He Knows When You're Awake​

 

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NYC Midnight Scary Story Challenge 2025

Round 2

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400 words​​

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Written in 48 hours

using assigned prompts

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Prompts:

Scare: sleepless / Action: implanting / Character: a contender​

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Every child knew they had to be asleep by midnight on Christmas Eve. It was an old village tradition firmly implanted in their minds by the adults.

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‘Father Christmas won’t come otherwise,’ Daddy reminded Benny as he tucked him into bed. ‘Something else might come instead…!’

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‘Like what?!’ Benny begged, but Daddy didn’t say.

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When the clock chimed nine, Mummy brought him a mug of warm milk and the pink sleeping tablet that tasted like cinnamon. Instead of swallowing it down like a good boy, Benny slipped the tablet under his pillow.

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This year, he would stay awake and find out.

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When the clock chimed ten, Mummy and Daddy started snoring, and Benny peeked out at the village. Across the snowy field, golden windows were winking out one by one. Benny munched gingerbread men from his stocking, as excited as if he were watching falling stars. He was top contender to be the very last one awake, a game he won at every sleepover.

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As the clock chimed eleven, the last light in the village snuffed out, and Benny saw something else.

 

A dark figure, standing in the field. Looking right at him.

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Suddenly, he wanted to be asleep after all.  

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He reached under his pillow for the sleeping tablet, but it had gone. He was still scrabbling around for it when the clock chimed quarter past, then half past eleven.

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Benny lay trembling, his eyes scrunched shut, tears welling. Fall asleep, just fall asleep…! But he couldn’t.

 

When the clock chimed quarter to midnight, he dared another peek outside. The figure was closer, much closer. Right by their garden gate.

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It was taller and thicker than a bear, with horns covered in tiny bells. As another minute ticked by, it took a jangling step down the garden path, dragging a sack behind. Its white eyes were locked onto Benny.

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‘Mummy! Daddy!’ He fled into their room, his heart in his throat, but no matter how much he shook them, how much he pleaded, they were dead to the world, their breath smelling faintly of cinnamon.

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The front door snicked open.

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With a sob, Benny buried himself under the thick blankets, curling up between his parents’ bodies like he would after a nightmare. Shh, they’d say. It’s not real.

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The clock chimed midnight.

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Then… silence.

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Benny waited… waited. Maybe… he was safe.

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An ice-cold hand grabbed Benny’s ankle, and pulled.

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Written by Sophie Dutton Jan 2026