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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2024
Submitted to Contest #289
Kiana picked up the framed picture from the dresser. “She’s so beautiful,” she said. “I know,” Jamari smiled, walking up beside her, his hands gently squeezing her shoulders. “You look just like her—especially around the eyes,” she said. Jamari’s beam brightened further. “I know,” he said. “I wish I could’ve met her.” “I really wish you could’ve, too. You would’ve loved her. More importantly, she would’ve loved you. Just like I do.” He kissed her forehead, making his new fiancée gush. “Yes, she would have,” inserted Jamari’s father, J...
Submitted to Contest #288
The little girl ran around as the water fell from the sky above, her giggling almost uncontrollably. Her dog Skip playfully chased her as they both splashed in a muddy puddle on her family’s front lawn. “Oh, Trish!” her mom yelled, exasperated at the huge mess she was making on her clothes. She and Tricia’s dad sat dry on the covered porch, smiling as they watched on from their respective rocking chairs. “Trish… Trish!!” “Oh, yeah?” Tricia’s eyes returned her to the present, where Jessica was staring at her, waiting for her response. “I s...
Submitted to Contest #287
Michael pulls out a chair for Cynthia and then joins her at the table. “Can I get either of you something to drink besides water?” The waiter asks. Michael looks to Cynthia. “A glass of whatever merlot you have is fine,” she answers. “Make it the best, John,” Michael jumps in. “Whatever you have that’s the most expensive.” Cynthia smiles, knowing not to object, as he’ll only insist. “Thank you, Michael.” “Of course. You know you’ll always only have the best when I’m around.” He turns back to the waiter. “And your best single malt scotch, nea...
No.Pete stood there, his face dropped and his entire body unable to move.No way.You didn’t leave. I know you didn’t just leave.There’s no way you’ve just…left me like that.This isn’t happening. This cannot be happening.No.No!!!No. You’ll be back. Of course you’ll be back!! You have to…….Don’t you?There’s no way you would just…leave like that……....Would you?No, no. You wouldn’t. You couldn’t. What am I saying? Ha ha, of course you wouldn’t… There’s no way you would. No. Way. Not after everything.Yeah, you’ll be back.In fact, you’ll be back ju...
Submitted to Contest #286
It's Mommy’s weekend again. My purple suitcase with yellow and blue flowers is in the corner of my room, waiting for me to fill it. I pick it up, put it on my bed, and start getting everything I want to take to Mommy’s house. The same things I always take. My life. My whole life. Hanging on one of the few hangers in my closet is my bright-blue dress. It goes in first. It’s my only dress here, and the dress I love, in my favorite color. My daddy bought me this dress. I pull out my favorite shirt from my dresser. It’s yellow, with short ...
I’d fallen in love.Not with any man, or any woman. Not with any person. With a thing. A thing flowing inside of a person. One of the key things that keep us alive.I’d fallen in love with blood. With their blood. More specifically, with the sight and smell of their blood.It was intoxicating, like a drug I couldn’t pull myself away from. Greater than the greatest crack cocaine, greater than meth, or a gambling addiction, or alcohol, better than sex, better than anything I’d ever known. That smell.Maybe it was the metallic component of it....
Submitted to Contest #285
The nurse wheeled the senior into the room where his nephew was waiting.He looked at the young one with a slight expression of disgust.“I’m surprised you even remember I exist…”“Uncle P… Don’t start…”The nurse began to lock the chair in place, but Uncle P snarled at her. “I can do that!!”The nurse raised her hands up to signal he was free to have at it and then walked away.“Don’t start what?” Uncle P directed his attention back to his nephew. "I’m just saying, it’s been a while, and it seems like no one ever remembers I exist. I can’t even t...
The phone rang. Melinda glanced at the caller ID as she entered the kitchen. Robert Banks, it read. Hmmm, I don’t know any Robert Banks. Wonder who this is? She thought to herself. Melinda found herself again relishing the new gadget she’d just bought for the house the week before. How did they ever manage before such an invention? Actually being able to know who’s calling before you pick up. Man. What a time to be alive. “Hello?” She greeted as warmly as she could but admittedly felt exasperated. 30 minutes. That’s how much time she had lef...
Submitted to Contest #252
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Meira lay on her bed of her apartment, scrolling on Instagram. She swiped her thumb a few times down the length of the rectangular glass, resting her other fingers on the hard plastic behind it. Once something caught her attention, she rested her thumb on the glass and stayed there for a few moments. She stared at the image, now occupying most of the screen. Big, bright slabs of light from outside penetrated the slits of Meira’s blinds, inviting themselves into her room and scattering across her bed wit...
She pushed him on the swing set, his little laughter filling the air with each push. In these moments, she looked down at him and smiled. These were often Yvette’s most prized moments of the day: spending time with her 4-year-old nephew at the local park. Every workday morning, she would pick him up from her baby sister’s house, take him to the park for around a half hour, and then drop him off at daycare. She really enjoyed this rare time, uninterrupted. In between her nephew’s high-pitched laughs, she found herself looking up and around. I...
Submitted to Contest #251
Teri looked in the bathroom mirror, realizing this would likely be her last time ever doing so. She poured as much of the nearly full bottle of her mother’s Ambien in her hand and then into her mouth and washed it all down with a four-ounce glass of Pinot Grigio.She been plagued by a certain darkness for most of her 35 years. Like a smokey thunder cloud hovering over her life and in her mind most days. It was often hard to see the positive in things. Her glasses weren’t rose-colored—they were more of a dingy, cracked rust. That was what the ...
Submitted to Contest #250
“Yeah, I’m over him,” Sarah said curtly while walking into the kitchen from the back deck. Thomas looked up from his laptop, pulled away by those four short words. It was the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, when he would normally be at the office, but once he confirmed he didn’t have anymore meetings the rest of the day, he had decided to leave early and work the rest of the day from home. He thought he would surprise Sarah, but she had been out back, probably gardening, when he arrived. Figuring his ears had heard something likely uneventful...
“Tell her,” she stood firmly.“I can’t,” his words crawled out in a breath.“Tell her,” she repeated, this time more forcefully.“Look, I can’t!” He whispered again. “Not now. Not yet.”“But why not?!” She shouted.“Shhh.. She’ll hear you.”“She won’t hear me,” she dismissed in regular volume and rolled her eyes.Jeremy let that go, paused for a moment, and then continued in his whisper, “Look, I can’t yet… but I’m going to, okay?” He peered toward the cracked door of the den they stood in, listening for creaks above. “I just need a little more…tim...
Submitted to Contest #249
Bzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzz. 8:15am. The bright-green numbers stared harshly back at her, taunting her — the result of at least five snoozes, from when Marissa was supposed to originally awaken at 7. Her eyes widened in panic. She had overslept! Now less than an hour until the interview for the job of a lifetime. She ripped off the comforter and bolted out of her queen-sized bed, nearly tumbling to the ground on the way and barely noticing her Lab mix, Riley, sitting upright near the door, sporting sad, eager eyes. Suddenly, vague memor...
Submitted to Contest #248
Day 1, on my ownThe others have gone. After marching for days, we’d stopped for a few minutes to rest. I closed my eyes for what felt like seconds. When I woke up, I’m not even sure if on the same day, they were gone. I looked around and saw no one in sight. We’d been marching in lockstep and following our commander without question, as we’ve always done. So, I hadn’t bothered to pay attention, nor was given any information, about where we were or where we were headed at the time. I noticed that, it had clearly rained as I had rested, which ...
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