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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about someone confronting their worst nightmare.

Posted in Dark on Nov 29, 2024

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 62 stories

“Melissa's Story” by Kaitlyn Wadsworth

Submitted to Contest #279

The sound of arguing voices enters my consciousness. My eyes are open. I feel my own presence standing before them, naked and exposed. They are discussing me. Who exactly are they? A team of men surround me. What am I? I glance around and conclude I am in a factory. Artificial body parts lay around the vast room. Machinery and cabinets abound. Is this my home?One man, with a domineering tone, towers over them. "I'm not impressed with the performance review. What have you all been doing these past months? Using up my money and tweaking, to wh...

22 comments 22
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“Galatians 3:28” by Marty B

Submitted to Contest #279

****Discussions of prejudice and violence*****The man stood in the open doors of the church. The afternoon sun poured around him like gold, casting his face in shadow. A cold wind blew in with him, swirling my robes and calling the yellow dog of fear to snarl and growl. Nothing good would come of this visit.“Father Lewin,” he spoke in a deep voice, “there has been an incident. Please come with me.” I stared at my summoner, his eyes hooded and dark. I had never seen him before, but it could only be one person. Tall, h...

22 comments 22
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“Twinkling ” by Viking Princess

Submitted to Contest #279

TW: death and suffering“There she was just a-walkin’ down the street, singin’ ‘do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do.'”And just like that she was gone. Dead in my truck. She died while smiling and singing to me. But really, she hadn't died, she'd been called up.I didn't know it at the time, none of us did. It wasn't like a quarter of the population just died all at once. No, no, far fewer. If not for the confusion, the mystery, it could have gone unnoticed.The news stations didn't start feeding us conspiracies until the hysteria started. Once peop...

13 comments 13
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“Long Shadow” by Helen A Howard

Submitted to Contest #279

At high tide, the late autumn sea swirls grey and menacing. As the sky turns twilight, it seems as if a giant has stamped along the main beach piling the shingle unnaturally high, but then Kevin recalls reading somewhere about stones being transferred from a quarry as part of a regeneration project. It’s been years since he stepped foot on this part of the coastline, let alone walked the length of its most recently built pier.In any case, such observations hold only a passing interest for a man haunted by another scene.Kevin is riveted by a ...

23 comments 23
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“The Devil You Know” by Scott Christenson

Submitted to Contest #279

I made it to Lamma Island the day the ferry stopped. I’m an American who has lived in Hong Kong since high school, I know the territory, and I choose my escape route carefully, though I admit I barely speak a word of Cantonese. I made the right choice. It turned out that Lamma Island, green, sparsely populated and just two kilometers off the coast, might be the best place on earth to survive a zombie apocalypse. Let me explain more. Banana and papaya trees pepper the jungle here, and the South China Sea teems with sea life. In an apocal...

16 comments 16
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“The Space Behind the Curtains” by Penelope Stansfield

Submitted to Contest #279

“So yeah, it’s all good, just so long as his wife doesn’t find out,” my friend, Lucy, is updating me on her latest conquest.  She always was a one for the boys and now that she’s in her fifties, nothing’s changed, flitting from one bloke to the next, but that’s her way and a sight raising of my eyebrows is the most I ever respond with.  None of us is perfect. “Anyway,” she continues, sipping her flat white spiced cinnamon something or other, “what are you up to tonight whilst Justin’s away?  Got anything planned?” she adds wit...

7 comments 7
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“Those Without Shadows” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #279

I have heard of those who  live in a strange land where the inhabitants lack shadows.  Due to this fact, the mysterious oppidan do not have any proof of their existence. In this odd place, gravity has no purchase.  All that seems real is nothing, but an illusion. This place is a prison, because those who live sequestered in this place are confined by an enormous wall that has no beginning or end. There is no connection with time, creating an illusion that this place exists in a vacuum. They spend all their time looking for a w...

5 comments 5
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“Nightmare” by Savannah Hoover

Submitted to Contest #279

In the suffocating stillness of the night, beneath a sky so dark it seemed to swallow the stars, Ethan awoke with a jolt. Cold sweat dripped down his face, his heartbeat pounding in his ears like a war drum. His breath came in ragged gasps, each exhale sharp and strained, as if the very air had become a prison. The room around him was pitch-black, yet somehow, it felt alive—the darkness felt thick, oppressive, almost as if it had a mind of its own. The air reeked of something metallic, damp, and choking, like blood left too long to fester.Th...

3 comments 3
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“Darkness turns darker” by Lily Finch

Submitted to Contest #279

“Did you hear that?” Sully asked.“Hear what? Not again, Sully. Please.” Dale obliged Sully most of the time and checked out the noises she heard and the rattles and creaks of their old house.“Sully, you always find valid explanations for noises, which bring you temporary peace of mind. First, it’s one thing with the cricket powder and crickets, then another with the cabin and the whole thing about the wasps and ticks. Now it’s our house. I mean, Jesus H. Christ, what’s next?”“Shut up! You think what you talk about is so goddamn interesting? ...

7 comments 7
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“The Post-Apocalyptic Life of Harry Milk” by Ralph Aldrich

Submitted to Contest #279

How do you describe someone like Harry Milk? He stands five feet seven inches and weighs one hundred and eighty-three pounds. Harry is forty-nine years old and is balding, though he combs the few strands he has neatly across his head. If asked to describe his facial features, all anyone can recall are his thick horn-rimmed glasses. Unfortunately, for the most part, nothing is outstanding about him. Another thing is that Harry is a creature of habit and lives his life by the clock. He rises at five-fifteen sharp every...

1 comment 1
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“Into Darkness” by Dawn Herkowitz

Submitted to Contest #279

Only one thought entered her mind as she lolled in her bed, trying to ignore the noise outside her window. “That f**king rooster must be blind! Doesn’t he know it’s the middle of the night? Can’t he tell the sun isn’t up yet?” In that moment, she wanted nothing more than for the fowl to wander into the street and get hit by a truck. She sighed and rolled over, pulling her pale blue down blanket up over her head and trying in vain to go back to sleep. Her bed was just right… warm, but not too warm, soft but still supportive of her curves in a...

0 comments 0
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“The Lone Siren” by Eden Corrie

Submitted to Contest #279

WARNING: Mentions of alcohol, trauma, blood, vomiting, violence/gore, and death. Nothing too detailed, but please keep this in mind.✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧The ocean is as beautiful as she is vast, and with that, she is full of terrors.Arvid looked down at the tarnished heirloom in his muddied palm, the arrow shaking before landing west. The scent of brine coated the air, and the sensation of salty droplets kissing his cheeks brought him back to the world around him. It had been ages since he had gone out to sea, not since… no he still could not think of ...

7 comments 7
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“Powerful Delivery” by Nigel Holmes

Submitted to Contest #279

Breathe in for one, two, three, four. Hold for one, two, and breathe out slowly for one, two, three, four, five, six. The fluttering in his chest was still there, so Daniel tried again. His lungs filled, his chest swelled, then he focused on pushing air out through his mouth. He felt calmer, but the fluttering continued, birds beating their wings inside his ribcage.“Are you okay Daniel?” Kayla, standing next to him, spoke in a hushed whisper. “You seem more nervous than me.”Daniel nodded as he slowly released the air from his lungs. He tried...

3 comments 3
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“Bumble Street.” by Julie Grenness

Submitted to Contest #279

Peering at her old television in the corner of her cluttered lounge room. Elke peered in horror. From the moment she had woken, Elke peered in horror. From the moment she had woken, her Saturday had gone pear-shaped. Elke had turned to kiss her handsome husband, Everard. She woke up daily, still amazed that this blond surfer had married her at all. She did undersell her good qualities, her talents. Their personalities were completely different. Elke was a quiet, meditative and spiritual soul. She had evolved from her rigid, religious influe...

1 comment 1
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“Louie the Lame” by Michael Jefferson

Submitted to Contest #279

King Louis leans out of his carriage to get a better look at the carnage. Dozens of Naxon soldier’s corpses hang from poles erected along the ruddy, war-torn road. King Louis pinches his nose to lessen the stench of rotting flesh. “Is this your work, General Pendre?” The bulky general with a scar on his left cheek strokes his pointed beard. “We needed to intimidate the enemy. The Naxons were very determined, fearless warriors. To break the spirit of a barbarian, you have to act like one.” The King and his three generals ride in silence for s...

2 comments 2
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