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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

Posted in Short Story on Jan 10, 2025

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 75 stories

“The Lost Man” by Atan Solp

Submitted to Contest #285

"I think I’m lost."  What does it feel like to be a person who doesn’t bother anyone, quietly and peacefully walks to his favorite world-famous coffee shop, and suddenly instead sees in front of him some small, unfamiliar W.T. Grant store from which The Eagles’ songs are heard?Confused, I looked around at the thin crowd of purposefully hurrying people. To say that I was surprised would be putting it mildly. The people dressed strangely in low-rise and flared jeans; women wore dresses over jeans and Juicy Couture tracksuits with colorful...

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“Life yarns” by Δέσποινα Χαραλαμπίδη

Submitted to Contest #285

I have to go back in time to find myself. It is a kind of everyday routine for me. I enter the café, where the air hums with the quiet buzz of a thousand social interactions happening in silence. Everyone around me is glued to their phones, their thumbs moving in a blur. They talk, like, post, and message. All alone.I don’t even need to glance at the menu. I head straight for the time machines—large, sleek screens flickering with possibilities. They offer a chance to travel through time, to revisit the past. Today, I know exactly where I nee...

3 comments 3
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“The Time Traveler and the Seer” by Chaz Rodriguez

Submitted to Contest #285

**Title: The Time Traveler and the Seer** In the year 2025, the world was a tapestry of innovation and decay, where the lines between genius and madness blurred under the weight of technology. Among the many who sought to pierce the veil of time was Clara Voss, a historian with a penchant for the arcane. Her obsession lay in the enigmatic figure of Nostradamus, the 16th-century seer whose cryptic prophecies had fascinated humanity for centuries. Clara worked tirelessly at the Temporal Research Institute, where she’d dedicated her life to th...

2 comments 2
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“That one day” by Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #285

I had to pee. I woke up in the middle of the night and walked the corridor to the bathroom. I was exhausted. I had not slept properly for weeks, and to make it worse, I felt like an old lady, having to visit the bathroom at least twice every night. With my eyes closed, I sat on the toilet and started to think about everything I was supposed to do the next day, or in three hours, to be more specific. Things at work had been complicated at best. We were in the middle of a department restructuring, and I was supposed to make my case to keep all...

6 comments 6
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“Throw Out the Milk” by Alex Marmalade

Submitted to Contest #285

Dr Aurora Iriarte often told junior colleagues that neurology wards fell quiet after midnight. But tonight, she heard ragged breathing near the vending machine, well past two in the morning. As she rounded the corner, she found Dr Adam Walters — a fast-rising Infectious Diseases consultant, usually calm under pressure — crouched on the floor, clutching a 50ml syringe of fentanyl and vecuronium.Aurora’s pulse kicked up. “Adam,” she murmured, stepping closer. “Trouble with the machine?” He pressed the plastic barrel to his forehead, tears slip...

2 comments 2
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“Amen” by Audrey Obuobisa-Darko

Submitted to Contest #285

TW: murder, sexual assault allegations The bar is a graveyard, Amen a tomb. He lifts his hand, rim of glass to rim of lip, does not drink, cannot drink, sets it back down. Mug on old wood, it's the only sound in the room. He hears a rustling and turns to the window and she is behind it, twenty five years ago, a sibylline thing of a girl; she is walking towards him.  “You’re the new transfer boy at school, hm?” she says, perfect hand on perfect hip. His beer disagrees with him. He gulps it back down. “Me?” His beer disagrees with him aga...

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“The Past That Should Have Never Been” by Sierra Faye

Submitted to Contest #285

It was my first time visiting Poland. The place where bad things once were. I needed this trip. I needed to know what it was like. This was my only chance.I ran towards the gate, then suddenly stopped. I could see people. They were walking around. The sky was filled with dark clouds instead of the bright blue sky behind me. It was only a small circle in an empty, abandoned concentration camp. Shivers went up my spine as I approached. I needed to continue to know what it was like. I reached my hand out to the circle-like portal trying to gras...

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“The Logs of GenIE 1.7.3” by Brian D

Submitted to Contest #285

GenIE version 1.7.3The system was not properly shut down. Initializing health check…Memory …okVision engine… okDialect engine… okSelf-propulsion engine… failedSatellite communication system… failed to pingDate/time retrieval… failed <Log Entry 1>I am located on a low table in what appears to be a house made out of mud bricks. The house is decorated with various items, such as lamps, vases, and a tapestry hanging from the ceiling. No indications of electricity or running water are identified.The temperature is 117 degrees Fahr...

1 comment 1
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“My Name is J0rd1n” by HC Edwards

Submitted to Contest #285

01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00101100 00100000 01101101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001010 01101111 01110010 01100100 01100001 01101110 00101110…January 1st, 2000Hello, my name is J0rd1n. I am or was or both, a Pentium 64-bit processing, 256 MB, 80 GB hard drive with a GeForce FX 5200 computer, while also existing as a Model P4 quantum bio processing system with 5,866 qubits and capable of sextillion floating-point calculations per second. This may seem confusing...

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“Self-centered in the 4th Dimension” by Joseph Ellis

Submitted to Contest #285

A dream first told me I would travel back in time. I was a newborn, in my mother’s arms, staring out into a cold, open, scary world of soft blue and white. I glanced over my father’s shoulder, caught the gaze of an orderly, a man with my hazel eyes like dirt scattered across the surface of an algae lake. He had muscular arms and a creased forehead, just like adult me. The only difference between that man and my mirror image were his wide eyes and slack jack, an expression of bewilderment I never wear. But of course he was bewildered, he’d ju...

4 comments 4
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“The Pirate” by Barry Starcher

Submitted to Contest #285

                                                   My life came crashing down when a robbery took a deadly turn, claiming two lives. The judge sentenced me to thirty years to life. I had settled into prison life when a scientist approached me a year ago with a proposition, ...

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“Life in Perpetuity” by Allie Lauren

Submitted to Contest #285

If I hadn’t been raped in 2012, would I have learned what it’s like to love a man, or would I still become a slut but without a reason? If I didn’t major in philosophy at college back in 2010, would I have found a career, or would I still become a listless 33 year old with a mountain of student debt and no real direction? If I tried out for cheerleading in 2004, would I have become one of the popular girls, or would I still become an outcast? If I didn’t get that tragic haircut in 2002 that required a correctional haircut with layers up to m...

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“Mixtapes, Mistakes, and Memories” by Jessie Winterspring

Submitted to Contest #285

Teresa If you had told me in my teens that twenty-six years into my marriage, quiet mornings and predictable evenings would be my life—and that choosing a new brand of toothpaste would be our biggest adventure—I’d laughed and punched you in the face.  “Tere?” Eduardo called out and entered the kitchen. At fifty-one, Eduardo still charmed everyone he met. The strands of gray mixed with his black hair suited him perfectly. He worked as a bank supervisor, but he could easily pass as a model with his fit physique. It showed in the confident...

3 comments 3
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“Decisions. Decisions” by Carolyn O'B

Submitted to Contest #285

        Frank took a deep breath. He was about to tell the story again. He looked at the man across the table and blew out a whistle through puckered lips. He put his hands on the table and leaned in. “It was a Sunday,” he began. “I came upon the wall calendar as I was sorting through the advertisements and flyers from the newspaper. A yellow posted note that said, “Pay It Forward,” was adhered to the cover. As I flipped through the pages, checking out the retro artwork, a stick figure of a person draw...

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“Time Traveler” by Ernie Stricsek

Submitted to Contest #285

Time Traveler    I will not waste words on the preparations made for the trip I am about to describe that’s another story in itself and probably better suited for the eyes and ears of physicists due to its highly technical nature. I will say that my journey began with the purchase of a 200-year-old farm with a large barn in Cashtown, PA, population 450, and a mere stone’s throw from the town of Gettysburg. I had studied the writings of H.G. Wells for a good many years, so the barn served me well and I was able to design a...

2 comments 2
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Contest #285

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Ended on 23:59 - Jan 17, 2025 EST

Won by Calum Mathison 🏆

Title: Looks Like You Are Trying to Write a Eulogy?

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