Set your story during a complete city or nation-wide blackout.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Feb 3, 2023

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✍️ 52 stories

“Origin of a Villain” by Peter Sugiharto

Submitted to Contest #184

See! I know the faithful day will soon arrive. Not later, not fifteen years from now, but today! Back then, when YouTube was good, some people started to theorize that the end of the world, or cataclysm, would happen in 2012. Eleven years from now, it had become only a rumor. Since then, the internet has become an integral part of our everyday life. Smartphones, smart tv, or even smart home. Everything is smart, but people are only smart when we choose to be smart. My friend told me, "Imagine if the armageddon we wait for is not because...

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“Peach Soda” by Jaye Hunter

Submitted to Contest #184

New York City Summer 2035 Taker says freckles are a commodity. That was his answer when I said I didn't like mine—something about a privilege to show how long I've spent in the light, like the everybodies who live on the skylevel roofs or out in the flats instead of us asphalt-and-shade nobodies. I said he should learn what "commodity" means, instead of just reading the word somewhere and using it halfway out of context. (At least he's reading again.) You can't buy or sell freckles, though I wish I could. I accumulate them fa...

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“They're Here for Us” by John Blanton Jr.

Submitted to Contest #184

Bang! Bang! Bang! Hank peeks through the peephole and sees a short, dirty malnourished man with a dingy old cane. “Go away, Tom, I just got home from work, and I am not in any mood for you today.” Bang! Bang! Bang! Tom smacks his cane on the door. “They’re here, they’re here for us; Hank, let's go hide.” “No, Tom, they are coming for you and your drugs if you don’t get off them.” Tom was the town crazy. Every day he would run around town telling everyone how “they” took him and were coming back for them al...

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“The city of stars ” by Maya Murray

Submitted to Contest #184

TW: murder The whole city is required to go to the festival of lights since we are celebrating ten years of success in our new world. I love it here, cars do not exist, and we have electric trains. The city is filled with plants, trees, and green grass. Our electricity comes from water, the sun, and wind. We live in houses made of recycled materials. We live on Gliese, a planet similar to Earth, also known as Zarmina. We are Zarminians. When the Earth was dying, some of us were sent on a mission to find a new home, and 10 years ago, 50 of...

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“Nowhere to Go” by Linda Casson

Submitted to Contest #184

The first sign of trouble was the silence from our aging analog radio. Frida and I woke up most days to a rock ’n roll classic floating out on the air, great songs we had known the lyrics to forty years earlier. It was the missing music that woke me. Once my eyes were open, our bedroom was suspiciously dark, and when I looked out the window, the traffic lights on the streets below weren’t working. The paltry morning traffic was unsettling for a typical New York workday. It was raining hard. The face of the bedside clock had stopped at 2am...

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“Hide” by Anandita Sengar

Submitted to Contest #184

“ Mom! Where are you? It’s so dark!” I cry. “ Honey, calm down, I’m trying to find a flashlight, I will come and get you, just stay where you are!” My mom yells It was dark and no one could see, I could hear my little brother breathing really hard, so I started to look for his inhaler. I was feeling around for it but I still couldn’t find it. My brother, Rickey, has Asthma. I looked out what I thought was my window, complete darkness. I was scared, we all were. No one knew what happened. “ Honey, I’m coming. I found a flashlight ...

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“The Uninvited Guest” by Karissa Norrington

Submitted to Contest #184

The floor was always cold beneath her feet, but not this cold. Grace felt around blindly for her slippers as she shrugged on her robe, keeping the light off to not wake her husband. The sound of the wind whistled down the fireplace flue and stirred the decomposing leaves in the yard as she closed the bedroom door behind her. The first grey tones of morning were giving contrast to the bare trees which rose through the valley outside the living room window, and she could see the dark, rising shape of the mountains beyond. Pulling her robe tigh...

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“Strange Encounters ” by M B

Submitted to Contest #184

Abbey’s brown eyes were growing heavy with sleep during her pre-bedtime reading: It was an admittedly trashy romance novel with supernatural themes, but she didn’t care - no one was around to judge her. The caramel-skinned girl was safe in her bed in the loft above her coffee shop. She had considered living in the place she worked a stroke of genius, she owned the building after all. Why pay rent or mortgage when she was still paying off her small business loans? Outside, the usually busy commerce street was quiet. The variou...

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“Morphology of a Dyad” by Dan Coglianese

Submitted to Contest #184

On a cold Saturday night in February, Mike and Beth invited two couples over to spend the “night of darkness” with. In their new house for less than a year, they were worried about what was going to happen during the planned blackout. Inviting Brent and his girlfriend Indya was a way to have someone in the know. Brent worked at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL. The other couple, Marcus and his wife Julya had been the closest friends to the other four in the six years since they all graduated from University of Illinois. &...

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“The blue planet” by F.O. Morier

Submitted to Contest #184

Old Theo watched with fondness as the new telescope was put in place. For as long as he could remember, he had been trying to persuade the elders to build this instrument; a duplicate of the instrument destroyed in the last war. This was the best telescope that could be built on Mars. Theo had done his utmost to convince the elders that it was so much more than luxury, and of the utmost importance. -"This project must succeed!" he said passionately, looking at his students. Like him, they were enthusiastic, but Theo was a little envious of t...

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“Until the Lights Come Back On” by Jeanne Kiesinger

Submitted to Contest #184

Ahh, the first cup of the day. Always the best. I pull up my seat to the desk and begin working on book three of my series, G-Is for String. I've been lazy lately, with the cold weather and gray skies numbing my brain. It's time to rev up the action and create more tension between Tina and her ex- boyfriend, Jake.The last scene I wrote left them in a bar parking lot, Tina hiding behind the building watching the plot thicken after Jake's wife found him making out with another woman at a cozy table in the back of the place. Gee, I wonder how h...

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“Taken Away” by Arty -

Submitted to Contest #184

My brother was cooking dinner, and my mother was watching the news. She never watched the news, she always said that they focused on the negative things and never on the positive things happening in the world. However, today was different, the war was only getting worse and she knew that. Countries that were previously not involved were putting their people inside the lion’s mouth, and our nation was one of them. But I thought otherwise, it's just a game of politics like any other. There's always a lot of drama but nothing actually ever happ...

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“Damage Per Second” by 姐姐

Submitted to Contest #184

Trigger Warning (TW)/ Content Warning (CW): Adult Themes/ Language, Sexual Violence, Physical ViolenceDamage Per SecondIt had been hours ago last since glowing specks of dust glistened through the crooked branches of a terracotta home on a spring mountain. In place of the sun bleeding into the sky was a waning moon. Ms. Méng, a young, slim woman with long, dark hair like crow feathers, lived in those woods. She was hunting for mushrooms but stopped for a breather, admiring the city skyline from afar. Little did she expect that the lights in ...

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“Escape from the dark” by Lorenzo Fusini

Submitted to Contest #184

‘This is a public announcement. All non-essential services are shutting down in five minutes. Expected blackout duration: forty minutes. Smoking is strictly forbidden throughout the Moon.’A crowd of around three hundred people had gathered under the Edge City Station Dome. Some were standing by the glass wall, others were sitting under the trees. A news reporter was talking on camera, her voice higher than usual.‘This is Kelly again, speaking from the Edge City Dome. As you’ve just heard from the PA, the Moon-wide blackout will start in just...

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“We are in deep dark” by Johnny Fist

Submitted to Contest #184

As I am in Ukraine, it is usual to live in a dark. Not only because of night, but also due to understandable issues. It is war, babe, and if you’re not with a gun in a trench, but doing your job at home or in the office, you need to be ready that few times per day city will be in total dark. You now, it is funny, when you ask people “what are they doing, when the light goes down?”. Someone desperately looking for a new place, because they are fully depending on the computer, someone just chilling, and someone looking for a reason to say, t...

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Set your story during a complete city or nation-wide blackout.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 52 stories

“Origin of a Villain” by Peter Sugiharto

“Peach Soda” by Jaye Hunter

“They're Here for Us” by John Blanton Jr.

“The city of stars ” by Maya Murray

“Nowhere to Go” by Linda Casson

“Hide” by Anandita Sengar

“The Uninvited Guest” by Karissa Norrington

“Strange Encounters ” by M B

“Morphology of a Dyad” by Dan Coglianese

“The blue planet” by F.O. Morier

“Until the Lights Come Back On” by Jeanne Kiesinger

“Taken Away” by Arty -

“Damage Per Second” by 姐姐

“Escape from the dark” by Lorenzo Fusini

“We are in deep dark” by Johnny Fist

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone saying “Houston, we have a problem.”

Write a story about a character who is experiencing glitches in their reality.

Write about someone who has chosen to disconnect and live an analog life.

Write a story where a character has to decide whether to press the button or not.

Contest #184

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

281

Contest entries

121

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Set your story during a complete city or nation-wide blackout.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 52 stories

“Origin of a Villain” by Peter Sugiharto

“Peach Soda” by Jaye Hunter

“They're Here for Us” by John Blanton Jr.

“The city of stars ” by Maya Murray

“Nowhere to Go” by Linda Casson

“Hide” by Anandita Sengar

“The Uninvited Guest” by Karissa Norrington

“Strange Encounters ” by M B

“Morphology of a Dyad” by Dan Coglianese

“The blue planet” by F.O. Morier

“Until the Lights Come Back On” by Jeanne Kiesinger

“Taken Away” by Arty -

“Damage Per Second” by 姐 姐

“Escape from the dark” by Lorenzo Fusini

“We are in deep dark” by Johnny Fist

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone saying “Houston, we have a problem.”

Write a story about a character who is experiencing glitches in their reality.

Write about someone who has chosen to disconnect and live an analog life.

Write a story where a character has to decide whether to press the button or not.

Contest #184

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

281

Contest entries

121

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

“Damage Per Second” by 姐姐