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Needs Chocolate

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2023

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9 Followers
8 Following

8 Stories

162 karma pts

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Next Time? Florida

Weekly Contest #337

Kicking my boots off, I left them on the mat in a puddle of melting snow. Winter...my favorite; cooped up indoors twenty-four/seven, shoveling mounds of snow in below zero temperatures, digging the car out from under the latest pounding, and feeling like the world is closing in on me. You get the picture. If not, send me your address and I'll ship you some white stuff.I boiled water for tea and flicked through channels for something to keep me from committing hari-kari with my snow shovel tonight. Ah, reruns of Friends or I Love Lucy? Lucy w...

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The Graveyard Spoke

The Graveyard Spoke “Come on, chicken!” Frankie goaded, his voice echoing against the iron fence as he and the other boys, faces hidden behind paper masks and pillowcase capes, slipped through the rusty cemetery gate. The hinges squealed like something alive and in pain. Hide-and-seek in a graveyard on Halloween night didn’t sound like a good idea to me. I liked the apples and cookies from kindly neighbors on our quiet street, the smell of caramel and bonfires drifting on the October wind. But the other boys couldn’t be talked out of it, so ...

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Endless Windows

Weekly Contest #273

The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. Just a shadow, here or there. No matter how hard she tried to clean off the glass, the grime and streaks kept her at a distance from the world outside. The world which he had warned her would break her heart. "You don't want to see what has happened out there, Persephone. Trust me, please. I will keep you safe." He had promised her. Keep her safe from what? What secret was he keeping from her? She cleaned the window behind his back every ...

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They're Already Here

Weekly Contest #272

"Mommy! Mommy! Help, it's chasing me!"My four-year-old crashed into our bedroom dressed in his Toy-Story pajamas, wild-eyed and hysterical. Leaping onto our bed, he burrows beneath the blankets, shaking and crying. "Good grief. He needs to learn to sleep in his own bed," my husband griped, tired of this constant nightly battle that began shortly after Jimmy's fourth birthday. "Jimmy, sweetie, what is chasing you?" I asked gently, trying to peel him off my leg. "There's monsters in my room, an one got out and is trying to eat me." Why are hum...

19 likes 0 comments 0
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Carve Your Name into My Heart

Weekly Contest #227

The 911 missing person call from the Sunnyside Nursing Home came in at 8:45 PM on Christmas Eve. My partner and I had signed on for the extra holiday shift because we didn't have a family waiting at home for us. We were just a couple of twice-divorced, bitter single folks counting down the hours to retirement, living on donuts, coffee, and adrenalin. As we headed toward the outskirts of town where the Nursing Home was located, the heavily falling snow made the roads slippery, and visibility was low. There were better nights than this for a...

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What My Therapist Doesn't Know

Weekly Contest #226

It's a freezing day in December, almost Christmas. My breath puffs out like clouds of cigarette smoke in the clear night air of the motel parking lot. At the moment, I wish it was cigarette smoke because I can't remember being this nervous in a very long time. Maybe the Christmas Eve service twenty years ago, when a pushy grandmother shoved her mini-skirted teen granddaughter up to the piano in our little Baptist Church and plopped an unfamiliar piece of music before me, stating, "Missy is going to sing. Play this." This wasn't our Baptist...

11 likes 8 comments 8
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Body Bag Barry

Weekly Contest #182

Recently, I was searching an online dating site. Don't ask me why. I'm happily married. Perhaps I just wanted to see if I was as invisible as I felt. After the first fifteen minutes with a current photo on my profile, fifteen eager fellows were sending me hearts and asking to chat. Wow. After an hour there was a steady stream of requests to meet or chat. Overwhelmed by all the attention, I tried to comment back politely to everyone, then realized it was impossible to keep up. So, I chose to only reply to actual messages, which was enough t...

13 likes 5 comments 5
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Take Me to Church

Weekly Contest #181

My life had been slowly falling apart since meeting my current boyfriend, Jake, in July. He was incredibly handsome and persuasive and I'd been in over my head since our first conversation. However, he was married and better with words than deeds. In my head I knew what had to be done, the rest of me hadn't quite caught up though, and my heart was breaking. I needed to search my soul and knew exactly where to do that. The next morning, I was up before anyone else and grabbed the bathroom before the others soiled it. After my hair had dried,...

10 likes 4 comments 4
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