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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2022
Submitted to Contest #242
Archie knew he had a problem, but he also had another problem that compounded that problem. Firstly, he was in the habit of not listening. But what made it worse was that even in knowing that he wasn’t listening and that this was increasingly becoming a problem, he did nothing about it. “You can’t do this,” Archie said as he was manhandled from the car and walked to the back door of the huge edifice of a building made ominous by the dark shadows thrown by street lamps that stood well back and avoided the less salubrious parts of the city. “A...
Submitted to Contest #241
“In here!” Chelle pushed the dark, metal door open and urged me through it. I crashed through the gap. The adrenaline coursing through my body fighting with a terror that threatened to tear me apart. I could barely see through my eyes, they vibrated with fear and a roiling river of tears pushed at the weakening dam, almost undoing me. Holding it together was a full-time job I just wasn’t qualified for. My bladder vied for my attention and somehow shouted more loudly than almost everything else assailing my beleaguered senses. I was a wreck o...
“Oh dear.” “Not again.” Ben and Thom exchanged a look that asked a rhetorical question. That question was really existential in nature, but mostly it was a contrary bugger intent on making their life as interesting as it possibly could. “You know,” said Ben, “this reminds me a of City game I went to. Or rather the end of the game, when I was leaving the ground with my ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend.” Thom utilised another look in his repertoire. This look edged towards a rolling of his eyes, but that rolling never actually transpired, instead it ...
To whom it may concern,I don’t know whether I should be writing this letter. I’m not sure that I can. I think I’m writing it to see if I have it left in me to do this one last thing. Perhaps I’m writing it as a final defiant act. To prove that I was right all along. If you’re reading this then it has not only happened, it is done. That which should not have happened has occurred. I’d hoped with all my heart that it would not be so, but the flame of my hope has grown weaker with every passing hour and now, as I look upon it I’m not so sure I ...
Submitted to Contest #240
It’s happened before. At least I think it has happened before. I have a memory. I am a memory. There is no confusion. There isn’t enough of anything for there to be confusion. I am small. I am inconsequential. A mote of dust propelled hither and thither by forces beyond my understanding. The winds of change swept into my life. I was not ready. I am never ready. I will never be ready. The whirlwind of my emotions calms for a moment, allowing me a rare moment of clarity. This is necessary. I am free. Free from my ego. Fre...
Val smiled. He smiled a smile that reflected the light of the Summer sun, just like the rippling light dancing on the waves as they played along the rocks of the shore. Trent took in that smile and wished that he could give something of such worth to his friend. He stifled the sorrowful frown that threatened to break across his face and ruin the moment. Val was a delight. Trent knew Val was too good for him and it shamed him that he kept the secret of Val’s delight to himself, fearing that if he were to tell his friend, their bond would br...
Submitted to Contest #239
We cling for dear life to order. Everything in its place and a place for everything. But we are just one step away from chaos. We fear chaos because it so often wears a cloak of darkness and it reaches out to us with grim intent, to smother us and choke us in the filth of our own ignorance. Sometimes though, there is a light that dwells beyond our understanding and that light is so very special. That light is meant for us and we are meant for it. It speaks to us in an ancient and silent language. Sometimes we actually listen. Not often, not ...
Submitted to Contest #238
Don’t worry! It’s not..! That was when it all started. There was an end that heralded a beginning. The circle of life. Only this circle was broken and there was no fixing it. Problem was that Don could not discern the meaning in any of it. And meaning was required whenever the circle broke and threatened to stutter into an eternity of chaos and pain. Gary was the punchline, he was sure of that much. But Don didn’t get the joke and he certainly wasn’t laughing. No one was laughing. The timing was all wrong, and the punchline did not fit...
Submitted to Contest #237
There are some things that are not for the likes of us, and we live our lives accordingly. It pays not to get your hopes up. It certainly pays to remember the lines that should not be crossed. Even better, we build walls on the borders, walls that go so high there is no danger of catching a foolish glimpse of emerald grass that seduces and beckons. Who really needs that grass anyway? What is this obsession with finely manicured lawns? There’s more to life than that. Besides, it’s all very well acquiring a pristine lawn, but keeping it that w...
Submitted to Contest #236
“No!” “You fool!” “Why!?” I stare at the display on my wrist, wondering just how stupid a person can get. Truth is, anyone can be as stupid as it gets. All they have to do is not think. The truth is I panicked. Then I acted. There was no thought involved, so a default was provided. The default was 1984. I could blame George Orwell for that. We’re quick to blame, especially when we’ve done something that shames us. But then, I’d not even started to read Orwell’s book. It was the next book on my pile. One of the last thin...
Submitted to Contest #235
Life is a circle that cannot be denied. A hungry mouth devouring its own tail. We come into this world alone and we die alone. We arrive helpless and vulnerable, and at the end, we are rendered into the very same state. And as the last of our strength falters, we are at last reminded of the temporary gift that is life. A miracle that we housed within our body, but that could never be sufficiently contained. The light of life spills forth from within those who are not too afraid live well. When someone lives well, life breaks free of them and...
Submitted to Contest #234
The first time I heard it, I knew. But that knowing was the deep down sort that we have a habit of pushing away and dismissing when it suits us to do so. We do whatever we can to pretend it’s not there, or that what we’re experiencing is of no consequence. We kid ourselves and repeat over and over that it’s going to be OK, when we know nothing could be further from the truth. We have been warned, and there will be consequences. The oldest part of us. The part that saved our bacon when times were violent and dogs ate dogs just to ...
Submitted to Contest #233
You could have knocked Bill down with the proverbial feather. A small and inconsequential feather would have done, something from the hind quarters of a robin would have been just the ticket. You could have blown Bill down with a mere whisp of breath. Barely touched him with a fingertip and uttered “timber!” In this frozen moment, he stood there in this most precarious of positions and without a clue as to what had happened to render him so. “Pardon,” he said after the shock had reached its half-life. It wasn’t a question. It was a word ...
Submitted to Contest #232
When you’re young, you hear many stories and you are gifted quotes and maxims aplenty. Few of them stick, and even those that do stick, only hold on by the skin of their teeth or by their cracked and raggedy fingernails. If you’re lucky, you’ll remember them when it counts, but mostly they’ll come to haunt you with their meaning after the fact, and you’ll wonder just how much you have forgotten and how different things might have been… If only you’d known. My Uncle Freddie told me a story once. Now I think on it, he probably told me the ...
The flames of the fire danced in the pitch black of the night. Seamus could feel them on his face and not for the first time did he worry that his back was exposed to the horror of that night. When John was here, it was far better. It wasn’t just the company, but John was fair company. No real sense of humour. Quiet. Dour even, but he was there and he was real and he did have a story or three in him when pushed to tell them. Now John was gone, and Seamus was beginning the think that in his cynicism he had been right. Frightenin...
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