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Graham Kinross

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

Stories (232)
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1323 Followers
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232 Stories

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The Path of Wrath

Submitted to Contest #151

With a spear jabbing at her face, Sir Danielle Longbow dodged and deflected. Her shield took the blows.             “Why am I here?” Fending off the spearhead of an alien warrior she had no enmity with was an all too familiar feeling.             “Because you love your family, you love your city, and you love your country. If you want any of them to survive, you have to kill this man, and the next three targets I give you.”...

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Duelling an Eldritch Alien

Submitted to Contest #151

Sir Danielle Longbow’s sword rose to meet a foe unimagined in her worst nightmares. On the alien world designed by hatred and hunger it was no wonder that the beast was an eldritch abstraction.             Butterfly wings tipped with claws fluttered at the speed of a hummingbird. Eyes blinked on stalks with lamprey mouths.             A purple fanged stalk lurched towards Danielle with the speed of an arrow. She slashed at ...

25 likes 12 comments 12
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No Rest From the Wicked

Submitted to Contest #150

TW: Swearing Having performed miracles, the lord had the crowd in the palm of his hand. A crown he’d conjured sat upon his regal head. His face was beautiful and hateful. His smile was doom and delight. Silver eyes reflected the eager inn patrons rushing to him to buy a miracle from the monster. Sir Danielle Longbow waded through the crowd. “Please, don’t do it.” Her voice was lost in the pleas to be the rogue’s selfish boon recipient. They paid attention when she drew her sword. Her armoured bulk cut the sea of watchers as a hot knife ...

15 likes 25 comments 25
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Odd Spark

Submitted to Contest #150

I’m Odd, always have been. It’s my name and my nature. My tribe is at the bleeding edge of the stone age. Our prey and our enemies are more on the bleeding edge in a literal sense. Sharp stones driven into wood, that’s our thing.             More It’s than mine. It is the leader of our tribe. Not because he’s the smartest. Because he’s the biggest. His club is heavier and has more sharpened pieces of flint driven into it.           &...

30 likes 47 comments 47
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Playing Dice With Doom

Submitted to Contest #149

Numb, entirely unaware of anything but the dying flames her mother’s funeral pyre, her eyes held the stare of flying sparks. Rose Fletcher, her mother’s lover held her hand. The older woman was trembling with emotion.             Danielle finally broke Rose’s grip when her headache became a stream of vomit.             “Do you want to stay with us tonight, Rose?” Lupita offered. “You shouldn’t be alone.”    &...

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Don't Invite Death

Submitted to Contest #149

TW: Death Eyeless immortals gathered around Sir Danielle Longbow in their great library miles beneath the surface of the world.             “I know you know something. Tell me. I need to understand.” Danielle begged the uamhith librarians whose heads were twitching in the silent conversation of telepathy.             “You are lucky again, Danielle, for many reasons.” Quick Foot, a young uamhith with just over two centurie...

16 likes 11 comments 11
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Banned Practice

Submitted to Contest #148

TW: SwearingMichael glared across the bar at Diana. This was his night, the big gig. She wasn’t going to ruin it for him.            “That the one who keeps calling the cops on you?” Asked Dennis, the guitarist in the band. Dennis flicked away the black, curly locks that made him look like a glam rock throwback. “She’s hot.” He sipped a beer, two fingers and a thumb on the neck of the bottle as if he was a prim and proper gentleman sipping tea from fine porcelain.   &...

16 likes 5 comments 5
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Hollow Healer

Submitted to Contest #148

TW: Sex, swearing and troubled pasts. Wooden floorboards creak beneath Billie’s bare feet. She told me to take off my shoes at the door so I’m there in my threadbare socks as if I care about the view from the window. The letting agent is spouting the usual bullshit. All I’m thinking about is that she tried to shake my hand when I entered.             I can’t shake people’s hands. A touch is never just a touch with me. When my flesh touches someone else’s I see all the worst parts ...

20 likes 12 comments 12
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The Three Bodies Problem

Submitted to Contest #148

For three days the bodies had been floating over the city. Decaying. Watching them from the balcony of the highest home in her tower, Danielle felt lead weights sink in her stomach. Scaffolding was slowly rising towards them. Progress was slow. No one building the improvised wooden tower wanted to be close to the force that held the corpses in place.             “It shouldn’t be long now,” said Prince Consort Carl. “They’re almost there. Then they can get them down and it will all b...

19 likes 22 comments 22
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Falling For Her

Submitted to Contest #147

Sandra Bullock hurtled towards the Earth, screaming. Screaming was all we heard as we kissed. It was awkward with the armrests between us. At that point we didn’t care about anyone around. We were in the back seats and the screening was nearly empty. We came to see Gravity yesterday but with the same result. We started kissing a few minutes in and neither of us saw anything. It sounded interesting. Dates six, seven and eight were just us sitting through films in the cinema and kissing a lot. For the cinephiles outraged that we didn’t pay...

20 likes 9 comments 9
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War and Peas

Submitted to Contest #147

TW: War, swearing.My country is screwed. Why? Chickpeas. I’ll get to that. The ground trembled beneath our feet. The screen went blank just as the film was reaching the climax. The lights went out. Some ran for the emergency exit. I didn’t see the point. You can’t outrun a missile. If we were being bombed and the ceiling hadn’t collapsed, we were as safe as anywhere we could run to. My wife’s tears glittered in the dark. White light poured in through the emergency exit. Dust and rubble in the world beyond were framed by the black cinema....

22 likes 13 comments 13
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Make America Grate Again

Submitted to Contest #147

TW: Swearing. Is your cheese too blocky? Are your burgers hampered by the height of your halloumi? The solution is simple. For only $9.99 we can teach you how to turn a culinary faux pas into a fromage.             *Soft white rind cheese sold separately.             When I was a kid, I thought my life would be like the movies, specifically Spy Kids. Being a spy in real life is incredibly boring. Filling out a risk asse...

20 likes 17 comments 17
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The Last Day of Camp

Submitted to Contest #147

TW: Violence and swearing.Looking at my colleagues from the stage as I receive employee of the year it is hard to describe how much I want all of them to die. Every one of them has a glass of wine in their hand.            “Raise a toast,” I say. “We all drink together. Today is a celebration. To the death of rats.” My voice echoes in the dance hall.            Uniformed guards raise their glasses and say it with me. “To th...

18 likes 16 comments 16
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Stillbirth of a Nation

Submitted to Contest #147

My hand reaches over the back of his seat. Chloroform sends his mind spinning before he can make a sound. When he’s unconscious I touch the bare skin of his neck and get to work.             On a screen plays the 1915 silent film The Birth of a Nation. Hint, it was first called The Clansman. My patient and his friends have a private screening. No one else would watch this shit, hopefully. That’s a lie, there are too many people who still idolise the lynch mobs too cowardly to show t...

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Stinging Nettle

Submitted to Contest #146

“How did you get those bruises?” Danielle asked her adopted daughter Nettle.             “Practice,” said Nettle, avoiding eye contact.             “Were you the target?” The knight asked the girl.             “No. I’m fine.” The girl had a black eye and bruises on her arms.             “I can tell whoever...

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