Write a story about someone pulling an all nighter.

Posted in Fiction on Nov 10, 2023

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✍️ 35 stories

“Goldfish ” by Mallory Jones

🏆 Winner of Contest #224

4 pm Miss Lucy and Dr. Singh are letting me visit my house tonight! Normally I get to go home for twelve hours on holidays, and an aide comes with me to monitor my equipment, but today is different. It’s not a holiday, it’s not my birthday, it’s not even the weekend— but I’m going home! Mommy says Lily will be home too even though she goes to college in Iowa. She’s coming home just for me for my special visit. And Daddy says we’re getting my favorite food ever which is Chinese takeout from The Golden Dragon. I never get to eat Chinese in th...

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“Confidence Cab” by Michał Przywara

Submitted to Contest #224

The last thing Ren wanted to do was to pull another night shift, but Mr. Driedger politely reminded him about his outstanding debt, and how a payment was due, and “I’m sorry son, but we must all play by the rules,” so Ren parked his cab beside the terminal. He could never say no to Mr. Driedger – his money was the only reason Ren’s sister, Amanda, was still alive. He just prayed they wouldn’t need another surgery. He yawned. When he glanced at himself in the rear-view mirror, all he saw was eye bags and sallow skin. When was the la...

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“Hang It On The Moon” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #224

Hang It On The Moon There was once a little girl born under a waning crescent moon. Her father, an amateur artist, presented her mother with a custom hand-painted art work of the infant sound asleep cuddled on the arch. The picture hung over her bed all of her childhood years. She carried it to her college dorm room and to her first home when she started adulting on her own with the first job of her career as a space scientist. While others romanticized about the full moon she felt an unwavering attachment to that slender hook of a moon. Per...

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“Jasmin's Panacea” by Tom Skye

Submitted to Contest #224

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” but “That’s funny …” — Isaac Asimov After thirteen hours of work and forty-seven minutes of sleep, Jasmin peeled her forehead off the desk and sat back in her chair. The glare of dawn through the window dazzled her momentarily before she lowered her eyes and began rebuttoning her lab coat. As she rose from her seat, she shrugged away the aches and stiffness from her shoulders and neck and walked across the laboratory, muttering under...

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“The Most Silent Night” by Nina H

Submitted to Contest #224

Holly wreaths and red bows swam around in a blurry sea in front of me. I sniffled as a stray tear dropped onto the wrapping paper I had just taped down. I put the gift aside and looked around the room for another to wrap. I could hear the faint sound of my mom’s television in the next room. Late night television held limited options, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t paying much attention to it anyway. It was 2:03am. Christmas Eve. About six hours since Dad went into the operating room. We hadn’t yet told my sister, out of town with her in-laws...

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“George Hides from a Shark” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #224

The shark has promised that when George leaves the church, it will swallow him up. George sits in one of the pews and tries to remember a prayer from childhood. He believes he knows the standard ones, but he’d like something more specific to his current situation. While he knows there is definitely not a prayer about being trapped in a church while a Great White Shark waits outside, he seems to recall a prayer about an enemy at the door. A long night of the soul. Suffering and sleeplessness. It’s three o’clock in the morning, and George ...

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“Our boy” by Becca Jane

Submitted to Contest #224

“I won’t sleep tonight.” Audrey says, throwing her purse across the room and tossing herself right on top the couch. She goes crashing into the cushions with a smile. Audrey’s husband, Anthony, sighs, finishing up the dishes in the kitchen, “Why not, honey?” ”Because.” Anthony chuckles, sliding a clean plate on the dish rack, “That’s not the answer I was looking for,” He says, “That’s not an answer at all, actually.” Audrey huffs, peeking her head over the the couch, face barely seen, “Because my baby’s gonna be on TV tonight. I ca...

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“Calling Mom” by Charlotte Webb

Submitted to Contest #224

The craziest thing about having an experimental spiritual scientist as a roommate isn’t the weird theories on ghosts and zombies. It isn’t the constant smell of new concoctions to summon the dead always wafting into the living room when you are trying to study. It’s not even the experiments I’m asked to participate in, like using my own body as a vessel for some spirit she’s found. No- it’s the appalling lateness. I’m sitting in the downstairs café of our block, where I have been for the past one-hundred and twenty-three minutes, tapping m...

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“The Point of no Return” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #224

Allen boarded the plane, stowed his carry-on and found his seat. The interminable layover, now ended, allowed him to relax. Dusk settled over the airport. He hated taking the red-eye, but this was his last chance to go where he’d never wanted to go. The P.A. squawked. “Ladies and gentlemen, there will be a brief delay before take-off. Please exit the plane. You can leave your carry-on luggage but take anything you may need with you.” A loud groan erupted from the passengers. A stewardess murmured something about ‘mechanical trouble’ to a st...

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“Through the Steel Door” by Hannah Lynn

Submitted to Contest #224

There it was just as expected, on time as if set with an alarm clock. The 4:00 am door opened after being closed and bolted all day while she sat at her writing desk. She wasn’t surprised in the least. Trying to gain access between chores and appointments had proven to be impossible. Changing gears, new perspectives and fresh starts were all futile efforts. That massive door was held shut with an invisible combination lock; the right sequence of numbers unknown to her. At 4:00 am it slid open, but more than slid open,...

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“Halley's Comet” by Danielle LeBlanc

Submitted to Contest #224

The sunset was particularly pink that winter night in 1986. It was March 13th to be exact. A big snow storm had just passed through the coastal province of Nova Scotia. “A nor’easter’s on its way,” the locals had been saying; their own term for describing the winds from the northeast that create the often turbulent—yet commonplace—weather for that time of year in Atlantic Canada. The power had been out for well over a day but had finally been restored. Marjorie stood by the window above her kitchen sink, steeping her tea. She always had...

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“Later” by Kat Fawley

Submitted to Contest #224

The landlady says "the old man’s lived here 'for forever,'" and because redundancy irks you, your chin drops floor-ward and a little to the right, affording your creasing left eye its familiar hiding spot in the shadow beside the bridge of your nose - a reflex that’s stuck since your mother first mentioned it. It made sense to move here. The rent is lower than the going rate in the city, and you love hardwood floors, anyway. Irene doesn’t live here. Irene lives in the city.It’s 6:30 PM. You walk down the stairs to your half-filled ...

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“Baby By My Side” by Carri Mattan

Submitted to Contest #224

BABY BY MY SIDE For weeks I’ve followed him, always just behind him, always just out of my reach with our baby by my side. It is the baby he does not know we have – born only a few weeks ago while he was gone. I did not understand it when he said...

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“itch” by Paul Littler

Submitted to Contest #224

As the helicopter circled the island on its second approach Astrid placed her phone face down on her lap. Too many uploaded videos of people erupting in a painful spiky death, spines tearing through bruised swollen skin. She must have watched hundreds as the pandemic raged, death rate soaring. “If I can’t land this time we’ll have to try tomorrow,” the pilot yelled over th...

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“The Procrastinator's Paradox” by J. I. MumfoRD

Submitted to Contest #224

Jonah stared at the open textbook on his desk, the words blurring together into an incomprehensible jumble. He blinked hard, trying to force his exhausted brain to focus. 2:37 AM. He had been at this for hours, desperately reviewing material for his Practical Interpretation final exam tomorrow morning. With a heavy sigh, Jonah leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. He should've started studying days ago, but he had put it off again and again, convinced he could cram it all in at the last minute. Now the moment of truth was fast appro...

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Title: Goldfish

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Write a story about someone pulling an all nighter.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 35 stories

“Goldfish ” by Mallory Jones

“Confidence Cab” by Michał Przywara

“Hang It On The Moon” by Mary Bendickson

“Jasmin's Panacea” by Tom Skye

“The Most Silent Night” by Nina H

“George Hides from a Shark” by Story Time

“Our boy” by Becca Jane

“Calling Mom” by Charlotte Webb

“The Point of no Return” by John K Adams

“Through the Steel Door” by Hannah Lynn

“Halley's Comet” by Danielle LeBlanc

“Later” by Kat Fawley

“Baby By My Side” by Carri Mattan

“itch” by Paul Littler

“The Procrastinator's Paradox” by J. I. MumfoRD

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story before dawn. Your character has woken up early for a particular reason.

Write a story about two people living together who have opposing sleep cycles, and only cross paths at dawn and dusk.

Start your story with someone saying “I can’t sleep.”

Write about someone who can’t sleep due to jet lag, and decides to set out and explore their new city at night instead.

Contest #224

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

285

Contest entries

135

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: