Start your story with a description of the cold, using lots of sensory detail.

Posted in Winter on Dec 1, 2023

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✍️ 65 stories

“Snow Dragon” by Joseph Wilbur

Submitted to Contest #227

He hated the cold. It always brought out the worst in him. The way it chilled him to the bones no matter how many layers he piled on. The way it crept into the corners of his home even with a roaring fire. It was the jilted lover flaunting her success after leaving him by shoving it in his face whenever she saw him. It made him hate to leave his cabin for even the most basics of necessity. Like fire wood. Fire was the gluttonous demon that constantly needed to be fed. Without fire the cold became stronger and more oppressive. He hated ...

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“Leaning on the Everlasting” by William Torion

Submitted to Contest #227

It is only an ice bath, but none of your parishioners ever describe it that way. They never mention the cold at all. Words like freezing or frigid or icy never escape their cerulean, trembling lips. They never recount any tingling or numbing in their pallid hands and feet, constricted like frozen amethyst in the aftermath.Instead, they articulate the pain. The stabbing of many knives as the body meets the water, displacing thick clumps of ice, clinking against the tub’s steel walls. The sharpness of their last gasping breath, scorching the l...

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“Snowed under Xmas ” by Rebecca Maric

Submitted to Contest #227

Lucy is facing a Christmas alone and the prospect of losing her job unless she can win a major of business from Ross Wilks.amf she was almost late for the most important meeting of her life at the company.of advertising. There you are . Rhea.the reception calling her and taking her coat from her.wow you look stunning no-one can look quite stunning like you for the festive season My grandma knitted it though the sparkly wool was a nightmare to work with.she had not really been late for the office meeting as she noticed all chairs were still e...

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“A Token Of Friendship” by Anesa Feratovic

Submitted to Contest #227

The cold settled in the subway station like an unwelcome guest, its icy fingers reaching between the gaps in the turnstiles all the way down to the tracks. The irony of a subway station being above ground did not escape Dalia as she aimlessly paced through the station, the crunch of fresh snow echoing under the worn soles of her black combat boots. Her “going out” boots, as she likes to call them.The air hung heavy with the crisp scent of winter, with frost painting delicate patterns on the train time signals. F Train, 28 minutes. Dalia then...

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“Dead Cold” by Gale Nighting

Submitted to Contest #227

The cold air pierced through Sofiya’s skin, leaving no warmth behind as it consumed her body alive. The door to her home had only been open for a few seconds, and yet her eyelashes were enveloped in snow, and her lips had cracked and were bleeding, turning into a deep blue color. The strong air current creaked her door open more, slamming it to the wall. The glacial wind ate through her scarf and mittens, her small hands frigid, her bones brittle and aching. The winter season showed no mercy to little girls like herself, slipping through the...

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“If you hear the screams, it’s too late” by Omar Scott

Submitted to Contest #227

I heard the sound of a blood curdling scream that woke me out of my sleep at 3am. At first I thought I had imagined it. And my heavy eyes shut closed again. Shivering from the freezing temperatures, I curled into a fetal position and went back to sleep. I was amazed that I could sleep at all. It’s probably because I’m exhausted from climbing, and the roar of the wind emanating from the mountain sounded serine, much like waves crashing ...

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“St. Elsewhere” by Alex Kamczyc

Submitted to Contest #227

The pearl white snow seemed to swirl around the man in black like water going down a drain. Despite the fact it was near zero degrees, he sat there motionless on the bridge’s rail, overlooking the icy river below. A shiver ran down my spine and I couldn’t decide whether it was the cold air that bit like a starved dog or the black void that seemed not to care about anything. Without thinking, I began walking to him. I didn’t understand why he was so alluring, but I had a gut feeling something bad was going to happen. Being a d...

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“Mother of Sorrows” by N.M. Stech

Submitted to Contest #227

The pub door swung open and violated the quiet darkness of the downtown street. Light spilled from the open door, and with it the loud, buzzing, hive sounds of dozens of laughing, drunken voices. Like debris tossed onto the shore by a breaking wave, a man shuffled out into the night, smiling and waving back over his shoulder into the pub. The door closed, and the silent darkness swallowed him. His smile faded quickly, wilting against the chill wind. He pulled his long overcoat tighter against the wind, put his hands deep in its pockets, and ...

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“Don't Come!” by Robert Reischl

Submitted to Contest #227

"DON'T COME! Because it's too dangerous" she said at Christmas, but it was Christmas, and everyone goes home at Christmas, he told himself. It's a tradition. "No, DON'T COME! It's dangerous!" his mother stressed it, AGAIN, when it's a tradition and everyone goes home at Christmas. Now in the cavernous halls of the college dormitory, which like an abandoned building that's desolate and devoid like everyone has fled, and the sound of his footfalls resonated down the lonely and echoing emptiness. When a door closes behind the last one, and they...

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“Rip So Hard” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

Submitted to Contest #227

Cold pinches the little girl’s face, freezes her skin, and stings. The cold enters into her mouth, throat, lungs with every breath, hurting. The cold numbs her nose to the point that she doesn’t even feel it. She thinks of the Calvin & Hobbes comic where Calvin walks out the door in winter, makes a face, and breaks the fourth wall, looking out of the comic panel and asking the reader, “Don’t you just hate it when your boogers freeze?” No, she doesn’t particularly hate that. She hates falling more. Halos of white light glow at t...

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“You is the Reader” by Eko Epsilon

Submitted to Contest #227

I don't think you'd know Cold until it bit you on the nose. Because that's exactly where it starts. It turns your bones to stone. See your frantic grasps. Grasping out for loose heat. Heat that snakes through your flesh and wisps away into that space. That cold that tricks. Disguises itself as a warm friend. Embracing you in a toxin to take away your taste.I've been in the throes of Cold, dear reader. So chilling that you spend half the movie looking for a sweater instead of preparing for the ending. You know the one, potentially. Actually, ...

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“Jack Frost” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #227

Like age, the numbness crept up on his blindside and entered unannounced. He was somewhere else as it happened, but there all the same. The set changers scurried around, unseen and unheard, and there wasn’t even a curtain to hide their ministrations. He sat quietly at his screen, but the energy of his slight movements spoke of action and brought a noise along with them anyway. Tapping at the keys, the outline of words appeared upon the virgin snow of the page, the heat of them holding the fresh fall at bay. Intent silence surrounded him ...

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“The Search For Shelter” by Kimberley Dezan

Submitted to Contest #227

My shoe breaks through the hard outer scab of snow, sharp icy edges adding fine scratches to my bare ankle as I hurry forward as fast as I can go. Panting. Beside me, little Piper scampers wren-like atop the crust of glittering white. Piles of high, sparkling, powder surround us; trees look as if they’ve been coated in crystal and thick quiet flakes of snow have begun fill the sky. If this were any other day, the scene would have been idyllic, instead, I’m filled with panic at the slowness of which I’m wading through the calf-deep ...

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“I May Be Some Time” by Edward Savage

Submitted to Contest #227

Cold. Darkness. Wind. Above all …. Cold. Hellish cold. Hear my words all you fine preachers standing high in your Sunday pulpits, giving your weekly sermons of blood and thunder. Making pronouncements of how a vengeful God will judge, of how the Devil and all his minions are waiting for us with pitchforks and fire for the smallest infringement of a commandment. You are wrong. Hell is not heat, nor lakes of fire. Neither is it brimstone. Hell is unremitting cold, dark, full of snow and ice. Hell is this god-forsaken la...

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“The Reunion Of Matthew And Rosie” by CT Milroy

Submitted to Contest #227

The Reunion of Matthew and Rosie By CT Milroy The snow was soft underfoot. The first fall of winter had announced itself just a couple of hours before, and was still falling with silent enthusiasm as Matthew stepped beyond the threshold into the night’s chill. After settling his grip on the soft powder, he closed his eyes, and lifted...

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Start your story with a description of the cold, using lots of sensory detail.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 65 stories

“Snow Dragon” by Joseph Wilbur

“Leaning on the Everlasting” by William Torion

“Snowed under Xmas ” by Rebecca Maric

“A Token Of Friendship” by Anesa Feratovic

“Dead Cold” by Gale Nighting

“If you hear the screams, it’s too late” by Omar Scott

“St. Elsewhere” by Alex Kamczyc

“Mother of Sorrows” by N.M. Stech

“Don't Come!” by Robert Reischl

“Rip So Hard” by 𝔊𝔲𝔞𝔡𝔞𝔩𝔲𝔭𝔢 𝔗𝔢𝔩𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔞𝔯

“You is the Reader” by Eko Epsilon

“Jack Frost” by Jed Cope

“The Search For Shelter” by Kimberley Dezan

“I May Be Some Time” by Edward Savage

“The Reunion Of Matthew And Rosie” by CT Milroy

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone looking out the window and seeing the first snowfall of the season.

Write a story where someone shares a cup of hot chocolate with a friend.

Your character hates the holidays, and jets out of town every year — but a historic snow storm means that this time, they can’t make their escape.

Write about a character emerging from hibernation, whether literally or metaphorically.

Contest #227

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

299

Contest entries

130

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: