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Lily Finch

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2022

Stories (104)
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189 Followers
118 Following

104 Stories

3699 karma pts

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Finding Grandma’s Piece of Heaven

Submitted to Contest #328

Jeff hadn’t meant to stop. He meant to go—months in the making—but “meaning” wasn’t the same as going. When he looked at the welcoming sign of the town, something in him hit the brakes before his heart could think of stopping. His tires squealed to a stop in front of his grandmother's bookstore, run by Lily Walker. The air shimmered. It had been when he was a little boy, before he quit believing her stories. The stories she told were wild dreams of an old lady. Easier to text her from time to time than to sit down in the dusty old shop that ...

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The Visitor at 3:12

Submitted to Contest #326

The knock came at 3:12 a.m.—a small, deliberate sound, the kind of knock that pretends to be polite but already knows it’s being let in.Marianne surfaced from sleep as if she were enveloped in gauze. The digital clock’s red numbers pressed against the dark, holding her in that thin space between night and morning where nothing has rules.The sound came again. Three knuckles were measured. It was not the wind. She did not measure the house.She listened hard. The rain had thickened outside, sliding down the siding in uneven lines. The gutters o...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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SMOKE AND GLASS

Submitted to Contest #322

CW: Stalking Ophelia always said she loved Milo’s smile—the white, straight teeth, the way laughter rolled out of him, like sunlight through a dirty window. She’d watch from across the café, cigarette balanced between two fingers, eyes narrowed and calculating. His sandy hair always fell perfectly, no matter how he raked nicotine-stained fingers through it.He looked healthy, like a promise. Ophelia knew how easily promises broke. You see what others miss. That’s why you’re always three steps ahead. When they were together, she was attentive,...

3 likes 6 comments 6
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Ophelia's Good Intentions

Submitted to Contest #322

Ophelia always said she loved Milo’s smile—the white, straight teeth, the way laughter rolled out of him, like sunlight through a dirty window. She’d watch from across the café, cigarette balanced between two fingers, eyes narrowed and calculating. His sandy hair always fell perfectly, no matter how he raked nicotine-stained fingers through it. He looked healthy, like a promise. Ophelia knew how easily promises broke. You see what others miss. That’s why you’re always three steps ahead. When they were together, she was attentive, almost wors...

9 likes 4 comments 4
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THE NAME’S HUMANKIND; HER’S MOTHER NATURE; THEIRS’ S COLONY RABBITS

Submitted to Contest #320

In the burning grasslands, Mother Nature and Humankind faced off under a sky bruised with ash.“Mother Nature, look at your devastation—these poor rabbits,” Humankind said, voice tight, as if blaming her would fix anything.Mother Nature’s reply was the wind rustling through the brittle branches before she spoke.“Preposterous, Humankind. Maybe you should consider your actions before you question mine.”Below, chaos. Thumper, the matriarch, caught the scent of something wrong—smoke, sharp and bitter. She nudged her kittens urgently.“Stay close!”...

7 likes 2 comments 2
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The Dining Room Table’s Love Letter to the Dining Room

Submitted to Contest #319

Dear Dining Room,They were whispering over me last night. We provide catalogues, prices, and delivery windows. “A modern set,” they said. Cushioned chairs. Hidden leaf. Wipe-clean finish. They stroked my board like someone patting a pet before driving it out to the farm.You’ve heard this sort of talk before—big changes that arrive wearing excellent shoes. We’ve kept a family together on ordinary evenings and milestone days for twenty-two years. You and I know their elbows by weight and their tempers by the way glasses land. So let me speak w...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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Cheeks of Destiny with Howard Cossmell

Submitted to Contest #318

[WARNING: THIS STORY IS MEANT TO BE HUMOROUS. THE SUBJECT MATTER MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME PEOPLE AS IT DISCUSSES A FLESHY EMISSION FROM THE RECTAL ORIFICE.]. The Galactic Bracket was supposed to be humanity’s punchline. Twenty tiers, fight to the finish, no mercy. Each alien species came equipped with natural weapons—acid glands, spinning blades, and armoured carapaces. Humans, by comparison, were invited as a novelty act, the weaklings with their “carry-on” tools. Nobody thought they would last past the first round.But one stubborn competi...

13 likes 3 comments 3
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The Ocean Splash Gazette—Front Page

Submitted to Contest #317

Deep Secrets Surface: The Break-In That Shook Subversa By Mariana Dorsal – Atlantica Investigations Desk Sydicate of The Ocean Splash Gazette Dateline: March 25, 2030 Subversa, Undersea Atlantic Ridge, TuesdayThe currents in Subversa have always carried whispers. They coil between coral domes and echo down basalt corridors, gossip that the surface world does not hear. Last week, those whispers became shouts when officials confirmed that the Records Department of Subversa’s government had been breached in the dead of tide. The intruder—or int...

8 likes 3 comments 3
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Mojo-Eating Trouble & A Second Chance

Submitted to Contest #315

The screen door creaked open without a knock.Boo looked up from the chipped kitchen table, where a cold cup of coffee sat beside a stack of unpaid bills. Afternoon sunlight bled through the blinds in dusty stripes, cutting across her arms and the paper like pale prison bars.And there he was.“You mojo-eatin’, black ball-suckin’, Vernor’s-drinkin’ piece of leftover trash from the Fourth of July picnic—after the watermelon rind broke in two and wasn’t worth a damn thing.” Her voice came out sharp but steady, the kind she’d learned to use when s...

10 likes 8 comments 8
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RIP JR. WON’T VAN WINKLE

Submitted to Contest #314

Not long ago, on a silent Tuesday in a small upstate New York town, nestled between a vape shop and a closed-down RadioShack, a man named Rip Van Winkle Jr. lived.Unlike his namesake ancestor, who slept through the American Revolution (or at least dodged HOA dues for twenty years), Rip Jr. had a singular problem. He could not sleep. Not wouldn’t. Not shouldn’t. Couldn’t. “I can’t sleep,” Rip muttered again at 3:17 am. The blue glow of his laptop reflected the twenty-two tabs open on his browser: “5 Foods That Cure Insomnia,” “Are You Secretl...

7 likes 7 comments 7
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SDRAWKCAB

Submitted to Contest #313

The rain battered the windows like a thousand tiny pebbles hurled by an unseen hand. Outside, the storm blurred the world to grey, as if the night itself had lost its definition. “Oh my God, what’s going on?” Sylvie pressed her forehead to the glass, breath fogging the pane. Her voice trembled as she stared into the chaos.Phil stood beside her, phone in hand, but his gaze kept flicking to the street. “Dad, you seeing this?”Raymond didn’t answer, his eyes fixed on the impossible scene beyond the window. Cottam, Ontario—a sleepy, predictable ...

8 likes 6 comments 6
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Jason's Epiphany

Submitted to Contest #294

“You can’t run from your past,” Mildred told her son, Jason. “And that’s why Momma can’t belong to the PTA.” She smiled at her son and kissed him. She handed him his lunch and pushed him out the door. When Jason got outside at the end of the walk, he turned around and said, "But Momma, if it’s your past, then why do they keep bringing it up? Haven’t you already paid for what you’ve done?" She waved him on, and he met with his friends and talked about anything and everything sports. “Mrs. Horan, I have something on my mind,” Ja...

14 likes 10 comments 10
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dick's Loose Gems

Submitted to Contest #293

[Contains sexual content]Christmas Day, 2020, arrived. Our family had planned a trip to San Antonio for months. I had everything all set. Except I didn't.The woman taking our tickets asked for our passports. I produced five and gave two birth certificates for my little ones. I thought they didn't need passports. My hands shook. My heart burned as it beat into my throat, and as the beats came, they seemed to choke me. I couldn't breathe so well, and I had no words. I turned and stooped to my youngest children's height. I put my arms around th...

24 likes 6 comments 6
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Melanie's Hit Single

Submitted to Contest #292

Melanie Shaw, dubbed “Rattle Rocker,” stood at the crossroads of aspiration and reality, her heart beat in time with the strum of guitar strings. Though the bright lights of fame beckoned her, they were still miles away, and flickered like distant stars in the vast night sky. Though pursuing her musical dream, doubts about a more lucrative career plagued her.Known for her stubborn spirit; Melanie battled to juggle her love for music with the harsh truths of financial necessity. She shared laughter and dreams, her close bandmates were oblivio...

13 likes 7 comments 7
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DANIELLE’S ENERGY PODS

Submitted to Contest #291

The night the enormous boom came, all the children at the playground scattered homeward. No one lingered. Everyone got up and left‌. Their moms ‌waited at the entrances to greet them. They got there before the rain intensified from a drizzle to a monsoon-like deluge of volume and duration.  The air raid horn blew, and they headed to the basement shelters. A genuine threat materialized. The drills they practiced at school weren’t in vain. Fancy that! Even while sheltering underground, the sounds of explosions reassured the townspeople th...

14 likes 4 comments 4
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