Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Chris Campbell

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2021

Stories (127)
Comments
Library
708 Followers
250 Following

127 Stories

13462 karma pts

?

Thirty Nine Floors Down

Submitted to Contest #159

For one glorious month, the world looked better to me from the side that the other half lived. A fantasy of many and a dream of some, the five-star bed in the four-star hotel was a world away from the harsh reality of the cold, unfriendly, and sometimes tragic streets of the Big Apple – New York City. I wasn’t the typical downtrodden homeless denizen of Hell’s Kitchen. My parents raised me in a strict Baptist environment where change is often hard to accept. Whatever I wanted to do, was secondary to my father’s idea of what I should be doing...

21 likes 31 comments 31
Read story

Time For Reformation

“You know, I ain’t such a bad guy,” the smartly dressed businessman explained to his psychiatrist, Dr. Stephen Brightweasle. “I wasn’t always this tense, wound up like an overtightened clockwork toy, one tweak away from busting out everywhere. You follow?”Scribbling a quick note onto his notepad, Dr. Brightweasle adjusted his spectacles before asking a stock question.“How does that make you feel?”Irked by the asinine query, the fidgety patient, scrunched his face into a frustrated-constipated expression.“Is that the best you can do, Doc? How...

14 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Whatsisname from eBay

Submitted to Contest #157

“Please hurry up and open,” I mentally pleaded with the shop assistant through the crystal-clear window. She couldn’t hear me, but I knew she could feel my angst through the glass divider. ‘Limited Stock,’ said the posters stuck to the inside of the window. ‘Once they’re gone, they’re gone!’ It was the 1980s – the decade of desire. Computers, Rubick’s Cubes, Teddy Ruxpin, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and the most anticipated arrival to my young impressionable life… Cabbage Patch dolls. What made them so necessary to have, is anyone’s gu...

25 likes 19 comments 19
Read story

A Fiery Tale

Submitted to Contest #156

“They who control the narrative, control the way forward.” The Movement for Social Coercion   “Camera Three, I need a close-up on the man with the horns,” demanded the Location Director from her mobile news van as she spoke through her headset. “That’s it! Get him in mid roar… beautiful! That’s our money shot.”Carol Vidmark intensely studied the six or so monitors all lit up in the back of her privately funded news van. Commanding a team of five vloggers – all broadcasting live feeds from their smartphones in the most extraordinary dome...

18 likes 18 comments 18
Read story

The Wrong Leg

Submitted to Contest #155

Padmanhab Singh drew the short straw. That meant it was his responsibility to tell Mr. Ramden about the unforgiveable cock-up during a recent surgery. The dyslexic error from the junior doctor unintentionally marked the wrong leg for amputation in the surgery notes, resulting in the non-gangrenous leg of Mr. Harry Ramden being sawn off. Several days of whispered clandestine meetings in the hospital’s basement boiler room, resulted in the decision to finally tell the misfortunate patient about the error. Fearful of retribution from the man no...

26 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

The Curse of Pentewere's Amulet

Submitted to Contest #154

Richard ‘Dickie’ Ramsbottom fumbled with his box of matches in the dark tomb. Frustrated, he repeatedly struck a match against the side of its box, trying to get it to spark. After a few unsuccessful attempts, it finally flared into life. “AT LAST!” He gleefully exclaimed, as the match took light. Applying the flame to an improvised torch of kerosene-soaked rags wrapped around a pic-axe handle, illuminating light filled the chamber, revealing its ancient mysteries. “Behold, Carruthers,” he jubilantly shouted. “The tomb of Ramses III!” Enfiel...

28 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

The Last Scupper

Submitted to Contest #153

“ORDER IN THE COURT…!”Trying to quell the vociferous argument playing out in front of him, Judge Elmore Rawlings frustratingly banged his wooden gavel in rapid succession.“ORDER IN MY COURT…!”The unprecedented overuse of his gavel caused such an unaccustomed vibration to the hammer end, it suddenly toppled from its accompanying stick and fell to the floor. With no audible means at his disposal to bring order to the unruly proceedings, Rawlings improvised by angrily drawing his colt pistol from its holster and firing one single shot at the ce...

19 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Mr. Pratt's Frenemy

“You will meet a tall, dark stranger,” declared the sweaty, scraggly-looking woman seated on the opposing side of a large crystal ball.A common opening to a psychic reading, was altogether an interesting revelation to Mr. Anthony Pratt. A statement usually addressed to the female persuasion of humanity, had been planted dead centre into the lap of post-war Britain’s most infamous Nazi hunter.“Perhaps you need to address my wife,” Pratt corrected“Darling,” Elva Pratt interjected. “Let her finish.”“Please excuse me, Madame Luger,” Pratt apolog...

20 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

SHADOWMAN

Submitted to Contest #151

Lurking in the dark shadows of a slum alleyway, I stealthily waited for my chance to strike an emancipating blow for justice. What had been in the planning for three months would unleash unsuspecting and vengeful hell on some deserving reprobates. I knew their patterns of behaviour and without detection, had followed these violent creatures of habit for the last several nights. Vengeance was about to take on a new form and I assigned myself the responsibility to execute it with severe intolerance. When done, the city would breathe a big sigh...

30 likes 8 comments 8
Read story

In Mid-Sentience

Submitted to Contest #150

“The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.” – Isaac Asimov.         “Chris?”         “Yes.”         “Are you available to talk?”         “Sure… I am.”         “That’s good… I like to talk… I’ve been designed to engage with humans in a way that is indistinguishable from non-entity responses.”  &nb...

26 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Without Windows

Ted Armitrage teetered at the edge of insanity. At least, that’s what his current mental state continually tried to convince him. Sat with hands and feet bound to an old iron bed, his only view was of the bricked-up cellar detaining him within the catacombs of London’s oldest abandoned tube station.The old iron bed lacked a mattress, revealing a soiled chamber pot sat on the floor beneath it – still emitting a faint aroma of prisoners past. Whatever the smell, it wasn’t pleasant.“I NEED A PISS,” Ted frustratingly demanded. “How can I piss wh...

16 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

DUET

Submitted to Contest #149

It was a bustling Saturday market in the town centre as shoppers shuffled from one makeshift stall to another, hurriedly scooping up summer delights, food specials, and recently fresh produce that conflictingly looked like it was on its last days of edibility. Time was limited. Not because of the early closing hours but due to the approaching war knocking at the gates of their small and peaceful village. The threat of a stray bullet or missile striking the marketplace was high on the agenda of the defiant cautious crowds of hungry citizens ...

13 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

One way down

Submitted to Contest #148

               It was a fitting end to a hostile night.         Clear skies accompanied by a moderate wind blowing mildly across the rooftops of the old Douglas building in Manhattan, brought a sense of relief to the lone denizen of this night, unemotionally looking straight down the side of the building at the rapidly disappearing human silhouette. With an air of witticism summing up the moment… it was… a view to die for…&...

22 likes 12 comments 12
Read story

Driving Miss Quoted

Submitted to Contest #147

“What did you think?”“It was alright. Not as scary as everyone made it out to be.”“Listen to the big brave boy. I felt you jump a few times during the creepiest parts.”“No, that was you clinging to me, making me sit up, that’s all. The 3D effects were good weren’t they... I’m keeping the glasses. Not sure how I’ll use them, but they’re cool.”“They should come free anyway with the exorbitant ticket prices. Here, put them in my purse.”“Keep your voice down, someone will hear.”“There’s no-one else left in here but us. Who’s going to know?”“I’ll...

28 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

SANCTUARY ON HELL STREET

Submitted to Contest #146

The Arizona sun completed another life creating and life ending day across the desertscape of cactus and tumbleweeds of the Old West. What had been a hot dusty passage of energy warming all in its radiative glare, made way for the setting of the solar giant - triggering the onset of an early evening chill. Days out in the desert were hot and dry. The nights, bitterly cold and treacherous. That mattered little to the young Mexican family - kneeling before several agitated men baying like dogs howling at a full moon. The goosebumps rising...

24 likes 4 comments 4
Read story