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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

“Glass Half Frozen” by Lauren Overall

Submitted to Contest #234

Day 46 Aboard the Aurora Borealis II My nose is cold, my hands and feet are cold, and I’m pretty sure my core body temperature is below freezing. When I signed up to “save the polar bears”, freezing my butt off for 15 hours a day is not what I meant. I am much more comfortable in my heated laboratory with all my samples in neat, labeled containers in front of me. Instead, I got roped into this “immersive” research experience by my co-scientist and husband, Oliver. He’s always been the more adventurous and audacious of the two of us. Al...

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“You Can't Go Back” by James Seamone

Submitted to Contest #234

Trigger warning: Mental Health, Abuse, Self Harm Looking back at the happiest day of my life, my wedding day, I realize how blind I was. I wish I could go back and warn myself of the hell I would put myself through. She was beautiful, still is considering what she put me through. Beautiful but crazy. Her whole family was for that matter. I was blinded by those pretty eyes and that playful smile. That playful smile it turns out was the inner psycho anticipating hurting me. There were signs of course. A major shift in mood here...

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“New Friend” by James Seamone

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world.” The large scruffy man said as he tightened the knots around the terrified woman’s wrists. “All the time in the world.” Tina wanted to scream but the balled-up rag in her mouth and the duct tape prevented that. Snot clogged her nostrils making it hard to breathe. Wide eyed, she looked around the room for a way to escape or some other help. The walls were made from logs that had no bark and were heavily varnished. The sparce furniture was rustic cabin furniture, hand made with care and skill. One big ope...

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“A Rose by Any Other Name” by Jeremy Stevens

Submitted to Contest #234

My world was shattered, I was torn apart/Like someone took a knife and drove it deep in my heart.“The eighties put out some great music, but this is not that.”“You’re kidding, right?”“No, not at all.” The evening has worn on me; my patience is done. I snap off the radio. “I think we should just play a game.”“Do-you-want-to-play-a-game?” Her voice is computerized. “Okay, name that movie.”Sigh. “War Games. How about—“Ding ding ding. Winner winner chicken dinner. I had such a crush on Matthew Broderick. Who was the girl?”Don’t answer. It’ll jus...

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“Mother of All Evil” by Caroline Pinsonat

Submitted to Contest #234

I hated him from the first second I laid eyes on him. Thirteen hours of grueling labor and nine months of pregnancy and this was my prize. A shrieking, ugly, detestable baby. The greatest, most unbearable pain of my life was all for this? If I could turn back the clock and stop this pregnancy, I would in a heartbeat. I lay crumpled on the hospital bed, feeling relieved that it was over but at the same time, a dense sense of dread bearing down on me. Dread for the next eighteen years that I have to sacrifice for this creature. T...

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“Until Midnight ” by Katie DeMerchant

Submitted to Contest #234

It wasn’t exactly like waking up from sleep. There was the taste of dirt and something musty in my mouth. It took a long time for me to understand where or what I was. There was the smell of something chemical and it made my nose wrinkle. My eyelids felt stuck and my mouth was as if it had been sealed shut. Something in my throat burned and my chest itched. I ran my hands over the white buttoned blouse and ankle-length grey skirt. My feet ached as I realized they had been crammed into a pair of shoes that was a size too small. Slowly memorie...

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“The Glass Cocoon” by Adri Bruckner

Submitted to Contest #234

The door is frozen shut. The doorknob will not turn, and the frame won’t budge when I yank on it. Oh well, I don’t need to go out anyway. Not really.I sink into the couch and flip on the tv. … ICE STORM FREEZES ROADS SOLID… say white words on a blue stripe. But the words aren’t sliding across the screen like they usually do. The newscaster’s face above them is, well, frozen. Mouth open, he looks as if he’s caught out in the cold, the weather map behind him a swirl of purples and blues. I almost expected to see his breath right there on the s...

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“Adult Lullaby” by Christine Johnson

Submitted to Contest #234

Cate had tried this combination at least a dozen times before. Warm bath, bottle three-quarters filled with formula, and the donkey and the cow book read twice, the first time with animal sounds and the second time only reading the words all with the hope to lull Jana, her eight-month-old daughter, into a sleepy trance. When Jana’s eyes would close and remain closed for more than a minute to ensure the slumber spell had taken full effect, Cate would lay Jana down in her crib and creep out on tip toes only to hear Jana’s screams befor...

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“Wishful Thinking” by PJ Town

Submitted to Contest #234

“I blame myself,” Martin murmured.They sat on the porch of the old cottage, the toads in the nearby pond providing background music for their conversation.“She wasn’t well though, was she?” John said by way of moral support. “There’s not much you could’ve done.”“I could’ve been with her.” Martin picked a stone out of a plant pot and threw it towards the pond; the toads stopped their croaking momentarily.“But you live in another country,” John insisted. “You have a job there. You couldn’t have just dropped everything, could you?”He took a lon...

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“Reflection in the hourglass ” by Paige Harrison

Submitted to Contest #234

They’re coming for me, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Time slips through my fingers like sand in an hourglass. The worn wooden walls around me ache with age, threatening to collapse at the slightest disturbance. I lay sprawled upon the frayed couch, patches of stuffing scattered violently around me, a massacre. Tick. Images flash through my mind, crimson painting my view as screams rattle around me. I don’t remember what happened last night, only the haunting memory of my sister's lifeless body collapsed before me remains. I clutch m...

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“One Last Strike” by Ansley Scott

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world,” Harris says. He looks down at his hands, at how his fingers still tremble and pulse, as if he still sees the power he unleashed only moments ago from those very palms. His mouth is slightly gaped and his bottom lip shimmers with the redness of a split lip. Besides that small cut, he’s completely untouched. Even his hair remains styled and pushed back, the gel only giving way to a few strands of hair that curl just above his right eye. Kinser watches him. Her stomach turns. There are bodies s...

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“Redemption” by Lucius Doon

Submitted to Contest #234

“One hour.” Sheriff Walls sat with his feet on the desk reading the Brady Gazette. The usual drab and familiar reporting did nothing to excite his senses. He scrunched up the paper and threw it at the waste paper basket. It rimmed out and landed on the floor. The man to whom the words were spoken said nothing. He paced back and forth in his cell. Ten feet by eight feet. It was a miserly existence and had been for some time, ever since he was arrested, charged with and found guilty of murder. His name doesn’t matter because soon he wil...

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“Snow Angel” by Rachel Harrynarine

Submitted to Contest #234

“I’ve always hated the snow.” I glanced up from the floor where I sat cross-legged, leaning against the couch and mindlessly drowning marshmallows in my hot cocoa with a teaspoon. “What did you say, Grammie?” She didn’t reply, and I followed her gaze to the window on her left where pillowy snowflakes gently pelleted the cold glass. I sighed softly, my eyes trailing back over to my grandmother, who seemed lost in a faraway place. Delicate tendrils of gray framed a petite, sweet face etched with wise wrinkles and laugh lines that tol...

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“A Tuesday Afternoon in 585 B.C.E.” by Christopher Biery

Submitted to Contest #234

The year was 585 BC. By all accounts, the month was May, and the day the twenty-eighth. Whether or not it was a Tuesday, like it will be this year, is inconsequential. But what is consequential is the time and location; twelve hours and fourteen minutes in the PM, and, unfortunately not accurately approximated, “somewhere” along the Kizilirmak River. This is going to be tricky. ____________________ I’m currently sitting at home in my bathrobe, staring at my dark and empty television set. A storm of immense fortitude had swept through my sm...

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“Time Sink ” by Mary Lynne Schuster

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world,” Sam said. Jerry looked up. His hands were deep in the guts of a irregular black box, one side off and wires poking everywhere. Multicolored lights were blinking in a quick pattern across the top. “It still might not be enough,” he said. He carefully pulled one hand out, slowly releasing a blue wire as he did, and wiped his forehead. His hand was shaking. “Take your time,” Sam said. He sorted through the jars on the metal shelf, glancing at the labels, and sco...

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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.

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