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Lena Bright

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2025

Stories (7)

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Library

82 Followers

232 Following

7 Stories

300 karma pts

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Almost Is Never Enough

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #337

I don't know when it started. Time, I mean. Maybe it’s always been a bit off, like when a clock tick-tocks just slightly out of sync. No one notices it until you’re trying to find a rhythm and it’s just... wrong. And then, after a while, it doesn’t feel strange anymore. It feels like home.But that’s how Mavis always was, unpredictable, untethered. And when she left, it was like the world paused, waiting for her to return.She never did. At least, not how I expected.When she moved away, I didn’t think it would last. “I’ll be back soon,” she pr...

6 likes

The Envelope I Almost Threw Away

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #335

The gift that changed my life arrived disguised as junk mail.It came wedged between a grocery flyer and a notice from the electric company, its envelope thin and pale, its corners softened as if it had already passed through many hands. My name was written across the front in ink that had faded to the color of dried leaves. No return address. No stamp that meant anything to me.I almost threw it away.That is the kind of detail people like to include later, when they tell stories, as proof of fate or irony. But the truth is simpler. I was tire...

55 likes

When the Sky Calls Your Name

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #332

Marta first heard the thunder the morning she finally tried to put his jacket away.The sky over Naples was clear. Sunlight bounced off laundry strung between buildings on Via Speranza. Scooters passed below, leaving the usual mix of petrol and coffee in the air. From the balcony she could see a thin line of the gulf.Inside the bedroom, the air was still.She stood in front of the wardrobe with Matteo’s navy windbreaker in her hands. His name was stitched inside the collar in uneven thread, her first attempt at sewing letters when he began los...

50 likes

Always Watching

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #319

I am always watching.They call me many things: “cat,” “stray,” “creature,” “monster.” None matters. Names are for humans. I answer only to what I am—older than their cities, the pavement, the emptiness in their hearts. I do not sleep. I eat only when hungry. I exist to move among them, to know them, and to take what they won't notice is gone.There is a rhythm to the city. Humans stagger through their days, missing the tremor in the walls, the whisper in the wind, the shadow at their periphery. I am that shadow. I slip past corners, through a...

26 likes

The Lantern Bearer

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #318

Elara’s hands shook as she lit the final lantern. The flame caught—golden, trembling—and the glass dome filled with soft light. A hundred lanterns already glowed in the grove, strung between ancient oaks like a net of stars. Yet this last one—the lantern to hang above Kael—mattered most.“You’re overthinking it,” teased Maris, the healer’s daughter, as she adjusted a string of blossoms around the archway.Elara forced a smile. “He’ll notice. He always notices.”Tonight was Choosing Night, when the Guardians of the valley were anointed by ancien...

16 likes

The Boy Behind the Smile

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #316

Every cautious step down the hallway felt like walking on glass, each footfall primed to shatter under a careless glance. Lockers slammed like gunshots. Footsteps echoed, laughter sliced the air, raw and sudden. Every sound made my chest tighten, as if shrinking around panic. Hugging my backpack, I wished it could seal the cracks in me, keep me from splintering apart.No one knew what I carried. Not my teachers, classmates, or my parents. Maybe that was best. Some things were meant to stay folded inside, fragile as a note hidden in a drawer.I...

6 likes

The Birthday Room

Lena Bright

Submitted to Contest #315

Nora almost didn’t open the envelope.It had been wedged under her apartment door, delivered between yesterday’s mail and this morning’s first cup of coffee. The envelope was thick, cream-colored, sturdy enough for origami, and smooth. No return address or stamp, just her name in dark ink, precise and deliberate.Inside: one sentence.You are cordially invited to your birthday.She frowned. Her birthday wasn’t until November, and even then, she rarely celebrated. Since her mother died five years ago, the day had been just another square on the c...

14 likes