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Set your story on a day when the sun never sets.

Posted in Dark on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 26 stories

The Midnight Swimmers

Submitted to Contest #138

It was midafternoon when the local police patrol found me shivering in my swimwear on the shoreline. My weary carcass was covered with abrasions; I had dried blood matted in my hair and fingers wrinkled like anaemic prunes. “He looks rougher than road kill,” the first officer joked, wrapping a heat reflective blanket around me, as if he was covering burnt barbecue scraps in tinfoil.The second officer offers me a plastic bottle. “This’ll help you, sir.”“No, it’s too late...” I whisper.“Suit yourself, sir,” he says, “I was—-““She was with...

55 likes 32 comments 32
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Last Light

Submitted to Contest #138

Melancholia never saw Hex coming as she ran down the community centre hallway. He slammed into her with enough force to send her bodily into the peeling brick wall, a blow strong enough to break a normal person’s bones. She bounced off the wall and recovered almost immediately, drawing herself up with a snarl. “What the hell, Hex–” “–shhh!–” Hex hissed at her. His wide eyes darted left and right. “–I swear I’m going to tear you in half–” “–please, Mel! Just shut up and listen for a moment!” She bared her teeth, but her features softened when...

29 likes 20 comments 20
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Latitude Sixty-Nine

Shortlisted for Contest #138 ⭐️

On March 5, 2022, a research expedition’s remote submersible spotted the wreck of HMS Endurance, sitting intact ten thousand feet below the surface of the Weddell Sea. The ship has rested there since November 21, 1915, when, after months of being trapped in pack ice, she crumpled from the pressure and sank. The history of the ship and the failed attempt of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent are well known, as all twenty-eight members of the expedition overcame improbable odds and sur...

29 likes 21 comments 21
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Endless Day Beach and Spa

Submitted to Contest #138

   The invitation arrived on Tuesday; stuck between two busted samples of sunscreen that oozed and dripped in the mailbox. Sabrina frowned at the sickening sweet smell of coconut and mango as she squished the letters together and pulled them out of the box. A sticky blob of the lotion plopped onto her shirt and sat there; jiggling and glistening in the sunlight. She swiped it off; leaving a greasy smear next to the ketchup stain that was always there. The busted sample packs left globs of sunscreen on the counter where she tos...

22 likes 19 comments 19
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Nord

Submitted to Contest #138

“UFO ‘which crashed millions of years ago’ found in Greenland, conspiracy theorists claim.” ~ ‘Daily Express’ (British Tabloid), 21 September, 2020***20/6/2025 - 1200 HRS (WGST): MID SHIFT REPORT. DAILY INSPECTION OF ALL INSTRUMENTATION COMPLETE. NO ANOMALIES OR EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTIONS DETECTED...Hemming Sorenson stopped typing for a moment and reached for his thermos of rich, black coffee. He was about half a year into his twenty-six month assignment at the base, and in spite of the enjoyable nature of his stay at Station Nord, he could...

19 likes 12 comments 12
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Favorite School Project

Submitted to Contest #138

It was 1983, but not quite the version you remember.In third grade gifted class, we made these little terrariums. I thought they were the coolest. Mrs. Manchester lined us up in front of a formica table covered with newspaper, a bag of potting soil, and a box of gravel. We each got our own fishbowl and filled it up, added a lonely jade plant, spritzed water on top, and behold, we were gods. My fishbowl was green and tumbled like sea-glass, not smooth and transparent like everyone else’s. “The pet store didn’t have enough ...

16 likes 6 comments 6
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Sunshine Brings the Darkness

Submitted to Contest #138

It’s been 8 days since that freak electrical storm hit the town and left enough electrical ions in the atmosphere to keep the sun from setting. 8 days of around the clock sunshine. It sounded like a huge sonic boom coupled with a bit of a quake in the ground then nothing. Perfect stillness right in the middle of the day. Not even the birds could be heard chirping. It was kind of eerie. Lainie remembers walking out of the post office when it happened and then only being able to see spots for the next two hours straight. It was a good thing i...

15 likes 13 comments 13
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Sunday Morning

Submitted to Contest #138

My eyes are shut tight as the morning sun peers its way through the curtains of my bedroom. Maybe if I close them long enough it’ll go away, or if I ignore it, it’ll just cease to exist and therefore not bother me.  The start of a new day, a symbol that yesterday is over and today has only just begun. Dread rolls its way through my body starting at my ears, raking its way across my skin and settling deep in my bones. Tired, sore, sad bones. Feigning productivity, I sit up and take in my surroundings. My queen bed nestled perfectly in on...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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Solar Tech Support

Submitted to Contest #138

“Hello, and thank you for calling the Sun, your number one supplier of light and energy in the Solar System. For quality assurance, this call may be monitored and recorded. For English, press 1. For Spanish, presione numero dos. For Martian, uhgaz rino di-di-di. For Neptune Death Squad-Speak, press EARTHMEN MUST DIE! #4.” “Thank you. If you are calling in regards to your solar energy service, press 1. For warranty and billing questions, press 2. For information about your location’s next scheduled solar eclipse, press 3. If you spent too m...

14 likes 5 comments 5
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Happy Birthday, Old Man

Submitted to Contest #138

I stare into the sky, my hands sheltering my eyes from the bright sun. I hear the sound of the ocean waves behind me quietly lapping onto the beach. The temperature is hot as usual for this time of year. I can feel small beads of sweat coming down the edges of my forehead. The leap year has already begun. The waves would be bigger on any other day, but not Leap Year Day. I keep searching the sky looking for the thing that makes this day special. I turn around and look in a different direction, looking over the water, trying to adjust my focu...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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Midnight in California

Submitted to Contest #138

My grandmother was a woman who was stuck in her yacht club youth and insisted that everyone who did not want a life similar to her own, was either lying or delusional. She was an inspiring woman, true in tenacity and grit, and I aspired to be as self-assured as she. When I was eighteen, I decided to study abroad in the art of communication, and I could not be more ecstatic to leave the predictable life I led in California. Every morning I would commute on highway 101, listen to Fiona Apple, and imagine the fury Greta Thunberg would embody af...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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The day the Earth stood still

Submitted to Contest #138

Fariha faked being asleep as soon as she heard footsteps coming toward her bedroom. She knew who it was. 'How many times do I have to yell at the same thing over and over again’? Her mother said while she opened the curtains of her bedroom window. 'Not again', Fariha thought to herself while her head was covered inside her blanket. 'Does anyone ever listen to me in this house? How do I change you and your brother when your father has the same habit of sleeping till noon on the weekend'. She pulled off Fariha's blankets. 'If you don't come do...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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A Day in the Sun

Submitted to Contest #138

 Abbey woke the same way she had for the last five years, on her back and alone. She could see the palest of lights beginning, peeking in through the small crack between her filmy sheer curtains. Those curtains allowed her to watch the world awaken and move. She blinked her eyes rapidly, wishing for the millionth time that she could simply wipe away the tiny grains of sleep herself. She heard the soft rap on the door and Ms. Beatty peeked her head in. “Good morning Abbey,” she smiled warmly, as she did every morning, “It’s time to get...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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One In the Well

Submitted to Contest #138

 I looked down to my right hand, my little sister, Annie, clung to it as we looked over the edge of the well.  "What do you think it is?" She asked as we kept our gaze fixed on the shimmering light that sat at the bottom. "Maybe someone dropped a knife? It kinda' looks like it's sparking though..." After a few more moments of unfulfilled curiosity, I decided to lower the makeshift bucket connected to the well. "Remember, don't move around too much. Last time was too close." Annie laughed as she climbed into the bucket, she was ge...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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The Garden Of Light

Submitted to Contest #138

The Garden Of LightA day in the garden was promised to me. I was awake hours before the first sunbeam hit my kitchen window, and waiting outside the Garden Gates before half the small village even thought about breakfast. Equipped with a journal, a new pen, and a satchel to take anything that seemed even remotely special, I impatiently clicked my heels together as I tried to catch a glimpse behind the gates. All I could see was a house, bigger than perhaps half the entire village it resided in. It was painted what once was lemon yellow,...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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