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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!

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 – 69 stories

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

Angst – 45 stories

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

Dramatic – 100 stories

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

Short Story – 40 stories

Stories

“Spirited away” by Anodiwanashe Tenene

Submitted to Contest #275

The world bound by spirit and form, transcends into a terror. The trees quiver, the woods shuttle in a strange demeanor, and the zephyr in the night sounds like an owl. I feel death drawing near but not that of one I know, for all those known to me are beyond my compass of approach. I can not touch though my hands do stretch, foul enough to call what I have hands. I laugh because I cannot fathom nor contort the main idea that I exist in the world yet outside it. My spirit - wait, I am a spirit- is a force not to be reckoned with. I am b...

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“Captivating Chaos” by Penelope Stansfield

Submitted to Contest #275

One careless afternoon, Sam had accidentally agreed to attend the ‘Captivating Chaos’ exhibition as suggested by his secretary, and now, despite himself, he was making his way to an unfamiliar part of the city. After leaving his apartment, he’d navigated the bustling city centre where the Saturday shoppers were now transmuting into evening drinkers, flooding the wine bars and bistros. The begrudging light of a grey November day had gone, and the heavy darkness of late autumn settled in the shadows and doorways, too thick for the city’s ...

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“From Curse to Gift” by Alison Noni

Submitted to Contest #275

My family used to joke about the fact that I was born under police guard. I entered this world just before Halloween on October 29th, 1959, at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, in Victoria. Since there were several cult groups active on Vancouver Island at the time, the authorities stationed a police officer in the newborn nursery to prevent infants from being snatched for ceremony or sacrifice. The island, off the west coast of Canada, has always been inhabited by wackos and weirdos. It was like that back in the fifties, and it still is now. Of c...

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“Chums” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #275

As things began to settle down, Jacko became aware of a patch of light, a brilliant, jagged banana of summer sun biting into the darkness. The shape rotated gently, a slow kaleidoscope of glittering sand, splattered and looped into a Jackson Pollock of slimy fluids that pattered and plopped into the soft grains. He peered at the image and tried to draw a line from it back to anything in his memory that could explain what he was seeing, but he was finding it hard to focus. The only image he could summon was a cloud of candyfloss pink foam, fr...

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“Ghosts Like Us” by Jess Kent

Submitted to Contest #275

She dropped the letter and watched in dismay as the blood-red words swirled towards the ground. Dear God. She thought paralyzed in fear, He found me. Shaking, she reached one hand out for the back of her friend’s chair and held her other one to her chest, as if she could keep her heart from leaping from her body. It’s been seventeen years since she heard from him. Seventeen years of paranoid peace and illusory safety. “Adrianne?” Sharon walked into the kitchen with a curious frown on her weathered face. “Are you ok, honey? You look like you’...

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“One Year to Saturn” by Bärbel Morsch

Submitted to Contest #275

Yes, one year to Saturn - that was the theory, at least. Humanity's first solo mission to the ringed planet, carefully planned down to the last detail. But barely six hours into the mission, just as I passed Moon's orbit, this massive - and I mean massive beyond any human scale of measurement - alien ship, its hull stretching across what must be thousands and thousands of kilometers, as if these units even matter at this terrifying scale - barely missed my vessel, sending me spinning through violent turbulence. You know, all those decades of...

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“Barren Fields” by Alyce Kelly

Submitted to Contest #275

Content warning: The following story has implied physical abuse. It also contains mentions of death and of a sacrifice.Soap, water, scrub, repeat; soap, water, scrub, repeat; soap, water, scrub thirteen times you wash. Thirteen times we scrub our hands clean before we enter the church. In the name of the Son the Father the Holy Ghost. Three times we make the cross with the holy water; three times we watch as those behind us mutter curses under their breath as we take too long at the church door. Not the left side or the back, can’t be t...

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“3 AM” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #275

3 am, the witching hour. The hour of death. The hour of evil. The hour of my nightmare. The hour of my visions. The hour that has haunted me for six years. Six years, that's how long I've been afraid of 3 am. Six years, that's how long I've been having nightmares. Six years, that's how long I've been having visions of murder. I lost part of me six years ago. I lost my memory of that time. I lost a family I don't remember having. Remembering that part of my life hurts. What hurts is not the family I don't remember but that I don't remember th...

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“Live, Laugh, Love, Die” by Vladimir Stefan

Submitted to Contest #275

The year was 2060.Tropical weather brought on by climate change blessed southside London with a 40-degree dry and hot day in April. Inside a recently refurbished one-bedroom flat, four friends pose as a polyamorous unit. One of them brings a bottle of vegan, grape-free champagne onto the coffee table, landing it with a thud.“Right,” says Brandon, “Should we celebrate, then?”The other three raise their glasses, and Brandon pours an equal amount into each. After filling his, he raises it high, and whilst standing up, he scans the living room w...

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“Primer Grey” by Shawn Leader

Submitted to Contest #275

Someone once said you never hear the shot that kills you. I did. But then again I pulled the trigger so I may have been anticipating it. Or maybe I heard it after I was dead. I don’t know.That’s the thing and I hate to spoil it for you but when you’re dead the secrets of the universe aren’t revealed, I don’t know what the point is, I don’t know where I am. All I know is that is better to be alive. As alone and useless as I felt when I was alive it was still better than this place. The sky is grey here and not like wispy grey with chance of b...

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“Mad Woman” by Amanda Wisdom

Submitted to Contest #275

Onward. Onward and out, breaking surface, breaking even, and—Mad woman. No one likes a mad woman. Moonlit silk strung together by the thine of song, and whispering, whispering, SCREAMING! Limericks, long forgotten. The hem of my soaked dress drags against wilting lavender stock. Mad woman. No one likes a mad woman. I let my imagination run wild, fully knowing what I am seeing and what I am not seeing. Behind me, the lake, where sorrows and secrets can rest. In front of me, the meadow, its flowers painted in mute...

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“Fated Encounter: El Dia de Muertos” by Cindy Calder

Submitted to Contest #275

It was November 2nd, the last day of El Dia de Muertos. Carmen Maria Isabella Sande Junquera entered the cathedral, pausing to dip her fingers in the holy water basin and bow to the crucifix while crossing herself. Candles lit the cathedral as far as she could see, their lights bouncing off the massive 24-karat décor. Though it was dimly lit, Carmen observed the church appeared to be vacant. Where was everyone? This was abuela’s funeral mass and her Abuelita had known more than half the town. It was unthinkable ...

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“When the Iceman Calls” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #275

The knock on the apartment door was so loud that it sounded like rapid-fire gunshots. Simon woke up instantly, and then lay frozen still in his bed though his heart was pounding out of his chest. It was like waking to a nightmare. Bang, bang, again, “Open up, Garcia, open up, this is the Federal Immigration Enforcement Agency, open up the door now”. Simon reached for the wall switch and the naked bulb bleached the room with cold white light. It was 3.15 a.m., according to his alarm clock. He prayed for deliveran...

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“Happiness is.......” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #275

Jessie and Eloise were two young sisters. Their parents were always telling them to play nicely. But these two quite pretty little girls were mean and catty to each other. Jessie liked snatching toys from her three year old sister, Eloise. She thought they were better than hers. Eloise liked scribbling on Jessie's books, trying to wreck all the pretty pictures.It was a normal sort of morning, Jessie was poking her tongue at Eloise, who was crying again. Then Jessie made a really ugly face at Eloise, until she laughed. Eloise was used to Jess...

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“Cyclists” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #275

"... the cure for loneliness is a relationship with an AI..." His voice made it hard to judge whether he was serious or joking. So, you smile, then nod, then change the subject. Not that it was a dreary day, being outside for a walk. It was just enough of everything already. Clearing cobwebs and calculating how to get through the day made us survivors, the latest company layoffs be damned! Maybe that was why a city block away, I could smell Montreal smoked meat on rye, oozing tender slippery beef, overflowing on bread ro...

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$250

Prize money

383

Contest entries

163

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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