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Eliza Levin

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020

Stories (8)

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Library

72 Followers

14 Following

8 Stories

494 karma pts

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Absolution

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #337

Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It's been 402 days since my last confession. Not really, but that's how long it's been since you've heard it. I hope this letter finds you well. God, I'm terrible at beginnings. I'll start in the middle for now. Remember when I used to come into your office with some flimsy question and before we knew it we'd talked all afternoon and your window was dark? We'd sit there until we couldn't see each other anymore--somehow neither of us ever thought to turn on a light. I wish we could still do that. Would you ...

5 likes

Consumption

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #288

January 3, 1866It was fortunate Cora and I went to the market today—the snow was up to our ankles on the walk back. And as far as I can tell by moonlight, the great white gusts have only gotten greater. It could be a week before the lane is passable. I only wish we’d thought to pick up butter, but there are worse fates than eating dry bread for a week. I would have liked to bake something sweet for Cora, too, but we’re also out of sugar. Perhaps there was a reason our mother kept a list.Still, I don’t mind a storm like others do. I would be ...

12 likes

Eternal Recurrence

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #262

I have this theory that every person has a sort of essential act they’re doomed to repeat until they die. A single deed that serves as a metaphor for everything they are. Like Sisyphus eternally pushing a boulder up a hill but, in my version, that act holds some intrinsic part of Sisyphus himself. Even if he could extricate himself from the myth, if he left the boulder at the bottom of the hill and just kept walking until he couldn’t see it anymore, the truest part of him would still be pushing a boulder up a hill in everything he did. He co...

11 likes

Caroline

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #258

It’s strange, the things you remember about those monumental days that come to shape your life. When I think back to the interminable hours I spent beside my father’s hospital bed, I don’t see the grayish, emaciated form of the man whose hot-blooded vitality had loomed so large over me in my youth, nor do I feel the soothing wave of numbness that hit me when he’d finally stopped his wheezing. Instead, my clearest memory is of the grimy hospital floor, and how the tile closest to my feet had been installed upside down, ruining the pattern.And...

14 likes

The Purest Blue on Earth

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #239

8:30 on a Monday morning, and Boston’s financial district coughed and sputtered like a rusty machine rousing itself from a long sleep.With every click-clack of patent leather on the cobblestone, with every squeak of a shiny briefcase and start of a shinier SUV, another cog found its position in the chorus of places to be, people to see, and deliverables to gripe about. The crisp June air mingled with the exhaust fumes to form a scent all its own, and the quavering soprano of a flight of swallows shimmered where-smog-met-sky, far above the bl...

21 likes

Love.edu: Courtship and Coincidence in Modern Academia

Eliza Levin

Winner of Contest #237 🏆

Thursday, Jan 18 2:12 PMTo: eliserhodes@elliott.eduFrom: fredericklaird@greerstate.eduSUBJECT: Your (Brilliant) Paper on Mirrors/Jane EyreDear Professor Rhodes,I hope this email finds you well. I must confess that, although we have never met, I am a longtime admirer of your work—I was actually at your talk on Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell last year, which I greatly enjoyed.I write to you today to express my sincerest compliments on your paper The Beast Within: Mirrors and the Internalized Male Gaze in Jane Eyre. I know better than a...

165 likes

White Paint

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #236

“Security clearance?” The desk attendant asked flatly without looking up from his computer screen.Harriet cleared her throat.He looked up and his face formed into that sympathetic smile that Harriet despised, the one everyone gave her lately. For a moment, she could have sworn the sickly sweet stench of decaying lilies filled the room. Maybe it had started to cling to her clothes.“Oh, good morning, Dr. Grant! I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you on the schedule for today.” He said brightly.Harriet tried to smile back, but what came out was more of...

7 likes

Something Real

Eliza Levin

Submitted to Contest #234

CONTENT WARNINGS: Physical and Sexual Violence; Brief Description of Gore; Sexual Content“We have all the time in the world. I don’t care if this takes all night, if that’s what you need,” Lily said slowly from a chair next to the bed.Josh continued to pull at his restraints. “You can keep me here as long as you want, but I’m never going to know what you’re talking about. I don’t know how many more ways I can say you’re making a mistake.”Lily smiled. “Oh, don’t be like that. I promise I’m a good listener. I just want to hear your side of the...

11 likes