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Set your story during a total eclipse — either natural, or man-made.

Posted in Fiction on Apr 5, 2024

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✍️ 71 stories

La Luna - A Grand Night Out

Submitted to Contest #245

My name is Lynley, and I am eleven. I am interested in all things biological and scientific.My mother calls me her difficult child. The one who quickly gets distracted or left behind, examining ants on a trail, a spider forming a web, or some other exciting phenomenon. The world around us contains an abundance of interesting plants, insects, and creatures. I like checking them out.I am sitting in a tree, watching a tiny caterpillar measure the leaf he travels over. “Inch worm, inch worm . . .” Stretching out his front legs, creeping his stic...

13 likes 23 comments 23
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The Erie Crickets

Submitted to Contest #245

“Crickets!” Martin yelled, as he suddenly burst through the door. “Crickets?” Sheila asked, as she suddenly dropped her tea. “Yes! NASA needs scientists to listen for crickets during the eclipse on Monday! And I’m just the scientist to do it!” Martin exclaimed, unable to hide his excitement. “Martin, you’re an accountant, not a scientist. And what in the name of the sun, moon, and stars are you even talking about? What do crickets have to do with a solar eclipse?” Shelia asked, cleaning up her spilled tea. “NASA has been ...

12 likes 6 comments 6
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Doolittle

Submitted to Contest #245

Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga,And your horse naturally won,Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia,To see the total eclipse of the sun…-Carly SimonIt never would work, would it? 1972, 2017, and now 2024. Total Eclipse, hardly!Cloudy with a chance of meatballs! I was stewing. What would I do with all that product, bought at higher prices that seemed reasonable for the enormous crowds who would appear…Magically. Or not. The weather was dictating my fortunes. Weather! Of all things.“You do what you have to do!” explained Doolittle,...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Bodies in Space

Submitted to Contest #245

They say the moon controls our emotions. E-motion as invisible and real as electrons, protons, and neurons. That stuff life’s made out of, built on. The little things under the surface that collectively make and move masses bit by bit.  Elisa considered her feelings as the shadows around her began to collect and shift. A shadow for the shadow, doubled, darkness magnified. The eclipse was starting. That moment when the moon covers the face of the sun.  But, what was it to her? Why did she care? “C’mon everyone, let’s go outside,”...

10 likes 2 comments 2
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Temptation At Hand

Submitted to Contest #245

The old road was long and flat. There weren’t many trees and the diner sat between a motel and the ghostly remains of a gas station. The moon covered the face of the sun and it was dark, like night had fallen on the weathered porch at the entrance.Inside there was a small dining room with booths and tables. The hardwood floors were shiny and clean, and the air was filled with the aroma of sausage and eggs searing in the kitchen. Over a long bar, above wooden shelves lined with liquor bottles, was a huge mirror; to the right, a set of French ...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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Momentary Darkness

Submitted to Contest #245

This is where it all began. Out on the grassy cliff, staring out at the sun with the wind sending my hair fluttering around me. Strands of gold and bronze that wrap around my face and nearly get into my eyes. Hair that usually sits in a messy bun, not enough time given during my day to do what I wish with it.I had met my husband here for the first time. I was 19 and in my first year in collage. He was 24 and freshly graduated. There was something about the way he looked at me while on this cliff that pulled me in. A kind of want that not man...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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The Eclipse

Submitted to Contest #245

THE ECLIPSE  By Camille Clarke  This story might be sensitive to some readers. Please use caution.  ” What's going on here? Help me!” Aaron screamed at the mirror in the school's bathroom. He was glad everyone was in class. Something was wrong with him.  Aaron called his father. He had to get out of the school's compound.  He saw hair started to grow on his hands then his limbs began to grow. He looked in the mirror. He looked different. He could hear the students typing i...

10 likes 0 comments 0
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An Acceptable Offering

Submitted to Contest #245

Peeka slipped through the dense underbrush, the broad leaves of tropical plants sliding over his sweat slicked skin as buzzing, biting bugs hounded his trail. He tried to ignore their droning, knowing that they would not bite him through the sap of the maytu plant he had smeared on his naked body.The rains had finally ceased and the waterways were dropping to their usual levels but it had left a denseness to the air, thick and heavy in the lungs. But the oppressive moisture was not the only thing that arrived with the passing of the rains.A ...

9 likes 6 comments 6
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Manmade Eclipse

Submitted to Contest #245

The director was a perfectionist and everyone was always pissed at him. He’d do each take twenty thirty times over and wouldn’t let the people leave until they got it right. It had to be perfect. Now it was his best film yet and they were on the very last night. It took place in the desert at night on the roof of a car. There was a boy and a girl. “Kiss more slowly,” he said. Well they did it again. “That’s too slow. Faster.” Again. “Let me see it with the brights on.” Again. “Move the car. I want the moon in the background.” “Holy shi...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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Eclipse Day

Submitted to Contest #245

  “Hasn’t it started already?” Randall teetered on the makeshift stand, and the protective glasses slid down his tiny nose.  “Don’t think so, Randy,” his older sister Jessie said, water dribbling from her watering can as she headed toward their mother’s vegetable garden. Intense sunlight dotted her forehead and neck with beads of perspiration. Jessie had abandoned her eyewear for the solar eclipse, dressing in a hurry to begin the morning chores, after their angry voices interrupted her sleep.  “Look, Randy, the...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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BELLA'S ECLIPSE

Submitted to Contest #245

I opened my eyes to a world I don't remember. A blanket of emptiness surrounds me. Who am I? I keep asking myself that question every day for the last four weeks. Today is a brad new day and yet I still don't remember me or my life. Mercy General, a hospital I am currently at is in a frenzy. Something amazing is happening today. Nurse Allison, the nurse who is taking care of me tells me a total solar eclipse is happening today at noon. Nurse Allison gives me special glasses so my eyes won't hurt when I see the eclipse. It's almost noon. Nurs...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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The Day the Gods Embraced

Submitted to Contest #245

(Glossary provided at the end of the story.)Frræ looked up.The red eye of Wau peered down at him, Her solar rays beaming out somehow brighter than they usually did. Below Her, hanging low in the sky, Rau’s eye was encroaching.Frræ narrowed his eyes. The two celestial bodies rarely came so close together–it had been cycles since Rau had even been visible during the day. With His shadow toward the world, no one could tell the color of the moon’s surface. Everyone knew it was periwinkle, but right now it was black.“What?” Muræ asked behind him....

8 likes 2 comments 2
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A Moment of Darkness

Submitted to Contest #245

A Moment of DarknessJune 16, 1806Eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Bennet was shopping in Bond Street with her Aunt Madeline Gardiner. Just as they stepped out of Hatchard’s bookstore, they noticed an unnatural darkness descending and looked toward the sun, seeing it fade as another round body appeared to cover it up. Over the next several moments, they watched as day turned to twilight. Everything around them seemed to stop.“Oh, Aunt, I read about this phenomenon in Father’s newspaper just before I left for town. It is an eclipse; the moon will c...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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A Day to Herself

Submitted to Contest #245

She would take a day off. For truly, when was the last time that she’d had a break? She couldn’t think of a single afternoon, a few minutes even, when she hadn’t been at work. ‘The Golden Girl’, shining bright. Born and raised into stardom. Watched. Adored. Famous the Earth over. She was exhausted by it. Her time - her life, it seemed - belonged to others. And now she wanted some for herself. Just 24 hours. Without the gaze of the world upon her. “Perhaps it might do them good to miss me for once?” she thought. For hadn’t they...

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The Bulbous Thing In The Sky

Submitted to Contest #245

*** Depictions of racial insensitivity.***From 1789 to 1792 a series of volatile events erupted in France and collectively became The French Revolution. For decades, the ordinary and unheralded people of France took increasing umbrage with the absolute rule of the monarchy and engaged in actions that ultimately saw the dissolution of the French monarchy and the beheading of King Louis XVI and his patronizing wife, Marie Antoinette. These acts plunged France into a new era and this sent shockwaves amongst French nobility and across Europ...

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