Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story with a number or time in the title.

Posted in Short Story on Apr 4, 2025

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 100 stories

Five More Minutes

Submitted to Contest #297

I don't dream about you anymore. I used to every single night. The house was too dark when I would wake but was impossible to fall back to sleep. There's a gaping hole inside my heart. Its been there since the day you went away.***July 17th is still the hardest day of the year for me. And as it draws near again, I try to imagine another year without you. So much has changed. Your Dad and I are no longer together. He couldn't bear to see me suffer from the unimageable grief of losing you. He moved out a few months after your accident, leaving...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Little Girl with 12 Fingers & 12 Toes

Submitted to Contest #297

The young girl eventually turned 13. She was now a little older but still a ravishing beauty—with her long, curly black hair, skin as white as snow, and eyes as green as emeralds. Everything about her was just remarkable and flawless, except for her 12 fingers and 12 toes. Despite this anomaly, she was now a lot more confident in herself than she had ever been. She had made many new friends along the way over the years… But once in a while, she was often reminded of her abnormality when others made fun of her. And in one particular instance...

5 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Twenty-Nine Minutes of Terror

Submitted to Contest #297

Twenty-Nine Minutes of Terror 5:33 PM: Nine-year-old Alison McDermont danced around the small kitchen in her family’s duplex on Pinetree Lane as she hummed, She Loves You, by the Beatles in anticipation of her parents’ arrival home from work. She had just finished setting the dining room table and eagerly looked forward to the lemon pie her mother had promised for dessert. “Muffin? Where are you?” she shouted. She glanced around the kitchen looking for her cat. From the corner of her eye, she saw a ball of orange fur race around the refriger...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

You Die Two Times

Submitted to Contest #297

“What year is it?”The panel in front of Paul hummed before it answered in a friendly female voice “2507.”Paul took a deep breath. I slept for almost five hundred years. “Why have you woken me up?”“Your conviction has been overturned.” replied the female voice. “You need to make a choice between three options; live out your estimated remaining natural life, live forever, or expire now with your name cleared of wrongdoing."Paul was silent as he looked around the room.There were things he recognized, like a flag hanging above the panel but with...

5 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

WHEN THE DAWN BREAKS AND THE SUN RISES: 5 MINUTES IS FOREVER

Submitted to Contest #297

Time passes slowly when you stare into the eyes of your one true love but in fact you only have minutes to spend with her. The minutes go by fast. You want more time. The fates of time are against you. Time is your enemy. I count down the minutes, the hours until I see my love. The dawn is breaking and soon the sun will rise. The forest is where my love lives. She will become human only to turn into a wolf. A few minutes is not enough time. I want to hold her not pet her. I want to look into her eyes as I tell her I love her. I want to talk ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

23:57:06 - A few minutes before the End - Story of the race of the minutes and my inner voices

Submitted to Contest #297

I can’t believe the time is almost up. Just a few minutes and everything is going to be over. Here it comes, midnight is lost and I have to rush to get to bed and close my eyes prior to midnight! And if I manage to accomplish that everything will be OK. If I pass the time awake just one minute after the day is over it would be like entering a new dimension and all that happened during the day will be erased, everything! Absolutely everything! And everyone…since the boy riding a bike this morning delivering papers until the love of my life wh...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

12:24 to Infinity

Submitted to Contest #297

Whether he was conscious was up for debate. I received the news from my mother a day after my father's trip to the ER. It had happened before. He was a chronic smoker, and even after the first time, needing to receive a little metallic device inserted into an artery and bleeding with the tiniest scratch, he still didn't live any differently. Then there was the second time. I barely remember what happened. He returned just the same. So it goes. "I see," I said. "No," Mother said, "I think it's real this time." "You think so?" "Do you want to ...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

11:11

Submitted to Contest #297

Liliana knew it was stupid. She did. Really. Still, every time the clock stroke 11:11, she couldn’t help closing her eyes and wishing to whichever greater force took pity on her that for once she would experience the love she so craved. Every dandelion, eyelash, birthday candle and penny had been wasted on the dream of a love that had overlooked her. And every 11:11 she would wish again. Maybe it was immaturity. Stubborn as ever, she refused to give up hope. Holding on to the childhood fantasy that her first love was a meet cute away. He cou...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Sat. 11 am: Willow Point Park- SINGLE DADS CLUB

Submitted to Contest #297

Sat. 11 am- Willow Point ParkSINGLE DADS CLUB4:26 amHe cleaned the dishes. If I were to be kind about it, it only took him a year. I’m too drained to be petty. Hell, I’m too tired to continue even thinking about it. The throbbing hum quieted once I stepped into our apartment, kicking off the orthopedics that fused to my soles within the past 20 hours (but who’s counting? My paystub better be). I wind up my good shoulder, and chunk my trusty-Tired.Excuse me? I look past the kitchen and squint, hissing, try beloved-A cough seemed to come from ...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Final Offer at 05:00 hour

Submitted to Contest #297

Scheduling. Who would think of a plan to illustrate my time spent. Now a budget is simplicity with money. That would be a "time budget". There is only one major difference between time and money and that's we can borrow money and we can't borrow time. Once time is gone its gone and there is no way to get it back. Because there's no way to borrow more. We need to analyze focus on time spent wisely. As designing our schedule we create achievement. Anyway we don't let others dictate our agendas. Daily, weekly, monthly. Don't be discouraged. No ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

"It's Time: 0600"

Submitted to Contest #297

Prompt: Write a story with a number or time in the title.Prompt: Set you story before midnight or dawn. “It’s Time: 0600” The day looked dreary and cold even as the sun had just lifted above the horizon. The thick air turned the sunlight into straw-colored clouds as I looked out my window from my bed. The weather outside really does not matter anymore as I have little energy to do anything now. My breathing has been erratic even with all the gadgetry and tubes running into me. I spend my days now lying in this bed at the rehabilitation cen...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Four Seconds Left

Submitted to Contest #297

After winning every game in their district and winning the bi-district championship, it was time for the Tinsley High School Tigers to face the Jamestown High School Hawks for the regional football championship.This was the first time Tinsley had made it this far in the football playoffs in the last 22 years. The Tigers had been a domineering team this whole season. Everyone in the Tinsley area just knew that this would be their year.However, the Jamestown Hawks was not a pushover team. They also dominated all their games as well. With two p...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Seven O'clock, or Whenever

Submitted to Contest #297

“Seven O’clock… or Whenever”When Matt rolled over in bed the beam of early Spring sunlight hit him right in the face. He put his hand over his eyes and let out a long sigh. “Well,” he thought, “Daylight Savings Time or not, if I have to turn the clock ahead and lose an hour of sleep, I’m glad it’s on a Sunday.” He lay there staring at the ceiling for a few minutes. Before he could relax completely his alarm clock buzzed at the usual seven o’clock setting. He reached over and turned it off. Reluctantly, he got out of bed.He’d been divorced fo...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Seeking: 20F, Category: Missed Connections

Submitted to Contest #297

I’m looking for a twenty-year-old. You lived in the house on the corner of Twelfth Avenue for thirteen years. You used to crawl under the bed in the night because you didn’t want me to be lonely. I miss you. I’ve looked everywhere for you. I checked the cupboards, because you used to get trapped in there when you were very small and didn’t have a grasp on speech yet. That was when you babbled at me and reached for my tangled hair, your fat little fingers catching in the knots. You were too young to be scared by the pitted bruises under my e...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

TIME STORY

Submitted to Contest #297

THE BEGINNING‘So, what is Time, anyway?’ asked Joseph Jespersen. Not that he cared. He was stuck in this dead-end job, so-called science writer for a sensationalist newspaper, the man who interviewed the cranks and the weirdos for a column just before the sports section, that nobody ever bothered to read. It was called Strange Science, and at least the ‘Strange’ part of the title was correct. It was a collection of bizarre theories and obvious nonsense, from people who belonged in tinfoil hats, and occasionally wore them. He hated the job; h...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story just before midnight or dawn.

Short Story – 72 stories

Write a story where someone must make a split-second decision.

Dramatic – 39 stories

Set your story over the course of a few minutes.

Short Story – 65 stories

Write a story that includes the line “What time is it?”

Dialogue – 71 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel