Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

Posted in Dystopian on Apr 28, 2023

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✍️ 53 stories

“Born in the Sands of Mars” by Russell Mickler

The supercollider was called Magus, and it was - undeniably - mankind’s most significant scientific achievement. Constructed in the asteroid belt 1.2 million kilometers from Mars, Magus remained far from population centers, closest to the resources needed for its function. In continuous operation for more than four hundred Martian years, the Magus Complex was serviced by tens of thousands of autonomous robots that mined raw materials and fabricated components necessary to maintain the machine. End-to-end, Magus’ stru...

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“Gate M41” by Liv Chocolate

cw: mentions of suicide, murder, sex, and terminal illness Balloons, apparently, are a weapon of mass destruction. Even the one that I’m fighting to get past security at this very moment—an 18” round one with the words GET WELL SOON printed above a cartoon sun wearing sunglasses. The more I look at it, the more it bothers me that the sun, in theory, is protecting himself against himself. Out of all the people in our lives, we hurt ourselves the most, my husband...

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“The Leavers” by Charlotte Kelley

You weren’t allowed to return. That was the rule. In Sali, Washington, people disappeared. My grandmother did back in ’92, just after having Mom. She left a succinct note explaining that Pop wasn’t doting enough, and she missed the soft skin and moist lips of her fading yesterdays. My best friend Beck did, the night before her eighteenth birthday, claiming life wasn’t worth living if you only got to be a child ...

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“To Bake Under the Sun” by Sam Jacobsen

Earth is now a whisper--sad, desolate. For many miles, crags drone on in a ceaseless field of black. The rocks left behind are sharp and cracking, their shale falling down into pits of tar and sludge. At the peak of the highest crag is a glowing portal--our slip. It is a gate to another time; another place. We funnel through the slip like lemmings to the cliff, our eyes glazed and desperate. We being the last of us, that is. We come, warped and damaged by radiation, drought, famine, to escape. The seas and forests are go...

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“The Waiting Room” by Paul Besancon

Eric watched them through the window. The night was cold, yet no breath fogged the glass when he leaned closer. That took some getting used to the first few journeys he made. Now, it was trivial. As always, the glass was dirty. She regularly teased him to help out around the house more. He kept up with the maintenance, but cleaning was never his forte. Still, he could have helped out more. On...

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“Bottled Time” by Anne Shillingsburg

The perfume jars started accumulating before Gemini’s birth, an accidental collection in which Francine felt no real interest for many years. The first was a gift from Francine’s college roommate, who brought it back from a trip to Egypt on the mistaken impression that anyone as interested in her appearance as Francine would also love perfume. She did not. To her it smelled like a chemistry lab and gave her headaches, but the little glass jar was pretty and she couldn’t smell the contents when the stopper was in. She hadn’t mea...

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“Scratched Wax” by Chris Miller

“I see that you cannot take your eyes from the gifts time has bestowed upon me.” The Dealer’s eyes glinted through a fringe that lay over his face like the unearthed roots of a mangrove swamp. The roots fed a great vine of matted hair that climbed over his head in a dense coil and looped down to twist like a constrictor several times around his body. “Stare,” he ...

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“Purple Tears” by Theresa Amante

Diary Entry: 1_Timeline: Earth2, Day 1 Everyone’s heard of dark matter, but now the hot topic is strange matter. We caused so much chaos when we discovered that. Geneva shook for 4 days straight. Anyways, today is my first day on Earth2. I got clearance to time step from General Stern. Basically, you round up a lot of strange matter then inject it with the energy of one billion split atom...

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“This is going to fix everything, you just have to trust me.” by Galen Gower

CW: Murder, Mental health struggles, cussing. “It’s not your fault,” I tell you, “but I have to kill you.” You won’t understand. You never do. You need a gun to make people listen, and somehow you’re going to make a difference? I can’t listen to you right now, thanks. I know what I’m here to do. &nbsp...

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“Future Gazing” by William Richards

“Thank you for coming, please take a seat,” the interviewer said without looking up. I wondered how many people she’d seen today. It was a game of numbers after all. Finding the perfect candidate. You just had to look into enough futures and eventually you get a great match. I sat on the rigid white chair beside her silver desk. She looked at a tablet, shook her head, and dropped it in a...

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“The Perfect Present” by Ian James

Johan drew a long, satisfying breath and savoured the moment he'd laboured for seven interminable years. The path to this juncture had been paved with dedication, experimentation, and an unwavering determination. Now, he stood before a resplendent silver contraption that bore an uncanny resemblance to the cockpit of a helicopter. Johan knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that this apparatus would inaugurate a new era and transform the course of human history forevermore.But his journey hadn't been without its trials and tribulations....

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“The Time Travelers Club” by Josephine Harris

I’d travelled through time before with no ill effects, but this was different. My lungs ached as I followed the others to the ‘Time Travelers Club proudly welcomes you. Wait here.’ signpost. All these terminus towns used signs in both languages, but it seemed odd to see the yellow smiley face. Surely they could have come up with something new after two decades.I set down my luggage and took a long breath. Nothing too unusual so far. Of course I saw no alien lifeforms; it was still humans th...

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“Droun” by Beth Kubala

When I was ten, Uncle Droun gave me my first telescope. My parents were obviously pleased for me but also somewhat embarrassed by his generosity. “Droun, you didn’t have to give Andrew anything,” declared my mother, shaking her head. Uncle Droun was not really my uncle, he was an out-of-town friend of my father’s whom he had met at a conference a few years ago and brought home to meet the family. About te...

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“A Life for a Life” by Kenza Taboada

“This is so boring,” Fran huffed, rolling her eyes at her friend across the table.“Come on, just give it a chance. The book says all we have to do now is close our eyes and take deep breaths. What if it actually works?” said Seline with the fetching look she always used to get Francine to follow along with her insane schemes.“Nothing is going to happen, Sel. This is all absurd.”“If nothing happens, then we’ll just go back to our shitty lives and forget we ever tried. Ok?”

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“Steeplechase Park” by Sav Lightwood

Summer. 1914. By blurred lines and bokeh lights, a man and woman danced upon the brick-tiled lanes of Steeplechase Park as if they owned the place. After-hours chatter. Faint carnival music. Sweet nothings whispered from lip to ear. He, the pinnacle of white excellence. A Harvard senior with impeccable grades, stunning looks, and an affinity for horse-racing and skirt-chasing. She, the first of her kind...

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Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 53 stories

“Born in the Sands of Mars” by Russell Mickler

“Gate M41” by Liv Chocolate

“The Leavers” by Charlotte Kelley

“To Bake Under the Sun” by Sam Jacobsen

“The Waiting Room” by Paul Besancon

“Bottled Time” by Anne Shillingsburg

“Scratched Wax” by Chris Miller

“Purple Tears” by Theresa Amante

“This is going to fix everything, you just have to trust me.” by Galen Gower

“Future Gazing” by William Richards

“The Perfect Present” by Ian James

“The Time Travelers Club” by Josephine Harris

“Droun” by Beth Kubala

“A Life for a Life” by Kenza Taboada

“Steeplechase Park” by Sav Lightwood

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character unknowingly experiencing a “sliding doors” moment. Write your story in two halves; what could have been, and what actually happened.

Write a story that includes the phrase “Maybe in another life.”

You’re walking down the street, when you spot a familiar figure. It’s another you. And they’ve come from an alternate reality to warn you about something.

Write a story involving a portal into a parallel universe.

Contest #196

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

301

Contest entries

156

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Tired of MS Word?

Explore more writing prompt ideas: