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Atlas Gray

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2023

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20 Stories

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lavender soap and sins

CW: This story contains mention of self-harm, suicide, and religious trauma. I am clothed in lavender soap and sins.Little soap-suds dot my shoulders and settle on my arms. When I step out of the stinging shower-stream, the droplets stick to my body like resin.My skin is puckered and pale from the bandages. Angry red lines creep up the inside of my arms, aching in the fine spray of the shower.Outside, I can hear humming. It sounds bright orange, like a sticky sweet popsicle melting in a child's fist, dripping into a pool. That orange hum ech...

7 likes 15 comments 15
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Cold Tea

Content warning: suicide, mental health struggles, and homophobia. NOTE: This story is fictional. None of these characters are based off real people. Dear Mara,The night you killed yourself, the tea in your mug had grown cold.It’s one of the moments that has stayed with me. The unwelcome taste of chamomile pushing down my lips. I had expected vodka. Or beer. Something sharp and numbing, but that night — it was tea.Cold tea.You’d hated tea, but you’d drained the cup before the sun rose.When I asked why, you’d shrugged it off. Saying that yo...

7 likes 7 comments 7
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The Seven

Weekly Contest #308

TW: Firearm violence I sit at the edge of the building. I am towering above the ground. So high up that the scurrying humans blur together like a swarm of ants. My feet sway back and forth, the worn shoelaces of my crusting leather boots slowly tugging themselves out of the knot I tied. Beside me is a boy, he stares down too."Do you remember?" The boy asks. "Before? Before the fires? Before the government lost control of the environment?"My eyes move lazily to the people below. They are victims of the environment's downfall. The government's...

21 likes 20 comments 20
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The Pretty Place

Trigger warning: themes of violence and death of children.You blink slowly, tearing your eyelids apart, they flutter, drooping as you look around.You are on a train, your cheek pressed against a frigid, clear surface, maybe a window. The cold burns into your cheek. Like a cat, it crawls into your flesh and settles deep inside your bones, refusing to move. You pull your face away with a shudder, wiping water off of your cheek.You blink, feeling rather than seeing the water on your hands. You look back at the surface and find ice where you tho...

10 likes 12 comments 12
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Drowning In the Milk of the Moon

Weekly Contest #282

I try to roll off the checkered blanket as Daddy desperately tries to wipe the sticky drips of mint-chocolate from my ice-cream coated face before it reaches the new white blouse left exposed to stains.“I promised your mom I wouldn’t stain your shirt before dinner.” He said, leaning down to whisper the words in my ears.I giggle, squirming in his arms. My eyes drift past the nearly empty playground to a pair of eyes in the bushes. The setting sun makes them glow.“Daddy look! The bush has eyes.”He glances at where I’m pointing, and the eyes di...

29 likes 15 comments 15
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Dead Girls Don't Care

Content Warning: Loss of a child I've been dead for fifty hours and thirty-four minutes, and when they find my body. Only an hour ago they officially reported me missing. The pair that find me freeze, horrified by the mangled destroyed condition of my body. I can hear them whispering through my... I guess the only word for it is dead. My dead state. "We have to call the police. Oh my God. Is she dead? Please don't tell me she's dead. She looks so young." The woman in the pair is sobbing hysterically, she's already vomited once. Now she's pul...

12 likes 18 comments 18
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The Psychic

“Come in! Come in! Let me tell your fortune. No tricks, no lies, just step right in and pay a small fee of fifteen dollars. I’ll have your future laid out for you in just a few minutes!” “Bullshit!” “Well good sir, there’s only one way to find out. Step right in, I’ll tell your future for that small fee of fifteen dollars. Such a business-man like you can surely be interested in your career.” “How did you know I was a business-man?” “Why good sir, I’m a psychic, I know things others don’t.” “Fine. I’ll try it. How much do you say? Fifteen do...

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Mothers Instinct

TW: Filicide and mental instability ------------------------------------- Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘face your fears?’  I’m sure you have. Or something of the sort. However, have you ever stopped to wonder when a fear is too bold to face? What happens then, if you face that fear? How many people get hurt? ------------------------------------- I’m sitting in a chair, wrist raw from the restraints that I’d thrashed against. They removed them, when I refused to talk. Now I’m staring at judgemental brown eyes tucked behind horn-rimmed...

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Counting by the Second

CW: Teenagers dying, something that resembles suicidal thoughts (sorry I didn't know what else to put, see authors note in comments if unsure).In a cell with two other people, you learned many, many things, but only one thing stuck with you.You were made to be destroyed, by the hands of your creators, you would be locked up, and eventually, killed. There was a timer, a ticking clock dictating how many times you would be allowed to breathe. Laugh at a joke. Smile at a friend, each of you only had so long to live. The timer on the ceiling of t...

7 likes 13 comments 13
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If Only

Content Warning: Contains kidnapping, murder, swearing October 27th: 9 years and 3 months ago A shrill scream pierces the air. It snakes down the stairs from Lily’s room. Not a second later the chiming of shattered glass hitting the floor drown out the scream.  “Lily?” I call, already running up the stairs. “Lilly?!” I’m screaming now, swinging around the rail and launching myself towards her door. Locked. It's locked. Shit. I kick the door. Over and over. Right above the handle where you're supposed to. Crack. Click. Door flies open. ...

9 likes 11 comments 11
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Ground Beef

Weekly Contest #270

When I come through the door, Amy is laying on the couch, the news lighting up the living room, weeping into one of Jason's shirts.I do my best to ignore her, ignore the grief welling in my own throat, and head to the kitchen. I reach in my bag as I start to lay out all the ingredients that I brought. I glance up at the television, Jason's missing person picture and information flashes across the screen. Amy lets out a strangled cry.Frustration bubbles up in my chest. If she would just put in an effort to find him, he was her son after all.I...

19 likes 18 comments 18
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Writers Bleed on Paper

Note: This story is inspired by Romeo and Juliet by the poet and play-writer William Shakespeare, only parts of the story in this story (quotation or general plot) was written by William Shakespeare. TW: Mentions of suicide and murder. ---------------------------------------------------------------- I'm sure you've heard the phrase, 'writers bleed on paper.' I'm the result, I am the character that dances on the ivory pages of the stories you read, I am formed through the hundred black stains that make word after word. But I'll tell you some...

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The Case Of Iris Craw Sandlers

TW: Abusive relationship, partner violence. The following speech was written 37 hours before the wedding by Adam Johnson Sandlers, (the husband). The strikeouts were found on the original copy, it is copied exactly as it was found. I would like to propose a toast to the deadly beautiful woman in white. Today, she will no longer be just my girlfriend, my fiance. She'll be my monster. My murderer. My end. wife. And as scared thrilled as I am for this moment, I would like to recount a memory before the ceremony. When Iris was a little girl, I...

8 likes 8 comments 8
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Hello Mary

Weekly Contest #261

TW: Kidnapping, abuse, pyromaniac tendencies and masochismDear Mary,The doctors are asking me to write notes. Notes to people, to say thank you for things, and you are obviously my first choice. Thank you for teaching me how to fold origami. In every fold of the paper, I found immense comfort, I do it now that the doctor said I am stable. They forced some food down my throat and told me a bunch of lies. Now I fold origami and argue with doctors, not a very interesting life. I wish they would let me talk to you.-Aubrey, September 19thMary,The...

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6 Reasons To Die

I know that there are 3 things I can rely on. 1, I am human. I know this because when I found out that my existence was a lie, I screamed until I couldn't breathe. I bled, and I felt completely, earth-shatteringly weak. The weakness, the helplessness only a human could feel. Because we aren't really made for anything, we are made to go through the motions, labor, laugh, love cry, all for it to end. For us to be erased from the planet. And I felt all of this, consequently, I know I am human. 2, most everything I have been told in life is a l...

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