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Daniel R. Hayes

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2020

Stories (80)
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1046 Followers
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80 Stories

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Grains of Sand

Submitted to Contest #332

In the twilight of the setting sun, Fucanglong clawed his way through the Earth’s thick crust like a rabid prairie dog escaping its dusty prison. A massive volcano marked his birth five hundred miles southwest from a small water town called Zhouzhuang, located in the Jiangsu province, China. The three-hundred foot long dragon slithered through jade waters and lush maidenhair trees like a monster born from nightmares. Its destructive path cut deep fissures in the land where magma rivers formed and boiled like a thousand supernovas. Fucanglo...

6 likes 5 comments 5
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Sishuo

Submitted to Contest #331

“Open your eyes and look upon me!” The hollow voice carried the weight of a thousand blue moons. Dan reluctantly opened his eyelids and felt a cold shiver race up his spine. Standing before him was a tall slender phantom wearing a black hooded robe. His face was an empty shell—nothing more than a skull with hollow eye sockets. There was no doubt in Dan’s mind who the evil spirit was. Death. Dan quickly took in his surroundings. He was in a large oval chamber constructed from frozen bricks that shimmered a blue hue. In the middle of the room ...

24 likes 16 comments 16
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Thanks...Giving

(CW: Language, Blood, Gore, Violence, Dark Crude Humor) I hate Thanksgiving. I mean I really hate it, like when you get a rock stuck in your shoe while you’re running a marathon and don’t want to stop because you might lose. Yeah it’s like that. Anyway, I don't know how my sister managed to talk me into coming to her home this year. I’d be perfectly happy sitting in my three room apartment with a pizza, diet cola, and the football game blasting on the tv. Yep…good times there. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I’m dealing with a broken hear...

7 likes 13 comments 13
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Killer Arcade

(CW: Violence, Crude Humor, Blood, Gore, Mild Language.) Max Sheppard looked at the honeycombed ceiling and smiled a devilish grin as the plaster fell in front of his feet. The enemies in black suits before him ran for their lives. Hearts racing, the money to kill the lone hero wasn’t worth their mortal souls because none of them had ever seen a catastrophic storm like that before. Unfortunately for them, their lights went out when a series of gunshots rang out like Zeus throwing thunderbolts from Olympus. One by one the villains fell t...

12 likes 19 comments 19
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Heart Half Emptied

A thick blanket of snow covered the Henderson’s two-story cottage in Bristlewood, New England in what was the first of many cold days and even colder nights that would plague the winter of 1999. The mighty pine trees of the Green Mountain National Forest engulfed the marshmallow fields like an army of poleman in the Middle Ages gearing up for one last battle. Frank Henderson sat at the kitchen table plucking the white hairs above his wrinkled lips like there were no razors left in the world. His steely eyes were fixed on the window above th...

11 likes 21 comments 21
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A Ghoulish Treat

(CW: Mild Language, Violence, Blood, and Gore.) “How does it fit?” asked Mary, peering over her thick rimmed glasses to get a good look at her daughter’s Halloween costume. Ana ran her small hands down the silky, pink princess dress and padded the peplum with eager blue eyes. “It feels good, Mommy!” “Fantastic!” Mary said, lifting her brow. “It was the last one in your size and I know how badly you wanted it.” Ana twerked her lips to the left and replied, “Everyone is dressing in superhero costumes this year, but I’m not into that kind of s...

13 likes 11 comments 11
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The Monster Beneath the Sheets

(Content Warning: Violence, Gore.) In the still of the night on All Hallows Eve, an eerie wind blew through the little suburban town of Elmhurst and rocked the empty oak trees. Tiny limbs rattled many windows like lost banshees begging for a warm embrace. A piercing howl reminded every creature, dead and alive, that the season of evil was in full swing. Bobby’s eyes snapped open like a rolling blind, and saw a wicked branch waving hello. As he took a deep breath to steady his booming heart, he noticed his closet door cracked open. The t...

25 likes 24 comments 24
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Couldn't Put It Down

(Content Warning: Violence, Blood and Gore, Language.)What is it about a good book? It’s a question that has plagued my mind for thirty years. Maybe it’s the way the authors weave their tales together with vivid imagery like: “Cotton candy as fluffy as the clouds.” Or perhaps it’s the way they infuse their personalities into each story. Who knows, and who cares, really?Ahem…well…I do care, thank you! I just love a good book. Don’t you? My love for reading began when I was a toddler. While other kids grabbed their crayons to plaster smil...

21 likes 9 comments 9
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Heavy is the Night

(Content Warning: Violence, Gore, Murder, and Abusive Situations.)Alicia’s whimpers brought life to the darkness in the cold, musty cellar where the spiders crawled, and the slugs oozed toward the black molded cement blocks. The damp soil she sat on was a warm cocoon of filth that delivered no comfort. It was a harsh reality of her failed marriage. The heavy chains around her wrists and ankles were chafing her pale skin. Thick cobwebs were layered throughout her long black hair, and the carpenter ants explored her dry-rotted clothes.The only...

20 likes 8 comments 8
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The Search for Fully Popped Kernels

(CW: Violence, Blood, Gore and Crude Humor) In the dark, cool womb of rotting soil beneath Elk Grove Cemetery, a faint buzzing sound rattled Ed O’Neal’s freshly planted corpse. One might think it strange to be buried with your phone, but if you knew Ed, you’d think nothing of it. A control freak for perfection in the living world, he left explicit instructions in his will for that glossy android device to be plastered to his side in the event of his passing. Passing…such a strange word for death. Catastrophic would have been the better ch...

14 likes 24 comments 24
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Stout

In the lands between the great mountains in the North, an emerald green pasture gives way to a vast apple orchid where the Periannath stood on wooden ladders, plucking the succulent fruit with their rugged hands. The winter season was quickly approaching, and there was a lot of work to be done.What are the Periannath, you ask? Well, my friends, they are not unlike you or me, and the only way one could tell the difference is from their short statures. You see…a Perian, in singular form, is a person true and through—not unlike the sea dwellers...

16 likes 20 comments 20
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From the Catacombs

Submitted to Contest #258

(Content Warning: Violence and Gore)I open my bloodshot eyes and watch the shadows dance from the flickering torches hanging on the cold, dripping bricks. My legs and buttocks are numb, but I can’t deny the annoying sensation coming from my right hallux. I see a pair of tiny red eyes looking up at me. My mind screams in silent terror as a piece of flesh is torn from just below my curved toenail. The rats are unrelenting in their quest for flesh.My long tenure in this malicious prison has eroded the cobblestone floor. Thick iron chains keep m...

64 likes 87 comments 87
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Mistaken

The sickly-sweet aroma of decadent freshly cut flowers filled Tomblin’s Funeral Home like a warm breeze blowing through a floral garden. The delicious splash of color did little to hide the tear-stained faces sitting on the golden benches staring at a yellow pine coffin. The mourners were dressed in their finest clothes, which was fitting for the moment, but the dead don’t care about such frivolous things. The man on display was Sam Horner. A father to a long-lost son, husband to a loving wife who had passed the year prior, and a man who had...

16 likes 25 comments 25
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My Father's Words

Submitted to Contest #255

“When life throws you crackers, you have to deal with the crumbs.” Straight from my father’s lips to my inner soul, I never understood the meaning of those words until now. He first said them to me on the banks of the Tygart Valley River on a cool summer morning just before the humid heat had a chance to bake the day. The fish weren’t biting, and I remember icy daggers stabbing my heart. Somehow, he knew how I felt. “It’s okay,” he would say. “It’s not about the fish.”  I remember those long walks home after a hectic day at Jennings ...

35 likes 38 comments 38
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What A Day Yesterday Was

(CW: Murder, blood, gore, violence.) Ben Warden opened his eyes and let the white light penetrate his soul. The cream-colored walls lacked sympathy and the shrill beeping sounds pounded his ears like a construction crew working overtime on a busy Friday afternoon. He tried to scream, but something was lodged in his esophagus. His arms lacked the strength to move, and a dark cloud of weariness licked his consciousness. “Now, now, deary,” a feminine voice whispered. “Stay still while I fetch the doctor.” As the ventilation tube was remo...

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