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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#97: Window of Opportunity

Windows let us see and be seen. These openings to the outside world (or the indoors world, depending on where you’re standing) have been so important in connecting our individual isolations during the pandemic. And beyond their presence in our daily lives, windows frequently feature in art and cinema: from Edward Hopper’s famous paintings of nightly urban scenes to films like The Woman in the Window or The Neighbors’ Window, glimpses into the lives of others have always been a source of wonder and curiosity.

Speaking of which, wonder and curiosity are promising feelings to tap into when you're responding to this week’s prompts. Apart from the literal gazing in and out of windows, you can also pass through magic ones, or develop a story around a window-related event. And if you happen to passionately loathe windows, I’ve got a metaphorical one for you to get creative with. Have fun!

This week's prompts

Start your story with a character looking out of a window in the middle of the night.

Horror – 340 stories

Write a story in which a window is broken or found broken.

Dark – 142 stories

Write a story that involves a magic window — or a window like no other.

Fantasy – 154 stories

Start your story with an unexpected knock on a window.

Dark – 138 stories

Set your story within a window of opportunity, when a character finally has the chance to do something.

Middle School – 144 stories

Stories

“Corvids and Covid.” by Margaret A. Young

Submitted to Contest #97

There is a common superstition that to see a single magpie will bring sorrow. It is especially bad if the magpie appears at a window. In this case, it as said to be an omen of death for one of the occupants of the house. So perhaps some people would be less excited to be laying in bed with a potentially deadly virus, and be awakened my a magpie tapping at the window, but I don't believe superstitions, and to me, it was like a visit from an old friend. I wasn't always a bird person. I didn't dislike them, they were animals and I liked a...

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“In the Middle of the Night” by Ash W

Submitted to Contest #97

Serenity knew that she wasn’t supposed to, but she enjoyed staying up late. She loved the feeling of being the last person awake. It felt like she was awake while the rest of the world was asleep. It was a strange feeling. Her family went to sleep pretty early. Usually, they were all in bed by ten. So after ten, Serenity had free roam of the house. She tried to stay quiet. She knew which floor boards creaked, how to open her door so it wasn’t squeaky, and which stairs to skip. She slid out of her bed near midnight, pe...

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“Her First Sunset” by Malia Bernier

Submitted to Contest #97

You don’t know what it feels like when every morning looks the same. When you grow up not knowing what the sun or the sky looks like, not being able to differentiate blue from red. Evylin knew what it felt like because she couldn’t see, she was blind from birth, but she didn’t mind much because her mother was always patient with her. Her father, not so much. He didn’t want a “dysfunctional” child in his home so he tried to get rid of her many times. The first time he left her, Evylin was five and he told her that they were going to the pla...

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“Call Me Icarus and Let Me Fly” by Kathleen M.

Submitted to Contest #97

Warning: Mention of torture *** His cell is at the top of the tallest tower. The single window provides him with a full view of the stars. Up there, he isn’t the hero the public once declared him. He isn’t anyone, in fact. When people come to deliver food, when the princess comes to beg him for answers in regards to why he murdered her father, and even when knights come to threaten the worst punishments they can imagine, he sits and stares out that single window. The bars are rusty, and it would only take one shove to dislodge them, but t...

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“Challenge” by Sjan Evardsson

Submitted to Contest #97

Sia was jolted awake by the ringing of something against the hull. There shouldn’t be any debris or asteroids in this region, but there it was again. It was...rhythmic? She sat the pilot’s seat up in time to see a figure in a vac suit slapping their hand against the forward window. A rub of her eyes and shake of her head convinced her that she was awake, and this was real. “I’m opening the airlock.” She hoped they were in firm enough contact with the hull to hear her amplified voice vibrate through the hull and their own suit. The airlock ...

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“Pebbles on a Window” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #97

Pebbles Against a Window It was two o’clock in the morning. Josh knew that fact because of the red numbers that shone brightly from his old clock radio. “Why am I awake?” he wondered. Then he heard a sound just outside the window of his second storey bedroom. Had that been enough to wake him up? Could be. Remembering the Past Then he was suddenly hit by a blast from his past. When he was a teenager sleeping in this same room, his buddy Ralph would toss pebbles at his window to get his attention. It would t...

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“The Portal to Ibalong” by Drei Etsocal

Submitted to Contest #97

"Russet, can you tell me what happened in your dream, as you say it is when you woke up after your coma?" Our guidance counselor by the name of Ms. Violet looked at me with a slight smile and patience that I could not refuse. "Well...I'll try to recall most of the stuff but please bear with me if there are little things that I forgot if there are because my dream was so vivid yet I find it blurry sometimes, Miss. I would not tell people much about it for it really is a weird one," I carefully told her choosing my words in a way she will tr...

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“The Night Before” by Ashley Hassan

Submitted to Contest #97

I didn't know how we got here. It was too much, I can't , I can't deal with these types of things. My anxiety is going to make me pass out. My hands were covered in blood, I just couldn't, the floors were stained red, Laura and Jean were panicking. Everyone was freaking out, I needed to do something and I needed to do it fast. And there it was.. *Knock* Knock* Someone had started knocking on the front door, Jean looked at me, I looked at Laura, and Laura looked at Jean. We were so screwed. [ 24 hours earlier ] I can't believe...

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“The Woman at the Window” by Samadhee Ismail

Submitted to Contest #97

I stare hard at the house next door through my window. It was almost midnight and a single light is shining in one of the windows of the house next door. Ordinarily, it would have been normal...if that house was not abandoned, the roof and windows broken, weeds growing out in the garden. No one has occupied in that house for a long time--more than a decade. And yet, at midnight, a single light is shining from the window of that house. Now wide awake, I grab the binoculars from the bedside table and and stare outside. I could hear the cri...

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“Philip And Victoria” by Barry Smith

Submitted to Contest #97

Philip And Victoria Philip was restless. It was a hot summer night in the south of Spain and he couldn't sleep. Nothing new there. He switched off the air-con - he knew he shouldn't sleep with it on, but hey, life's not perfect. And as if he didn't have enough to deal with. He opened the window, and, to his surprise, he smelt rain on the air, the wind whipping up with the promise of respite, albeit temporary. Since the accident had left him dependent on his helper and his stick, his other senses had become heightened. Movement around him, ...

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“HOPE IS THE MORE DIFFICULT EXAM.” by Reshma S

Submitted to Contest #97

Sometimes he suddenly awakens at midnight. Yet that day.... he keeps no justification for wakefulness. Crying the birds, the humming of the owls and mosquitoes, and the pretty flashing cover of the super moon, and the long twinkling expectations putting on stars, flat the rigid hug of ventilating feeling tip to momma's taste and his all-time favorite facet of the plant. He imagined he catches sight of these for the first time in his entity. He spoke to theirs on that overdue dark of 12.30 and they have to retort him. He l...

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“THE MAGIC WINDOW” by Sivaram Govindaraj

Submitted to Contest #97

THE MAGIC WINDOW (This story is set in earth’s twin planet GAIA 2 which is 800 years younger and is evolving.) That morning the King was holding court when the Prime Minister (PM) said ”Your Highness we’ve got a famous wizard Magi here who comes from a far off land. He will show his prowess.” Magi said “Your Highness I can enchant a window such that a spirit that goes in will attain human form.” The King said “Let us take a practical case. PM you must remember the case of Bez who was murdered but we couldn’t find out who did it. All people w...

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“A Murder in Monument Valley.” by Drew Andrews

Submitted to Contest #97

It was the of middle of early fall. Jayson set at his desk, back against the corner window that provided a view of his beloved city like no other to the east, filling out paperwork for his bosses. The role of middle mangerment; but it was better than the others: the ones he looked down at from his high untouchable tower. Untouchable... So he thought.There was something different about the unexpected knock on the window.He would get up to watch the flocks of birds, navigate through the structures--- the "monument valley" as he referred to it ...

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“For the Greater Good” by N K

Submitted to Contest #97

The first time he knocks, it is uncharacteristically quiet and goes unnoticed. To be fair, I probably wouldn’t have heard it even if it were louder. When I checked my wrist phone for the umpteenth time a minute ago, it was 2:43 a.m. It wasn’t that this was the largest migration till date that exhausts me. That part made sense. What I couldn’t understand was how my father maintained an infuriating air of nonchalance as he continued to send family after family to their eventual but certain death. He could no longer pretend that they’d be some ...

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“Looking Outside” by Writers Block

Submitted to Contest #97

Night time fell to the ground like a blanket. The sounds of the previous day came to a screeching halt. I awaken from my slumber and meander into the kitchen. I flip on the light over the range. I turn around slightly and notice the soft light highlighting the silhouettes of the nearby tree branches, grazing the window. I browse for an early morning treat. Not wanting to cook anything at the precise moment, I debate on either a hot beverage or a snack bar. I fill up the coffee pot with water, measure the appropriate amount, and press the sta...

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$50

Prize money

921

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jun 11, 2021 EST

Won by Claire Lindsey 🏆

Title: In situ

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.

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