Set your story in a place that’s frozen in time — literally or metaphorically.

Posted in Narrative on Jan 19, 2024

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✍️ 56 stories

“He Calls Her Love” by Marie Llewell

Submitted to Contest #234

“I expected the Goddess of Love to look very different.” “Oh, do I disappoint you, dear?” The woman moved closer, her voice cracked. It was weak as if she had spent the long days of her life working and the longer nights crying alone. “You imagined a thin, graceful lady in my place? Someone you’d sleep with?” She closed her eyes, sighing wearily, and let her head fall into her wrinkled hands – nails chipped and fingertips scarred as if from long hours over a spitting stove. “A young thing brimming over with adoration? Perhaps a beauty consu...

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“The Day Everything Stopped” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #234

Struter Jones dashed to the corner–just in time she figured--to catch the 7:58 Fifth Avenue bus. As usual, she had timed her sprint to the bus stop down to the last second. Quickly getting fed up with her go-nowhere clerical position, she did only what she had to do when she had to do it. “Only in a holding pattern with this gig,” she thought to herself as she searched for the miracle job that would take her out of the morass tha...

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“The Clocktower of Tempus City” by Ella Sanders

Submitted to Contest #234

We live in an elevated city. A spire that reaches above the lives of the citizens occupying Tempus City. We have been covered up with a frame, one that is a representation of the passing of time. With metal shaped and curved and pounded into our surface. Our home is cemented into the framework of your lives. Every move we make is for you, yet you do not see us. You only think of us as evil, a pursuer constantly trying to catch up to you. We spend our days breathing in the coppery tang of machinery. Our breaths puffing in and out in a steady ...

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“IC3” by Dillon Bess

Submitted to Contest #234

The sun has not risen here for thousands of years. Icy wind hit his face as Cliffrax shivered and glanced at his wrist display, barely stopping his teeth from chattering. He tapped the luminated display with a gloved finger, as the wind howled in his ears. The display showed that his heart rate and body temperature were stable, but the iciness of this world was causing his technology to slow. He had crash landed on the planet IC3, which had a comically fitting Galactic Database Resignation. His original destination had been a lush, water...

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“Lovely Couple” by Glenn Holt

Submitted to Contest #234

I arrived at 12 midnight as requested by the strange message. The message sounded impossible to resist. The funny thing about the message, it disappeared the moment I arrived. Beyond its pull on me I couldn’t remember what it said. A bell like mesmerizing sound came from nowhere- ahh-oom, ahh-oom it sang to me over and over again.I entered the mansion through the ajar red door with the black door knob. I came upon a strange scene of two lovers.They stood frozen in time- still as a photograph – with a frightening mileiu. Hung alive in mid-air...

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“Where did Rome go?” by Michelle Yazbeck

Submitted to Contest #234

Where did you go without your thick orange sunglasses, keys and journal of schemes? Where did you go with pop’s shoes? Where did you go without your favorite things? I saved the note on my phone. I haven’t felt excited about my own work in a long time.Clusters of framed photos of younger and softer family members are the first to welcome me back into our time capsule. Preserved and sweet, like strawberry jam. To my left, a lone standing picture frame of a man in an oversized black leather jacket and receding hairline blooming into long black...

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“SNAPSHOT” by R. J. Garron

Submitted to Contest #234

Slowly, Alec Brumberg waded through the dust. Days came and went since the last bit of debris trickled down like acid rain after long episodes of shaking and rumbling. The powder caked everything below in what looked like a winter wonderland. Outside, he instinctively knew it was no different. His stomach groaned without end, and if he didn’t find any food soon, he was certain to waste away like the rest. Finally, a shaft of light split the shadowy depths from whence he clawed his way. The path to freedom was ob...

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“Time as an Excuse” by Nour Al Ghrabi

Submitted to Contest #234

My eyes are on the fork that has pierced through the piece of cake. Fair enough, she baked it. But she can’t have it all. She likes to be playful. I wish I could be playful with her. From the expression on my face, I can see that there is a feistiness, this stubbornness to hold onto what is mine. “I’m going to eat your cake,” My sister says, then laughs an evil laugh, that makes her even cuter. She’s wearing pink cotton pants and a black shirt with Dracula on it, which is a contrast to her usual style of all pink, with the occasio...

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“Dust” by Frances Hogg

Submitted to Contest #234

It came up from the west—an angry, roiling black wall five-thousand feet high and moving at sixty miles an hour. Clayton saw it coming and threw a tarp over the chicken coop, put the mule and cow into the cowshed and tied grain sacks loosely over their heads. Olive stuffed damp tea cloths and sheets into the cracks around the doors and windows, though she knew nothing she did would be enough to stop the dust. As suffocating darkness swept over their little farmhouse, the husband and wife huddled together under blankets. Grit peppered the win...

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“Never Letting Go” by Lisa Juliano

Submitted to Contest #234

It was barely dawn when I came into the kitchen. Dad was standing at the screen door, still dressed in his dark suit and houndstooth tie Mom gave him on his last birthday. Even his shoes were still on from the night before. The jacket’s shoulders sagged, and his trousers pooled around his slender frame, but he hadn’t bothered to change."Can I make you some tea, Dad?""Where's your mother? She said she was going into town this morning, and I told her I'd go with her. She wouldn't go without me." He pushed the door open a crack, just enough to ...

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“The Woman Unfrozen ” by Caitlin Morris

Submitted to Contest #234

I am moving slow today, but not as slow as everyone else. I say bye to my cat, Angus, before walking out the door to walk over to the cafe down the street, just like every other morning. One benefit of this whole “being frozen in time” thing is that I get everything for free. I wave to the barista, Anthony, who was a new hire at the shop when he got frozen. I only know his name because of his name tag. Anthony has become a good friend these last few months, we see each other every morning, but he won’t remember our friendship when they all w...

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“Emery's Greenhouse” by Brizeyda Monterroso

Submitted to Contest #234

Emery lived in a garden inside a large greenhouse. For the most part, she liked where she was. Her garden was made up of gifts delivered to her by the Gatekeeper. Sometimes the deliveries were wrapped in shiny holographic boxes with sweet smelling flowers inside. Other times, she received bazaar things she couldn’t explain, like pieces of bloody flesh. It didn’t matter what Emery received. Emery kept it all. The unusual things, she kept in a closed off area at the back. She placed it as far back as she could, to the point where she could o...

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“Frozen in Snow” by Sapo Higueras

Submitted to Contest #234

The footprints in the ground are the most noticeable part of it all. Being in a snowy wasteland, every step is imprinted on the ground. No matter how much time passes, the snow never covers them. Every step over the years from my cabin, the forest, and the fishing hole are all on the ground. The trails make it easy to know where I’ve gone but also are a horrible reminder. A reminder of how alone I truly am here. I don’t remember how I got here, although I don’t remember much in general. Waking up alone in the cabin for the first time w...

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“The Dock Under an Ancient Sky” by Lydia Chase

Submitted to Contest #234

As Paloma walked, the sounds of civilization grew softer and softer, a deafening silence overtaking the night. She barely registered the wood under her bare feet, or the chill of a breeze in the middle of June. When she reached the edge of the dock and look out over the water, memories swarmed her brain, buzzing through her skull until tears dripped downwards. You are being ridiculous, she scolded herself. Two minutes, that’s the longest you’re allowed to let yourself cry over this. Her mind...

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“A little town in the middle of nowhere ” by Katelynn Bauer

Submitted to Contest #234

Hidden away from most media and conspiratorial eyes sits a little town in the middle-of-nowhere-Wyoming that is just a little out of touch with time. The inhabitants, happy as they can be, seem to not know of the modern world, its as if their clocks all stopped in 1951. Gas is 0.27 cents a gallon, children play in the streets and people are still chanting the victories of World War Two. Nobody has ever questioned it, as if wandering in a loop they may never notice, until one day, a stranger enters town. Traveling at a speed muc...

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Set your story in a place that’s frozen in time — literally or metaphorically.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 56 stories

“He Calls Her Love” by Marie Llewell

“The Day Everything Stopped” by Bob Faszczewski

“The Clocktower of Tempus City” by Ella Sanders

“IC3” by Dillon Bess

“Lovely Couple” by Glenn Holt

“Where did Rome go?” by Michelle Yazbeck

“SNAPSHOT” by R. J. Garron

“Time as an Excuse” by Nour Al Ghrabi

“Dust” by Frances Hogg

“Never Letting Go” by Lisa Juliano

“The Woman Unfrozen ” by Caitlin Morris

“Emery's Greenhouse” by Brizeyda Monterroso

“Frozen in Snow” by Sapo Higueras

“The Dock Under an Ancient Sky” by Lydia Chase

“A little town in the middle of nowhere ” by Katelynn Bauer

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone whose time is running out.

Write a story about someone who wishes they could turn back time.

Write about someone taking advantage of some unexpected free time.

Start or end your story with someone saying, “We have all the time in the world.”

Contest #234

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

340

Contest entries

132

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: