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AnneMarie Miles

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

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375 Followers
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59 Stories

3559 karma pts

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The Skunk

Weekly Contest #309

The skunk wasn’t crying when Valjean found it. She was walking the perimeter of the property, like she did every Saturday morning after coffee, checking the rat traps for missing bait or a furry dead prize. When she came upon it, its large size (for a rat) and black fur startled her, made her jump back and gasp. Once she saw the eyes, the whole picture came into focus: a skunk; its arm through the wire fence; its paw snapped between the jaws of the clamp, the small animal licking its tiny hand. Even in their brief exchange, Valjean saw more ...

19 likes 7 comments 7
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A Request For Peaches

Weekly Contest #308

Seven summers ago, there were no peaches. Not at the stores. Not at the produce markets. Not on the sides of the road under red tents, sold in carefully packed cardboard. The yellow fruit had fallen from the face of the earth, leaving the produce department without the precious pink nectar of proper summer.The trees just weren’t producing, was what the farmers were telling the people who bought the fruit and brought it to the stores. The trees just weren’t happy this year, was what the cashiers were telling the customers.It’s strange how the...

34 likes 17 comments 17
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The Wine Cellar Women

Weekly Contest #307

Trigger Warning: Gore, abuse, sexual violence. Sliding her hands over the severed skin, Novalee revered the warm, thick blood pooling from the wound between her fingers. The flesh of his neck seemed to pull apart like torn fabric at even the slightest pressure she applied in either direction. This was no longer a man beneath her grip. This was no longer a murder at her hands. This was kismet justice, like a drunk driver accidentally missing a child only to strike and kill her abusive step-father. Her two thumbs met at the center of the hard ...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Purple Potato Girl

Weekly Contest #306

AppetizersClams ($20)Him: Your pick. Because I’m a gentleman. And even if I think the texture of the salty mollusk is like chewing on someone’s tongue, I make it seem like it was my top choice, too (it’s actually the pork wontons).It’s important you think I’m selfless, and I need you to believe you’ve got some control here. I need you to believe I like you so that you’ll trust me. So, I play: I pull one side of the shell, you pull the other, and I pretend your tantalizing efforts to seduce me, flicking your tongue ridiculously against the me...

10 likes 10 comments 10
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Upside Down

Weekly Contest #304

Upside down, Curly’s arms splayed up and out over her head, the ends of her tentacles spiraling into eight circular buds. She floated patiently as the crowd’s murmurs hummed behind the glass and flashes of light sparked from all directions.“Oh! I know!” A flicker of movement broke the group’s stillness, a small figure bouncing in the blurry shadow. “Flowers! It’s flowers!”The recognition settled into the crowd through gasps and appreciative sighs, and ultimately, an applause. Curly untangled her tentacles and swam upright, providing her with...

17 likes 8 comments 8
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Only Child

Weekly Contest #295

I have three siblings, but I am an only child. People are always surprised to hear about them, the three curious souls who grew up alongside me and are now nowhere to be seen. Perhaps, people are more surprised to hear I’m the youngest of the four, and the first to have a child of my own. If my older brother and his wife had been more careful, I may have been the only one brave enough to pursue parenthood; though, that’s not to say we’re not grateful. I do love my nephew, from a distance.Distance, that’s the word. That’s what stands between ...

23 likes 5 comments 5
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Grief AI Assistance

Weekly Contest #286

“Do you want me to continue, Mrs. Shafer?”Blair is watching the wine drip down the wall, scarlet streams leading to the broken bottle on the floor. She senses it staring at her from the kitchen doorframe, a blurry outline in her peripheral, watching.Her husband had been reading to her. She stirred wine into mushrooms, inhaling gulps of bitter steam while Parker sat on the couch in the other room, reading a passage aloud from their favorite book, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. At the precise moment Addie realized Henry Strauss had remembe...

16 likes 3 comments 3
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Fresh Pine Creek's Parked Gossip, Episode 17

Weekly Contest #254

[Transcribed from a previously recorded live stream]Hello Campers and welcome to another episode of “Parked Gossip!” Coming to you live from Fresh Pine Creek RV Resort where we hook you up with more than just 50-amp electricity, water, and sewage at every site, I’m your host, Morgan Juliana, here to hook you up with all the campground gossip.If it’s your first time tuning in, let me tell you how it works. Each week, residents of our campground can drop a note into our Guest Gab box in the office, and every Sunday morning, I open it up and sp...

17 likes 15 comments 15
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Traffic

Weekly Contest #253

Highway 17 is a parking lot. I'm stopped in the hottest stretch of the 26-mile route going through Los Gatos. It’s the final few miles before the ascent, and it is completely unshielded by a cloudless sky. Tall bushes line the paved highway but the sun is high above us and offers no shade. In the distance, a precious cover of trees waits tantalizingly atop the mountains, my home lying on the other end of the summit in the southern end of another county. So close, yet so far.If I knew it was an accident, this blockade of unmoving vehicles wou...

14 likes 9 comments 9
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Spilling the tea

Weekly Contest #252

It was dark inside the teapot. Crowded, too. Cast iron walls created a cavernous chamber that was both loud and cold. Around him, Smith sensed an endless sea of sticky flesh. It should have been warm, all those bare bodies, but instead, it felt clammy like a feverish chill. It made Smith's skin crawl; made him retract and contort and twist. No matter how he flinched, there was only more cold, sweating flesh; and without his vision, that was all there was.That, and the screaming.The screaming echoed, vibrated through his teeth, filling his ca...

18 likes 15 comments 15
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Monster Goals

Weekly Contest #231

To the human living above me, I'd like to propose some changes.It’s been a year since you issued me your set of rules, and in that year, I’ve complied. You’re still alive, aren’t you? Your dog is still alive, yes? And if you’d bothered to check under your bed once in awhile, you’d know that it’s the cleanest it’s ever been (turns out dust bunnies and ants and snack crumbs make a delicious meal, thanks for that suggestion, by the way). Overall, I think I’ve made a really great monster-under-the-bed, and I do hope you'd agree.Now, I know one o...

51 likes 38 comments 38
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A Funeral

Weekly Contest #230

“It’s just you and me again,” I say.I’d waited until the flock of my relatives had dispersed, and finally, I am alone at his casket. His pale face looks at peace, and it makes him almost unrecognizable. I’m used to the anger, the depression, the mask of whatever vice he could find.On his lapel, someone, my mother I assume, has issued him a rose. I scoff at the symbol of love. That word, that feeling, had been foreign to Floyd, absent in every corner of his life. No matter how hard I tried to love him, I was nothing but a worthless, unwanted,...

22 likes 27 comments 27
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Sensation

Weekly Contest #230

Dr. Adrela says it happens to everyone.“We’ve forgotten how to feel with our bodies. We get stuck in our heads, and we try to rationalize all of our feelings. Our brain is a wonderful resource, but we are overusing ours, especially when it comes to this. It can lead to problems…”Dr. Adrela says we’ve become over-domesticated, that we’ve lost our connection to our animalistic nature. “Do you think animals in the wild are depressed? Of course not! There’s no time for depression when you are hunting for food, fighting for your life, fucking, or...

17 likes 19 comments 19
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Elf Off the Shelf

Weekly Contest #229

From the beginning, there had only ever been one rule: Don’t let anyone see you move. But after what I saw tonight, I was afraid I was going to have to break that rule.The Dunken’s house was full of people. From inside Mrs. Mitchell’s purse, I carefully peeked out through the open zipper and saw dozens of recognizable faces, people who had come over to pick up Oliver and Sklyer’s friends over the years. They were all laughing and eating and drinking merrily. Despite Christmas having already passed – this I knew because Mrs. Mitchell had alre...

23 likes 20 comments 20
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Dad's Cereal

Weekly Contest #228

My daughter found a hat in one of the boxes collecting dust underneath my bed yesterday. Out of boredom, she had asked me if she could “investigate” the contents of this unknown space, a place in the house that she had not yet explored. If it had been December, I would have quickly said no, frightened by the possibility that the truth of Santa’s workshop would be revealed at too early an age. But in the middle of fall, the thought of purchasing presents and stowing them away felt distant and hidden. I had been busy with other things, perhaps...

36 likes 26 comments 26
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