Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Menu

✕
CONNECT
Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites
BLOG
Success Stories
APPS
TOOLS
Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that includes someone saying, “We’re not alone.”

Posted in Dialogue on Aug 4, 2023

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 87 stories

“Mercy the Immortal” by Holly Gilbert

Submitted to Contest #210

There was a crash in the back of the bus. “Hey! Don’t you dare make me come back there!” snapped Mercy.   The three pale goblins looked up at her. “He started it!”   Mercy’s red eyes flashed. “I don’t care who started it! I will finish it!” she snapped.   The smallest goblin, Twitch, a female goblin with lemon eyes and a sour personality glared at her. “Who died and made you queen?” she snapped.   Mercy whipped around. Bright red hair flying. “I could really use some silence righ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Happy Harry” by Scott Day

Submitted to Contest #210

As he enters the empty restaurant, he thinks to himself ‘It feels different when you approach the restaurant from the other side of the counter.’ Happy Harry is a customer service robot built purely for the purpose of serving mankind fast food. That is, he was. He was dismantled for questioning an unruly customer and had his parts repurposed. After all, he isn’t programmed to be too logical, he’s programmed to accommodate.  What Isaac Borg, the tech billionaire CEO that manufactured him, or the fast food restaurant owner, Stephen, d...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Take Me to Your Agent” by Samuel T. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #210

"You think this is going in your ass, don't you?" the small grey alien said as he waved around an electronic gizmo in his hand.  At the other end of this conversation was Peter, a befuddled and petrified human. He stood, mouth agape, staring at the gizmo. This was Peter Snelling, an internationally renown author. He even dressed the part: blue jeans, a black turtleneck shirt, a herringbone jacket, and a black mariner cap. 'I knew I should have gone sailing today,' Peter thought. 'Nothing bad ever happens when I go sailing.' Today had st...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Bone Cutter” by Elijah Rose

Submitted to Contest #210

The region appeared empty. Not empty in the form of the immense voids between the stars and the rocks and the planets, but empty meant the ship’s pilot Aata saw nothing of note. They had a terraforming machine, but these settlers had neither the equipment nor expertise to assemble a habitable planet from nothing. 57 human souls jumping into the void so far that it was impossible to map their path ahead of time nor guarantee they would warp into the galaxy intended. But now, Aata set a course putting the ship in orbit on a tiny planet where...

0 comments 0
Read story

“In the Scar of the Earth” by Eugene Tan

Submitted to Contest #210

Ibrahim was roused first by the hum of the engine miles overhead, then the tugging of his shirt by a small, frantic hand. The young man was alert quickly- he hadn’t a good night's sleep for a decade. Sure, he had gotten used to hard floors littered with shards of glass, metal and prism-agate, the constant haze of Argon smog and smoke, but he would never allow himself the complacence. Wiping the drool from his unshaven face, he squinted at the starry dusk sky through the tattered roof. Through the smog, he could vaguely make out two small o...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Disturbing Disorder” by Zena Rachelle

Submitted to Contest #210

“Ma’am, I’m sorry, but it looks like it’s just a cyst.”“That can’t be right! Cysts shouldn’t grow this quickly. I know what I feel. Can you just check again, please?” “We’ve done three ultrasounds and two internal exams. I don’t think we’re going to find anything new.”“Listen… I’m a woman and I know my body. I said check again… If you don’t want to listen, then you can document your refusal on my chart.” The doctor looked at me with an annoyed and concerned look on his face. He left the room and came back with a nurse to do another exam...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Night Eyes” by Melody Watson

Submitted to Contest #210

The call of the nighthawk mingled with the crackling of the campfire when the peaceful and calming sounds were disrupted by a slight rustle in the tall grass beyond the flames. “Ssh,” Tanner whispered. Tammy jolted up in the camping chair too quickly toppling it over backwards, her with it, hitting the back of her head on the firewood pile. “Tammy!” Groaning she raises her head from the wood as her boyfriend lifts her into his arms. The back of her head burning with pain, she inhales air to calm herself.  “Are you okay?” he asks, cradli...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Red Hat” by Tracy Tripp

Submitted to Contest #210

The wind whipped through the cornstalks creating a melancholy chorus of fall music. Samantha curled her small, seven-year-old frame and buried her face into her jeans. He would find her. He always did. “Samantha.” Tommy’s voice cut through the bitter fall air. Samantha’s body tightened deeper into a ball, hoping her brown jacket would blend with the drying stalks. Nothing could be done about the bright red cap her mother insisted Samantha wear after their last hide-and-seek game ended with a frantic search party. Her family had combed the ...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Dawn” by Diane Gabriel

Submitted to Contest #210

I read somewhere that the reason Sequoia trees stop growing to the height of four-hundred and twenty feet is because of gravity. That if the earth’s pull were to be slightly less than it is, we’d have taller trees. Earth, bound by the constraints of physics, maintains her uniqueness, in the transient nature of her processes. Once yearning to coax more forms into being, she whispered into the waters “Multiply yourselves.” As if on cue, the waters split; salt and fresh pockets sprang up in new places, with many new forms to fill them. And Eart...

1 comment 1
Read story

“The Master” by Russ Hussain

Submitted to Contest #210

"Heck, we would break down in the middle of some crazy forest !" Jonesy struggled to keep up with Hollins. He blinked through his spectacles struggling to see through the freezing fog let alone the trees and foliage.   Hollins shrugged, parting a thorny bush aside before scratching his beard. " I see what you mean... Well uhm, let's keep movin'." "Place gives me the creeps," Jonesy tightened his scarf to keep the night air from biting his neck. "Isn't this where they spotted strange stuff hovering about..." "That's...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Break Neck Mountain” by Larry Litton

Submitted to Contest #210

“Isn’t it a beautiful day Emily?” the old man said, holding his hiking sticks, one in each hand. He hit the trail head with a spring in his step that he hadn’t felt in decades. He carried a Blue Northern backpack, the same one he’d used to scale K-2 fifty years earlier when he was a spritely thirty year old man.  It was cold out, ten degrees, not counting a northern wind that blew around fifteen knots but the sky was clear, so perfectly blue that it stung the old man’s eyes just to look at it. His heart quickened a b...

0 comments 0
Read story

“They are not alone.” by Daniel Brandt

Submitted to Contest #210

There was a time when words mattered. They were expensive. Writing was maybe cheap on paper. But editing, printing, distribution, exposure. Not everyone could write. Talent, connections, and money, that’s what defined writers. Nowadays, everyone can shitpost on Twitter and make a name for themselves. Create a following. Be a part of a cult. The threshold for opinions has been obliterated.And here I am, trying to shape words into something that matters, something that is more than a commodity. Just wasting my time. Josephine rested her head b...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Question.” by Dean Nichols

Submitted to Contest #210

In the year 2098, seventy-five years after the 2023 conflict between USA, Russia, and South Asia, which resulted in the devastating WW III, the Earth still try to recover from a twenty-year nuclear winter who claimed the lives of millions of people. With natural resources depleted, the few survivors live in the rubble of collapsed buildings, feeding mainly on wildlife, and some have even turned to cannibalism. Nonetheless, there are signs of civilization in the safe zones. The safe zones are mainly the high-tech areas, such Silicon Valley,...

0 comments 0
Read story

“My Secret Whisperer ” by Lindsey Gainey

Submitted to Contest #210

Two months ago, I decided to make a trip back to my hometown where every member of my extended family still resides. If I go back once a year, then I’m above my average trip rate.  During that visit and in between breaths from his oxygen line, my Papa told me that he couldn’t wait to come and see my farm and that he was going to get out to do it as soon as his pneumonia cleared up. I smiled and told him that I couldn’t wait for him to visit.  I think he and I both had an unwavering suspicion that he wouldn’t make it out of this si...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Midnite on Mars” by Derek Writer

Submitted to Contest #210

Midinite on Mars By Derek Letsch That We are Legal I am living with my crime. It is the window and the desert and the empty space between where I am now and where everyone else used to be. And I am imagined. I am assembled. I am quiet and alone and the bones under my skin seem to vibrate with fear. I have been awake for days, but I know I have slept well in the past. My dreams were swollen in the heat of things. They skitter across the empty pages of the loosely held idea that we are allowed. That we are legal. That we are not alone. T...

0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story after aliens have officially arrived on Earth.

Science Fiction – 96 stories

Write about a character who has to grapple with something completely alien to them.

Character – 46 stories

Write a story about a character who is trying to share groundbreaking news, but isn’t being taken seriously.

Dramatic – 30 stories

Make a mysterious message an important part of your story.

Mystery – 40 stories

Contest #210

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Is There Anybody Out... Here?

$250

Prize money

299

Contest entries

112

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 11, 2023 EST

Won by Julie Clark 🏆

Title: Sight Unseen

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢