Write a story in which someone time-travels 25 years or more into the past.

Posted in Short Story on Jan 10, 2025

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✍️ 75 stories

“Holding Hands” by M. Darrow

Submitted to Contest #285

There’s one thought I keep returning to: a child could never reach that high. The tiny outline of a handprint is easily seven feet in the air, higher even than the largest prints clustered near what might otherwise be called the “top” of the painting--though truly it is too irregular to be labeled so specifically. A beautiful balance of chaos and order.It is hardly a revelation, the idea that a child’s hand would never be able to press itself to the stone that high up without help. And yet the thought is like a thunderclap inside my hea...

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“Pond Water” by Karen Gregory

Submitted to Contest #285

The pond was nothing special. Scummy and barely six feet across. Spongy green and stinking, nestled between unremarkable trees. There was no clamorous buzzing of insects or soft golden light. There was no feeling of surreal goodness or impending destiny, but I had heard from the tavern locals that it was the place to go if you had a broken soul. It was the place you went to right everything. A place, the locals proclaimed, would take you back in time.I stepped into that tepid water, half drunk, half hating myself. Geosmin squished between my...

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“A Lifetime of Questions” by Natalie Wills

Submitted to Contest #285

At the click of a button, Luca found himself in an empty lecture hall at the top of the staircase. He stared at the device in his hand, wondering where exactly it had taken him, and more importantly, when. At least a dozen rows of seats and crescent-shaped tables surrounded him. Each row had fewer seats approaching the stage where a large chalkboard spanned the front wall.And then he saw her. Off to the side, there she stood behind a podium, rifling through sheets of paper. At least he thought it was her. The distance between them made it ha...

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“Hello future me!” by Elena Ivachtchenko

Submitted to Contest #285

I was cleaning my mom’s house. As everything goes to the end, my mom’s page got turned too. I was thinking about her words that she repeated not once here, at my childhood place.“I am not staying here forever.” She used this expression in different contexts. It could mean: “Try to remember what I say and do, and learn from me, otherwise, it will be too late”. Or “You have to be ready that I will pass away one day, everyone does”. She wasn’t scared to go. In my opinion, she started getting ready to go too early. I wonder if our negative thoug...

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“Camel Yellow” by Giulio Coni

Submitted to Contest #285

I observed me from afar, hidden among the shadows of the boardwalk. The time machine I had stolen – or perhaps invented, I could no longer recall – had brought me there, to that summer of 2000. I didn't know why I had chosen that particular day, but now that I saw him – saw myself – I understood. There was a sweetness in that memory, a whisper of something lost, that I needed to rediscover.He – I – was thirteen years old and didn't yet know that carefree joy could evaporate like the morning mist. He sat in a corner of the skating rink, hands...

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“Get On Your Glad Rags” by Jennifer Abrahamsen

Submitted to Contest #285

Get On Your Glad RagsTaylor blinked her eyes, trying to reconcile the previous moment with the one she was currently experiencing. Minutes ago, she had been staring at the computer screen before her, trying to hold her eyes open, but now she was on a bustling city street. Taylor looked down at herself to check for decency. She had been in her favorite flannel pajama bottoms and a bright pink hoodie when she’d last checked. Thankfully, she was in a dress...

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“Dancing with Disaster” by Carlos Guzman

Submitted to Contest #285

Dancing with DisasterMy palms are sweaty, shirtless, and hovering above a crackling grill of red-hot lasers on one of the execution tubes aboard the starship Alcatraz.At least the view of Earth from one of the airlocks is stunning, like the babe standing next to that stodgy old judge in black and white robes. This so-called judge has no sense of style—unlike yours truly, June Slik, Earth's most eligible (and currently most endangered) bachelor.Let me assure you: This is all a misunderstanding. The middle-aged man in the slick jet-blue and gr...

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“Groupchat from the past” by Joelle Snow

Submitted to Contest #285

Group Chat From The Past“Hey Sarah, Sophie, Liam, come I need help grabbing these boxes.”“Coming! Lucas” all the siblings shouted. “Ouch what the…” Sarah said as she bumped into a strange box, its contents falling on the floor, on her way to Lucas.“What happened?” Liam asked“What is it?” Lucas yelled from the other side of the attic.“I think it's all our old toys and stuff.” Sarah said“Let's look.” Sophie said eagerly. “Ooh look it's our old phones!” Liam squealed in a very high pitched voice.“OMG it's an iphone 11 pro, these look ancient.” ...

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“The Travels of Dr. Rebecca Harper ” by Elizabeth Woolsey

Submitted to Contest #285

The Travels of Dr. Rebecca Harper You’re not gonna believe this… I grew up watching television Westerns. I always wanted to ride with Matt Dillon, the Bonanza boys, and Jim Hardie from Wells Fargo. So when I found myself on the Cattle Creek Ranch, which was featured in the television series, Comstock, you can imagine my thoughts. Maybe you can’t? Maybe you don’t remember that series? Sheesh, it was only the most popular television Western series of the 1950s and 60s. Maybe you’re too young? Anyway, I couldn’t believe it either. For the firs...

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“The Hit That Broke the Timeline” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #285

Five decades spent clawing his way up the corporate ladder and accumulating a massive fortune had done nothing to erase the cherished memories Harry had of the streets of his teen years spent building his reputation as the King of the Stick ball Bat in his old neighborhood. Like Mickey Mantle, swinging a Louisville Slugger at Yankee Stadium’s home plate, he used to step menacingly up to the manhole cover with his converted wooden broom handle waiting for Joey or one of his othe...

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“Fresh Grass and Hospitality” by Lauren LeCocq

Submitted to Contest #285

The tests had proven fruitful for going back 5-10 years, it was my turn to go and there was an uneasy feeling in my gut. The calculations weren’t adding up. The farther back you go the more the time dilates around you, there’s a period of time you need to wait for the timestream to stabilize before someone can be pulled back. The nature of the equation means that there’s a period of time you can go back and the timestream never stabilizes around you. That time seemed to be around 20 years, and I was going back 25. The head researchers wanted...

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“One More Time” by Lou Taylor

Submitted to Contest #285

Opening my lids is like sandpaper raking across the inside of my eyes. Breathing is laboured, almost as though I am struggling to catch my breath through something heavy and cloaking, but by blinking a few times against the beams of light that creep through the wooden walls – I can see this isn’t the case. The sounds of screaming and far off attacks of some sort invade my ears like thunder, but I hear something closer… something more familiar. It’s a shuffling sound with irregular bumps every now and again and... something, someone else. Som...

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“Imaginational Dabrowski steps up” by Jo Freitag

Submitted to Contest #285

Write a story in which someone time-travels 25 years or more into the past.“That’s the prompt? Time travel! That is my specialty! Where do you want to go and when?”That was Imaginational Dabrowski, the cute little Bedlington Terrier, who is one of the five canine companion editors for Little Plump Jo, the current Artisan in Residence in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin.There is debate about the level of reality of the Dabrowski Dogs. Some consider them to be literal dogs; others understand them as personifications of Dabrowski’s overexcitab...

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“The Greatest Of All Great Men” by W B

Submitted to Contest #285

He clasped the lever and dragged it down. A cacophonous burst of energy and the machine exploded into life. Metallic fibres hummed with possibility as Charles Rothstein climbed into the capsule and unfurled his scribbled notes: ‘ED-B: +56%, HVRT: +44%, SPU: +43%, EVT: +40%, GU: +35%’ Of course, travelling back 25 days to invest in profitable shares wasn’t the most creative use of time travel, but he had to test the contraption somehow. Besides, boosting his net worth by a cool $178bn wouldn’t hurt. The divorce had been crippling but on...

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“Nora and Luna” by Brittney Cleveland

Submitted to Contest #285

Nora approached the creaky wooden steps, their groans reminiscent of an elderly woman’s moans with each step she took. Glancing down, she thought, "Those need to be replaced." With a deep breath, she faced the front door and gently pushed it open. Suddenly, a flurry of bats erupted from the darkness, startling her and nearly causing her to stumble as she let out a scream. Regaining her balance, she stepped inside, illuminating the space with the flashlight on her phone. Nora ve...

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Write a story in which someone time-travels 25 years or more into the past.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 75 stories

“Holding Hands” by M. Darrow

“Pond Water” by Karen Gregory

“A Lifetime of Questions” by Natalie Wills

“Hello future me!” by Elena Ivachtchenko

“Camel Yellow” by Giulio Coni

“Get On Your Glad Rags” by Jennifer Abrahamsen

“Dancing with Disaster” by Carlos Guzman

“Groupchat from the past” by Joelle Snow

“The Travels of Dr. Rebecca Harper ” by Elizabeth Woolsey

“The Hit That Broke the Timeline” by Bob Faszczewski

“Fresh Grass and Hospitality” by Lauren LeCocq

“One More Time” by Lou Taylor

“Imaginational Dabrowski steps up” by Jo Freitag

“The Greatest Of All Great Men” by W B

“Nora and Luna” by Brittney Cleveland

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story in the form of a landline phone conversation.

Write a story from the POV of a now-defunct piece of technology.

Write a story about people preparing for Y2K.

Write a story with a character or the narrator saying “I remember…”

Contest #285

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

430

Contest entries

147

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: