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Melissa Wood

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2025

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7 Stories

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It Won’t Cost Much, Just Your Voice

Weekly Contest #334

It Won’t Cost Much, Just Your VoicePeople like to say Ariel lost her voice. That makes it sound tragic. It wasn’t. It was a relief. Ariel had just discovered a boy and, like all discoveries she made, decided it was destiny. When Ursula reached in and took me, it felt less like theft and more like a long-overdue break.I was exhausted. All the love songs, all the drama, all the chatter. When she made that bargain, I wasn’t afraid, I wasn’t upset. I started packing. I knew Ursula. Some see her as a villain. I see her as a truth teller. When Urs...

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THE GUST THAT MADE ME

Weekly Contest #332

You know you’re going to be something special when you’re among the top of the selection. I’m pretty sure I was the only selection actually. My mom is young, healthy, and not trying to risk multiple pregnancies. The people with the goggles couldn’t get enough of me. Poking, prodding, oooh-ing, ahhh-ing. Like a model walking down the runway, slowly smoldering their desperate audience. Then it was time for the transfer.Goodbye bright lab filled with clicking instruments and way too many roommates. It’s time for me to get a new apartment. My ne...

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It Mattered

It MatteredIt started with a scream. Not the normal kind, the ‘teacher scream’ we all do silently in our heads, but an actual scream coming from the hallway. And that was the moment I knew: something was ending. Every day I’m relieved that I’m midway through the school year. And then reality sets in that it’s only Thanksgiving break. In three days. Two small days of rest that never feel like enough. I’m just pretending I’m halfway through. It’s basically my body trying to gaslight me into survival mode.Every Monday through Friday I walk in t...

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The Women Who Hold

Weekly Contest #324

Prologue: The Stories SayWe tried to eliminate all of them. She doesn't know how but she knows it didn't work. There are stories that go around and around with details shared and details spared. All she knows is there was violence.In the world she was born into we were the breed who never used violence as a solution. Until we did. Until the stories say we couldn't solve our problems with any other answer than theirs. We tried. We played their games, we rose slowly to the top, but in the end, even before her time, we voted and lost. We had be...

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Ambition Across Centuries

Weekly Contest #322

“Every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.”— Marcus Aurelius (often presented today as: A [wo]man’s worth is no greater than their ambitions.)Form: Dialogue between centuries. Two internal monologues that find one another: Marcus (Rome, 2nd century, 161 CE) and Melissa (Alaska, 21st century, 2025). MARCUS: Rome is having challenges. The people need me to be strong. I stepped up in a time of trouble. But I know my direction in life and I am committed to getting there. I measure myself in this dir...

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You Said

“Remember when Uncle Pete said there used to be a giant hole in Grandma’s backyard and something hidden was in there?”“No, I think I was too young. But I remember you said he was delusional, so why would we believe him?”“Well, I’ve heard he does not-normal things, but I don’t know that for sure.”“So do you think something is hidden?”“Well… there is a slab of cement in the backyard in a random place. Why would it be there?”“People put them there for level ground. For BBQ pits and stuff, right?”“I guess. But that’s such a random place. Why wou...

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The Blood in My Bark

Weekly Contest #320

The Tree:I’ve stood in this forest for over a hundred years. Listening to the owls hoot. Watching them sway on my branches. The coyotes howl under the protection of my leaves. I’ve seen every fox and kept them warm as they snuggled against my mossy roots. The grey ones climbing high from their predators and digging into my core before finally jumping off and landing into the spongy, mossy earth below.And I see the humans too. They bring blankets and sit under me. They run around me in circles and flop over laughing. I’m the biggest tree in t...

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