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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#288: A Perfect Storm

Whenever I look out my window these days, it always seems like the weather won’t get any better. Blustery winds, heavy rain, thick fog, the occasional snowfall… When the temperature has dropped this low, the last thing I want to do is step into the freezing outdoors. But during the moments when I can stay home and wrap myself up in a warm, thick blanket, there’s nothing better than reading a book or working on a story as the sound of rain keeps me company…

This week’s prompts are inspired by chilly weather. Whether it’s the haunting stillness of a snowy evening, the whisper of wind through ancient willows, or the gentle pitter-patter of perpetual rainfall, let the cold seep into your writing, and see where it takes you.

This week's prompts

Start or end your story with a breeze brushing against someone’s skin.

Short Story – 70 stories

Set your story during — or just before — a storm.

Dramatic – 144 stories

Write a story where the weather mirrors a character’s emotions.

Dramatic – 61 stories

Start or end your story with someone standing in the rain.

Dramatic – 93 stories

Set your story in a place where the weather never changes.

Short Story – 48 stories

Stories

“Child of the Storm” by Jes Oakheart

Submitted to Contest #288

Nettle darted around the mountainside, desperately trying to stuff as many mushrooms as she could find into her basket as the first snow of winter rolled in from the west. She expertly sliced the fungi at their stems with her curved knife as snowflakes swirled around in the howling wind and landed on the carpets of moss blanketing the forest floor. Just a few more she kept telling herself, knowing that once nightfall came and the storm swept over the land, whatever remained would perish in the ice. Winter always came early at this elevation,...

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“The Dark Figure” by Mike Matkin

Submitted to Contest #288

There he was, standing in the rain. The dark figure that had haunted me for so long. I had never seen his face before, he always managed to keep it hidden in the shadows. Anytime he appeared, I knew something bad was going to happen. The rain poured down sounding like little pebbles pelting my roof above. I had only come to make sure it wasn’t hail crashing down outside due to the severity of the rain. That’s when I saw him, standing across the dark street. He just stands there, watching my house. It looks like he is wearing a long black tre...

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“Rider In the Storm” by Kashira Argento

Submitted to Contest #288

Note: Pyrgi is an existing village in Chios, Greece. The walls are indeed covered with geometric patterns. The story however is pure fiction. Pyrgi had always been different from other villages on our island. While the rest remained pristine white under the Greek sun, our walls tell stories in black and white geometries—diamonds, stars, and ancient symbols that earned us the title "painted village." During dawn or dusk, these patterns seem to shift and dance, as if trying to speak in a language long forgotten.I first saw him in the depths of...

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“The Ride Not Taken” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #288

The plan was to leave campus early, before the snow set in, while light still filled the sky. But Aidan had fallen into a rabbit hole of online references and blogs and comments-on-blogs while researching his essay on indigenous land claims in northern Canada. Just an undergrad essay for an optional class, but it had suddenly become make-or-break, the piece he would regard forever more as the point when he committed, the point when he actually took up the cause to work for justice for his people. The library closing-time signal had chim...

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“Too Late” by Sarah Johnson

Submitted to Contest #288

The rain beat down on the car’s windshield, further hindering my vision, along with my forgotten prescription glasses laying neatly on my bedside table. I was still in my driveway when I realized I had left them behind. I knew the drive would be a lot easier if I had gone back inside for them, but I couldn’t afford to risk anymore lost time, or even worse, waking Ethan. As I turned onto the highway, the car slid across the wet, slick pavement. Barely avoiding the guard rail, I managed to correct the wheel.Any damage at all to Ethan’s br...

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“The Drought” by Greg Miller

Submitted to Contest #288

Summer died fifty years ago, and autumn never came. The sky was a hard shell of endless blue, unbroken by clouds, as if God had dipped His paintbrush in cobalt and forgotten to rinse it out. Heatwaves shimmered off the asphalt like restless ghosts, and the air tasted faintly of burnt rubber and dust—the stale breath of a town stuck in time. Cedar Ridge had always been small, a thumbprint on the back roads of nowhere. There were farms, of course, though most had dried up and blown away with the last real rain. What remained were brittle corn ...

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“Pharos of Alexandria” by JAY JONES

Submitted to Contest #288

There it is again… I strain hard as I’d been doing each night since my awakening a week ago, trying to catch the music drifting in the sea breeze. A song without words, hauntingly familiar yet strange. A melody – no, it was more than that. It was an enchantment that no mortal man could resist. I knew the singers, or at least, I knew of them from my father, the noble Sostratus of Cnidus who had learnt of them from none other than my God-King, his Divine Majesty Ptolemy I Soter, may he rejoice forever among the Gods. As ever, I mourn my lost ...

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“The Storm is Coming One Way or Another” by Carolyn Petersen

Submitted to Contest #288

It was mid September and the leaves were just turning colors.This was my most favorite time of year I quess partly because that was my birthday month.It was also a time when the farm finally started giving up everything we had worked on over the summer. The garden was bursting with big juicy tomatoes and pumpkins, and a multitude of vegetables. It was a time to prepare for winter. My Mom would can the vegetables in Mason jars and prepare for the long cold winter to come.We lived on a farm in Western New York where the weather could be brutal...

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“O COME ALL YE FETE-FUL” by Charles Corkery

Submitted to Contest #288

“This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, Sister Agnes. Nobody in their right mind would think to organise a village fete in the middle of an English Autumn. Fetes are for the Summer”. Though she remained tight lipped, Sister Agnes, a novice nun, six months into her novitiate, agreed with this sentiment. Exactly! As far as she was concerned, Mother Superior, the head of the convent attached to St. Mary’s parish church, was most definitely not in her right mind. Father O’Hanlon, the parish priest, ostensibly, the pe...

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“Storm of Memories” by Cynethea Cunningham

Submitted to Contest #288

The wind picked up, rustling the leaves.Sarah looked at the sky. Dark clouds blanketed the sun, turning the late afternoon into an eerie twilight. She stood on the porch of the old farmhouse, gripping the weathered railing tightly. She and her twin brother, Sam, had returned to the farmhouse to clean out their late parents’ belongings. The place was filled with memories, every corner whispering tales of their childhood.They faced an overwhelming task. Sarah and Sam cherished this house and had desperately sought ways to keep it, but it prove...

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“Raindrops” by Raylee Hodson

Submitted to Contest #288

I don’t know if I could really call my experience “waking up,” because I could have already been awake. But that’s what it felt like. I was suddenly conscious or aware or awake, and I knew that I was standing in the middle of the road in the rain. Why was I here? I don’t even know where “here” is. It could be my neighborhood or it could be foreign country. I stood in the road, not one part of my body moving except for the occasional turn of my head as I scanned my surroundings. Nothing. I don’t recognize one single thing. At this p...

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“Honeymoon in Paradise” by Henry Lansing Woodward

Submitted to Contest #288

Honeymoon in ParadiseAfter about three bounces, the boy bounced out the window andin an instant, he was gone ten floors down. It was another fabulous day in Paradise. One of those days that happens almost every day. This never changing weather draws millions of visitors a year to our cluster of islands and is boringly wonderful, day after day after day. It was once again a borning eight-two degrees, and the Tradewinds were constant at their usual four to six miles-per-hour. I called them “Windfingers” because of the way ...

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“Raina ” by Sandra Moody

Submitted to Contest #288

Raina That afternoon a fog set in. I stepped out warily down the front steps and felt the light drizzle on my face and arms, steady, silent, and soft. The air was heavy with moisture—like me, I thought, heavy with child. I was home these days, feeling the calmness and quiet of waiting. It was only two days after due date when I realized labor had started. With excitement, I added the last things to a suitcase I had prepared weeks before. Girl or boy? We had wanted to be surprised. Not knowing, I had packed two perfect sets of baby cloth...

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“The umbrella” by Corey Richards

Submitted to Contest #288

In the pouring, soaking, sodding rain I stood. Like an absolute lemon. Frozen in place for twenty...thirty minutes until eventually some old lady stopped and prodded me.'Everything alright, love?' she asked with a tone that reminded me of my nan. Warm, concerned.'Huh?' I mumbled, still dazed.'You've been standing there quite a while, since before I popped into the shops.'By 'the shops', she meant the little Tesco Express just behind us. Its bright, white hospital lights bounced off the rain-soaked streets, sparkling across each droplet like ...

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“RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!” by Frances Goulart

Submitted to Contest #288

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY… Once upon a time, so many years ago you couldn’t count them, in a nondescript land so far away from you (or anyone you know) that you couldn’t begin to count the miles, in a country that wasn’t enough of a country to deserve a name on a map, there lived a small nondescript child whose name was Eon. Eon was no taller than a small bookshelf. He was pale with shoe button eyes, a nose, hands and feet that were, well, small. When he stood in the shadows, Eon seemed invisible. Eon was not...

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$250

Prize money

416

Contest entries

164

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Feb 07, 2025 EST

Won by Christina Marie 🏆

Title: Motherhood

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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