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Alex Merola

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2026

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7 Stories

26 karma pts

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The Silver Key

Weekly Contest #345

The Silver KeyThe fluorescent hum of the 7-Eleven was a low-voltage snarl, the only thing keeping the silence from swallowing the room. Behind the counter, Toni watched a moth batter its powdered wings against the glass of the jerky case. The creature didn't know it was a prisoner. It had made a frantic, blind choice to chase the heat, forgetting the narrow gap where it had slipped in. Now, it lived as a captive of its own instinct. To stay was a slow torture; to keep beating against the glass was a quiet suicide. It refused to move in a dif...

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A Sound of Silence

A Sound of SilenceI awoke not to a sound, but to a rhythm—the cold, mechanical pulse of a streetlamp bleeding through the thin slats of my window. It was a rhythmic flicker timed to my heartbeat, a metronome for a world that had forgotten how to sleep. Then, a whisper... “Hello darkness, my old friend,” drifted through the room. It wasn't a sound heard with the ears; it vibrated through the marrow of my bones, a low-frequency hum that made the surrounding shadows feel heavy, as if the darkness itself had settled deep within my lungs.“I’ve co...

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A Glitch of the Heart

A Glitch of the Heart The rain in Bangor didn’t just fall; it suffocated, clinging to the windows of Chimera like a damp wool blanket. Inside, the air was a thick slurry of yellowed pages and the sharp, bitter tang of espresso Renee couldn't quite afford. She retreated to the corner table—the one that still seemed to echo with David’s ghost. Five years had vanished, yet sitting here, she felt the same frantic, unmoored version of herself. At twenty-seven, her graphic design degree felt less like a career and more like a hollow promise, a vib...

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Bus Stop

BUS STOPThe bench at the corner of 4th and Elm was Arthur’s pulpit, though he didn’t look the part of a preacher. In his faded corduroy jacket and polished loafers, he looked exactly what he was: a retired actuary who still kept his watch synchronized to the atomic clock.Every Tuesday at 10:15 AM, Arthur took his seat. He lived alone in a house that had grown cavernous and hollow since Martha’s passing—a silence so heavy it occasionally made his ears ring. To combat the quiet, he went to the stop. He never bought a ticket, and he never board...

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Moon Shadow

The moon hung bloated and silver over the silent rooftops, draining the town of color and stretching shadows into jagged ink. Amidst the stillness, a young girl stood in a tattered nightdress, her hair a wild thicket of knots. She stared upward, unblinking, bathed in the cold lunar glare.Leo, cutting through the square on his way home, slowed his pace. "Miss? Are you okay?"She didn't move. Concerned, he stepped closer, reaching out toward her shoulder. "Do you need help?"The girl spun with unnatural fluidity. Before Leo could gasp, she lunge...

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The Hundred Year Bloom

The Hundred-Year Bloom The tide at Blacksand Cove didn't just recede; it seemed to exhale, leaving behind a thick, briny silence. Under the void of the Blue New Moon—a sky so dark the stars looked like salt spilled on black velvet—the cycle began. This was the "Blackest Night," a lunar anomaly occurring once a century, and the sea was prepared to pay its toll. In a deep basalt tide pool, the water began to churn. It wasn’t the wind, but a rhythmic, pulsing motion—the heavy thrum of a heart beating inside a lung. Sensing the shift, the local ...

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A Touch of Grey

Alex Merola about 2,000 words270 Callahan Road41472(207) 573-6465amerola@gmail.com A TOUCH OF GREYBy Alex Merola A Touch of Grey The book had been open, face down, since 3:00 AM—the only way she could find the shore of sleep these days was to read until her eyes burned. Maya reached out a thin hand and closed it. The cover, a stark image of a bell jar, seemed to mock her. It was time for school. I watched her from the kitchen, my hand gripping a mug of coffee that had long since gone cold. I am...

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