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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#275: The Witching Hour

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ReedsyBewitched to share your stories (and potentially get featured on our social accounts)!

Throughout my childhood, I was terribly afraid of the dark — especially after learning about the “witching hour,” the time of night when supernatural events are supposedly most likely to occur. Between the hours of midnight and 3 a.m., you’d find me either sleeping or hiding under the covers, trying my best to ignore every unfamiliar sound and looming shadow.

While I’m no longer afraid of the dark, I still think about the witching hour every now and then, especially around this time of the year. Could there really be a veil between the spiritual and physical worlds that somehow gets thinner at night, making it easier for spirits to cross over?

For this week’s contest, let’s write some stories inspired by time, witchcraft, and the supernatural. Will you conjure up a cozy, heartwarming tale or weave a darker, more sinister story? The choice is yours!

🥇 Winner

“Just Another Dead Girl Underwater” by Eliza Leonel

🏆 Winner of Contest #275

Trigger Warning: implications of death, violence and sexual harassment By the time the fisherman finds me, I will have been dead for thirty-three hours, six minutes, and twenty-nine seconds. Eighteen hours since the police declared me missing. Fifteen hours since Zoe told my biology teacher that my tent was empty, that I hadn’t returned from the party we’d snuck out to the night before. Careful, quiet, every twig a possible snitch. It was exhilarating, our hearts pounding, the smell of pine and seaweed thick in the air, and the moon a perfec...

106 comments 106

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“A witch's guide to magic in a hurry” by Ben Heard

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #275

I checked my phone again. 12:13. Shit. I was twenty minutes away from home, twenty-five if I was being realistic. Not good. I was going to run out of time. For fuck’s sake. The twitch in my right eye that had been bugging me all day was constant now, locking me in a permanent squint. Even worse, my stomach was starting to gurgle, and I could feel myself starting to bloat. I had spent the last thirty-six hours at Izzy’s because her ‘boyfriend’, Dan, had told her that he couldn’t see her that weeken...

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“Grave meditations” by Daniel Ward

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #275

Neither dark nor light, blissful nor scary, embracing nor aloof. Here it just is. Cold but not uncomfortable, I rest on the earth, not a cloud above. The smell is of soil, millions of years old. It’s easy to imagine my space shared by spiders, snakes and other things that slither in the dark, but I’m calm and don’t fear them. Inches above, a ceiling of old oak, itself serving an afterlife here. This capsule made by man is comforting, if claustrophobic. To consider spending an eternity here conjures a terror just beyond my consciousness; I ke...

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This week's prompts

Write a story from the point of view of a witch, spirit, or corpse.

Short Story – 129 stories

Start your story with a character being led somewhere by a black cat.

Dramatic – 70 stories

Write a story about someone who’s running out of time.

Angst – 47 stories

Center your story around someone who’s being haunted — by what or whom is up to you.

Dramatic – 101 stories

Write a story that includes the line “Better late than never.”

Short Story – 41 stories

Stories

“Just Another Dead Girl Underwater” by Eliza Leonel

🏆 Winner of Contest #275

Trigger Warning: implications of death, violence and sexual harassment By the time the fisherman finds me, I will have been dead for thirty-three hours, six minutes, and twenty-nine seconds. Eighteen hours since the police declared me missing. Fifteen hours since Zoe told my biology teacher that my tent was empty, that I hadn’t returned from the party we’d snuck out to the night before. Careful, quiet, every twig a possible snitch. It was exhilarating, our hearts pounding, the smell of pine and seaweed thick in the air, and the moon a perfec...

106 comments 106

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“Hecata’s Horoscope” by Alla Turovskaya

Submitted to Contest #275

You know, it's not fun. Forget about finding peace and enjoying angels' company. The company I have now is mainly stupid insects, mice, and one grumpy mole.The weather here is shit. Mostly dump. Always cold. I'm chilled to the bone. Not that this is hard to achieve now, given that bones are basically all I have. Bones and a patch of skin here and there. Frankly, I wouldn't mind some fire. Hellfire would do, but there's no more truth in the tales about hellfire than in the tales about angels.So, here I am, minding my own business, liste...

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“Everyone Loves a Good Burning” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #275

"Are you going to cook me?" I laughed, "Goodness, no." I grabbed a towel from the wash pot and wrung it. "Besides, I'm not a big meat eater." I cleaned the blood from his forehead. "You've flooded our village?" The lad hesitated, his eyes darting around in apprehension. After agonizing moments, he summoned his courage and added, "More than once!" The clumsy lad wasn't used to using his brain. To put it bluntly, he was thicker than a queen's mattress. "That's your ancestors' fault for building in a floodplain." "A floodplain? What's that?" "P...

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“(Not What I Was) Expecting” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #275

“You’re not the weed girl,” I said as I stood in the second-floor girls’ bathroom with my brows stitching together. It was my usual third period trip to the bathroom on a Thursday to pick up my weed, and instead of seeing Miranda, I was staring at what looked to be a senior with mascara running down her cheeks. I was a junior, so just from her face I couldn’t place her name. She was blonde and tall and looked like her perfume was called “Bubblegum Kiss” or something like that. I immediately wanted nothing to do with her, or her teary eyes, b...

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“Sex and Skittles” by Brynn Helena

Submitted to Contest #275

Sure, I’m an addict. But aren’t we all?That there is every sex addict’s favorite string of words. Go to a sex addicts anonymous meeting and you’ll see. I’ve heard them say it millions of times, maybe billions, I couldn’t be sure. Even I had said it. Even I found myself still saying it around mixed company, even though sex addiction was one of those things you could get away with. Sex addiction is like being a bisexual woman (try being both), people aren’t going to look at you much differently once they know, they’ll just start picturing what...

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“The Ghost in the Mirror” by Kaitlyn Wadsworth

Submitted to Contest #275

My first thought about dying was the blast that filled the air at the same instant that I felt a sharp, stinging thud to my chest. I’d been shot by accident.Blackness engulfed me. I remember that, like Alice, who fell down the rabbit hole, or someone plunged into sudden darkness, thinking, what is happening to me? Who will look after my son? Then nothing.Gradually, I could see light, first as a glimmer at the end of a tunnel. My legs felt like lead. The light became brighter. A hazy face peered. Whose face? Then, my eyes were ...

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“Stalled” by Derrick M Domican

Submitted to Contest #275

***TW: Inference of Childhood SA*** I’m not gonna take a dump in a public restroom. I’m not gonna take a dump in a public restroom. I’m not gonna…Damnit.I’m not gonna make it home. And it’s RIGHT there. That grim, concrete bunker masquerading as a sanctuary of sanitation. Sickly 40-watt bulbs over twin entrances generating just enough illumination for the beast to be visible in the night. Barely-there beacons of hope guiding desperate travellers to safety. Or to ruin if they function for a siren.Which, to me, they always have done. Late nigh...

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“Mountain Cat Meets the Ship Destiny's Dreams ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #275

In the 1800s off the northwest coast of South America a dark, cat-like shadow padded up the steps from below deck on a sailing schooner.The head of the animal tilted and the eyes glowed in the dark. It watched a man on the wooden deck of the boat, who was looking upward at the star constellations. The animal peered at the two legged creature and sniffed the air. She was young, and she was new to experiencing the world on her own after living with her mother.Curiosity and intelligence showed in her expressions. She slinked along with eye...

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“Bewitched” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #275

Bewitched I'm bewitched. Well, that is, I'm becoming a witch. No, not the true, crone looking, broom flying, cauldron cooking kind of witch. But still a witch. A pretend witch, that is. And only for one evening. Not so bad. And I'm actually being encouraged to become a witch or something I'm usually not. Don't intend to cast any spells on unsuspecting souls, good or bad. But you never know. Could happen unintentionally, you understand. Since I'm only eight years old how bad could it be? I have never been schooled in becoming a witch. I'll ha...

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“Insatiable” by Mary Butler

Submitted to Contest #275

Darkness.Not the kind that comes when you close your eyes. This is something else—heavy, dense, like the world’s been erased. It’s pressing down, sinking through me. I can’t breathe—can I? My chest should be moving, doing…something.I don’t know why I expect that.Then…something else. A noise. No, not a noise. A memory.“I love you, babe.” A woman’s voice—warm, laughing. I can almost feel her next to me, see her face, smell her perfume, something like freshly peeled oranges—Gone. Just like that.I try to hold onto it, but it slips away like smok...

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“Dead Man Watching” by Murray Burns

Submitted to Contest #275

Dead Man Watching“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”-Woody AllenI’m dead now, and let me tell you it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. No one is running around in a puffy burnt orange shirt that one of the Three Musketeers left behind, molding gooey pottery stuff to music with some hot chick, or dragging some psychotic kid who sees dead people all over town. No, it’s a pretty static, uneventful existence, and cold… and dark… all the time. And my wife got me a bargain basement casket. I think she got ...

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“Mare Tenebrarum” by Max Wightwick

Submitted to Contest #275

When embarking upon our odyssey, none of us would, nor could have foreknown what forbiddance presided over the unpeopled outlands of the cosmos. Our safety was entrusted to the dependable Lucis, a prodigy of modern science, built for the sole intention of travelling into the extraneous. Through parsecs and parsecs we vagabonded, equating to years unreckonable, with not the merest sound or noise. To not be unhinged from the deafening silence, we overcompensated with frivolous conversation, melodies were played as nostalgia, and a general...

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“Beyond time” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #275

I love old, well-used, well-loved books. You might say I’m obsessed with them. Each discovery gives my heart a jolt of anticipation; Is this the one? I look for little forgotten treasures, like a comment to a loved one, notes scribbled in margins. I have found forgotten, yellowed photos, handwritten letters, a recipe, or a dried flower stuck between pages. I keep looking as if there is something specific I need to find.Yesterday, Mr. Margoli, the owner of a quasi-antiques store, left me a message. He has something I might like. This morning ...

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“She is Mine” by Kate Simkins

Submitted to Contest #275

I watched, and I waited. For years I haunted the halls, waiting for the right one. Sometimes, I would think I was close, but inevitable disappointment followed, each and every time. But nobody mourns for a ghost. People came, and people went, but something was always missing. Until I saw her.Oh, how she moved! Grace, elegance, poise. She didn’t know how beautiful she was. The first time she crossed my path, she was late. Rushing through these hallowed halls, books falling from her hands, dark hair tumbling around her shoulders...

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“The Smoke” by Helen A Howard

Submitted to Contest #275

The SmokeLondon, 1941As usual, Bill woke at dawn and was driven out to his aircraft. The order to scramble had been given and he felt the familiar tug of fear and excitement. He checked his jacket pocket for the doll his sister had knitted as a lucky charm. She told him she’d made two dolls but his was the best. He felt the rough cloth and bumpy stitches, complete with tiny bag and hat, beneath his fingers, and smiled. The thought of his little sister’s face gazing up at him the last time they met, brought a lump to his throat. It gave him t...

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$250

Prize money

388

Contest entries

170

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 08, 2024 EST

Won by Eliza Leonel 🏆

Title: Just Another Dead Girl Underwater

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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