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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story in which the lines between awake and dreaming are blurred.

Posted in Fantasy on Jun 11, 2021

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✍️ 125 stories

“Disconnected” by Paul Scott

Submitted to Contest #30

A sinking feeling crept into Jerry’s bed sheets and straight into his very chest. His heart stopped for a beat, and he saw her again. Purple veins streaming down her neck, eyes closed, as if she had drifted peacefully to the other side in her sleep. Jerry tries to open his mouth, to scream, to yell for help, to wake her up from her never-ending slumber, but before he can do anything, a large thudding explodes in his ears. As he reaches up to block out the sound, the women’s eyes pop open, breaking open a greyish brown ooze that had begun to ...

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“Sleepwalkers” by Megan DeRouin

Submitted to Contest #30

Sleepwalkers I rolled onto my side and opened my eyes to see David’s bare back. I listened for a moment before I turned over again and stood up. I wiped my eyes and caught a glimpse of my heavy, ruined make-up and I cringed. She had gone out again.           “Celeste?” David questioned behind me and I stiffened reflexively and reached to fidget with my wedding band before I realized that she had left it at home. I turned around and offered David a half-hearted smile. He was not a bad man...

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“Thank You For Fixing Me” by Maria Windsor

Submitted to Contest #30

I am disgusted with myself for somehow getting myself trapped in the series of events that led to me lying, dizzy and delirious with heat, in the sand at 3:00 in the morning. My clothes are damp with sweat, my body aching with fatigue. I can hardly think of where I would be tomorrow, my bank account drained, no job to fall back on… it’s funny how years of hard work can be destroyed in a week. I laugh weakly. Life is funny. I laugh harder. Life is pointless. I laugh until my raw throat constricts and I’m left inhaling sharply and writhing to ...

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“Seven Years on a Train” by Helena Marie

Submitted to Contest #30

The charismatic sound of shifting gears awoke Marlowe from a heavy slumber. When she gained consciousness, her head throbbed with pain like none she had experienced before. She felt with her hand the ground beneath her; rough, ridged, and cold to the touch. Deep within it, Marlowe sensed a light tremor shaking the surface, the feeling reminding her of a car speeding on uneven, rugged terrain--bumpy. She gradually opened her eyes, blinking to focus in on a strange picture in front of her, the image of a luminescent ball of light swinging...

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“"Distopian Utopia" ” by IM SALAZAR

Submitted to Contest #30

A year had passed since little six-year-old Candace’s mother had died. She and her father moved away since their old house was haunted by too many fading, painful memories. This new house was quite old and decrepit and, really, the furthest thing from “new” there was. Everything was crumbling and falling apart, but it had to do. They had very little money, left with the debt of hospital bills and mortgage from the old house, and her father’s student loans, still. He had three jobs- seldom sleeping, seldom eating, just barely getting by. So, ...

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“A Star and a Kiss” by Emilie Conroy

Submitted to Contest #30

In a glimmer, the corridor of Grayfall fell away, revealing the life force of centuries and lifetimes around him.  Instead of lockers and plaster walls, Cyndric found himself in an aisle of piled cairns and slate gray monoliths. The clothes on his back changed shape and substance, flannel and cotton to leather and linen and small metal studs.Now he saw that he stood at the end of the aisle.  Paving stones broke through moss and grass and earth.  A man stood to his left, garbed in a dark hooded cloak but wearing a warm smile f...

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“Waking Nightmare” by William Hargrove

Submitted to Contest #30

And then I screamed, begging for it to be over, I wrote furtively in my notebook. After being shaken awake from a nightmare, I had gone straight to my dream journal to document it. My groggy boyfriend watched me curiously. “Did you finish writing your nightmare, Sarah?” he mumbled sleepily. “Yep, just about done,” I told him. “Just one more sentence.” Jordan was sitting upright now, his warm chest pressed against my arm as he looked over my shoulder into my notebook. “Why are you so interested in my nightmare?” I laughed, smiling through tir...

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“Welcome To My World” by Boreas North

Submitted to Contest #30

Welcome to my world. Welcome to an entire universe of perfection. There are no hateful parents, no sick elders, no lousy children. Here, the four horsemen of the apocalypse have yet to reach. And, of course, that means there is no lying, either, so when I say "Welcome to my world,” I mean it. Welcome to a world of my own, a world that is so perfect because there is no one else. There aren't any people to disappoint you because there are no people. It wasn't always like this, though. No, I used to live in the "Real World". Yes, I remember it ...

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“Dream Pill” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #30

Dream Pill It seemed like such a crazy idea when I first heard the advertisement on the radio. “Imagine. Your dreams are no longer random. Finally, you can gain control of your dreams. No more nightmares. No more replaying something nasty that happened during the day. You don’t have to be haunted by ghosts of the past, present or future. You can dream what you want. Take our amazing dream pill and you can direct your dream where you want it to go.           ...

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“Just a Dream” by Samantha Sawh

Submitted to Contest #30

My head hits the surface with a loud thud. I cry out as my eyes snap open into a bright, pink light. I grumble to myself as I realize that I’m sitting in my car, clutching my steering wheel. Huh? My head must’ve drooped down and hit the wheel. Did I fall asleep driving again? I glance down and see that my car is in drive, but it’s not moving. I look back up. Vibrant hues of peach and pink paint the dusk sky, with puffy clouds persisting overhead. My car rests on a long road, stretching out straight for miles disappearing into the horizon. Ei...

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“When We Were Lucid” by Huda Usmani

Submitted to Contest #30

When I was in middle school I had a close friend who realized when she was dreaming, We sat on the platform conjoining the monkey bars and the riveted chain planks that lead up to a spiral tube slide. I was sitting cross-legged, and she had her legs stretched out, one dangling off the side and the other leaning against me. The winter fled a month prior, but remnant winds still thrashed. I wore my winter jacket that day. I virtually wore it zipped all the way. I took to licking the middle piece of the collar from the inside. Every t...

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“Xkeap” by Romeo Lee

Submitted to Contest #30

I live my days alone. I walk the familiar streets of my home. I turn the corner and find my apartment. I head inside. I kick off my shoes and lay on my pull out couch exhausted from my long day at a dead end job with people I hate. The place where I will slave away till i am worked to death. I look towards the kitchen, but I have no strength to cook. I look at the phone but with no patience left.I close my eyes hungry the thin blanket exposing me to the cold. My heater hasn't worked in months and it's a especially frigid January. Somehow des...

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“The Animal of Desire” by Jenny K

Submitted to Contest #30

There was a sleeping monster in the room, and Tala knew it, but the empty fireplace straight ahead compelled her to move towards it as if the fact that no fire burned inside was more important. Her shy fingers reached and touched lightly on the mantle with hesitation, leaving a spot of fingerprints behind in the dust that had settled there, while her reflection, evident in the glass below, called out in silence. “Don’t wake the beast,” it said, yet the long-lost flame, nothing but ashes in the hearth, was now roaring to life inside...

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“How [Not] to Befriend a Human” by A. Graf

Submitted to Contest #30

“It’s just a dream…” She thought to herself. She was walking down a dirt path among the trees of a beautiful forest. She had been here before, though she couldn’t exactly recall when. Perhaps in her childhood... Yes, that was it. She often came here with her older brother. It was their secret place, and up ahead was a clearing where they would play.Unconsciously, her pace quickened. She had to see that clearing again, with the multi-colored flowers, the specks of dust glittering in sunbeams, it was truly a magical place. She could see the tr...

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“Despair ” by Ebony Greenhill

Submitted to Contest #30

She couldn’t take the torment she felt everyday living. The loneliness, it started to take a toll on her. She had no family; she could converse with about the persecution she was facing. She thought that bullying wouldn’t happen at college but here she was during her last year in college experiencing it. She lost all her so-called friends, her own boyfriend didn’t believe her and left her. She couldn’t believe that even though everyone saw the video, she was being blamed. Didn’t they see she was unconscious? This wasn’t her fault. She&n...

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