“2:13 A.M.” Submitted to Glossy Planet Magazine’s Doomscroll Challenge

Another Story Is Out the Door: “2:13 A.M.”

Another short story has officially left my desk!

I’ve submitted my flash fiction story, “2:13 A.M.,” to Glossy Planet Magazine’s August 2026 Doomscroll Challenge.

This challenge immediately caught my attention because it explores something that has become such a strange part of modern life: social media, late-night scrolling, algorithms, online communities, isolation, and what happens when the technology we use begins using us right back.

“2:13 A.M.” took that theme somewhere a little unexpected.

It’s a supernatural horror story about an exhausted mother, her young son, a worsening series of unexplained events in their apartment, and one very strange video that appears in her feed in the middle of the night.

And that is ALL I am saying about that. 😄

The challenge was also an exercise in flash fiction for me. Entries have to remain under 1,000 words, and this story wanted very badly to be bigger than that. Somehow, I managed to tell the entire tale in 948 words.

Sometimes restrictions make a story harder to write. Sometimes they force you to figure out exactly what the story needs—and what it doesn’t.

Now “2:13 A.M.” is finished, submitted, and out of my hands.

We’ll see where it goes from here!

—Alicia K. Anspaugh

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