Write a story involving a portal into a parallel universe.

Posted in Science Fiction on Apr 28, 2023

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✍️ 61 stories

“Earth is Worth the Struggle” by Stephanie Goodare

Submitted to Contest #196

I have perfect friends here. They all spend all their attention on me and will always agree with my opinion. Not like the people back on earth. One afternoon, when my friends had walked me home from a late Friday night dinner, I looked at myself in the mirror. I had a happy look on my face. It was so easy in this world to live and smile. I smiled and laughed nonstop with my friends and family in this world. I had never cried in this world. Back on earth, I had been crying every day. I used to get so tired from crying. I still could...

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“The Magic Blue of the Sapphire Hotel” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #196

Six-year-old Sannie Johnson knew she wasn’t special. Her mother told her. Her sisters told her. Her uncle told her. The hundreds of people who streamed by the tattered “Homeless” signs she and her mother held everyday told her. That’s why Sannie didn’t think she’d done anything special the day she noticed a dollar bill fall from the purse of a woman wearing a fur coat with a high collar outside the Sapphire Hotel. The woman swept through the hotel entrance, failing to notice the little girl who scurried from the shadows of the alley,...

21 comments 21

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“The Other Side of Water” by Kay Reed

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #196

Panic is a hand at Leven’s throat.He’s been ignoring the sun ghost for days now, dismissing it as a mere sunspot in the periphery of his vision, a black stain from staring into the sun too long. But the shadow has only grown larger and more defined, slick obsidian flames climbing up its body, giving the impression of a billowing cloak in the stagnant heat of the desert.Leven swallows, quickens his pace to catch up to his father. “Any sign?”His father doesn’t turn, merely clicks his compass open, snaps it shut. Click, snap. Click, snap. “It’s...

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“Transversal” by Chris Campbell

Submitted to Contest #196

The jungle fauna crept quietly and resolutely around Private Henry Willoughby’s feet. In this theatre of war, it was the only living thing to flourish, to grow, to last. Nothing else stood a chance under its stifling canopy. If Henry didn’t move, he’d be consumed by slow creeping vines, fire ants, foot rot, and all kinds of potential alien ailments. Should he choose to move, he risked exposing himself to the hellfire performance of a jungle war entertaining its combative audience. For Henry, the choice was simple. Killing biting insects in ...

18 comments 18

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“Bubbles On the Horizon” by Mary Bendickson

Submitted to Contest #196

Bubbles on the HorizonThe wagon master, Mr. Marcy, traveled with his new scout trying to catch up with their lumbering wagon train snaking across the grassy Nebraska prairie.As they approached the line of canvas covered wagons looked like bubbles silhouetted on the horizon. Each wagon was like a little bubble world all of their own floating in a sea of the unknown tethered together with others for survival.The Indian scout wasn't one for talking so the leader's thoughts wandered back to the spirited charmer he had to leave behind. They neede...

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“Worldsmith” by Jamie Campbell

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #196

Jon Trevino sat at his computer doing his very favorite thing in the world: writing of adventures in his fictional world of Oaleth with his six-year-old son on his lap. Jon watched Henry read the paragraph he’d just typed, the boy’s delighted eyes scanning across the screen in the blue glow of the monitor. Teaching his young son to read had been the most fulfilling experience of Jon’s life. He felt that he’d instilled in Henry the same love of story and of fantasy that drove Jon to write, and having seen the boy devour the old children’...

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“Stolen Blood and Form” by Graham Kinross

Submitted to Contest #196

Nuzzling against Lady Jezra Azt’s neck, Lord Kelvin Celsius smiled at the discovery of a freckle he had never seen before. Her ringed hand held tight in his hair as she talked. Kelvin struggled to listen as his senses absorbed every detail of her, lips kissing their way from her neck to her gasping mouth. Their eyes met, her knowing azure blue orbs invited his hazel portals to drink up the sight of her. Biting her lip, she closed her blue shadowed eyes and leaned towards him, pressing her chest to his. Lord Celsius could no longer tell if th...

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“The Time and Space Furnace, Episode 1: Sanlun Che” by Anne Shillingsburg

Submitted to Contest #196

“But did it even really happen?” Dewan wants to know. “We both remember it, so it must have, right?” Mindy answers, kicking up some dirt with her worn sneaker. “Are those the rules?” He shrugs with sweeping hands. Mindy’s face looks blank with just a hint of “you’re supposed to be the brainiac, why isn’t it obvious to you?” “What I mean is, teleporting tricycles and stopped time are not part of the regular rules, so what’s to say that those things happened and not this other thing that breaks the rule, where we remember the same thi...

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“The Hawthorne Lights” by A.J Roberts

Submitted to Contest #196

The year was 1990 and everyone thought Becky Pierson was the meanest girl in Hawthorne. She believed she was destined for fame and fortune. Living in a small rural village was her biggest inconvenience. The day was very warm and the school bus ride home was becoming unbearable. Becky was getting ornery, so she scanned the bus for a distraction. That’s when she noticed the two girls sitting three rows in front of her. They left their bus window up when every other window was down. They were much younger than Becky. Still in elementary sc...

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“Lost in the Woods” by Genevieve Masters

Submitted to Contest #196

When I left my apartment this morning, I did not realize how cold the wind would feel. I can feel the wind biting at my face and can only guess how red my cheeks have grown from the cold. I have walked these trails before when I needed to get some inspiration. The wind has never been able to make its way through the thick crop of trees in this area of the Smoky Mountains when I have hiked them many times before. I knew better than to come out to the forest at this time of the year, but I needed to get away from home. I’ve been crampe...

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“We Try Again” by Ben Battles

Submitted to Contest #196

Beneath the maintenance entrance lay a craggy patch of dirt. Originally intended to become extra storage, when the stadium’s construction went a million dollars over budget anything that wasn’t front and center to the patrons was moved to the bottom of the to-do list; this unsightly remnant of heavy handed bulldozers and artless excavators was the last place the cameras swarming the stadium would want to be on this historic championship night. So they would have assumed. If an intrepid reporter had been there they might have seen something t...

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“A Simple Life” by John Weyermuller

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #196

Sarah could not sleep. The sound of the sea against the hull of her ship, the gentle rolling motion of The Maiden’s sharp hull slicing through a calm surface, the smell of salt. The mild musky scent of Gabriella’s hair and body pressed up next to her, the cool night air from her private quarter’s open balcony door kissing her naked skin. All these wonders of her life at sea, and still Sarah could not sleep. She slowly moved Gabriella's arm off its resting place across her torso and sat up, careful not to disturb The Maiden’s first mate in t...

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“The Conjurers Trap” by Gary Jefferies

Submitted to Contest #196

Naz woke with a head feeling like he’d been on StormBringer the night before. Some fiendish brew Yish suggested he might enjoy back in the days of yore. A time before travelling with the Keep not yet fallen. As he recalled, it was shortly after he arrived after a mining disagreement. “Keep the seam tight and dig deeper,” they had said. His look back said “I have no good reason to continue digging my own grave.” From there it had gone to brief encounters on myths young dwarves are scared of, to geopolitics. A subject he’d rapidly come to re...

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“Flare” by C. Charles

Submitted to Contest #196

Summer 1987Somewhere in the trees a cicada started to buzz and Lauren knew that they were in the heat of the day. The light from the sun beat down hot and bright, casting stark black shadows underneath brilliant highlights on the leaves of the trees around them. They were walking on a trail through a small meadow towards the next stand of trees where the trail continued.Jeff was walking through the tall grass ahead of her, a dark strip of sweat running down the back of his shirt behind his backpack, his sweat darkened hair hanging in curls d...

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“Jumping” by John Jones

Submitted to Contest #196

In the vastness of time, space, and reality, unusual things sometimes happen. Call them portals to other realities or maybe a hiccup in quantum space-time or possibly a powerful being with a sense of humor decides to have some fun with us. Whatever the reason, it happened. Just ask Greg Schank. Greg Schank walked out of the car dealership with a huge grin. He had another outs...

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Contest #196

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Title: The Bullet that Esther Stopped

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Write a story involving a portal into a parallel universe.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 61 stories

“Earth is Worth the Struggle” by Stephanie Goodare

“The Magic Blue of the Sapphire Hotel” by Kristin Neubauer

“The Other Side of Water” by Kay Reed

“Transversal” by Chris Campbell

“Bubbles On the Horizon” by Mary Bendickson

“Worldsmith” by Jamie Campbell

“Stolen Blood and Form” by Graham Kinross

“The Time and Space Furnace, Episode 1: Sanlun Che” by Anne Shillingsburg

“The Hawthorne Lights” by A.J Roberts

“Lost in the Woods” by Genevieve Masters

“We Try Again” by Ben Battles

“A Simple Life” by John Weyermuller

“The Conjurers Trap” by Gary Jefferies

“Flare” by C. Charles

“Jumping” by John Jones

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character unknowingly experiencing a “sliding doors” moment. Write your story in two halves; what could have been, and what actually happened.

Write a story that includes the phrase “Maybe in another life.”

You’re walking down the street, when you spot a familiar figure. It’s another you. And they’ve come from an alternate reality to warn you about something.

Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

Contest #196

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

280

Contest entries

149

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: