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Hannah P. Simmons

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2022

Stories (23)
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294 Followers
119 Following

23 Stories

2024 karma pts

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Free Hugs

Submitted to Contest #233

Jade was younger than the usual customer. But Sam was past being too concerned. About ten years past. Maybe if she’d walked in even two years ago, he’d have cocked an eyebrow. But now? Now, he simply grabbed a shot glass, and placed it on a napkin in front of her as she took a seat on one of the barstools.“What’ll you have?” he asked.She seemed startled as she looked up at him, long black curls framing her captivatingly anguished face.“Uh… isn’t there a menu?”Sam all but cackled. “A MENU? Sorry, sweetheart. Most people know what they want be...

58 likes 31 comments 31
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Somewhere In My Memory

Submitted to Contest #229

BEEP BEEPI pull the curtain back and glance out the frosted window pane and see my daughter’s red hatchback parked on the curb. Our eyes meet, and she smiles nervously, waving a hand clad with fingerless gloves. I take a deep breath, grateful that the car is red. That made it easier to recall. Red is a Christmas color, after all.Pulling on my coat, I grip the doorknob and the panic rushes in like a flood.I can’t remember her name. Oh God. What is her name?My mouth gapes open, ragged breaths staggering in and out before I can even think to ca...

9 likes 7 comments 7
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A Woman's Glory

Submitted to Contest #219

My mother’s hair falls down her back, like waves of amber, ebbing and flowing till it reaches her waist. It drinks the warm rays of the sunlight, gently swaying in the breeze. I run up behind her, and press my face into the locks. They brush my cheeks, soft like the tufts of dandelion clutched in my tiny hand. I watch Father tuck a strand behind her ear as their foreheads touch, and I smile.  My hair falls around my shoulders, flaxen strands curling this way and that, like a bird’s nest. It is woven with grass, and strands of clover fl...

23 likes 12 comments 12
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A Spool of Amber

Submitted to Contest #197

She feels his touch. He is certain of it. Though his fingertips brush the arch of her cheek with the gentleness of a moth wing, she startles. And she looks at him.No. Merely in his direction. Thanatos knows better. She can’t see him. See his black eyes that glisten with longing. See the chiseled lines of his face that ever turns in her direction. See the chest that cages a sense of both passion and despair with every pulse of deified blood. Not yet.But, for a moment, it seems her eyes somehow reach beyond her mortal perception and find ...

32 likes 14 comments 14
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Brodir Bear and the Grumble

Submitted to Contest #193

When I was young, we told stories around the fire, beneath the sky, seated in the lap of the Earth Mother. The cold wind teased our backs, but the warmth of the embers kissed our noses, and there was nothing else but the fire, and the story. In the darkness of the night, the voices carried a new magic that brought Brodir Bear, and Sastyr Mouse to life.Brodir Bear was big and strong. Brodir could find the sweetest berries, catch the quickest salmon, and fight the Snow Spirits with his long, dark claws. And when he stood back on his feet, and ...

23 likes 25 comments 25
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Today I Made The Bed

Submitted to Contest #186

Everything changed. The day my doctor called. And told me to go check myself into the Emergency Room. I had almost fainted a few weeks before. While I was at work. And my manager brought in the paramedics. They told me that my blood pressure was too high. And I was shocked. Because I’d never had any heart trouble before. But they were right.Everything changed. The day my doctor called. And told me I was at Stage Four Hypertension. “That can mean fainting. A heart attack. Or even a stroke.” So we started with the basics. With watching my diet...

22 likes 14 comments 14
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Rebirthing

Submitted to Contest #170

The last thing I remember was trying to buy a bag of chips. I chose a gas station towards the edge of the wrong side of town. Those are safer. They don’t usually have the specialized tech. That’s the hard part about staying alive these days. It’s not getting a chip card, or even a voucher code. You can get those in almost any alley, provided you have something worth trading for. It’s the retinal scanners that you can’t fool. That’s how they can tell. That’s what makes this world Hell for the clones. Governments are really so fragile. It o...

28 likes 12 comments 12
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To Be Heard

Submitted to Contest #164

Going back home was the worst mistake of my life.Well, that's not exactly true.The worst mistake of my life was going back home with a divorce.Small towns are like a big family. Which means the people look out for each other. They care about each other.And they talk about each other.It took maybe three days for the word to spread.When my cousin Deb found out about my divorce, she almost seemed excited. Like she'd been waiting her whole life for this moment. Her text came through at midnight. It was full of assurances. Like, she was the only ...

24 likes 17 comments 17
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Baphomet

Submitted to Contest #156

I sense his presence before I ever lay eyes on him.It doesn't surprise me, really. Baph is the type of entity who always enters announced.He is the syncopated tap of stiletto heels that echoes across a tile floor.A whiff of musk that rides the air till it finds your inhale.Double doors that open with intention.The crescendo of the music.And now, that announced entrance is staring at me from across a crowded lobby, smiling that sinful smile he knows will make me tremble.I know better than to look away, but I do. Which gives him the advantage....

33 likes 22 comments 22
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Do None Condemn You?

Submitted to Contest #152

Before she was killed, my mother named me Shani. It means scarlet. Aunt Miriam believed it was a last act of defiance. I would be a constant reminder to the Sanhedrin— the council of elders—that they had failed to break her. As a child, the women of the village whispered that my mother had spoken a curse over me in revenge for her death. That in giving me this name, she sealed my future just as I had sealed hers. It was my fault that she was put to death. An unmarried Jewess found with child has but one fate under the law of t...

33 likes 27 comments 27
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What Really Happened

Submitted to Contest #151

  I A whisper. That’s what woke Meg. Her eyes snapped open with panic and she held her breath a moment, waiting for the voice to speak again. The clock ticked melodically on the wall, the floorboards of the old house creaked as it settled, and raindrops hit the window like tiny pebbles.But none of this had awakened her. She was used to these sounds. They reminded her she was home. Two years hadn’t been long enough for them to become foreign. No, it was that small, urgent voice that broke the famil...

39 likes 30 comments 30
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To Carry Me Home

Submitted to Contest #149

(For my Father)Mama’s house is at the end of the shortest street in Bennetsville. It isn’t even what you’d call a street, really. Just a little hook off the main road that circles behind Jason’s greenhouse. I don’t know if there’s even a street sign there. Us locals know where to find it, and travelers don’t have no reason to look. Nothing there for them to be interested in, ‘cept maybe the greenhouse or the little church just past that. But for me, it’s home.Or, it was.Growing up on this little street means you know all the neighbors, and t...

42 likes 50 comments 50
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The Garden of Beauty

Submitted to Contest #145

Awake.I blink twice. That's all it takes for me to realize I am lying on my back. Above me a night sky glitters with stars unlike any night sky I have ever seen. Hues of cobalt and lavender intertwine, as though placed by the gentle strokes of an artist's brush, while stars shimmer and blink, like jewels kissed fleetingly by the light.And I gaze up at this masterpiece through thin branches, speckled with leaves that shake as the boughs sway to and fro.For a moment, I don't move. But then, I hear the music. It drifts through the dark on a gen...

51 likes 41 comments 41
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The Lonely Color

Winner of Contest #141 🏆

“... I want to paint you.”She was surprised, sure enough. But she was also curious. Her face concealed nothing, and that was what fascinated me. As she walked through the gallery, each piece evoked something unique from inside her, and she did not bother to mask it. Anyone could read the critique in her face, if they took the time. It is an artist's dream – to clearly see the emotions we inspire with our work.Many had passed by my work since the showing began, pausing for a moment, offering a quick word of praise. I didn't approach them. But...

286 likes 161 comments 161
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My Dear Doctor Mortem

Submitted to Contest #140

“in vita et in mortem… in life as in death” My Dear Doctor Mortem,  I am writing to you on behalf of one of my most difficult cases. I thought perhaps you could help me. Yes, I realize this is highly irregular, given the nature of our individual practices, but I find myself at a loss. My patient is one Leanna Richards, and before you start, I assure you that she is much too young to have earned a file in your cabinet just yet. Then again, so was Henry.   I believe he came to you as a result of the plague. You’ve gotten a good ...

34 likes 14 comments 14
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