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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

“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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“Chipped Tooth” by Leah Hearne

Submitted to Contest #234

“We have all the time in the world,” Sal said as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with a dinner napkin he stole from some restaurant. He drove only with his left hand, knuckles white around the wheel as he swerved around a scarecrow. Ears of rotten corn knocked against the windshield. The sound was indistinguishable from a rain of fists. “I mean, it’s not like anyone’s on our tail,” he continued. His voice was overly jubilant as if he were trying to convince himself of his own words. “No one saw a thing. No one heard a thing. Hell, i...

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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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“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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“Press pause, please ” by Aisiri A

Submitted to Contest #234

“More coffee?,” the lady with bright blue hair asks, interrupting the rush of thoughts that had wrapped me so tightly that I had started to give into their quagmire. I nod, and she smiles. Did I smile back? You spend too much time wondering if you are polite enough, Lekha had said when I asked her if I had apologized properly when a stranger bumped into me and his bag fell on the ground. Did he apologise? She had asked, looking straight ahead at the big banner of a clothing brand advertisement. Lekha never looked at ...

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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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“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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“Of Black Holes and Rabbit Holes” by Tracy Phillips

Submitted to Contest #234

Aianna likes to stretch her legs at night, she recently discovered. She lives in a small town in a small house in an also small suburb. Since turning old and retiring from her work in AI, she found herself struggling to fill all those extra hours in too long days and longer nights. But she was not simply hoping to fill or kill time, she was hoping to find something to give new focus and meaning to a life that felt as though behind her back it had been busily growing too small for her. Like one dealing with overly constrictive trousers, she f...

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“Time To Go” by T.M. Kehoe

Submitted to Contest #234

It was raining when I got back from my trip. He was sleeping, and his caregiver was sitting on the couch, watching something on her phone. “Hey Shelly, how’s he doing?” “He’s not doing very well. He ate a little dinner last night, but he was having those bouts of confusion. He kind of drifted in and out of things. He didn’t eat his breakfast or take his pills this morning, either.” The expression on her face communicated all the nuance lost in her sparse words. She was scared. I nodded, letting her know I understood her unspoken mess...

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“To Draw Blood from Wine” by Noah Thomas

Submitted to Contest #234

As the woman stumbled into her room, clutching her neck, she reprimanded herself for venturing alone at night. Shooting a spark of energy, she lit the candles in her room, illuminating the rich furnishings she had recently inherited. Frantically she made her way to her desk, knocking aside the inkwell that rested on there as she reached for a drawer, producing a small bottle and some bandages before turning to the large silver mirror by the wall. Just looking at it, she knew she didn’t have much time left, as her reflection began to flicker ...

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“A Strange Occurence” by Carol Martin

Submitted to Contest #234

January 24, 2024A Strange OccurrenceBy Carol Martin It was 3: AM when I turned off the computer, and I sat there tired and staring at the screen. I could see my reflection, but when I moved my tea cup back and forth my reflection did not move with me. I tried moving my head back and forth, and I could see myself holding the cup, but the image was not moving like me. Startled and bewildered, I then saw people moving around! Some of them I knew, but they were deceased. One man had a white baseball cap on, but I could not make out the insi...

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“Timepiece” by William Glewicz

Submitted to Contest #234

Sunlight through the windows casts shadows that accentuate every edge, every imperfection in the plaster. Cracks are transformed into ridges, rivers, canyons. The ceiling above my bed is like the map of another world. I’ve had time to examine it in detail. As a girl, my world was bounded by my parent’s corn fields and the handful of neighbors we treated like family. The shopkeepers often knew what you needed before you walked in the door. The schoolteachers paired up and taught multiple grades because there were so few students. My world...

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“Black Mamba” by Stuart Stockwell

Submitted to Contest #234

Of course, Jack had seen a black mamba before. Once, he had seen one of the workers use a catapult to hit one square in the back of its dull grey head. He remembered the satisfying thwack as the stone extinguished its hopeful attempt to enter the farmstead. That sense of foreboding as Augustinus had prised open its jaws with a gnarled branch to show him the ebony gums lurking within, had haunted Jack since that day. Black mamba venom can kill you in less time than the average worker languishes at their desk on a mindless nine to five. One st...

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“To Listen is Inheritance” by Vivi Sojorhn

Submitted to Contest #234

My cat Blue could operate a door handle and would jump at it for hours until he could pull the thing down. The only problem was that he could not pull it open. He was a frustrated being until I owned a home with a cat-door. He was smart obviously and I thought we were remarkably close. He spent hours laying in the sunshine at my feet while I worked until one day he disappeared. My heart broke as weeks went by without him. It was three weeks later that Blue came home combed for spring and smelling like sweet perfume. I finally understood...

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“We Apologize for the Inconvenience” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #234

The morning commuters at Gate A distributed themselves along the concrete station platform like crows on a wire. Finance was a solemn business and the men and women who waited for Train 1 were clad in funereal attire: overcoats of black, navy, dark gray, with one or two exceptions in beige—and one poor soul with no overcoat whatsoever. Mallik shivered as he stood in the cold misty air. Why on earth did I forget my blasted coat at work? He recalled yesterday’s noisy debate in the stuffy little meeting room crammed with screens, whiteboa...

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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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