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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#92: Chiaroscuro

A meteor's dazzling burst of light, a sky faintly illuminated by a crescent moon, or a sidewalk lined by long afternoon shadows, the world is infinitely more interesting for chiaroscuro — the contrast of light and shade. More than that, the binary between light and darkness is one that holds great symbolic power (think yin and yang, Nyx and Erebus, good and evil).

With that in mind, this week’s prompts invite you to reflect on the way light influences a story’s setting, plot, or even its characters. Whether darkness means comfort and privacy or creepy echoing corridors, and whether light reminds you of clarity and safety or of blistering intensity, I’ve chosen prompts that give you freedom of interpretation. Happy writing!

This week's prompts

Write a story that begins in the light and ends in darkness, or the other way around.

Horror – 382 stories

End your story with a truth coming to light.

Horror – 184 stories

Set your story in a countryside house that’s filled with shadows.

Horror – 170 stories

Write about a character who thinks they have a sun allergy.

Summer – 117 stories

Write a story set in a city where the power suddenly goes out, leaving everyone in darkness.

Horror – 187 stories

Stories

“Silent Shadows” by Colin Devonshire

Submitted to Contest #92

“Come on, don’t be a scaredy-cat,” said Bobby. “You think it’s a good idea to break the law?” said Gemma. “It’s not breaking the law, I’ve got the keys,” he answered. “Yeah, right, and that makes it okay?” “I want to buy this house.” “You are fourteen.” “I know, my Dad is selling this place, and I want to have it.” “Your Dad is a sales agent, that doesn’t give you a divine right to own. Not now, nor in the future,” she said. “Come in and you’ll understand.” Bobby unlocked the front door and pushed it back. “Look at that,” he said. “It is nic...

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“The love for blood” by Ella Lynch

Submitted to Contest #92

In a world fueled by the resentment of everything humane, battle was a religion. Kindness was a damnation and violence was glorious. ----------------- The rising sun was an explosion in the sky, splattering its orange hues across the horizon. He sat atop a raised golden stage, an offering to the gods, a deity. The girl kneeling in front of me on the dusty sand, raised her head in utter challenge. Defiance. I yanked her hair upwards so that her placid face was pointed at the sky. She kept her eyes fixed on the smear of col...

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“Fallen Angel” by Nandana Rajesh

Submitted to Contest #92

The thorns pierced into my feet as I ran, instantly drawing blood. I stumbled and groaned as I felt a sharp pain shooting up my legs, but I didn’t dare stop. The needle-like spines dug into my feet, penetrating my flesh even more. I cursed under my breath. Roses, why did it always have to be roses?The bundle in my arms began to squirm. “Seriously, now you choose to wake up?” I muttered. A muffled cry reached my ears and I sighed. I turned around, and once I was sure that I had lost the hunters, I lowered the flailing bundle onto a patch of d...

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“Water Bubbles ” by Anna Tishchenko

Submitted to Contest #92

Arletta was made for the rain. Not for her the sunny bright cheerful days that her peers so enjoyed. Rain made her feel cozy and comforted even when she had to be out in it. For her, everything felt closer, within reach. She had discovered, when she was very young that if she sat quietly and closed her eyes, she could actually feel the water as it made its way from heaven to earth. As she got older, she would reach out with her thoughts to the highest peak of the thunder cloud. She would choose one individual drop and track it, feeling the r...

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“Trust once broken can't be healed” by Miss Kandulna

Submitted to Contest #92

MISE EN PLACE that's what she said. I hope I don't forget to mention y'all that this story starts with a girl joining the business school for her higher studies. The no 1 b- school actually, it was her first day to her school. She asked for the way to her classroom. She was just on time and sat in the middle row so that she won't be the one seated on the last,ofcourse she wanted to make some friends so by sitting at last won't help. She didn't choose to sit on the first because she wasn't the shining armour who placed first in her middle sch...

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“Sorrowful Wolves” by Phoebe DeNeve

Submitted to Contest #92

Trigger warning of suicidal thoughtsCreak!The sound was followed by the booming noise of thunder, as I nudged the door open. I was soaked from head to toe with rain water.I barely had enough energy to get to the kitchen table, and slump into the old wooden chair. "Daddy, don't leave me. I'm scared." my 13-year old daughter's dying words rang throughout my mind, and I rubbed my face with my sweaty palms.Sophie, my daughter, was all I had left after losing my wife 10 years before. "What am I supposed to do? My love is gone, my only source of h...

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“Under The Spotlight” by Kate Gratton

Submitted to Contest #92

“This is absolute hell,” Nate mumbled under his breath, shivering, as he sat on a wooden bench pressed up against the brick wall of the school in the courtyard. He scrolled through old instagram posts of the girls in his grade, completely bored out of his mind, and he pulled the hood of his navy blue hoodie tightly around his face in an attempt to block out the cold december wind from chilling him to the bone. Not like he wasn’t freezing already. Like most of the boys at his high school (except the nerds who actually wore ties), he wasn’t dr...

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“the light that was never shed ” by Eva Yang

Submitted to Contest #92

He sat on the dock, legs hanging over on the edge of the lake. The moonlit surface reflected a beam of white that grazed his eyes. His feet swung back and forth, only inches above the shifting ripples pattering relentlessly at the shore. His hands were clasped in his lap, twiddling with each other. He stared fixated on the horizon, eyes on the ever moving silhouettes that danced about the night while the silent whispers of the wind sung their song. A crack of a twig disturbed the cool. A stray bird chirped, its voice echoing in the ravine....

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“Shadows in the Snow” by Eddie Ihlan

Submitted to Contest #92

Power is fickle at the best of times where Uncle Harvey’s house lies out in the country. Being well over an hour from any major city and several miles from even small country towns makes maintenance for the roads and powerlines difficult to say the least. Any major weather threatens to shut the whole thing down, and it can take days for someone to come out and repair the lines. Knowing I can be stranded without power at any time, I keep a generator and a stock of fuel in the barn in case of emergencies. Emergencies like this one. When the p...

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“Nora and Patty” by Anthony David M

Submitted to Contest #92

Nora smiled. She had just lied admirably. Or so she thought. They were asking her about her educational qualifications. Inflating her grades and achievements seemed so easy to do. "What if they go back to the University and check?" a single thought flickered for a while in her mind. But she quickly brushed it away. She was so used to live a life of lies. But deep in her heart, she detested the lies and the dark web she was in. How do I get out of this whirlpool? she wondered off and on. But she found it hard to behave otherwise, strangely. ...

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“Truth Always Prevails ” by Allen Sonar

Submitted to Contest #92

Human beings have a natural love for light. It is no wonder, for light and all it represents was the very first thing that God introduced into his creation.The first two verses of the Bible proclaim,In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” (Gen. 1:1-2)Creation was a structureless, lifeless, lightless, and watery chaos. And the Spirit of God hovered like a mother bird over the chaos....

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“Thursday Thing” by Patrick Druid

Submitted to Contest #92

Author note: My mother recently passed away last week so I wrote this story to sort of help me to process this experience in some way.The night had covered the sky and the rain began to pelt the roof of the building. The thunder cracked and rumbled as if a mighty engine was suddenly coming to life and then stopped all of sudden as the echoes faded into the air.The sound made Ms. Smith wake up with a start. She found herself in a hard, plastic chair that was joined by a steel bar to other chairs. There was a television fastened to the ch...

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“Alice and Patricia” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #92

Mum opens the door and clicks the light on, but the bulb doesn’t look like the ones at home. At home the lights are bright and white, except the night-light, which is warm and shaped like a bunny. This light is orange, and makes everything in the room look like it’s been covered in orange pop. If anything the shadows are stronger than they were before the light was on, stark dark contrasts to the sickly orange. “Here we are,” Mum says. “You get the whole room to yourself this time. A whole double bed! What do you think of that, Alice?” Mum...

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“Fish Under the Water” by Blueberry Elf

Submitted to Contest #92

I walk into his bedroom and his absence fills the space. With him, he has taken the breath out of the room, and just like him, it will never return. It is left lifeless, not like a battleground is lifeless, but like a wall is lifeless. I run to shut the window, forbidding the wind to distribute his scent throughout the streets, allowing his aura to dissipate and be broadcasted to any passerby that Danny is gone. Crawling into his unmade bed, I bury myself in the quilts. I fight to hold onto his smell the way one fights to hold on to a bar of...

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“Night and Day” by Kate Gratton

Submitted to Contest #92

Anataisia screamed as her alarm went off - twenty minutes late. She flung herself at the wall, in only satin pyjama shorts and a black tank top, and reached for the back of her door, where her all-black housecoat with a hood was hanging. She yanked it on, then skimpered quickly over her creaky wooden floor boards to the window, where she pulled shut her blinds. Sighing, Anastaisia flipped on the light switch as she sank to her bed, so as to not be left in total darkness. There she lay in silence until her phone binged with a text message fro...

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$50

Prize money

1050

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 07, 2021 EST

Won by Nina Chyll 🏆

Title: On the Origin of Shadows

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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