Here's the official Shortlist:
BridgeThe woman fell asleep right away, helped by the injection. Katherine watched over her. She was sleeping very deeply, a bit too deep for the purpose. Katherine adjusted her machines, and the woman’s breath became less deep and faster. Yes. She was probably ready.
Katherine sat by the mattress’s end and closed her eyes.
She worked quickly. The webs weren’t too hard to weave, but concentration was heavily needed. She always had to stop herself from giving in the temptation of just appreciating the beautiful hue of the threads, shining in the dark, always slightly different from person to person. She touched them carefully, as if she was afraid to break them, and rearranged them.
The bridge took some time to form, but it gleamed beautifully in the darkness of space. Katherine waited. Soon, the woman’s dreams would begin flowing through it, and reach her.
She was a Dream Reader. As the name says, she read dreams. She created the bridge with those tiny thre
In the Lowest DeepWith the utmost care, Walter Farborough tiptoed through the pitch blackness of the Alterworld. The ether-rip apparatus on his back emitted an occasional spark or crackle, but his thermal goggles shone only into his eyes: they had a good rubber seal on them, and that was important. The creatures of this place hovered or crawled, blinking an occasional love song to a mate or flashing a warning to an enemy. This was a world utterly different to the real. A world where the sun never shone and strange things had grown in the darkness. Needless to say, the fauna of this place were extremely valuable. One could make a sizeable fortune by trapping them, if one were willing to creep by later and risk claiming one's catch.
Even with the small heating coil as a marker, it was hard to spot the first snare. Something had trodden it into the mossy silt of the Alterworld floor, but had not become snagged. Walter was glad: feeling around the edge of the print with his hand, he could tell that this cre
One a Day at 10 AMLife as she knew it was over.
One risky night rendered her dreams of stardom aflame. She'd been fighting so hard to get out of the Podunk town she'd grown up in, and now the test in the trash bin would tether her to the world of PTA meetings, frumpy clothes, and dull hair. Escape wasn't an option anymore.
It had been her boss' fault. He had to talk to her about misplaced papers alone, after work. She kissed him first. If it hadn't have been for the look he gave her, she wouldn't have ever done anything more than that. She wasn't that kind of girl...
except she was and the stupid pills didn't work the right way. One a day at 10 AM. She happened to miss one freaking day and look what happened. Her Hollywood dreams were gone.
This little thing inside of her was going to grow and when it did, it would take over everything. It'd be like weeds in a garden, covering over everything. It would creep into every facet of her life. Every single conversation would revolve around it. Her wardrobe wo
Downstairs[Trapped & Creep]
Drip.
Cold. Quiet.
Drip.
No. Not entirely quiet.
Drip.
There was the sound of footsteps, occasionally. A heavy thunk, thunk, thunk on the boards above where the ones he heard the most.
Drip.
Sometimes, if it was really quiet, and he strained his ears, he heard the feather-light noise of feet from a smaller person, a child perhaps.
Drip.
Sometimes he would tap his fingers against the wooden floor, listening to the hollow echo, trying to time how often the dripping came, trying to work out if it was regular. He counted the noises like sheep to get himself to sleep at night.
Drip.
Sometimes he just lay awake.
Drip.
The sound of it boring into his skull.
Drip.
Noise like a drill. He couldn’t escape from it any more than he could have escaped from the box they had him in, that he reached his hands out through the bars of.
Drip.
He thought they changed them, e
Each piece has been scored according to its Use of the Prompt Word, Creativity, Entertainment and Technical Style. These shortlisted pieces are the entries which scored the highest total of points
We've given the authors a chance to make minor edits to their work and fix any typos that may have been present in the raw, 20 minute drafts. The results have been uploaded to the author's own accounts and submitted here - feel free to leave lots of lovely feedback!
All that remains is for the public to vote for their favourite! We've created a poll here with the shortlist on it. The poll runs for a week,so you've got plenty of time to make your mind up. The winner will win a three month premium subscription from the group
We'll be back in a week to announce the winner (and hopefully the date and time of August's event). Good luck everyone, and happy reading!
