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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of bedtime short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

1110+ Bedtime Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Everybody loves a story before bed, and our collection of bedtime short stories has got you covered.

Bedtime Short Stories – Page 4 of 74

Her favorite color

Submitted to Contest #292

Raya sat in her room, eyeing the dull piece of paper that read a list of questions to answer for a class assignment. The first question would be seen as easy to most, but the second she laid eyes on it, ants ran through her limbs, and a weight sat on her chest. She managed to finish the rest of the assignment before going back to the seemingly insignificant question.What is your favorite color?She sat there, pen in hand, the world being a swirl of washed out colors around her. The vividness began to increase the more frustrated she became. T...

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A Brush of Colour, A Stroke of Courage Or, The Rainbow Beyond the Fear

Submitted to Contest #292

Once upon a time, a girl named Amy lived in a quaint village. While washing the dishes, she saw her stepmother sitting in her rocking chair by the radio as its crackling voice warned of 'monsters lurking in the forest' and 'dangers beyond the village.' The radio's glowing knobs seemed to pulse ominously. Amy shivered, her stepmother's fearful whispers echoing in her ears. The radio's voice was soothing yet insidious, weaving tales of terror that settled in listeners' minds like a fog. When Amy stared too long at its glowing knobs, she felt h...

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The Boy Who Believed

Submitted to Contest #292

Once upon a time, in a land oddly similar to here, there was a place where the sun never came up. A place where all manifestations were truths, and the darkness enveloped the horizon as clouds did the blue. To the left were collective sorrows, and to the right were the eaves of decaying homes with the poor folks living beneath.  The roads were as silver as the illuminations above, all draping the world in a monochrome lens. Each lamp post aligning the stone pathways were like interrogation lights, a white circle drawn on the ground that...

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The Briefcase

Submitted to Contest #291

            Bernard walked the same path, the same way, the same time, each day of the year. And when he’d arrive at his destination he’d sit on the bench and wait.  In spring he wore his khakis and a pilled cardigan over a plain white t-shirt with a yellowing neckline. In summer he wore a faded pair of Bermuda shorts and he’d lose the sweater, revealing the t-shirt’s faint armpit stains. In the autumn months he’d return to the khakis and don an overcoat atop the t-shirt to war...

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Five Stories Deep

Submitted to Contest #291

Phillip Galleazzo, the Duke of Milan, was dreaming of a glass cage when he woke to the sound of pounding upon his bedroom door. “Your grace! Your grace!” It was Vincento, his guard captain, who suddenly burst in. “What is this about?” The Duke demanded of his most trusted subordinate. “Intruders, your grace!” Vincento gasped between hurried breaths. “Found in your storerooms. We think they’ve all fled… I chased one of them back over the wall myself.”“Intruders! In my storerooms! Did they make off with anything?”“We haven’t made a t...

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Damn Pink Book

Submitted to Contest #291

I left early enough. I want to be at the Writer’s Center at least thirty minutes before my reading. Traffic's moving slowly. I might be late. I got the feeling in the pit of my stomach. I’m always late no matter how hard I try. I couldn’t see what was up ahead of me so I didn't know what was holding up the traffic.  The car in front of me turns and I can see there's a fire truck parked on the side of the road. The fireman is opening a fire hydrant. About 100 kids are standing on the street waiting to get to be sprinkled from the fire hy...

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Now You See Us

Submitted to Contest #291

Dipping and soaring, we fly through skies of rippled blue, eyes fixed upon the ocean. Constantly shifting shape and focus, waves churn up spume which land like snowflakes on the shore. To the distant eye, we appear like specks of grey in the sky.Playing at Peekaboo. Now you see us, now you don’t.Sometimes called “parrots of the sea,” we’re not all we seem. Flying at speeds of up to 55 miles, our wings beat extra hard as we wait for the sea to calm. Other times we avoid the tumult by ducking and swimming underwater. Using our wings and feet a...

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An Unwanted Presence

Submitted to Contest #291

I was being watched. It was a dreary, overcast Saturday afternoon, and I was standing behind the vertical blinds at my living room window drinking a Bloody Mary, when I noticed that a heavyset man with piercing black eyes in a black trench coat was standing at a distance, staring directly at me. I stood there watching him watching me. I was gripped by fear. Should I call the cops? Why would anyone want to spy on me? I had recently broken up with my boyfriend, Jeff, and wondered if he had hired a private investigator to keep tabs on me? I was...

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Tea Made From Seawater

Submitted to Contest #291

Warm liquid pours from the spout and into my teacup. As I hold it out for her, my palms grow hotter with the cups increasing weight. I can make out a faint green shade coming from the teapot. Steam rises, filling the room steadily with the smell of sage. She cuts the stream and sets the teapot down. The china against her wood coffee table makes a faint sound, one barely audible under the distant crashing of Atlantic ocean waves. Lei leans back in her seat that faces me, grabbing a notepad and pen. I admire the view of the ocean through floor...

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Memories of Stories Past

Submitted to Contest #290

Some summer nights, when the stars were just blinking their hellos to the sleepy world below, when it was so still it seemed the world had stopped its turning, when the cicadas and crickets harmonized their strings with the periodic bass of the bullfrog, my grandfather would give me a wink at dinner. Our secret signal would soon find me hugging the rolled navy blanket to my chest, taking deep breaths of the musty, earthy smell that never left its faded threads, and trotting behind my grandfather next to the lilac hedge that fenced our backya...

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The Lucky Molecule

Submitted to Contest #288

“Hey…whoa!” The words barely escape my mouth before a gust of wind tears me away from Libby.“Gem!” I hear Libby cry, but her voice is drowned out by the sound of one of my nitrogen atoms brushing none-too-gently across the old man's prickly face.“Ow!” Before I have a moment to register my discomfort, the world around me is enveloped in a grayish pink color. I can feel the windy vortex pulling me faster and I'm utterly powerless to stop it. The other molecules around me yell and quake with fear as our pink surroundings turn to red, and as eno...

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Cora's Magic

Submitted to Contest #288

In the middle of the night, the skies are as black as a void. The nocturnals are howling ridiculous tunes, and humanoids are on a hunt. The pale creatures scream while running into the darkness with their pitchforks in the air and torches held far too close to their chests. They shout profanities and miraculously avoid trampling over each other. All in a group effort to catch the one they deemed unfit to be in their community; the one with spells and powerful magic known as a witch.  Cora exhaled as the mob sprinted past her. One of her...

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The comforts of home

Submitted to Contest #288

The perfect storm settled around us in layers. One by one. Until there was nothing but us. Each other. His hazel eyes. My sleepy smile. Two hearts, one whole. The first layer was the delicate snowflakes floating down, sparkling. My call into the night air brought our calico friend trotting in through the back door. She twists and winds round my leaden legs. Her ginger and black and white fur crimped by moisture, whiskers twinkling as if festooned with fairy lights. As she disappears to take up her station looking hopeful by an empty bowl, I...

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Eerie Apartment: The Video Game (based on the Award-Winning Movie)

Submitted to Contest #288

TW- Contains mentions of miscarriage, disownment, and dark themes.You’re reclining on the couch, a blanket sitting on you, rubbing softly against your bare legs. The blue light of the TV is the only light in the room; it was the only bill you had thought of to pay. It’s hot, but you left a window open, so at least a little wind blows as rain paints your floor. A bag of chips lay at your side, crunching every time you move. Your hair is a mess, and your pajamas are a little too big, but it was the cheapest ones you could find.It’s been a week...

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On the Porch

Submitted to Contest #288

A curl tickled my mother's frown while the breeze wound its way through the porch posts of the oldest house I belonged to. My aunts were making fun of her - as usual. But she was the youngest and used to it. I was ten and not paying attention. Higgins, the best cat, was standing in my lap. Orange, enormous, and mostly feral, his feather duster tail twitched across my nose. He was clearly about to murder something. I looked to see what was about to be hunted. Around the corner a chicken was running down the street. Scooped by neighbor who, as...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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