Start or end your story with the line ‘This is my worst nightmare.’

Posted in Dialogue on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 74 stories

“Daughter of Peace” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #113

Emerald green eyes did not blink as it looked at Danielle. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem to have eyelids. It had hair made of coniferous needles. As she watched the needles thinned, looking more and more like real hair but pine green. “This is worse than my worst nightmares,” Danielle said to herself. When it spoke, its voice was the crunch of heavy feet on dry leaves and the moan of the ...

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“Incident in Ward D” by Kayise Mosotho

Submitted to Contest #113

Patient’s P.O.V: This is my worst nightmare. I’m not sure nightmare is enough of a description. Horror. Misery. Purgatory. No words can explain what I am about to tell you. The comforting fruits of love's labour had me questioning the validity of my reality. Having shared my body with my dream lover had seemingly put my mind in a state of eternal bliss. She was sleeping. I could tell by her breathing. The window was open to aerate the marijuana she had brought to serve as an aphrodisiac. Drugs of any form, outside of alcohol, were no...

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“drop off ” by Anna Hibschman Ferguson

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare. My daughter’s hair is not brown but it’s not red either. Her eye color lives in the space where blue tickles green. She has one dimple on her right cheek and none on her left. She was born at 7:26 am on a Tuesday in October. 20 minutes after a sunrise that we wouldn’t have seen if we had wanted to look. It was cloudy. We were busy. My sister-in-law said she never saw a baby look so much like their mom. That is, secretly, very satisfying. She’s the neatest little human. She likes rocks, animal figurines...

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“Death by the sea” by Ayushi Roy

Submitted to Contest #113

CW: violence/murderI took my jackets off that night, jumped into bed and my eyes drifted off into the dark of the night.Soon I was standing a little away from the seashore. The night sky had a dreadful shade of black with a tinge of blood-red in it. The silver claw of the crescent moon was sharply defined. My hair fluttered in the wind as I watched the waves beat endlessly against the rocks.I saw two figures moving near the shore, so, I started approaching them. Little did I know that it was the worst decision I ever made.The closer I w...

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“Drop Zone” by Linda Gruenberg

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare: heights. I’m terrified of heights.I know I’m not the only one. Some people are just drawn over the edge of things. Like the old woman I saw in Tepee Tonka Park last Saturday. She couldn't even walk across a high footbridge without lying down to keep from falling off. I think about that woman clinging to the edge of the bridge as I watch the Cessna climbing its way to thirty-five hundred feet. My husband, Tony, has just taken up skydiving. Today is his second jump. When the ...

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“That Nightmare of Panic” by Tedcor Obli

Submitted to Contest #113

It’s a choking feeling, as if you’re being surrounded and removed of all oxygen by an inescapable black fog. At the same time, it’s also like being put on a stage, with the blinding lights obscuring all but the wooden panels below your feel. Choking and exposing. Constricting and far too revealing. And why? It was a slip of the tongue, not intentional in the slightest. Your friend had said something innocuous. Something about a particular character on the TV being “kinda cute.” And because they are your friend, and such company tends to ma...

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“Esmerelda” by Courtney Moore

Submitted to Contest #113

Two of the screws in my porthole have fallen out. Five rusty ones remain. The window shakes with every wave that slams into it. Water runs down the wall, making puddles on the floor. If our captain wasn’t oblivious of the world around him, I might bother to tell him we’re sinking. His nose is too high in the air to see the moldy wood at his feet. It’s coming in through the cracks in the wood and the rain from above. We’re being drowned, slowly. He only cares about his pile of broken things. He dreams of fixing everything that lay at his ...

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“Daydream ” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare.I woke up extra early, fully rested. My bedroom was not too cold or too hot, and the yoga mat was already rolled out. All I had to do was a few stretches, push-ups and sit-ups (a new record: 30 each), and then hit the bathroom. I noticed that I had more cereal than I thought and that the skim milk I thought I had to replace was still fresh. The coffee was also already percolating (when did I turn the machine on?), and my bag was packed (again, a mystery).I got dressed, found my car keys in a pocket of a jacket I ha...

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“One Lost Soul” by Del Gibson

Submitted to Contest #113

ONE LOST SOUL by Del Gibson This is my worst nightmare, and this is the reason why… So there I was, moving the rest of the boxes from the boot of my Audi, into my new apartment – when I first saw the lady standing at my bedroom window. She appeared as an unsubstantial fog upon the glass. Do you ever wish you had have listened to your instincts? You know, that gut punch that warns you something isn’t right? It shivered right through me but I brushed it off . There was no going back, and nothing to go back to. This would be my new beginni...

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“The Meeting Place” by Jazmyn Edmonds

Submitted to Contest #113

You ever think about someone, but no memories pop into your head? You don't want to remember. Instead, you get that tight feeling in your chest. Like you’re holding on to every bit of air in your lungs until you realize you can finally breathe? That you're safe? That is until you sleep. It's been years, six to be exact. Six years from the last time I let him in, but somehow, he always ends up at our meeting place. It's funny because even in my dreams, he makes me feel chaotic. As though I have no control over who I am or who I'm becomin...

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“The Stuff of Which Dreams are Made” by Elizabeth Fenley

Submitted to Contest #113

“The Stuff of Which Dreams are Made” by Elizabeth Fenley The morning after the dream, I went to see Sylvie. She was setting up her shop for the day—the kind that sells aromatherapy, crystals, dream catchers, ritual athames, stuff like that. She was behind the counter, rearranging displays with swoops of her flowing, gauzy purple sleeves. Bangles on her wrists reverberating like wind chimes through the glass door. I could hear her humming to herself. Even though the sign said, “We are Currently Closed. The Universe will Open for You When It I...

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“Milly's Old Man” by Dr Stafford

Submitted to Contest #113

Milly’s Old Man “This is my worst nightmare, Mildred, the bank foreclosing on the cabin. Can you believe this? Me, Mr. Perfect. They call me that, you know. The boys in the plant. Every day at work they’d say, There goes Mr. Perfect. Even though they whispered, I heard them. At the water-cooler, in the break room, even on the floor, sometimes when the machines were not so loud, I could hear them. Look at Karl, the man with the perfect life, the perfect wife. He has a cabin on the lake too. Did ...

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“Waterson Wakes” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #113

‘This is my worst nightmare.’ Thought captain Roscoe Waterson. He was willing to go down with the ship but losing the lives of his crew had always been his greatest fear. And now, it seemed like that was about to happen. Another blast shook the 60-foot spacecraft. Through the curvature of his windshield, he saw another two dozen scraps of metal explode off the left side in a puff of silver and yellow glitter. Before looking forward again, his eyes lingered on his co-pilot, slumped in the seat next to him. Hi...

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“Cruel love: Flings and Devotions” by Chacha Jaramillo

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare- I’m still trying to figure this out. It’s meaning quite disturbing, shakes me to my core and at the same time, the morbidity it implies. A bright sunny day, high warmed breeze delicately brushing the tops of the dunes, where you can vaguely see a waving and sometimes whirlwind skimming the suntanned creamy ethereal two toned sand. The wind howling in the background seemed to be playing a new melody ‘Here comes the Bride’ with a sad hint, almost eerie and Halloween type of music. The bride; white ...

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“...not yet...” by Mat Hurren

Submitted to Contest #113

This is my worst nightmare. These have been the most difficult days of my life. Never have I ever felt the anguish that I am experiencing at this moment. My love, my passion, my partner in life, has gone. I wake in the morning and roll over to discover anew that I will never wake beside her beautiful smiling face ever again. Life feels meaningless without my love and my heart aches every second of every day since she has passed. I don’t understand how this could have happened. There weren’t any signs. There weren’t any indications that she w...

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Start or end your story with the line ‘This is my worst nightmare.’

Submissions are closed

✍️ 74 stories

“Daughter of Peace” by Graham Kinross

“Incident in Ward D” by Kayise Mosotho

“drop off ” by Anna Hibschman Ferguson

“Death by the sea” by Ayushi Roy

“Drop Zone” by Linda Gruenberg

“That Nightmare of Panic” by Tedcor Obli

“Esmerelda” by Courtney Moore

“Daydream ” by Kendall Defoe

“One Lost Soul” by Del Gibson

“The Meeting Place” by Jazmyn Edmonds

“The Stuff of Which Dreams are Made” by Elizabeth Fenley

“Milly's Old Man” by Dr Stafford

“Waterson Wakes” by Tanya Humphreys

“Cruel love: Flings and Devotions” by Chacha Jaramillo

“...not yet...” by Mat Hurren

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about a character who believes their dreams predict the future.

Write about two people whose dreams are somehow connected.

Write a story about a character who interprets people’s dreams.

Write about a character whose dreams are portals to other worlds.

Contest #113

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

228

Contest entries

139

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: