Set your story in a world that has lost all colour.

Posted in Short Story on Feb 28, 2025

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✍️ 93 stories

“Heartbroken” by Derrick M Domican

Submitted to Contest #292

The brass bell above the door jingled, startling Jonas from his slumber and causing the leather-bound book on his lap to fall to the floor.“Damn,” the twenty year old in britches, canvas shirt and scuffed boots cursed as he hopped to his feet, scraping his chair back from the counter and turning towards the bookstore’s entrance.A woman stood there, silhouetted against the glow of the setting sun, a woman unlike any he’d seen before.“Good evening,” she said, nodding as she eased the door shut, closing it in the face of a short, fat man clutch...

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“Air-Loom 2: The Fuel” by Donald Haddix

Submitted to Contest #292

Air Loom 2: The Fuel-----------------------------------------------------------------1:Well, hellfire and biscuits, you done stumbled into a mess bigger than a hog in a mud pit.Lemme break it down for ya real slow-like, ‘cause Lord knows it took me a while to figure it out my own self. See, I was just mindin’ my business, drinkin’ my sweet tea, scratchin’ my belly, thinkin’ life was about as normal as huntin’ deer on a Sunday. But nope—turns out, I was about three kinds o’ stupid.Ever hear folks talk ‘bout not messin’ with things ya don’t un...

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“The Lost Colors of The Dustlight” by Audrey Elizabeth

Submitted to Contest #292

I have always lived in black-and-white. They drained the color long ago—wrung it from the sky, scraped it from the walls, pulled it from the sunrise, until no one remembered that the world had ever been anything else. I had never seen it. Not really. Color existed only in whispers, a rumor passed from old lips to young ears, a fading memory dimming with each generation. A bedtime story our grandparents told before they, too, forgot what red felt like. What blue did to the spirit. The Bureau called it protection. Color was distraction. Disord...

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“Shards of Madness” by Kaylee Ellison

Submitted to Contest #292

I wake up in a world without color.Not in a poetic, "everything feels dull and lifeless" way, but in a literal, "someone put a grayscale filter on existence" kind of way.The sky is an oppressive gray, the buildings are duller than my grandmother's drapes, and my hands? My hands look like they've been printed straight out of a noir film.I take a deep breath and immediately regret it. The air is thick, like it's holding secrets, and not the fun, "surprise party" kind. More like, "the call is coming from inside the house" kind.And then I see it...

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“Escaping Neutrality” by James Scott

Submitted to Contest #292

“Good Morning, Derek”“Mornin’ Doc”“How are you feeling today? Any more thoughts of harming-”I had to interrupt her. Doctor Fuller was one of the better shrinks I’d had to deal with, but she was a real jobsworth about following the script. It would be the same old introductory questions. She couldn’t help but tick those boxes at the top of the day’s crisp white form, still warm off the copier, but would be terrified of doing so unless I actually said the words. I struggled to find the patience to verbalise my repeated and identical statements...

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“The Relief of Graustadt” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #292

Two Years BeforeBetween fear and hope is where most people spend their lives. For the citizens of Graustadt, the balance is unequally applied. They may nurture a single flame of the latter, but are daily consumed by the former. In this linear dwelling place of half-timbered buildings, three-deep at most, the Florian provides the immediate focus. The river, in the slow march of time, has carved a V-shaped valley through the rock. The slopes are now densely wooded, and beneath their canopy, the grey wolves roam. It used to be called ...

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“The Hearing People” by Jake McBride

Submitted to Contest #292

We once observed colour with our eyes. Greens and blues, palettes and hues; the great ancestors of monochrome, existing only in folklore. We were once seeing people. The breadth of our vision once extended beyond shadows and distance. The sticks we once threw for hounds contained colour, as did the pounded grass under the pursuing paws. As did the paws, themselves. The stimuli, now desaturated. The irons, the steels; our livelihood, our resource. The hammer, how it fell. How it falls even now. Shards of our history are traded in whispers. ...

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“Just Bring Us A Rainbow” by Thomas Wetzel

Submitted to Contest #292

September 22, 2033 was the day that the event that came to be known as “The Fade” took place. No one from the government, scientific or academic communities could provide any explanation for it. Over the course of just a few hours that day, all of the colors - all but black and white anyway - simply faded away from this world. That was also the last day that it rained.There were many questions:Why is this happening?How could this possibly occur?Is this permanent?What do I tell my children?There was much speculation in response:This is an unp...

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“Chromatocracy” by Calum Mathison

Submitted to Contest #292

The transmission you are about to read is one of the few surviving records from the final days of the Chromatocracy, believed to have been transmitted across the world. The transmission is believed to have been picked up by hacked regime satellites and transmitted across the globe. [Unauthorized Transmission Detected - Intercepting Signal]Hello? This may be my last message. The regime is closing in. The airwaves are nearly silent now - one by one, the voices have gone dark. I don’t know if anyone is still listening.But if you are - if y...

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“An Excerpt from the Diary of Sylphie Ashe #16:” by Lys Light

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #292

An Excerpt from the Diary of Sylphie Ashe #16: (These excerpts, though numbered, were not written in chronological order. We at the Institute of Historical and Archaeological Discoveries are unsure why the author did this.) When I first saw the color blue, I cried. Howard likes to bring it up at work parties, flourishing it like a party favor to garner attention. ‘You wouldn’t believe what Sylphie did when we went to La Crist La Vere!’ And I would laugh along, because Howard, though crass and annoying at times, was overall harmless. ...

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“No Place Like… ” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #292

Dorothy awakened from her fitful sleep, exhausted. Once again, she’d dreamed of Oz.‘Would call it a nightmare, except that it’s so tedious.’Having grown up, far from crowded cities, on the vast, flat prairies of Kansas, Dorothy lived simply. She had no wish to return to that bustling chaos, now a legend in her town. After her mishap in the tornado, Dorothy had wearied of the attention drawn by her tornado concussion story. She craved ordinary days strung together into an ordinary life. ‘Feet on the ground…’Her physician Dr. Jensen assur...

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“The Fading” by Jim LaFleur

Submitted to Contest #292

Natalie awoke to a world draining of pigment. The crimson sunrise that usually painted her bedroom wall had transmuted into a pale, anemic gray. She blinked, convinced her eyes were playing tricks—perhaps a storm had rolled in overnight, muting the dawn’s usual splendor. Yet when she reached for her phone, its once-vibrant screen glowed only in gradients of ash and charcoal. “What the hell?” she whispered, her voice strange and hollow in the muted space. The vermilion dress she’d laid out for today’s exhibition hung like a ghost on her close...

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“So Grey a World Without Red” by Robert Payne

Submitted to Contest #292

Clank! Clank! Clank! My arms grew tired with each heavy fall. The dimly lit cavern echoed the sound of my pickaxe against the grey stone. Its black handle sent heavy vibrations up and down my arms. Clank! Clank! Clank! Cool sweat made its way down my face into my scruffy beard. My muscles burned with each raising of the pickaxe. My life was a routine of muscle memory now, my eyes were barely registering the rock before me as I mined. Clank! Clank! Clank! “Ajax!” A familiar voice broke me from my daze. A small part of me was happy to have a b...

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“The White Ribbon” by Emma Jones

Submitted to Contest #292

The White RibbonBy: Emma JonesAugust 1929Marburg, Germany Golden rays of sunshine spilled across the field. Dragonflies danced overhead, dipping in and out of the wheat stalks. Reaching out, I ran my fingers over soft heads of the wheat. Thank You, Lord, for beauty.Today was my thirteenth birthday, and I felt older than ever. Which I guess I was, but I was a teenager, and Vater said a teenager was as good as an adult. I’d be expected to pull my weight around the house, start earning money, and pretty soon I’d be providing...

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“The Hunger for Color” by Ella English

Submitted to Contest #292

Lina dreamed again. It came to her in jagged flashes—loud, bright, too much all at once. The world in her dream was wrong.The grass wasn't grass. The sky wasn't sky. The trees, the flowers, the people's clothes—none of it looked normal. The ground beneath her feet was too alive, the sky too vast, everything pulling at her in strange, unfamiliar ways. It wasn't gray. It was— She didn't know the word. But it felt dangerous. She woke with a start, her breath shallow, the Neutralizer's hum vibrating through the wall...

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Set your story in a world that has lost all colour.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 93 stories

“Heartbroken” by Derrick M Domican

“Air-Loom 2: The Fuel” by Donald Haddix

“The Lost Colors of The Dustlight” by Audrey Elizabeth

“Shards of Madness” by Kaylee Ellison

“Escaping Neutrality” by James Scott

“The Relief of Graustadt” by Rebecca Hurst

“The Hearing People” by Jake McBride

“Just Bring Us A Rainbow” by Thomas Wetzel

“Chromatocracy” by Calum Mathison

“An Excerpt from the Diary of Sylphie Ashe #16:” by Lys Light

“No Place Like… ” by John K Adams

“The Fading” by Jim LaFleur

“So Grey a World Without Red” by Robert Payne

“The White Ribbon” by Emma Jones

“The Hunger for Color” by Ella English

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that has a colour in the title.

Center your story around a mysterious painting.

Center your story around an artist whose creations have enchanted qualities.

Write a story inspired by your favourite colour.

Contest #292

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

411

Contest entries

131

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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