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 from the POV of a security guard on the night shift, sitting in front of a wall of CCTV feeds.

Posted in Dramatic on Oct 6, 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?

✍️ 47 stories

“Every Night Is Cake” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #219

The clock doesn’t dictate the pace. The pace is separate from the clock. The clock tells you it’s one. So what? It doesn’t have to be one. It could be two or three. It could be next Thursday. You don’t go by the clock. You go by what you see in front of you. Sixteen screens. The Sweet Sixteen. The guy who worked the night shift before you used to say every night was cake. You never got what that meant, but you didn’t worry about it. You are given the answer to one unanswerable question in this life, and you certainly aren’t going to use it t...

28 comments 28
Read story

“Watchers” by J.B. Redel

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #219

The asylum's security surveillance room was a claustrophobic chamber adorned with peeling wallpaper, crumbling shelves stacked with aged records, a small wooden desk, and an uncomfortable metal chair that creaked under the most minute amount of weight. A single, rotary dial telephone sat on the desk. A thick layer of dust covered every surface but the desk and chair. The dim overhead light bulb flickered sporadically, casting eerie shadows across the aging linoleum floor that peeled in the corners.The centerpiece of this dilapidated room was...

6 comments 6
Read story

“When Falls The Night” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #219

When Falls the the Night It was a dark and foggy night. Well, the night had started normal enough. The early fall day had pleasant temperatures but as the day turned into night the temperatures fell rapidly so as the earth cooled mist started rising and fog rolled in. The thick, soupy kind of fog. When it falls it makes the world silent and so white it is dark. Starting in the low areas and gradually filling in everywhere cutting visibility to almost nil. The nine pm drive to the energy plant turned sketchy with all the twists, turns and h...

17 comments 17
Read story

“The Washing Woman of Double Tree” by Jonathan Page

Submitted to Contest #219

Down in the security office, the CCTV monitors scan the corridors, stairways, lobbies, and meeting places of the Double Tree Hotel and provides 24/7, 360-degree confirmation that the hotel is an integrated whole, rather than a multitude of separate cages, each filled with its own individualized horrors. I peer out of the catacorner windows of my little night kingdom at the procession of daybreak. All of the unfolding routines bring my thoughts back to my sick wife Beth, really showing now, and the child I hope will be a boy.It is early ...

6 comments 6
Read story

“The Shadow” by DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #219

The Shadow The night was silent, draped in an inky darkness that swallowed the world outside the small security room. I sat alone, surrounded by an array of flickering screens that illuminated my face in a ghastly blue glow. The hum of the surveillance equipment was the only sound in the room, its monotony broken only by the occasional creak of the building settling or the distant wail of a siren. I was the lone sentinel, tasked with safeguarding the premises during the bewitching hours of the night shift. Hours had passed since I settle...

6 comments 6
Read story

“Night Watch of the Night Watch” by Myranda Marie

Submitted to Contest #219

It was only his third shift working nights as a security officer in The Astrid apartment building downtown. For all intent and purpose, it was a cake job with little concern for imposition. By day he worked as a tech analyst which was considerably more fulfilling and held esteem among his family and peers. However, twenty-eight-year-old Grayson Morgan was recently informed of his completely unexpected and somewhat undesired pending paternal status resulting in his desperation for more money. Damn his lack of impulse control after a few shots...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Screen time” by Sally-Ann Hodgekiss

Submitted to Contest #219

Language warning.“Hey Marty. Take a look at this. Screen three. He’s at it again. It’s your turn. I took the last two.” Jane both hates and loves female equality. If it was actually functioning properly, no job is beyond her grasp. In truth it’s an excuse for bored insecure men to have some fun. You want equality? Take down the drunk guy in the lobby… By yourself. I could do it. Why not you?Marty? Marty is a lazy fuck. He couldn’t take down his grandma. Wave the taser around like it’s an AK47? That is embarrassing. Swish the baton like it’s ...

4 comments 4
Read story

“ Lounge Lizard Lucas - An Interactive Adventure” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #219

#1 Night At The MagnoliaLucas hates working. It could be sloth, laziness, or a general distaste at having to do things for other people. He hasn’t devoted much energy into thinking about it.They say a lazy person can’t survive in New York City, but Lucas looks at his current setup and marvels at how wrong they are. He hits play on a music playlist and looks at his wall of surveillance screens. Rent-free apartment, benefits, Sundays off, and all he needs to do is sit in a comfortable chair and watch the screen all night. Life is swe...

16 comments 16
Read story

“Abnormal Shift” by Gary Phipps

Submitted to Contest #219

Haney sat in the dim glow of the CCTV screens, the soft buzz of electronics filling the otherwise silent room. As the security guard for a remote government research facility, his nights were typically uneventful. But Haney didn’t mind the solitude. After serving as a Cav Scout at Fort Bragg and being accustomed to high-pressure situations, the quiet monotony was almost therapeutic. His eyes, sharp and observant, moved from screen to screen, ensuring that all was well within the facility's sprawling compound. It was said to be focused on m...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Last Shift” by Vladimir 4757

Submitted to Contest #219

TW : Language     It’s hard to focus, you’re tired, exhausted. You took the night shift security job expecting action and instead you’re set behind a desk forced to watch camera feeds. But at least you’re working for Laboratory Zhukov, so your paycheck is really the only incentive you have. The night is quiet, like it always is, as you watch scientists leave the facility slowly. Your night started at 10:00 PM and the main staff from the thirty-second to the twenty-fourth floor are all cleared out. You watch as the ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Eyes Behind the Eyes” by Glen Loveland

Submitted to Contest #219

The glow of the monitors bathed the small security office in a pale blue light. rows and rows of screens, each displaying a different camera feed from within the labyrinth of China Central Television. I sat motionless in my chair, eyes darting from screen to screen, hunting for any sign of disturbance. This was my duty - to watch and observe, making sure all remained in perfect order. At CCTV, they called us the Eyes of the Party. We were the invisible watchers, the silent sentinels seeing all from the dark. To most, our presence went unno...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Purga Creek” by Rose Lind

Submitted to Contest #219

WarningMurder most foul.Swear words.The grey movement between branches. Continuing an eye with natural yellow eyeliner, flickered, disappearing,. Reappearing, shaking dry leaf sound of dry discoloured leaves, snap crack, then released to be airborne.The September Spring means nesting, homes and families. The observation was joyous, void of need to control, to spy, to intrude. The observation was free.To a hungry outdoor cat, the grey feathers might have felt like a good opportunity for a warm meal. Carefully, quietly seeing from different an...

5 comments 5
Read story

“The Chain” by Chris Miller

Submitted to Contest #219

“Good evening, Team! Are you ready to save the world?” Ford’s level 6 astronaut themed avatar glowed on the screen above his credit score, which was rocketing thanks to the enthusiastic start he’d made to the briefing. “The Citvore nightshift security chain is entering its 567th night of unbroken vigilance, you should all be so proud!” Clapping emojis floated up and hearts exploded in a tumbling column down the right side of the screen. “Remember, nightshift is a sacred duty entrusted to only one in ten people. It is vital to the security of...

11 comments 11
Read story

“I Can't Imagine Anything More Boring Than This” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #219

I Can’t Imagine Anything More Boring Than This I can’t imagine anything more boring than what I do for a living. I work on the night shift as a security guard for a very large company, that is housed in a monstrously huge building. Every night I have to watch the same blank scenes over and over again on the 20 screens of the CCTVs. There are no criminals, trying to sneak in through any of the doors, or through the underground parking or through a window. I almost wish that someone were trying to break into the place on...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Brothers from Ohio” by Josephine Harris

Submitted to Contest #219

George Greig had a face that only a mother could love, ergo he worked at night monitoring a bank of screens. He was the watcher, not the watched. George observed the whole detention center from behind his desk; the timing of opened doors, the exit of the occupants and their strolls within floors, rounds of the guards, meals, altercations, returns to the cells, and then nighttime and lockdown when supposedly nothing else happened. The monitors alternated to show empty grey hallways. George prided himself on always staying awake despite t...

6 comments 6
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that includes the line “I think someone’s listening/watching.”

Dialogue – 53 stories

Set your story in a type of prison cell.

Dark – 82 stories

Write about someone who is shackled by fears of failure, until they break free.

Character – 29 stories

Write a story about someone who breaks an unwritten social rule and the consequences they face as a result.

Angst – 43 stories

Contest #219

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: In the Panopticon

$250

Prize money

254

Contest entries

114

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 13, 2023 EST

Won by Kate Hughes 🏆

Title: Cell 3.47

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 ⭢