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B. D. Bradshaw

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

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65 Stories

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The Revenant at Camp

"We need to talk about Tasha." "What's up? Is she alright?" I catch myself before I say anything else, in case I came across as too interested. Billy took a seat on the end of his cot, facing me. It practically shrieked beneath him. Such a rotten trick - give us the noisiest beds at camp so the councillors immediately knew when we were out of them, or messing around in them. "Look, Marcus... Jake said he overheard the girls talking earlier, and..." "Spit it out, Bill." He scratched his brow, biting his teeth together as if they were bar...

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I'm Recording This Because I'm Dead

Weekly Contest #375

*Click,* and the metal tape rolls in the recorder, plastic cogs turning round behind clouded, aged plastic. Breath crackles over the whirring sound, then cuts to a second of crisp silence. A voice hums against a backdrop of static. This is Professor Taylor Barns, PhD. I'm recording this because... I am dead. Thirty years ago, I had a dream... I pictured a machine as clear as if I were standing before it. The exact schematics, down to the original parts - some of which did not yet exist, but I knew how to make them. I'd been estranged from...

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Monster

Weekly Contest #349

With his kiss, roughened scales peel off my arms, my horns wilt into curls of golden hair, and my tail is unwoven into the train of a pearlescent dress. Claws dull to toes and fingers, fangs blunt back into teeth, and I no longer stand towering over him. He admires my every feature, every facet, with a look that reads of glorious victory, and I his prize. Though I cower at his touch, he does not withdraw, running his hands through my hair and across my skin, drawing my chin up so he may gaze in my eyes. I would wish to be rid of his. As I ca...

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The Invisible Witness

Uncle always told me to recognise that everyone around you is a living, breathing human being with their own pasts, presents, and futures, so treat them as such. I wish he was still around so he could tell that to my employers. I, regretfully, inhabit a world in which people are fit into boxes - the upper class, and working class. And those uppers have an attitude about them in which they are the only humans worth bothering with, everyone else may as well be draft horses - useful for a purpose, until they're not. Yes, I was one of the workin...

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Cryptid

"Pabi, Pabi! I've caught one!" "Let me see..." The old hunter leaned over the trap, watching the scruffy little critter tearing circles with the skittering of claws. "Nice work, Mikii." He removed a mitten, patting his son's head with a mighty, calloused hand, ruffling the curls sticking out beneath his hood with squared fingers. As he lifted the trap out of the snow, the younger child behind him twiddled his own. "Pabi... are you going to kill it?" He tugged his scarf down to his chin. "Of course, Taloc. Every one we find that comes this...

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They Came From Beneath

"Baanu, have you completed preparations?" "Just a few more glyphs," she gulped, tracing the shapes into the baked sands with the point of her staff. Another few minutes, and she may have stood to sketch them by hand, as the sun neared the jagged peaks off in the far west, and the air began to cool off. Yet she didn't have a few minutes. Her arms shook, which made things even more difficult. The circle needed to be perfect. "Hurry, we are running out of daylight!" Her uncle Ishaq, who also happened to be one of Ashne's stewards, insisted o...

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Wizards' Choice

Olunai: "What are we to say of Miss Delrose?" Ilusa: "The girl's potential within the school of Evocaturgy is undoubtedly significant. However, we must refrain from overlooking the mess hall incident of fourth grade... Pass the sugar, would you?" Erus: "Is that fair? It were ten years ago." Olunai: "Master Erus, it's our obligation to consider all facets of one's character, if we are to consider a student for the elite program. Would you care for some lemon as well, Mistress Ilusa?" Ilusa: "I will pass. And I shall have to agree with you...

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Fresh Start

When the only people who came to my door were demons and assassins - that's when I knew I needed a fresh start. I've been an adventurer since I was sixteen years old. I started out like most did; I had a sword, a bow, and three spells to my name (parlour tricks compared to what I can do now). A local heroes' guild took me on - signed me onto a party of five, alongside a healer, an archer, a cutthroat, a wizard, and a brute. I was the warrior, the kind of hero that dabbles in a bit of everything, and is always ready for any quest. We did i...

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Thousand Nights

"... From the mountain to the sea," she said - that was how far the cerulean hairgrass and silverthorn pines had grown. "And the star-marked primroses? Tell me about those!" Emilia leaned in, her expression alive with excitement. Elder Marsa chuckled, a dry yet comforting sound like scattered papers skittering across the station's sterilised floors. "They bloomed only in shadow at the beginning of Witherend. They had palmate petals and trumpeted leaves, and they smelled of clean linen. I remember going down to the brook every Twinday with ...

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Quillink

(Content warning: Some strong language) Every generation of readers have their own literary masterpiece - that one book that everybody has to read, as if their entire identity depended on it. For Stevie, it was Quillink. A month into senior year and stuck part-timing as a barista, there wasn't a day that went by where she didn't see a group of freshmen with their eyes glued to a copy of Quillink - their drinks idly sipped between chapters. She might have been tempted to read it, had it not been what everyone else was doing. If the story o...

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Eight Rooms

Dear diary, Gosh, writing those words makes me feel like a little girl again... I should get straight to the point, I've been having trouble sleeping. I can't actually remember the last time I had a good night's rest, and I fear it's having a negative impact on the hotel. Fewer guests are staying; I'm sure they're picking up on my foul mood, and I keep forgetting those little conveniences that keep us at five stars - the complementary chocolates on the pillows, folding the towels into swans, properly restocking the mini fridges, and I always...

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Gods Can't Quit

"And this is... what?" I gulped, clammy palms wiping down my thighs, nails scratching at my knees. "It's a... um... Letter of r-resignation..." He lay my paper on his desk, pinching his brow with a heavy sigh. "Gods can't quit. That's not how it works." He leaned back in his chair, tapping the end of a pen against his chin. "Why would you want to quit anyway? You've got millions of followers, and they all adore you." "Well... You see..." My voice snagged in my throat like driftwood caught in a net, tightening with every breath. I scowled,...

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The Ascension Trials

The Warden's crook clocked Ten in the head. "On your feet, Stockman." They woke from a shallow slumber, their hands still bound in energy cuffs, and their back pressed against the scalding metal of the train. "Eyes up." A weary voice rasped from across the aisle. Another Candidate. In the same grey coveralls bearing the Confederacy's emblem and their hair cropped short. Steeling themselves, Ten dared catch a glimpse of the metropolis of Acarerim flashing by the vents at the top of the wall. Their heart raced. The overcity was a paradise k...

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Of Swords and Song

The mournful winds howled across the fractured lands of the Shattered Realm. Though the terrain was known to break and reform, and the Void would shift, the wind was ceaseless, relentless, and it tore against the cloak upon Azim's back. He stood atop the crumpled remains of a spire upon the jagged edge of the Void - nought but the swirling abyss of chaos on the horizon. Below him, the remnants of a primordial city lay scattered, and gorged upon by the tendrils of corruption creeping over it. Most of the old world was gone, but Azim was of th...

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Leukon in the In-between

Weekly Contest #295

Leukon pressed his palm flat against the cool menosite alloy of the Waygate. As he'd feared, it didn't so much as shudder in the presence of his mana. "This one too, Kyon." His familiar whined softly, pressing his wet little nose into the prince's side. It seemed like every time they went into the Tunnels, another gate had shut forever. "And we were only here last month." He raised his lantern up to the edges. Like the others, it had fused to the frame. It was a great shame - he loved visiting the Whitefire Lands. "Come on, let's go." He bec...

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