Set your story in a lighthouse surrounded by powerful gale-force winds.

Posted in Dramatic on Mar 1, 2024

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✍️ 37 stories

“Lost and Found” by Jonathan Page

🏆 Winner of Contest #240

On my last shift as a lighthouse keeper, I climbed the seventy-six spiral iron stairs and two ladders to the watch room, the number of steps the same as my age. The thwomp and snare of each step laid an ominous background score. Something wasn’t right. At that very moment, Richie Tedesco was pointing a fire extinguisher at the burning electrical panel in the engine room of his boat a few miles offshore.The placard in the watch room read “Marge Mabrity, Lightkeeper—First lighted the depths on March 2nd, 1985, and hasn’t missed a night.” Alrea...

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“Port Anne” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #240

As it was beginning to shake, the lighthouse let out a slow breath. Air popped between the bricks, and the glass up top asked to let go. From within its belly, Cori played a game of checkers against herself. She put on a thick, wool sweater--and then another. The chill had gotten past her skin, and she tried to make her teeth chatter along to the song in her head. Cave senes, cavete iuvenes. Down on the sand lay two bodies. One belonging to an old man and one belonging to a young man. These two were of no relation to each other. Cori picked ...

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“Not the Brightest Bulb” by Joshua G. J. Insole

Submitted to Contest #240

The light panned over the coast, gutting the night like a blade through a fish’s belly.Emerson Leighe sighed. From experience, he knew the storm would be raging well into the next day. But he’d be safe here; this lighthouse had weathered many storms before this one. And it would weather many more after, too. It had stood here since before he was born, and it would stand long after he was dead, which wouldn’t be long now, he reasoned. He raised his metal cup to the windows, which looked out onto the frothing midnight ocean. He offered the nig...

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“A Cruel Wind Blows” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #240

Timothy lay languishing in his own putrid expulsions of blood, vomit and faeces.He rolled over to turn his face skyward and it was smeared and sticky, coated in the brown tarry mixture of foul liquid he had been laying in all night. Some had entered his nostrils, the choking smell had knocked him awake.“EEUUUGGHH, WHERE IS…… I” Timothy gargled.“You’ve fallen down the goddamn middle of the stair, you daft drunken fool, you’ve cursed yourself and no one else to blame” Donald the lighthouse keeper shouted down the endless chasm. “You’ve been up...

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“Winocas in the Wind” by Summer Bluebell

Submitted to Contest #240

I sat on a crate positioned next to the warm glow of the lighthouse’s luminous bulb. Shadowed figures taunted me from the outer world. They were Winocas disguised in cataclysmic winds. A storm had erupted in the northern part of Terrestria. Inky waters crept up the side of the structure, nearly stripping it of its fragile pigment. I gazed into the manipulating night sky. A Winoca clouded my vision and forced me off my placement. The hatch to the emergency exit had been opened. ...

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“The Lighthouse Murders” by Paul Simpkin

Submitted to Contest #240

“You mean we are trapped here?” “I’m sorry inspector. I have tried. I just haven’t been able to get through to the mainland. I can’t get a signal.” “Aye, sergeant, I feared as much. So that means we are trapped in this lighthouse, miles from the mainland in the middle of Storm Florence with six scout leaders, one of whom is almost certainly a murderer.” “Almost certainly, inspector?” “Aye, I think we can rule out suicide as the dead lighthouse-keeper was shot through the back and then had his head chopped off with a ceremonial sword before b...

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“Rainbow Cove” by Leonard Jeffrey

Submitted to Contest #240

RAINBOW COVE It has stood for over two hundred and fifty years atop a hillside at Rainbow Cove. Over the many years it proudly lit the way for countless ships and their seamen. Sadly, the old gas-lit lighthouse has been vacant since the late 1930’s, succumbing to the more modern electric lighthouse a few miles down the coastline. Alone it stands, dark and empty for over seventy years. Along with the old lighthouse countless stories have been handed down throughout those years. Some people claim that, on one particular night, the old li...

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“The Winds” by A.J. Williams

Submitted to Contest #240

Port Orford, Oregon Spring 2040 (28 A.E.) The winds batter the walls of the main house, causing them to rattle and jolt. Storms like these are never enjoyable, especially with Mona's fear of hurricanes and tornadoes. I often wonder how she managed to survive in the wilderness alone. Perhaps I've been too protective of her, though I've tried to provide only minimal comfort to help ease her fears of the world. After all, she's just fourteen and deserves some peace and security. Sitting in the lighthouse's main cabin at our small dinner table, ...

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“Lightless House” by Kenny Keaney

Submitted to Contest #240

I was in the top of the building, right next to the light. The flickering reminds me of the beam on the Eiffel Tower. I see it whenever I visit my mother in Paris. Her apartment overlooks the tour Eiffel. I am always drawn to guiding lights. Maybe it’s because my existence has been so directionless. I’ve been shuffled from home to home. My parents are adventurers, but they prefer to adventure separately, independently. The adventure of their marriage was short-lived, but filled with excitement from what I can remember of it. They were always...

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“The Keeper's Requiem” by Martin Maynard

Submitted to Contest #240

As I watched the storm gather, a sense of unease took hold. It was different from the usual respect I held for the sea's changing moods. The sky seemed to churn with a restless energy. The ever-changing cloud formations painted a foreboding picture over the horizon with each grotesque shape. The lighthouse, my solitary refuge and steadfast companion, stood tall against the encroaching gloom. Its light was the very essence of a beacon of constancy in the tumultuous dance of nature. For years, I had been the keeper of this lighthouse. A job ve...

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“The Last (Human) Lightkeeper” by Robert Sowers

Submitted to Contest #240

The storm continues to rage unnaturally. My hope of dawn as a respite from the chaos has yielded only a slight brightening of the nearly opaque, torrential sky. With the storm shutters closed and bolted on every window, the living quarters of the offshore lighthouse feel timeless. The room is so black that day and night have no meaning. I am blinded by the blackness of unpredictability and without means to adapt. Eyeless, the sounds of the storm become ever more acute and more intense. Waves slam the pylons, rain assaults the metal roof, and...

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“Beacon of Light” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #240

Val smiled. He smiled a smile that reflected the light of the Summer sun, just like the rippling light dancing on the waves as they played along the rocks of the shore. Trent took in that smile and wished that he could give something of such worth to his friend. He stifled the sorrowful frown that threatened to break across his face and ruin the moment. Val was a delight. Trent knew Val was too good for him and it shamed him that he kept the secret of Val’s delight to himself, fearing that if he were to tell his friend, their bond would br...

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“The Lighthouse” by John Jenkins

Submitted to Contest #240

(Note: There is a mention of an AK-47 in the story, and a rocket launcher) It was a hot summer’s day at the Meringo Lighthouse in downtown Chicago. This had been hailed as the world’s first landlocked lighthouse. Built right in the center of State and Madison over the Red Line Subway station, this was an accomplishment that was both useless and vital simultaneously. Chicago’s mayor, Brandon Lightfoot, had hailed it as a new step forward in technological progress. “You can’t think of any reason to have a landlocked lighthouse? I can think of...

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“House of wolves” by Milena SK

Submitted to Contest #240

Lashing winds raged around the lighthouse and the monsters' eyes glowed in the darkness. The howls and growls were deafening. Their traces were everywhere: on the walls, on the floors, on their bodies. Some ran as if the devil himself was chasing them; some fought with each other, so fast that their silhouettes blurred, a single, tangled ball of fur and teeth, ready to tear each other to pieces; others lay in a dark corner, whimpering, twitching, ignored. Camilla backed away until her back hit the door. Although she knew it was futile, her ...

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“Riptide” by Natasha Mackenzie

Submitted to Contest #240

The lighthouse plunges into darkness. Nell’s hands shake as she lights up a match, the better to see the gun with. A clap of thunder. She watches as the flame falls to the ground before that, too, goes out. A bolt of lightning ignites the night sky, and she uses that, along with her hands and her minds’ eye to light another match. She lights the emergency candles that are available for this very occasion. It is not unusual for a particularly bad storm to cause blackouts out here by the South China Sea. The wind makes a terrible howling wail ...

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Ended on 23:59 - Mar 08, 2024 EST

Won by Jonathan Page 🏆

Title: Lost and Found

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Set your story in a lighthouse surrounded by powerful gale-force winds.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 37 stories

“Lost and Found” by Jonathan Page

“Port Anne” by Story Time

“Not the Brightest Bulb” by Joshua G. J. Insole

“A Cruel Wind Blows” by James Moore

“Winocas in the Wind” by Summer Bluebell

“The Lighthouse Murders” by Paul Simpkin

“Rainbow Cove” by Leonard Jeffrey

“The Winds” by A.J. Williams

“Lightless House” by Kenny Keaney

“The Keeper's Requiem” by Martin Maynard

“The Last (Human) Lightkeeper” by Robert Sowers

“Beacon of Light” by Jed Cope

“The Lighthouse” by John Jenkins

“House of wolves” by Milena SK

“Riptide” by Natasha Mackenzie

🌟 Similar prompts

Begin your story with the sensation of a breeze brushing against a character's skin.

A crumpled piece of paper holding an unexpected message is carried by the wind. Where did it come from, and where is it going?

Set your story on a sailboat, large or small, and entirely at the mercy of the winds.

Craft a story where a character finds themselves swept away by the wind, either physically or metaphorically.

Contest #240

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

331

Contest entries

134

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: