Write about a character who has the ability to pause the passage of time.

Posted in Fantasy on May 31, 2024

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✍️ 71 stories

“Proposal” by Rozmarin Ideas

Submitted to Contest #253

“Will you marry me?”The words ring with echoes of emotion; anticipation, fear, hope. His eyes are wide open, his brow furrowed, his pearly teeth caught on his lower lip. His too-large suit has flopped open, letting his tie snake to freedom over his arm. The whole world is silent, still. Time has stopped, and I am frozen with it. My heart is fluttering in tandem with the butterflies in my stomach.Will you marry me? Will I? Should I? The lights of the restaurant are casting such strange shadows, as if the photons are as unsure how to act...

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“Becoming the Phantom” by Martin Maynard

Submitted to Contest #253

Lucas Mercer was more than just a magician in the small town of Everwood; he was a legend. His performances were the highlight of every local festival, birthday party, and community event. Known for his charismatic smile and mysterious aura, Lucas could make the most skeptical audience believe in magic. His tricks seemed to defy the laws of physics and logic. Objects vanished and reappeared in impossible places, he escaped from locked containers in seconds, and his illusions left even seasoned professionals scratching their heads.What the to...

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“SEVEN SECONDS IN HELL” by William Riling

Submitted to Contest #253

Garret Lipman was thinking he must know how Adam felt in the Garden of Eden when Eve tempted him with the apple. After all, the fruit was plucked from the tree of knowledge and insider knowledge meant everything to a young day trader at Goldman Sachs. It wasn’t just the attempt at insider trading that had placed Garret in his current predicament. As with most things in his life, it was poor decision making that put him in a situation where he had no idea how to extract himself from this singular moment of time where he finds himself staring ...

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“The Buzz: A Professor Deshpande Mystery” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #253

Wei’s soul awakens/The body quickly follows/Temptations beckon.“What happened to postcoital pizza?” Professor Zhao demanded drowsily. Associate Professor Kalish chuckled.“I was afraid it might get cold during your postcoital coma, so I stepped out to pick up a few things for our tenure celebration.”“It smells wonderful, as always, though you didn’t need to go to the trouble,” Wei chided, rooting under the couch blanket for her loungewear. “We’ve known this was coming for months.” She tugged on her University sweatshirt and padded into the ki...

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“All We Have Is Time, and Hamlet” by Sarah Sharp

Submitted to Contest #253

The first time I noticed Emily was as Ophelia in the school play, Hamlet. The rain outside the school theatre windows had started to suspend into a light drizzle. Cars were pulling out of the parking lot, leaving behind that swoosh sound of tires against tarmac. It was our second production of the play and Emily seemed to appear out of the corner of the stage where the lighting is darkest. The left wing off stage is only ever used by a handful of us stagehands, the stage manager and costumer Mrs Harris. I’d been...

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“Remote Control” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #253

My Mum once told me to enjoy life. But she added a warning, and that warning was that time has a habit of speeding up as you get older. She may as well have told me not to panic. Or to smile, and that it might never happen. That was the attention I paid to her advice, and to her for that matter. And yet I remember her words well, and now, in the context of who and what I have become, I understand where she was coming from. This wasn’t a soundbite. This wasn’t knowledge. She meant what she had said, and in order for me to understand, I had to...

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“The Golden Loop” by TE Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #253

The Golden LoopMy great grandfather, William, was a professor of Middle East history at Oxford and traveled extensively throughout that region of the world for decades, learning about the history and culture while also acquiring rare artifacts for various museums and individual collectors. In the process, he also acquired an impressive collection of his own during his travels.His son Peter moved to America upon graduating from Cambridge and took a position as a junior professor of chemistry at Georgetown. When his father died, two large wood...

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“The River” by Brian Haddad

Submitted to Contest #253

I closed my eyes, pulling in a long, deep breath. Silent darkness encompassed me and a frigid stillness prickled my skin. I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a familiar, hollow face with sharp bony cheeks and deep, empty eyes set in ghostly pale skin. His long white beard trailed down his torso, flowing like his black robe with no hems and no edge. His clothing just flowed down forever into the blackness of the space, rippling and waving like the river which babbled by in perfect harmony through the featureless void. The water reflec...

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“Temp Work” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #253

Temp Work“Come in”. The dark brown velvet voice flows invitingly then swirls down a sewer drain.The solid wood, interictally carved, twelve-foot-tall door is awe-inspiring. Gargoyles and gremlins look down with malevolent grins from the frieze above. By all rights I should be terrified or at least intimidated. I should be cowering on trembling legs. But I feel calm, one might even say cool and collected.“Name, date of birth.” The larger-than-life figure behind the enormous desk is hunched over a comparatively undersized keyboard.“Gloria Mess...

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“Stopwatch ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #253

Coach Harper Brauer was given a new stopwatch to help record the times of his runners on the track and field team. Harper had been hired two years before to guide the Pleasant Valley High School to a state championship. The Hyenas had been state champs twenty years before when Coach Brauer was one of their best milers, but that was a long time ago. Since that championship, the track and field team continued to wind up last in the conference. He toyed with the stopwatch when he found it in his box in the teacher’s loun...

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“Kicking the Bucket ” by Devon Cano

Submitted to Contest #253

Flora Jones did not want to die. She would have expected the thought to occur to her for the first time on a warm spring day while surrounded by her friends and family, or maybe after accomplishing something difficult that she had been working toward. It just made sense- that she would feel so happy, so full of life and joy, that she would suddenly think, I don’t want to die. But it was a Tuesday, of all days, and the late August rain felt like spit on her face: cold and clammy and downright disrespectful. When Flora had woken up...

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“Superhero or Ghost” by Derrek Carman

Submitted to Contest #253

Some call me a ghost. Some don’t believe in me at all. Me? I call myself ‘Time Man’ Yeah, okay I get it not the greatest name in the world but all of the good names are taken. Besides what else could I call myself? Oh right, you don’t know anything else about me. My name is Kyle Vase. My superpower is time manipulation. I can freeze time. Cool right? When I first discovered my powers I thought I had died. I knocked a glass of water off the table and went to catch it but it stopped. It just floated there. I was confused. I looked arou...

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“The Castle of Kern” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #253

The rune stone lay in a nook at the far end of a lightless cave, accessible via a steep and narrow stairwell known only to the masons of Kern.George Sturridge, Master Mason, lifted the tablet of stone from its narrow perch, and held it in the flickering light of Erika Smoody’s candle. A strange resonance emanated from the tablet into the bedrock foundations of the Castle. He ran his calloused fingers across the glyphs and letters.“Of Kern Rock in the beginning. Of Kern Rock in the end,” the mason read the puzzling incantation out loud t...

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“Cupt galeatum - the man who could pause time” by Douglas Render

Submitted to Contest #253

Flora Flores and her family welcomed her newborn son, Louis Antonio Flores, on August 6, 1948. Maria Santos, the local Curandero (medicine woman) with great spiritual healing powers, was present during Louis’ birth. As the doctor took the child from the mother, he turned and gave him to Maria for a blessing. Holding the child, she looked down at Louis and saw a Caput galeatum (veil) encompassing his face. She screeched with excitement, chanting incantations and jumping in celebration. She began to shake as she felt his spiritual powers emana...

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“Myotis lucifugus ” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #253

Inside a public building near a lake, on a wall built of vertical yellow pine boards, knots in the wood show dark. One spot near the ceiling is bigger and darker than all the rest. It is not a spot. It is a sleeping bat. A little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus. A female. Movement is just barely visible in the little bat's back as she breathes in and out. Her flat body is pressed against the wall, her pale belly hidden, her chocolate-brown back exposed to help her blend in. The brown on her ears and the fur surrounding her eyes, nose, ...

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Write about a character who has the ability to pause the passage of time.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 71 stories

“Proposal” by Rozmarin Ideas

“Becoming the Phantom” by Martin Maynard

“SEVEN SECONDS IN HELL” by William Riling

“The Buzz: A Professor Deshpande Mystery” by Martin Ross

“All We Have Is Time, and Hamlet” by Sarah Sharp

“Remote Control” by Jed Cope

“The Golden Loop” by TE Wetzel

“The River” by Brian Haddad

“Temp Work” by Trudy Jas

“Stopwatch ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

“Kicking the Bucket ” by Devon Cano

“Superhero or Ghost” by Derrek Carman

“The Castle of Kern” by Luca King Greek

“Cupt galeatum - the man who could pause time” by Douglas Render

“Myotis lucifugus ” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about a highly-strung character learning to slow down, or someone pursuing a quieter way of life.

Set your story over the course of a few minutes; no flashbacks, no flashforwards.

Start your story with a character canceling their plans.

Write a story that contains the line, "I wish we could stay here forever."

Contest #253

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

335

Contest entries

118

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: