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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

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 125 stories

“3 a.m.” by Steve Kaye

Submitted to Contest #30

Three o'clock in the morning can seem glorious. It’s quiet. It’s eternal. And all problems are on hold.When I was in my twenties 3 a.m. meant I had been out drinking in New York City and was happy to make it back to my apartment with no visible signs of stupidity (i.e. lost wallet, bent glasses, blood on my shirt, etc.…).In my thirties, 3 a.m. meant I made it back to my apartment in Boca after a night of drinking and smoking pot with a friend.In my forties, 3 a.m. meant teething and feedings. My wife informed me she was not breastfeeding, so...

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“Beneficiary” by Amanda Blanton

Submitted to Contest #30

The fact that I couldn't escape was enough to drive me mad. Living with it day in and day out. Night after night, I had to survive my thoughts. Pray my way between twilights. I just wanted to escape...To leave it all behind like you did. In the deepest hour of the night, shadows filled my vision. It woke me in a way I’d never experienced. As I've done in the past, I pulled on my boots and jacket and headed out the front door. My breath clouded as the warmth around me was breached by late autumn air. As alone and cold as I felt, the ...

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“The upside down reality pie” by Anjali Reddy

Submitted to Contest #30

Maybe I was falling and maybe I was not, I did not know where I was or what I was doing, what I was feeling or what that sound in my ears was. It was ringing quite horridly and there was a loud whoosh and it sounded even more louder than I assumed it was originally and there was a silence not quite seen before and it just grew. It stretched out and I felt nothing and heard nothing in that meantime. I quietly opened my eyes and I was scared of what scene of horror would greet me but I opened my eyes to my classroom where I was sitting where a...

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“The Relativity of Death” by Tessa Widmer

Submitted to Contest #30

I died again last night. It wasn’t like the others.  This time, I didn’t wake up. It comes back to you in bits and pieces. In scenes that are blurry at the edges, and in sensations that feel all too real. You think you remember running, the cold night air rushing past your cheeks. You think you remember a figure that was tall and spindly, that had limbs that ended in points.    I was alone in my room, tangled in my blankets and eyes still bleary from sleep. The curtains (if you could call them that— really they were just ...

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“The Boy on the Lake” by Catherine Northrup

Submitted to Contest #30

“I had that dream again last night—you know, the one I told you about when we were kids.” “What, the one about the giant spiders? Or the one about driving through a mall being chased by a serial killer?” “Not those!” She gave her friend a none-too-gentle smack in the shoulder. From the way Dani was smiling, she knew the other girl was being obtuse on purpose. Sometimes she wondered why they were still friends when all Dani did was tease her. “Oh, I know!” Dani exclaimed with the look of someone having an epiphany. “It’s the one with your sec...

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“The Mirror Eternal” by Jordan Madere

Submitted to Contest #30

“Simple words. Try again.” I looked down at my hands for the third time. They were still mine. They wiggled when I made them. “I’m not a child.” “Mr. Ancoat, this test isn’t designed to insult your intelligence. But the temporal distortion can be a bit much for some patients.” The words resonated as if they were being spoken many times over simultaneously, that weird effect of two mirrors bouncing off each other into the void. “Temporal what?” The doctor scribbled notes on a pad, and then glanced at a mirror that was inset into the wall. He ...

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“Ana and the Snake” by AGNESE ERMACORA

Submitted to Contest #30

Long ago in the days of our grandparents, in a small town in Bosnia, lived Ana. Many of you are probably wondering where this place is and what’s it like. Now let me see, Bosnia is so big that it would be impossible to describe it all in this story, but I can tell you about Ana’s town. Close your eyes and try to imagine about one hundred houses surrounded by a dark, damp and scented forest. Nearby there is a river. The little girl’s home was about forty steps from a mosque: she had counted them last Sunday as she played hide-and-seek with he...

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“Hallway of Nightmares” by Massiel Alberto

Submitted to Contest #30

Hallway of NightmaresI've had the same nightmare for two years. I'm always at that tall abandoned building that smells old and stinks like neglect. The darkness is shocking. My phone's flashlight is not much help to me; the blackness here absorbs all.I try to make my way across the corpses lying on the floor, although the stench is unbearable and covering my nose with the sleeves of my sweater is not enough.Walking the fastest I can, I try to ignore it and continue forward to the end of the hall where I must choose which path I want to go,&n...

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“Sublimation” by Faye Chin

Submitted to Contest #30

I squint up at the gigantic billboard looming over the intersection. It’s flashy, big block font advertising a new drug manufactured by a pharmaceutical company with a vaguely familiar name, but that isn’t the thing that catches my attention. The words are small, the typical text size of things worth concealing.“- arasomnias and feelings of ambivalence. If any of these occur, please speak to a health prof –”HONK! HONK!A car flies past me, and I narrowly avoid being drenched by the dank dredges of rainwater pooling by the curb. Senses reeling...

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“The people you see on the sidewalk. ” by Jindu James-Ibe

Submitted to Contest #30

If she could just wait a few more minutes, she was sure he would walk past her again - the man in the black coat whom she had come to associate with the rustle of paper (because he never put coins in her metal bowl the way everyone else did). He never looked at her either, but he always offered a little smile just the same, with the corner of his mouth; cool as the night breeze when the scorching sun's shift was over. Bright and beautiful as a new day when all hope seemed lost. He would have his coat buttoned up to his chin, his dreadlocked ...

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“THE EXECUTION OF STANLEY BEST” by Russell Waterman

Submitted to Contest #30

THE EXECUTION OF STANLEY BESTBy Russell Waterman Stanley Best sensed something slithering up behind him. His skin started to crawl off his bones. When he turned to look his suspicions were confirmed: it was his boss, Krishna Pyata. Krishna was dressed in his usual drab khakis, brand name sneakers and his finger styled hair had just the right amount of product spiking it in place. A devout Hindu, Krishna’s forehead was decorated with the symbolic red bindi dot. Stanley noticed that his boss’s ever present condescending grin was mysteriously m...

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“Another world” by Andeline White

Submitted to Contest #30

                      Chapter 1                                                                    &nb...

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“Smoke ” by Brendon Anaya

Submitted to Contest #30

There's not many things as beautiful as the way smoke brings an image to the movements of the air. It is sensitive to every little movement that is made around, even the smallest wave of a hand can send it into disarray. Moving as if it were life itself. They say a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a tornado hundreds of miles away. It makes you realize just how delicate the air is, and why there are groups in arms about whatever we put into it as a species.I sat on the floor in a wide empty room. Basking in the brilliant blazes that dan...

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“It Was All Yellow” by Shantesh Patil

Submitted to Contest #30

It was an unfamiliar world she was in. A world imbued with many hues and flora of the most outlandish design. Yet there was a sense of familiarity about it. The tree under which she sat and pondered this world’s intricacies was short and stout. It had the slenderest of branches, branches that could almost be passed off like leaves. Set upon these branches were scores of thick pointed leaves the weight of which caused the branches to bend towards the ground and even touch the ground at places. Like the braided hair of a woman she thought they...

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“TLT-SU:Dreamnimity Samuel hasley hunwick” by Samuel Hunwick

Submitted to Contest #30

The day was cold and dark as the light bent throughout the room Daniel gigerwattson listens to a voice that soothe his soul he felt the energy in his very being. He was half asleep when he shouted out for his brother who was walking away from him in his dreams . He was in a hospital and his brother was wearing a jacket it's darkness glimmering in the light. He thought it was real when a non dreamer character started transforming into a melanoma and it started chasing Daniel who reached for the exit door. And he jumped off the roof to get awa...

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