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John Rutherford

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2023

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475 Followers
1096 Following

25 Stories

4223 karma pts

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Namahage

Weekly Contest #375

Aoi the small child wanted to disappear, to be swallowed up by the darkness of the clothes cupboard. Seeking safety at the back of the cupboard she crawled deeper and deeper inside and then crouched in the confined space. Finally, she sat holding her knees to cover her face, cowering in fear. Clenching both hands with all her might, hiding from the namahage – the demon. Her thumbs were locked tightly between her sweating palms and four clenched fingers. This continued strained effort was making her knuckles visibly red and bright white as th...

5 likes 1 comment 1
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Silent Anguish

Weekly Contest #373

“A drunk mind speaks a sober heart.” He was passed drunk, only the nicotine ingested from a cigarette might sober him up. It might further contaminate the glossopharyngeal nerve at the back of his tongue and align his broken head with the broken and filthy taste in his mouth. Both were full of canker and bile. It felt like and probably looked like the bottom of an empty garbage bin. All to match the sullen rage in his head; these silent visions which failed to disappear no matter what state of mind he was in. He wanted the contents of the b...

24 likes 7 comments 7
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Arev

Weekly Contest #356

She was a helpless onlooker to a world of intravenous tubes and monitors, but at the very centre of this detached world was her living baby, clinging to life. When the reality of every waking minute is living in a torturous unwelcome nightmare, when the conscious mind starts to rapidly unravel towards deep depression near insanity or an unhealthy tiredness pervades the subconscious. Unsuccessfully, searching for a brief respite; a safe island from the tempestuous stormy seas of a living hell on so many chaotic levels. Unfortunately, there ar...

36 likes 15 comments 15
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Spygate

Weekly Contest #355

This is based on true events, but the characters and names are fictitious. You could cut the tension in the boardroom with a knife. The air visibly glistened with beads of moisture, like at dawn during the first light as the cool early autumn morning dew signals the end of warm summer days and instead warns of harsh cold days of winter ahead. The Independent Disciplinary Commission of the EFL was in full session, and the heated arguments and documentary evidence were scattered, and littered accusingly on the long boardroom table, as well as...

12 likes 6 comments 6
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Xiled

Weekly Contest #354

How can anyone rationalize the vast emptiness, the dense endlessness of space? Not without going insane, the human mind has limits. It is just a fragment of dust compared to the enormity of time and space, incapable of comprehending the magnitude of scale. A mind created over a comparably small passage of time and space, made of a jumbled-up mixture of chemicals and molecules shaped haphazardly as a silent witness. But, in terms of the timescale of the universe, that is no time at all. Certainly not in terms of the age and simple nothingness...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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Queen of Tarts

Weekly Contest #353

Background MADOOREE in the human world, and KARA the guardian in the world of Klim and Marec Meet the cat of two worlds. Nosy Madooree finds the new magical world at the back of Denis' untidy cupboard! A new concept in storytelling for children of all ages. Teaches us all, as it combines myths, classical characters from children’s literature, with real world scientific facts. Madooree "a la Kara" is the problem solver in the World of Klim & Marec, with some of those answers are in her green backpack! A series of short stories. Madooree ...

15 likes 2 comments 2
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Vulture

Weekly Contest #352

The rugged mountains of the Karoo, like sunbaked Gods standing guard whilst sitting on thrones of craved granite, onlookers to scenes of slaughter and peril. Heralding the winds, the almighty windpump winds; named in the hope of precious moisture to soften the arid bones, and parched lips. To cool the blazing anvil of the sunbaked ground, bubbling like a boiling cauldron, agitated by the thirsty winds. With the colours and smell of Alkebulan - the mother of mankind, so called after the mythical garden of Eden. Perhaps this was the beginning,...

17 likes 3 comments 3
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Fènghuáng

Weekly Contest #349

Today is April 31st, 2226. A date on the Zhongli calendar. Planet earth has entered the fourth epoch of the Oppenhamer era, which is part of the Quaternary Period within the Cenozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon. This epoch on planet earth was characterized by a relatively stable climate, allowing for the development of human civilization and the establishment of agricultural practices. It should have been a time of peace, prosperity and tranquility for humanity, from the miracle moment of birth, a rite of passage for all humans during this ...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Tarsus

Weekly Contest #335

The head of the statue stared with a constant gaze into the darkness and the endless vista of time. It was a fixed stare created by a craftsman’s hammer and chisel; the genius of bygone days the artisan had captured realism from the hard impenetrable granite material. One could easily imagine the head once alive with thoughts, and fascial emotions now frozen in granite by the artisan. Without a body the appearance of the head with the stoney stare was highlighted as it lay on the bare dark dusty floor. It had been severed violently from its ...

27 likes 15 comments 15
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Zalo

Weekly Contest #333

The anchovy peered upwards from his continuous feeding on the diatoms and dinoflagellates plankton and gained his fish eyed view. His laterally pointed eyes, did not fix their gaze on a single subject like humans do, which completely alters how he perceived all images in his watery world. In his captured vision that day was the resplendent view of the Golden Gate Bridge which overwhelmed his cone shaped vision, but there was a smaller shape, a much smaller form of a human being looking down from the rocky banks of San Francisco Bay into the ...

28 likes 6 comments 6
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Billy Bunter - Dictator

Weekly Contest #328

Greyfriars School is an English public school situated in the county of Kent, nicknamed the garden of England, the county of Kent is located at the bottom right – the southeast corner of England. The school lies on the river Sark, upstream is the nearby village of Friardale and downstream the market town of Courtfield. The county of Kent is near the coast: the fishing village of Pegg is within a mile (1.6 km) of the school. There are two other public schools nearby; Cliff House girls’ School and Highcliffe. Farther away are the towns of Lant...

19 likes 9 comments 9
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Nduvo

Weekly Contest #326

When does a global community make a mistake that misinterprets cruelty as care, or rather looks on apathetically, an indifferent observer of planet earth, as another race or another species is exterminated or succumbs to genocide in the name of righteousness or greed? Answer: in this planet’s history often, but now it seems to be happening with more frequency of the unique inhabiting species, and with more rapidity. Only the brave and courageous dedicate their lives to fight injustice or cruelty, and paradoxically sometimes fight on the wro...

14 likes 6 comments 6
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A crate too big, too heavy, too far!

Weekly Contest #286

It wasn’t a single suitcase containing my family’s worldly possessions that created the epiphanic moment in my life. It was a wooden crate, a homemade crate, made with love and consideration to handle with care, a miniature pedal car. A birthday present. It was symbolic of so many changes at that time in my life, changes in many lives. A time of upheaval, which would never ever return to the previous pattern of life for so many; ever again. The surrounding support, comfort and security of a close family would be sacrificed, for higher ideals...

32 likes 16 comments 16
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AI or not AI that is interpretation

Weekly Contest #280

“Hi Gemini – This is Randy Foakes from The Authors Forum; as the group’s administrator I've had an issue with your posting, and I’m giving you personally another warning due to you posting on the board an AI image. Your post has now been taken down from the group site. The post was titled – Having a Bad Day, and I’m just about to send a screenshot to your inbox. I kindly ask you not to send anymore posts with AI images. The group’s mantra is completely opposed to the use of AI in any creative form. If you continue to post AI images, we will ...

45 likes 38 comments 38
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Caught in Time

Weekly Contest #278

Have you ever had one of those déjà vu moments? It appears to us all at some moment in our lives. Sometimes it is so innocuous, we are caught in a fleeting and surprising moment, you can miss it so easily. There is recognition or pre-recognition of sorts. Now think again, have you ever thought about the worst possible nightmare situation that could ever befall you as a person. Well, ponder this as a possible living nightmare, being trapped in a time loop, a continuous déjà vu moment for breaking the laws of time, and simply because you were ...

33 likes 25 comments 25
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