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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

“Snowed in” by Winfred Hayz

Submitted to Contest #234

Triggers: Mentions of sexual violence and implied rape, Mentions of Abuse, underaged drinking. Of course the day before the Ghost Raiders were about to set sail a large blizzard hit the island they were staying at. This delayed their departcher for at least 3 more days. 3 precious days spent cooped up in this stupid cabin, while Ignatius… Lucy couldn’t bear the thought of what her older brother was going through at the hands of that slimy, grubby, disgusting, shit stain of a man who dared to give himself a name, yet had one of blackbe...

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“Time to Breathe” by Desirae Moten

Submitted to Contest #234

What if after all these years I’m not the one he’s supposed to be with? How do I cope with the fact that he did love her at one point? That he had such serious feelings for her and they went away, but what if they come back? What if she’ll always be this piece in his life? We’re similar. She’s an older sister with one younger brother. She’s close to her family. She’s beautiful too and way more God oriented than I am. No, but I shouldn’t be comparing myself. I don’t want to, but they have things in common that aren’t my interests. Seven ye...

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“The Sphere in the Sky” by A.J. Williams

Submitted to Contest #234

As I shut my eyes to listen to the gentle melody on the radio, I notice the sound of her footsteps. When I open my eyes again, she has moved closer to us. I've nicknamed her Big Betty. It's like a colossal metallic sphere gliding down to Earth. Quite a dramatic ending, don't you think? A massive alien spacecraft cruising on autopilot, heading straight for us. "I baked muffins for us, the ones you enjoy," Janet, my wife, mentioned as she placed them on the stool in front of me. We sat on our balcony, savoring the city sounds and the anxious ...

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“Shared Time” by Lauren Normac

Submitted to Contest #234

Misco grimaced. He could hear music from the other corner of the tavern, the musician strumming away on some kind of string instrument. And that was impressive, because the voices between his spot and the corner should’ve muffled that. The musician seemed to be using some kind of magic to make sure the music could be heard from everywhere. Unfortunately, he’d been very sloppy, and created a feedback loop. The music was loud, so people talked louder to hear each other, and the music ramped up further. And . . . it shouldn’t have been that bad...

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“The Deception of Time” by Irene Mina

Submitted to Contest #234

TW: death, chronic illness “We have all the time in the world,” I say to Kyrollos as I break apart from his embrace. I don’t meet his gaze as I look around me, eyeing out who can see us. We sit in the school library, doing anything but studying. Which isn’t wise since it’s our last year before we graduate. I’m usually a rule follower but lately, Kyrollos has been very convincing with getting me to just spend time with him. He’d always say, “Just live a little, Vero.” Vero isn’t my name, Verena is and yet, I don’t think I’ve ever heard t...

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“White Rabbit” by Rochelle Bourns

Submitted to Contest #234

It was hitting off as one of those days where Lucy Clare could have really used a psychic. Another one, in fact, since she herself was listed as “psychometrist” under the NSA’s experimental assets category. Ideally, this other clairvoyant could walk into the underground lab facility armed with an arsenal of sarcastic quips and no emotions compromised.“Nick Sheridan,” Georgia Phillips, head of the NSA’s classified psychic division, announced by way of greeting as everyone settled into their seats in the conference room.The image of a happy co...

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“The Flowers on the Wall” by Krystal Exton

Submitted to Contest #234

“There are flowers on the wall…”Eleanor’s wall opposite her bed, which was usually a bland shade of grey, was erupting with life. A variety of bouquets full of roses, tulips, daffodils, hydrangeas, and frangipani decorated the small space in a vibrant burst of colour.Jeanie stood at Eleanor’s bedside, eyeing the wall dubiously. “Well, where did they come from?”“George, my brother, brought them here for me.” Eleanor frowned for a moment, “It’s funny. I haven’t seen him for so long, and he looks like he hasn’t aged a day.”Eleanor wat...

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“Stolen Moments” by Zyn Marlin

Submitted to Contest #234

The first one was easy, so easy that Magellan almost couldn’t believe it. The girl was sitting in the window as he was passing by, and it was the work of a moment – literally – to catch her attention tenderly in his grasp and redirect it to that middle space where nothing existed. Her eyes glazed over, and he could feel the way her mental energy shifted from thinking to absence. If Magellan had been corporeal, his heart might have leaped, or his stomach might have fluttered, or his face might even have split in a grin of delighted trium...

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“A Drop in the Bucket” by Sabrina Green

Submitted to Contest #234

For a being a wanted fugitive, Agent #344979 is mysteriously easy to find. Agent #902743 almost finds it suspicious when the watch gives off a friendly ping in the middle of the early twenty-first century less than half a revolution after she got her hands on the case file. It couldn’t have looked more like a trap than if it had appeared with a large flashing sign with the letters T-R-A-P spelled out. It wouldn’t be the first time something similar had happened; it wouldn’t even be the first time it had happened to her. Barely a revolution...

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“Dust” by Frances Hogg

Submitted to Contest #234

It came up from the west—an angry, roiling black wall five-thousand feet high and moving at sixty miles an hour. Clayton saw it coming and threw a tarp over the chicken coop, put the mule and cow into the cowshed and tied grain sacks loosely over their heads. Olive stuffed damp tea cloths and sheets into the cracks around the doors and windows, though she knew nothing she did would be enough to stop the dust. As suffocating darkness swept over their little farmhouse, the husband and wife huddled together under blankets. Grit peppered the win...

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“Never Letting Go” by Lisa Juliano

Submitted to Contest #234

It was barely dawn when I came into the kitchen. Dad was standing at the screen door, still dressed in his dark suit and houndstooth tie Mom gave him on his last birthday. Even his shoes were still on from the night before. The jacket’s shoulders sagged, and his trousers pooled around his slender frame, but he hadn’t bothered to change."Can I make you some tea, Dad?""Where's your mother? She said she was going into town this morning, and I told her I'd go with her. She wouldn't go without me." He pushed the door open a crack, just enough to ...

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“The Woman Unfrozen ” by Caitlin Morris

Submitted to Contest #234

I am moving slow today, but not as slow as everyone else. I say bye to my cat, Angus, before walking out the door to walk over to the cafe down the street, just like every other morning. One benefit of this whole “being frozen in time” thing is that I get everything for free. I wave to the barista, Anthony, who was a new hire at the shop when he got frozen. I only know his name because of his name tag. Anthony has become a good friend these last few months, we see each other every morning, but he won’t remember our friendship when they all w...

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“Emery's Greenhouse” by Brizeyda Monterroso

Submitted to Contest #234

Emery lived in a garden inside a large greenhouse. For the most part, she liked where she was. Her garden was made up of gifts delivered to her by the Gatekeeper. Sometimes the deliveries were wrapped in shiny holographic boxes with sweet smelling flowers inside. Other times, she received bazaar things she couldn’t explain, like pieces of bloody flesh. It didn’t matter what Emery received. Emery kept it all. The unusual things, she kept in a closed off area at the back. She placed it as far back as she could, to the point where she could o...

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“The Dock Under an Ancient Sky” by Lydia Chase

Submitted to Contest #234

As Paloma walked, the sounds of civilization grew softer and softer, a deafening silence overtaking the night. She barely registered the wood under her bare feet, or the chill of a breeze in the middle of June. When she reached the edge of the dock and look out over the water, memories swarmed her brain, buzzing through her skull until tears dripped downwards. You are being ridiculous, she scolded herself. Two minutes, that’s the longest you’re allowed to let yourself cry over this. Her mind...

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“A little town in the middle of nowhere ” by Katelynn Bauer

Submitted to Contest #234

Hidden away from most media and conspiratorial eyes sits a little town in the middle-of-nowhere-Wyoming that is just a little out of touch with time. The inhabitants, happy as they can be, seem to not know of the modern world, its as if their clocks all stopped in 1951. Gas is 0.27 cents a gallon, children play in the streets and people are still chanting the victories of World War Two. Nobody has ever questioned it, as if wandering in a loop they may never notice, until one day, a stranger enters town. Traveling at a speed muc...

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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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