#23 Winter Wonderland

By the time the holidays have passed, and the first week of January is in full swing, it's impossible to deny one fact any longer: winter is here.

Shorter days and colder temperatures often mean more time spent indoors writing. This week, we suggest you sit by a window and let the wintery world outside inspire your newest piece of short fiction.

🥇 Winner

Pied Piper

Angeliki P

Winner of Weekly Contest #23 🏆

The boy should have known something was wrong the moment he glanced back over his shoulder, but he was too tired and wary and afraid to register the truth. He followed the sound of the keening pipe. Its unfamiliar melody, absurdly cheerful, jarred him from the carnage. It filtered through the pores of his skin and infused him with the strength and warmth he needed to run through the icy clutches of winter. The forest muffled the sounds within and beyond it as if the trees themselves swallowed noise—all but the tune of the unseen piper. Time ...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

This week's prompts

You go for a walk in fresh snow. Suddenly you realize you're not leaving any footprints.

– 127 stories

Write a short story that takes place in a winter cabin.

– 74 stories

A busy city is quieted by a big blanketing of snow. Write from the perspective of two (or more) characters who live there.

– 50 stories

Write a short story about someone experiencing their first winter.

– 31 stories

Write a short story about people stuck in traffic during a blizzard. There's nothing much to do but wait, and talk...

– 67 stories

Stories

First Snow of the Season

Sam Cutlip

Weekly Contest #23

First Snow of the SeasonSamuel J. CutlipJanuary 7,2019 Olivia Markfield was peacefully sleeping, with curtains drawn, the sun peeking up. Her bedroom walls and floors were tainted with the faint orange glow of the sun. Sorrowfully, it was a school morning and Olivia would soon have to wake to her annoying, buzzing alarm clock. But what Olivia was oblivious to was that overnight a thick, white blanket of snow had silently fallen on the quiet village of Nisswa, the first of the season. Located in central Minnesota, southeast of Minneapolis, Ni...

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Florida, Interrupted

Laura Roberts

Weekly Contest #23

It just figures. As soon as we get on the road headed south, there's a big mess on the freeway. A couple of tractor trailers managed to jackknife on the highway, causing a huge crash and blocking off traffic on the only route out of this frozen wasteland of a city. Awesome. Great work, truckers. How does someone jackknife a semi, anyway? What, exactly, does it take to qualify as "jackknifing"?I ask Dr. Google, and he informs me that many accidents such as this one occur because of improper brake maintenance or adjustment. To "jackknife" a tr...

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The Footsteps

Sam Harrison

Weekly Contest #23

Patient informationName: Jacob WallProfession: Project ManagerAge: 39Clinician informationName: Dr. Andrea FrickmanType of Treatment: Individual TherapyRegistration number: 0897392-X4PROGRESS REPORTPatient report of symptoms/behaviorsJacob seems unaware of his disconnect from reality and expressed stress and frustration at my reactions in our session today. Jacob still expresses sadness over his recent divorce but says he has moments of cautious optimism about the future, which was not the case at our last session. He described walking ...

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A Date with Destiny

Elizabeth Lowery

Weekly Contest #23

The adjustment to night shift is always hard. Bleary-eyed, I sip my coffee as I adjust the backpack hanging from right shoulder. At least I don’t have to worry about what to wear. Scrubs. Every day. I yawn as I turn the corner. “Can I help you?” I wave at the young woman in a sleek, black skirt and blazer, opening my coat to show my badge. She continues walking away, her black pumps clicking on the tile. “Hey,” I raise my voice. When she stops, I add, “Visiting hours are over.” She turns around slowly, brushing her black ...

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Small Talk

Zoe Berger

Weekly Contest #23

This guy is driving what looks like a 70’s model Ford, so bright red it's like an eyesore in the snow, with those huge all-terrain tires and one of the side mirrors duct taped on. Not a typical asshole kind of car, I think - it’s the cool stepdad type, someone with kind eyes and a low voice - but this guy is shaping up to be anything but. “I’m telling you,” the girl sighs, “this blizzard on the interstate’s backed everything up like crazy. We just have to wait it out.”  “Oh, like hell!” Leaning out into the cold, his nose is the same ug...

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Is this the real life or fantasy?

Samantha Garcia

Weekly Contest #23

"Ugh!" I slowly placed my hand on my forehead as I felt it pounding intensely I slowly sat up and carefully open my eyes as I couldn't tell whether it was night or day. Once my eyes were open, the curtains were drawn, but there was light seeping through. 'Well, I slept in late,' I got out of bed and stretched, feeling myself wake up every more and walked to the restroom. I let out a scream when I saw my reflection. I looked like I was caught in a hurricane. My hair was tangled like you could see it was in clumps."Going to be a pain in t...

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Coming Home

Barbara Eustace

Weekly Contest #23

It was November when you reached your childhood home after a night and a day driving from the shame, through the tears, into the past. You had no career, no friends, no man, no home. You had nowhere else to go, so you decided to go back to your parents’ house, a small cabin, miles from the nearest town. But when you got there, it was to find that your parents were gone. A man, thirties, forties, was there. Caretaker, he said. They’d gone on a cruise, he said. An extended cruise of a few months to get the wa...

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Graham the Good Gremlin

Pamela Saunders

Weekly Contest #23

Graham the Good Gremlin was born on Christmas Day.Do you know what a gremlin is, dear reader? A gremlin is a creature that often gets blamed when things go missing, for example socks from the washing machine. When the electric fuses blow, and then blow again, and no other reason can be found, a grown-up will often state that it's the gremlins. You get the idea.Although, grown-ups do not actually believe in gremlins at all. It is just their way of saying they do not have any other explanation. They think they made up the gremlins. But grown-u...

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the gleam of light

Amelia F

Weekly Contest #23

In the depth of night, we wonder waiting to get where we are going. The snow is about as white as paper and as soft as a winter blanket. In the crisp cold winter, air stands a wooden house. It is cold and we are growing heavy from our wet clothes covered in winters ice that has frozen on to our heavy jackets. We walk closer to the mysterious wooden house. There is a raised stone walkway with a thin layer of winters blanket. A small gleaming glare catches my eye. A small key that reads” Where wonders rome they shall use the key.” I take my c...

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A Walk Through The Veil

Tabatha Wolstencroft

Weekly Contest #23

There are very few things in my life that terrify me. One being this bizarre beeping noise I keep hearing. Another one happens to be mice. They’re small, fast, and they have very sharp teeth! The last thing that scares me is people who dare to put mushrooms on pizza. Experiencing one of these things sends a ripple effect and makes me think about the rest of the things that I don't like. Needless to say, I’m not going back to bed anytime soon. Restlessly I give into my running thoughts and move out of the coziness of my bed. Pulling blan...

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Footprints

Ebony Greenhill

Weekly Contest #23

She woke up with the sun eclipsing the drawn shades. Those blackout curtains weren't enough to the block out the sun. Sitting up in her bed, shielding her eyes from the sun she felt the pangs of her head throbbing. Stumbling out her bed she trips over the multiple wine bottles skewed around her room, heading to the bathroom to regurgitate the remainder of the contents of those bottles. "I have to get it together", she says as she looks at herself in the mirror. Another trip around the sun, she thinks to herself remembering that her...

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Birthday

Leanne Mara

Shortlisted for Contest #23 ⭐️

“He should have eyes. Here.”“What’re those?” “Rocks.”“I can’t give him rocks for eyes.”“Sure you can.”“I won’t. Wait here.” I will. Wait here, that is. I think all I’ve ever done is wait—not that I’ve been at it long. I wasn’t, and then I was. And then I waited, and finally you came. You and your sister, tumbling and slipping and stumbling, working very hard to roll and shape and stack me. You’ve given me a good, sturdy body, just so. And long straight arms—though they don’t seem to do much—and a scarf around my...

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Born Again

Emily Domedion

Weekly Contest #23

The first thing I see when I open my eyes is the dusky rose-pink patina of my dog's nose.This is what I wake up to almost every single day, and today is no different: first he gently paws my arms, his calloused footpads rough on my skin. When that fails to get me up, he heaves his seventy-five plus pounds up on my bed and lays down by my side. His front paws are on my pillow, his snout is in my face. He gently chuffs warm dog breath on my cheeks, licks his lips and swallows noisily. Then he oh-so-tentatively licks my lips. It is at this time...

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Snow in the Morning, and then in the Afternoon, Evening and Night, and then All Week Long

Nathaniel Schwartz

Weekly Contest #23

Snow in the morning is a most curious affair. One sleeps well and wakes the next day just as they did the day before, but after yawning, rising, stretching, and drawing the curtains, one finds a world drastically different than the one in which they slept so peacefully the night before. This experience is much the same in the country and the city, as trees and barns tend to blanket themselves in the pure stuff just as easily as skyscrapers do, and the steady sound of flakes upon the roof is just as soft in the cottage as in the townhous...

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Not So Cozy Cabin

Aha Blume

Weekly Contest #23

Winter had come in with a vengeance. Somehow, I made it up the road. Visibility was bad, but I could see the cabin in front of me. I hoped that there would be roaring fire, and I could settle in for the night. Finally, I made it to the door.  I knocked. “Hello?” I called. She had said that the door would be open. She was supposed to be here. I reached for the doorknob, and thankfully the door opened. But there was no roaring fire waiting for me. And she was not waiting. I stepp...

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