and stress levels are at their highest. Today was no different. There was, however, one particular smell that permeated the air at Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires. It was quite peculiar, as the cleaning crew was known for being extremely efficient at keeping the place impeccably clean. But this was a different kind of smell. Very particular. It didn't matter to those in a hurry. They were rushing through the crowd to catch the plane because th...

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“SURFS UP!” by Martin Geisser

Submitted to Contest #234

Surfs Up! DECEMBER 24, 1992; it was early Christmas Eve morning. Waking up at 3:30 a.m. on a cold winter morning with plans to take out my boat in sub-freezing temperatures would sound absurd to most people unless you were crazy, fearless, or a duck hunter. I was all three. When leaving the house this morning with my duck boat in tow, the last thing I ever expected was exchanging blows with the Grim Reaper while dancing with the Devil amid an unannounced winter storm. Arriving at the Faunce Landing boat ramp in Absecon, the Atlantic C...

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“Running Against the Clock” by Aaron Mooney

Submitted to Contest #234

Driving away from my high school graduation ceremony in high spirits, my slightly banged up red Ford Taurus was tuned to Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," blaring on my radio. I can still hear that song ringing in my head all these years later, and part of me remembers the feeling of freedom I would never again attain. The wind from my open window whipped at my hair, and I felt like I could just—fly. I had become Icarus, trying with all my might to fly so that this time the sun wouldn’t melt my wings again. A month later I was havin...

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“Waiting” by Michael Robinson

Submitted to Contest #234

My time is coming. I don't know when the killing blow will come, or how it will be delivered. Will I be lowered into the Tullianum to be strangled, starved, or beheaded? Will a legionary be sent to run me through or force me to commit suicide? Maybe my end will be at the Flavian amphitheater, killed by gladiators or exotic beasts? Or maybe the Emperor has something else in mind: put adrift on a collapsing boat, being drowned in honey, or put into a bronze bull with a fire burning underneath?&nb...

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“Writer's block” by Ozcan Demirbas

Submitted to Contest #234

13 September 2017 I can't write anymore. Over the last ten years, I have enjoyed wealth and fame as a famous writer. My book 'Teeth' published ten years ago, made me known throughout England. I wrote my next book in four years. I worked slowly and carefully. I created many characters in this book. I kept pages of notes on each of them. I read what I wrote over and over again to make sure no detail contradicted me. I knew this book contained my best ideas. In almost all chapters, I had passionate dialogues that would draw the reader in. ...

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“That’s Life” by Andrew Venn

Submitted to Contest #234

‘That’s Life’! ‘One minute’ life and everything and everyone that I knew in this World seemed alright and I briefly and naively thought that I could relax enough to say “at last, I think I’ve got ‘this life’ ‘figured out’ and I’ll continue with what I am doing because this formula seems to be the right one! My life ...

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“Subconscious Fate ” by Melana Casmersky

Submitted to Contest #234

“The unconscious mind works in ways mankind could not even begin to understand." Harry declares confidently, securing wires to my head in four strategic points. The cold steel contrasts sharply in the warmth of the bar. "Maybe it’s best we don’t." I say as he clips a watch on my wrist. I want to tear it off. Like some child who just got fastened in a roller coaster seat and realizes pretending to be brave to impress their friends was no longer the most important thing in the world. Leah laughs from the seat acro...

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“Mary” by Joanna Turner

Submitted to Contest #234

The night was warm and the sky was clear. Mary sat silently in a broken down van at one end of a debris laden street. At the other end of the street sat a small two story house, which had a window on it's second floor illuminated. Mary's eyes had not left that window since it'd lit up. She'd sat there quietly and watched their shadows pass the light as they prepared to rest. They'd been on the road for a while and were surely looking forward to a good night's sleep, in a nice safe place. Mary had been on the road a while as well. She'd been ...

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“You Who Feed Of Me, Oh Detestable Vampire” by Emanuel Diaz

Submitted to Contest #234

In the companionless silence of a dear Madam, her remanents reminisce. "The shadowed realm of my undoing, where the light of memory once burned bright, I find myself ensnared, a captive to a spectral predator that feasts not upon the crimson ichor coursing through my veins but rather upon the ethereal essence of my cherished recollections. A vampire unseen by the eyes of those who pass me by, an apparition that haunts the corridors of my mind, voraciously imbibing the elixir of remembrance. Oh, the silent agony that courses through me a...

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“Regret's a Funny Word” by Audrey Schatz

Submitted to Contest #234

The Simplicity and Love of Charlotte Rose Drinking tea with the charming yet well-spoken upcoming romantic-comedy actress as she opens up about platonic love, regret and advice.ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JILL ANDERSON for Styles Savvy Landing her first movie at age 22, Charlotte Rose soon became the latest upcoming romantic-comedy actress. Detail-orientated, charming and friendly, Rose is known for lovingly leaving ‘thank you’ cards for everyone who she worked with on set, including well-known co-stars that can’t help but spark rumours of potential ...

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“Five More Minutes” by Nicole Hill

Submitted to Contest #234

It’s a funny thing. Time. The extent to which we keep track of it, hold it in our hands as a measure of our successes and failures. When we are young and naive, time stands still, creating barriers we are always pushing up against. We are five years old and yearn to be ten; we are ten and yearn to be teenagers. When we finally reach the awkward years of acne, body odor, and braces, we wish, to yet again, be older. Sixteen. We want to be sixteen so we can drive. Because time becomes a measurement of freedom. And then, we want time to go faste...

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“Forged By Blood & Mist” by Jade Nichole

Submitted to Contest #234

As she entered the mausoleum, her cloak billowed down the large spiral stone staircase behind her. As she came to the last step, candles and arrangements of flowers were set out before the coffin but no one was in sight. Good, right on time she supposed. She preferred to be here alone. After her father King Throian Stormforge died fighting their kingdom's enemies, Selene took it upon herself to uphold the battle he left behind as she was his only heir. There are no enemies left to cross The Kingdom of Shadowmyre. Although many would s...

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“Nominative determinism” by Matt Newbury

Submitted to Contest #234

Arnold’s eyes flicked open as he regained consciousness, but that was about the only part of his body he could easily move. His nose was squashed into his face by a wooden board and all he could feel with the rest of his body was hard wood. When he had fully recovered his senses, he realised he was entombed in a wooden crate. Arnold had mixed feelings about his predicament. Although he wished he could turn back time, he had to admit, this was, so far, the most successful of all his Get rich quick schemes. ...

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$250

Prize money

340

Contest entries

132

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 26, 2024 EST

Won by David Pampu 🏆

Title: 6:47 PST

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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