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Claudio Murgia

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2020

Stories (16)

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21 Followers

2 Following

16 Stories

278 karma pts

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The Night Porter

Submitted to Contest #329

The Night Porter As he entered the kitchen the night porter wished he could sigh. Working the night shift suited him because he didn’t sleep, and he loved the sweet quiet of darkness. He wondered at the need for all the lights illuminating the night in cacophony. As if we were kids scared of the dark. So, he made the rounds to check no lights had been left on. And of course, the light at the back, towards the walk-in fridge, was on, as per usual. The idea of a room that was also a fridge where you hang meat and store food as if they were cl...

12 likes

To Be Loved

Submitted to Contest #327

The vampire was hanging from the tree like a damn bat. The hunter advanced carefully, sure of each step because each step meant the end of the hunt and his demise. Vampires usually do the attacking after all, no one is mad enough to attack them. So, the hunter advanced with careful madness. Smooth as a shadow, he could barely hear himself moving. The air smelled fresh and the grass wet. He wore the night, and it fit him well. He circled around the tree, using its trunk to hide. He worried the excitement of the hunt would beat his heart too l...

3 likes

The Unbearably Slow Disappearance of Josh

Submitted to Contest #182

When I met Josh he was all in one piece. I know this sentence doesn’t make much sense to you right now, but bear with me. I barely believe it and I was witness to it. But where do we end up if we don’t trust our own experiences? I met Josh in school. He was quite sociable, smart but, at the same time, an introvert. Maybe not exactly an introvert, but you could often find him staring at nothing in the middle of class or even when there was a group of us having a chat, he would just be in his own world. We were not really friends, but I liked ...

10 likes

Debts

Submitted to Contest #171

He left her with an angry message. For months he had known their story was finished, and yet, the story kept adding excursus after excursus. The truth was he wasn’t brave enough to do what he needed to do for his own happiness. When he had realised months before that Vanessa had an interest in him, he had felt lucky. Here was this beautiful woman, ten years younger than him, funny and clever all in one, and she was interested in him. In a few weeks, they had fallen together, like an avalanche. Like most irrational stories, the problems star...

3 likes

Everything Rains

Submitted to Contest #112

It is on days like these that I ask myself what the point of living is, days when it rains men and women. I will never get used to the sound of bones breaking. First is the scream of those who are falling to their deaths, because that was their destiny, and then that popping sound, like old branches. Yesterday it was raining wolves. So many wolves that we are sorted for the winter. It is up to God what the next rain brings. This is why we call them the tears of God. Where does God take all of these men and women and wolves and elephants fr...

7 likes

The Unbearably Slow Disappearance of Josh

Submitted to Contest #108

When I met Josh he was all in one piece. I know this sentence doesn’t make much sense to you right now, but bear with me. I barely believe it and I was witness to it. But where do we end up if we don’t trust our own experiences? I met Josh in school. He was quite sociable, smart but, at the same time, an introvert. Maybe not exactly an introvert, but you could often find him staring at nothing in the middle of class or even when there was a group of us having a chat, he would just be in his own world. We were not really friends, but I like...

12 likes

When the Rooster Crowed He Smirked

Submitted to Contest #101

The flat surface of the mirror held a man growing old and weeping. The mirror was cold when the man fell to his knees and touched the mirror. ‘I don’t know him,’ said the man on his knees. ‘I don’t know him,’ said the mirror. The man shot his eye up at the mirror, horrified, holding the mirror with both hands. He was shaking his head at what he was looking. He stood up again, brushed his trousers with his hands, wiped the tears with his sleeve, but his eyes were red.  The mirror was unmoved. The man cleared his throat and looked at t...

7 likes

All the Colourful Umbrellas

Submitted to Contest #99

I remember a summer of many years ago when I was barely old enough that the world seemed so vast. I was on an inflatable mattress in the water. The sun was hitting me hard on the back, but children don’t mind these things. I remember it as if it were important. I was engrossed, leaning slightly off the mattress to look at the azure of the water, through it, at the rocks and the weird plants in it. The sand underneath seemed so far away that I felt both excitement and fear. My arm splashed in the water, which was fresh and cold in the sun....

5 likes

Blood is Water

Submitted to Contest #83

It was weird the way she looked at him. Do all the water spirits look at humans like that? He didn’t know. It was the first time he had seen a water spirit. She looked shy, lowering her eyes, flipping her small blond eyelashes. She was the size of his hand but he could see everything in her as if it was magnified. She mimed something with her mouth, as if to say something. But he couldn’t hear her voice. He motioned that really he could not hear her. She flew close to her. He felt bizarre. Her slender body stirred something inside him, somet...

7 likes

Chains

Submitted to Contest #82

Richard Knight, instructor: “If you want to fit in stop considering the obvious: yes, they are different. So what? Fitting in is not about differences, R.A.I.N.” R.A.I.N. looks like a human. It has a human face, the skin of a deceased human. R.A.I.N., android: R.A.I.N. doesn’t understand why humans do not accept R.A.I.N. Richard Knight, instructor, says: “It’s because humans have emotions.” Richard Knight, instructor, knows that R.A.I.N is an android and then R.A.I.N. does not understand emotions. Richard Knight, instructor, says: “How...

9 likes

The Cause for Happiness

Submitted to Contest #81

“I miss the way nothing I do is ever good enough for you.” They had not seen each other for a few months.  “No, no, it’s not the way you think. It made me want to be better, day after day. Not necessarily the way you wanted me to be; and maybe that’s why it didn’t work out between us. But you understand: if I became the person you wanted me to be, that would not have been me.” He had gone back home to his country because he had needed a break from everything. He had needed a break from her, even though he could never have told her that,...

8 likes

School Used to Be Different

Submitted to Contest #78

It’s now ten years I don’t teach. It all started during the pandemic 12 or so years ago. It was a strange one, it would give you fever and chest pain, but you would also lose any sense of touch. If you touched an object or a person, you wouldn’t feel anything. That wasn’t the worst of it, of course: millions of people died. I caught it, in a mild form, I didn’t really have any high temperature and the chest pain was negligible, but I could not feel anything. My boyfriend at the time, now my husband, lived with me already, so he had to isol...

5 likes

Retreat

Submitted to Contest #77

I needed time off technology and, consequently, human society. I needed to stay away from people but, I cannot remember why. It’s winter now and I am alone. I hear the wolves, or maybe it’s just one, but I am alone in this cabin. Did I mention that it’s winter and it’s cold? I cannot remember; I get confused sometimes. I came here in autumn. I was meant to stay for a couple of weeks. I don’t know why I am still here. Alone. I can hear the wolves sometimes. I think they are wolves. Or maybe it’s just one. I came here, away from everyone a...

7 likes

Just a Massive Dog

Submitted to Contest #76

 I know what she wants, but she will not get it that easily. ‘I have met this guy, but I don’t know. I can see he likes me, but I don’t know,’ she says as nonchalantly as possible. But I know she wants me to envy her, because boys only seem to fuck me and I have just split up with my boyfriend (A twat, not a great loss, but you know). She is so easy to read. ‘Good for you,’ I say, barely holding my sarcasm. Just to hide my thoughts better, I throw in a smile. I suddenly hope I have some food between my teeth. ‘Thank you,’ she says, bea...

7 likes

Life Changer

Submitted to Contest #75

It is on the first day of the year, every year, that my job comes into effect. For the rest of the year, I prepare. I am like that painter that spends days looking at her subject without touching a brush and then, when she is finally ready, finishes her painting with a few, rapid, master strokes. A person comes to me, they want to change their lives completely, and I do just that. On the first day of the new year they are someone different. My job is done, I disappear. Almost no one has regretted it and asked me to go back to their previo...

3 likes