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Montsho Shelby

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2025

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11 Followers
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16 Stories

259 karma pts

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When Death Follows

Weekly Contest #376

For years untold there was nothing, only darkness, no glimmer no spark. And then one day it happened, there was a crack in reality a place for a soul to see. It was small at first like light through the prick of a pen, but after countless and unceasing nothing it may well have been the sun. It sat in a dank cavern for a time, perhaps it was 10 minutes or perhaps it was 20 years. A sound assaulted ears that were no longer capable of hearing. A man with grime-covered armor and sword entered the decrepit place, stern and serious. He was t...

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The Simple Cost of Prophecy

Weekly Contest #348

The two men spent a harrowing two days on the side of the Sarengal mountains. Amon found Bargain left for dead. Bargain lost his town to the hands of shadow wraith soldiers. Then the two ventured to Ice Home. It was now that the two realized the army followed them here. The wraiths didn’t destroy Bargain’s home out of happenstance, but needed him for reasons he could only imagine. Bargain was a child of destiny, doomed, or perhaps blessed, to see the world through the prism of prophecy. Amon Till, a stalwart warrior of Krill, a monk made b...

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Ice Home

The cavern began to grow darker and darker from the dying blaze of the demonic hellfire engine. I had never been in an actual battle before, so I was more attuned to the world now, it was as if I could feel it breathing. The hellfire engine lay in the center of the icy cavern Amon Till and I fell into. The beast was metallic and huge, with bent tires and a glacial rock crushing the roof of this automated construct. Amon strode over to the dying beast. Its flaming undercarriage weakly spluttering with waning energy. He hit the back end of ...

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True North

Weekly Contest #346

I never forget where true north is, whether I trudge through a god forsaken tundra, or in a den of demons and heretics, it is the mission that comes first. I find myself trapped in a cavern with my prey, bunched shoulder to shoulder with the target and a monk of undefined origins. We three stare out at a thick sheet of ice, our backs to the wall, encased in an icy crawl space. The ice rumbles and threatens to collapse the cavern along with us inside. The orange glow of fire danced on the glistening sheet. “A Hellfire engine stalks us. It c...

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Chasing Eight Dragons

Weekly Contest #345

I held my breath. One wrong sound could mean my gruesome end. I stared forward. I could see a wall of ice illuminated by the angry orange of hellfire. It is hard to know where one may end up from one day to the next, who will be your mortal enemy, and who your dearest friend. To my left, a man I just met, a refugee from a settlement recently razed to the ground. He is young, perhaps not out of his teen years, and I can say without question, the most bizarre man I’ve ever met. To my right, a woman hellbent on our destruction, held hostage b...

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The first time I Died

Weekly Contest #344

I laid dying on the mountain. There it went again, the stars moved. I felt it long before I saw it. No one can tell me I saw it, no one can tell me that didn’t happen. A broken man dead inside. A fall. Temptation. It’s all there written in the sky for any to see but few to understand. Knowing one’s destiny gives one a confidence that smaller men would never see, but shrinks the world itself into a prison. So when the world shows you an open door, you take it. I lay dying here knowing for as long as I’ve known things to know, that t...

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Extra Lives

Weekly Contest #329

A monster that most men would flee in horror, so legendary none would speak of out loud, lay in wait. Three were not moved by typical fears and aspirations of mundane men as they moved into advantageous striking positions. The ruins virtually swelled with the low hum of the beast’s breaths. Beak crouched by the stairs. Mayhem, several feet back, readied to bend reality with the ancient words of the arcane, while Hye slinked in shadow and silently slipped into the darkness behind the beast. The beast slept on a bed of bones born of fallen f...

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Death Through Glass

Weekly Contest #328

They say that everyone has a job to do, well that’s not really the case anymore. Ever since A.I. took over and universal basic income was established, doing shit was quite optional. As of 10 years ago all our ‘doing shit’ overachievers shipped off to Mars. I guess Earth is sorta done, so it was time to start over new somewhere else, who knows, in 20 years maybe we’ll get lucky and fuck that planet up just as good as we did here. I mean earth isn’t inhabited completely by lazy dumb fucks, but there are quite a lot. People go one of two w...

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Electric Mice

Weekly Contest #327

Do you remember your first memory? I’m not sure if I do. I’m either stuck in a tree locked in a moment of fear, or I’m eating marzipan with Pattie. I want it to be the marzipan, but it doesn’t feel right, it feels too… clear. The tree, however is chaotic—blurry, more concepts than honest memories. The tree must be my first memory because it feels less real, so much farther away than reality. Maybe it’s only fitting I end it in this very same tree, the only difference between that memory and now, is I don’t feel the fear, only cold cert...

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A Christmas Miracle

Weekly Contest #326

“All the best miracles come on Christmas morning,” said Gal to Doctor Afnani. “That they do, and I believe we can make that happen for you,” the doctor said with a smile, “In fact it’s not very uncommon for us to select birthdays around your schedule—perhaps you’re planning a trip, or don’t wish for a birthday to overlap.” “And how much will all this cost us doctor?” questioned Wally. “No no nothing, this the hospital does free of charge… though there are other enhancements that you may wish to gift your child, and those… well, those may co...

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The battle of Upskirt hill

Weekly Contest #303

After 6 months of ceaseless taunting and jokes at my expense, I was finally going to nail this jerk. I was armed with my pepper spray and taser. I told myself I wasn’t going to use it but a part of me really wanted to. You’d be amazed at the sheer amount of perverts in the world, and when you couple that with an audience, social media, and complete anonymity, you have a dangerous mixture. You see I like to wear dresses, I feel as if I have to say that because women these days don’t as much as you’d think anymore. During black Friday som...

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My Cheeseburger bit me

Weekly Contest #299

Len grabbed a burger at the drive thru. He always bought one burger to eat at home with the meal and a second burger to get him through the car ride back. He was in his mid 30’s and he always assumed that doing things like this would come back to bite him in the ass, but ultimately it turned out it bit him on the lip. Len reached into the fast-food bag. He took out a small single patty burger, folded back the paper, and attempted to sink his teeth into it. He missed. He bit into burgers a million times, he didn’t need to see it to eat it. O...

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God's Decree?

Weekly Contest #298

Loriel knew what it was like to live outside of God's grace. She was hollow inside a nothing shell of a being. She was beautiful as were all of god's creatures, but the grand cosmic joke was that all beauty wasn’t created equal. She was ebony as a pool of liquid chocolate and as exotic as the most rare and delicate bird of paradise. She was the form that all women aspired to be. She started her fall from up high and planned to breach the first layer of hell if she had the conviction to do so. Her wings would more than likely burn in th...

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The Rat the Cat the Fox the Dog

Weekly Contest #297

“Everybody on the fuckin’ ground”, yelled Rat, while spraying a volley of bullets into the ceiling. Fox and Cat vaulted over the desk to police the tellers. Human checked all the corners just to make sure there weren’t any hidden problems lurking about. A man on his knees reached into his coat and Rat hit him with the butt of his gun. “A fuckin hero, huh”, said Rat as he reached into the mans jacket himself and retrieved a hidden pistol. “1 minute”, yelled Human, who was the only one not wearing an animal mask. Fox and Cat shoveled money in...

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A world without a white face

Weekly Contest #296

Every time you make a choice it creates a different reality, another you. 100 miles out of Tennessee and 20 miles from a friendly face I have to think what would have happened if I shucked instead of jived. Every headlight that I saw I ducked down wondering if this was the one to lay me down. It wasn’t no time for black folk here and I asked myself if we ever would get our day. The sun gave me a little solace when I saw it peeking its face over the horizon, because most tended to like to do dark deeds in the dark, maybe they thought god mi...

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