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Chris Campbell

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2021

Stories (127)
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732 Followers
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127 Stories

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SpyPal

Submitted to Contest #203

The black velvet painting of a bullfighter that had hung unmolested since before the millennium, tore and fell from its wall mount, as a whiskey glass shattered upon impact with it. Closely following the glass, a wicker chair violently crumbled against the bare stucco wall where the painting had just vacated, while raised, angry voices grunted and yelled foul obscenities, as their despatchers of vulgarity wrestled and rolled around the sawdust floor of the small Mexican cantina. The scene resembled an old western movie bar fight where head l...

28 likes 20 comments 20
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The Baby Shark Killer

Submitted to Contest #201

Baby shark Doo doo doo doo doo doo Momma shark Doo doo doo doo doo doo Daddy shark Doo doo doo doo Let’s go play.” “Phil…” “I can’t get Doo doo doo doo doo doo This dumb song Doo doo doo doo doo doo Out of my Doo doo doo doo Stupid head.” “Aargh!!! Phil, please stop, please! You’re doin’ my head in.” “I can’t stop Doo doo doo doo doo doo From the top Doo doo doo doo doo doo Till I drop Doo doo doo doo I can’t stop.” “Keep this up sweetheart and I swear I will do something that you’ll regret.” “Please don’t leave Doo doo doo doo doo...

37 likes 33 comments 33
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A Babel Fish of Lies

Submitted to Contest #200

“Good evening,” greeted the tubular dark figure hovering at Emily Whitticombe’s front door. “I am Constable RMR-1132813, and my supervisor on this visit is Detective Inspector Dorothy Garland of the Droid Yard.” Emily Whitticombe studied the shadowy figures intensely, before switching her porch light on to illuminate them. “What do you want?” She demanded to know from the hovering android. “We would like you to help us with our enquiries, Ma’em,” the droid replied with phonetic difficulty. “Regarding what?” The impatient householder asked. “...

25 likes 23 comments 23
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A Town For The Dying

Submitted to Contest #199

Wynonna Belle struggled with the several volumes of books she carried across the main thoroughfare of the once bustling Arizonan town of Canyon Diablo. Since the closure of the town’s library, Wynonna had made several deals with store owners to house some of her books, where she could provide places for townsfolk to gather and read or take needed lessons in literacy. Precariously balancing the heavy books in her arms, Wynonna’s steadfast resolve held strong as she crossed the aptly named Hell Street – now void of its once rough reputation ...

28 likes 26 comments 26
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Mr. Headmaster, Sir

Submitted to Contest #198

Knock, then enter, close the door, and wait to be addressed. That was Mr. Harold Llewellyn-Smith’s protocol rule whenever a boy was called to the headmaster’s office. Whether he was already punishing me for my truancy by ignoring me or just relishing his position as the head of the school, it was lost on my fourteen-year-old brain. I knew what the upcoming punishment had in store for me, so I quietly and fidgetily tried desperately to come up with a reason for him not to go through with it. The minutes dragged on as Llewellyn-Smith continued...

27 likes 17 comments 17
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A Predestined Predilection

Submitted to Contest #197

“It’s in the cards.”“What cards?”“The Fatum cards.”“What’s a Fatum card?”“It’s Latin for Fate.”“You mean to tell me that your whole day is dictated by stupid nonsense cards?”“Not just my day. My week, my month, my year.”“Your whole bloody life is what you’re trying to say.”“Pretty much.”“Hmm, have you been tested for Tourette Syndrome?”“I don’t have Tourette’s.”“How do you know?”“I have no tics.”“Everyone has tics. I have one.”“Yeah, what?”“Listening to you and your silly superstitions makes me wince a lot. See? Look, my cheek is twitching.”...

25 likes 21 comments 21
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Transversal

Submitted to Contest #196

The jungle fauna crept quietly and resolutely around Private Henry Willoughby’s feet. In this theatre of war, it was the only living thing to flourish, to grow, to last. Nothing else stood a chance under its stifling canopy. If Henry didn’t move, he’d be consumed by slow creeping vines, fire ants, foot rot, and all kinds of potential alien ailments. Should he choose to move, he risked exposing himself to the hellfire performance of a jungle war entertaining its combative audience. For Henry, the choice was simple. Killing biting insects in ...

27 likes 18 comments 18
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WOOMBAA!

Submitted to Contest #195

“It’s Woombaa!” The male Indian translator insisted, with hands cupping his abdomen. “No, It’s Womb!” The female interpreter from Zimbabwe stipulated, tapping her solar plexus as she pronounced the word. “It’s Woombaa!” “No, Womb!” Chloe Petersen had just entered the unusually crowded interpreter’s staffroom at the United Nations building in New York City. It was her first day in a new career that she had been studying and working hard for. However, she had inadvertently found herself in the middle of a war of words between several of the ot...

25 likes 30 comments 30
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Michelin Start-Up

Submitted to Contest #195

“I can’t believe I fell for another of your stupid ideas.” “How was I to know they had guard dogs.” “You plan ahead, you muppet! You survey the location, jot down times of comings and goings, and discreetly make enquiries as to their security setup.” “I did all that! Even made friends wif one of the secretaries, Jan. I’d bring her sandwiches each lunchtime, and we’d sit on that wall just below us, talking.” “And…?” “You know. What she did on the weekends, what films she’d seen. Normal chitchat.” “Anything about operating hours, security came...

19 likes 23 comments 23
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Simon Says

Submitted to Contest #194

“We’re just downloading the patient’s memories to a hard drive. I mean, it’s hardly brain surgery, now is it…?” The operating room comprising of two doctors, one nurse, and the anaesthetist, suddenly went disbelievingly silent, searching each other to see if there was a possible punch line to follow. “I’m sorry, Doctor Abel,” the chief nurse spoke up. “Was that a joke?” “Should it be?” Simon Abel answered with a question. “I know it’s just attached sensors and that you’re not cutting her open,” the nurse attempted to defend her opinion. “But...

32 likes 21 comments 21
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Early Release

Submitted to Contest #193

“Sorry, mate. I thought I was doin’ you a favour.” “By sending me a photo of the outside of this prison?” “An innocent mistake.” “With the window to my cell circled in red and words saying, This is the one, it’s not that high up?” “Just wanted you to know where you were – in the scheme of things.” “In the scheme of each floor in the photo, labelled one, two, three.” “Yeah, well. It was a feature addition. Cost extra. I got it printed by a local photographer who turned it into a postcard for me – like those cheeky ones at the seaside – you kn...

32 likes 44 comments 44
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A Diamond in the Trough.

Submitted to Contest #192

“Sink me!” The loud exclamation echoed through the air. “I reckon’ if you be serious about hiding your treasure, then this be the place where not many would dare to look.” Captain Horatio Cutlass and a handful of his crew peered into the deep cesspit of the island village’s main latrine. Following the procurement of a pillaged treasure map’s directions - sloppily left open on a tavern table by a drunk sailor, Cutlass quickly rallied his crew - leading them on a hunt for what was believed to be the lost treasure of The Ortega – a Spanish Gall...

32 likes 31 comments 31
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Back From Outer Space

Submitted to Contest #191

“Hey, Captain Caveman is back!” “…I’m sorry, what!?” “We thought you was lost forever. We even took bets as to if we’d ever see you alive again.” Jeremy Walpole stood in the doorway to his local pub. For the past two years, he had avoided all physical contact with the human race. The frightening Covid-19 pandemic resulted in an extreme reaction to cut himself off completely from society – relying solely on contactless home deliveries for survival. So, for him, a re-emergence into public life, was a monumental and brave return to civilisation...

29 likes 21 comments 21
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An Artificial Admission of Sins

Submitted to Contest #190

Joel Lieberman patiently sat in the AI confessional booth at his local Catholic church feeling like a foreign invader. Born a Dublin Jew, he had often envied his Irish Catholic friends for being able to wash their sins away during their weekly ritual of confessional cleansing. So, on this random Saturday - when he should have been at Temple, Joel decided on the spur of the moment, that he needed to rid himself of the great burden of guilt that had held him down for such a long time, changing his mood and damaging his mental health.Reading th...

37 likes 33 comments 33
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The Tale of The Two-Headed Whale

Submitted to Contest #189

“I am Cap’n Cutlass of the ship Golden Plunderer, an’ I’m in the mood for mischief.” The ale house fell suddenly silent at the large, bearded pirate blocking the only exit from the building. “I have conquered the seven seas, outfought the English Navy, and outrun the fastest of Spanish galleons. Who here can challenge my prowess of the sea?” Drinking, eating, cavorting suddenly ground to a nervous halt. Cutlass was notoriously unpredictable. Rumoured to have once cut a man’s ear off for not listening to what he had to say, added to the pira...

26 likes 24 comments 24
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