Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

Assemble a team of professionals

The writing app for authors

Writing courses, events and memberships

Get your book reviewed

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Lily Finch

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2022

Stories
Comments
Library
238 Followers
118 Following

129 Stories

4161 karma pts

?

The Wing With Her Name

Weekly Contest #369

STORY CONTAINS SUBJECT OF DEATH AND MOURNING.Ann and Mary had not always been close. Growing up, the two girls couldn't seem to get along. Their brother, Rick, had been closer to Ann because they went to the same parties and shared some of the same friends, while Mary had her own circle and interests. Somehow, as the years passed, the two sisters who couldn't get along grew into women who became the best of friends.They shared make-up secrets, discussed their health, and believed in doing good rather than doing harm. Both women loved animals...

6 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Message on the Postcard

Weekly Contest #368

Amanda hadn’t planned to stop at the shop by the lake, where gulls squabbled over chip ends, and the air smelled of damp cedar and petrol. She had opened her bedroom windows that morning to let October in, but by noon her hands were sore from knitting, and the empty house had begun to bother her. She took the car out and followed the county road toward Lake Erie.She drove near the beach, parked, and kicked off her shoes. A flyer flapped in the dune grass: Wonder Cards. Unusual postcards. Something for everyone. The shop stood across the road...

15 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

There’s No Going Back Now

Weekly Contest #367

Stephanie lifted one skate from the ice and began her spin.Glenn watched from the edge of the pond, her red scarf flashing each time she turned. Their friends clapped when she came out of it cleanly. She bowed, laughing, and pushed into another circle.The crack sounded like a branch breaking.Everyone stopped.Stephanie looked down. A dark line raced between her skates. Before Glenn could call her name, the ice gave way, and she dropped through.He reached the hole first. Her hands struck the underside of the ice several feet away, pale shapes ...

13 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

THE SHAPE OF SILENCE

Weekly Contest #365

Her parents were proud of the daughter who worked beside them without complaint.She never chased after young men.Never spoke of dreams beyond Macaw's city limits.Never asked for a life different from the one she'd been given.To them, the grocery store wasn't simply a business.It was the family.It had fed three generations.It would feed the next.Luna had heard those words so often that she stopped questioning, "Why should I believe you?" and believed them.Each morning began before sunrise. She unlocked the front door while the village still s...

12 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Bev's Confession

Weekly Contest #364

Lieutenant Beverly O'Hare retired with every honour the department could bestow upon her. Her officers gave her a standing ovation. The chief presented her with a plaque honouring thirty-eight years in Homicide. That night, Detectives Duff and Cruise treated their mentor to a fancy dinner. They celebrated her career. They shared funny stories about troublesome cases and vowed their friendship would remain strong even after she retired.It hadn't.They continued to meet every other Wednesday for two years. One week, they met at a favourite dine...

10 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Shayne’s Unfortunate Choice

The water was already hot.Danielle held her hand under the tap, warming the palm, letting the water spill onto her wrist. There was no handle to turn; if she'd pretended she'd missed it, she hadn't switched anything on.She removed her hand, and the water ceased.A strip of light opened in the wall across the room, showing her clothes folded for her in her size. She closed the panel, but a neighbouring one slid open, revealing food arranged on a tray. The house had already decided hunger was next.Danielle locked the panel while the room held i...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

First loves are difficult to get over, so they say.

Weekly Contest #357

The mirror caught me before I was ready.Not all at once. First, the circles beneath my eyes. Then the mouth I had pressed flat for weeks. Then the look people notice when they ask questions they shouldn’t.“You okay?”People ask that when they already know the answer.I leaned closer.This couldn’t be happening again.Years had passed.A husband. A house. A life assembled carefully enough that nothing dangerous should have slipped through.Yet there I stood staring at myself because a man who no longer was mine had crossed my mind, and my body had ...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

I Married for Love

I Married for LoveThe first time I understood love clearly, I was standing in a grocery store checkout line with two small children and a cart full of food I could barely afford.My daughter and son helped unload the groceries just as they had helped with everything. They were fourteen months apart, a girl first, then a boy, and they were my world. We had already crossed paths with the couple ahead of us in nearly every aisle. They smiled at my children. My children smiled back.I kept moving because that was what I did then.I moved forward.Wh...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Fire: Was It What They Missed All Along or Was It The Key To It All?

The last people who knew how to light a fire live among us in India and Iran. He is what we call a Zoroastrianist, and he is serious about it. It is not only his livelihood but also his first and foremost purpose in life. He believes what he does and does what he believes in. And all the while, he practices his faith while he does it. Nobody suspected that AI would move in and make people so complacent in their ways. It began so simple and unassuming. A button to open your garage door or gate to your driveway. Then it was a remote for the t...

1 like 0 comments 0
Read story

GREY

Liora stood at the edge of town, where the road ended and the forest began, and watched the sky remain unchanged.Everyone else had also arrived.They stood facing east, wearing coats and blankets. Old people used canes to help them walk. Babies slept on their shoulders. The dogs were quiet too, as if they knew something the people didn't. Nobody understood why.All the while, the sky over them remained a steady grey.Not overcast. The sky over them remained a steady grey, not dark as a storm. It felt vacant, as if someone had attempted to oblit...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

I Didn’t Think Much of It

Weekly Contest #351

I didn’t think much of it at the time.I stopped to sneeze.You know that feeling—when it builds slowly, taking over your whole face, your whole body pausing like the world itself is waiting?“Ah—ah—”I stopped walking.“—CHOO!”And then everything changed.The pavement cracked beneath me.The coffee in my hand burst apart, scattering into droplets that seemed to fall from very far away. Cars shrank. People scattered. The city folded downward, or I rose above it—I couldn’t tell which.I blinked.“Oh,” I said.My voice rolled across the skyline like thu...

17 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

I Should’ve Known

Weekly Contest #350

All I needed was groceries. Nothing fancy—just a few things. I even promised myself that I would adhere to the list this time.I had a list once before. It didn’t go well.It all sounded simple, which, thinking back, probably should’ve set off some kind of alarm.Inside, I grabbed a cart and did the usual routine. I walked up and down the aisles, putting things in, taking some out, and second-guessing my actions. Nothing unusual.At least, nothing unusual at first.Except the cart.It had a mind of its own. Not in an obvious way. It didn’t squeak ...

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

A Grandad’s Confession To His Grandson, 1888, London, England

Weekly Contest #348

Here in my hand, lad, lies the letter of admission of my guilt for some very grave crimes that stumped law enforcement and scared the prostitutes of the impoverished White Chapel Hill and remain a mystery still to this day. On Aug. 31, 1888, Mary Ann Nichols’ body was found. The keepsake box comes with this letter; you'll find a button from her dress inside with a smear of blood, mine and hers linked forever in the annals of history that remains our family heirloom box.In the annals of time, there shall come a day when men reflect upon the s...

7 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

In From the Cold

Weekly Contest #347

In From the ColdCordelia Lydell rode the same bus every morning.She favoured the third row from the back, on the window side, where she could observe the city without drawing too much attention. The route never changed. The passengers barely did either. Familiar people, yet strangers to her, bound together by routine rather than connection.She knew them all without knowing them at all.The man who read the same page of his newspaper every day without ever turning it. The woman who applied lipstick at every stop. The student slept with his hea...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Suitcase

Elsa Leibowitz, a tomboy, had always been stronger than most girls of her age.At thirteen, she climbed trees faster than the boys, carried heavier loads than Albert, her brother, and spent far more time beside her father learning how things worked than beside her mother learning how to sew. Her hands were scratched from tools or bark, and her hair never stayed tied back for long.Albert, her twelve-year-old brother, was tall for his age and forever trying to keep up with her.And then there were the boys next door.Heinrich Zimmer und Rudy Kell...

3 likes 2 comments 2
Read story