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Rick B

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2026

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169 Followers
354 Following

12 Stories

687 karma pts

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Lucky Quarter

Weekly Contest #371

John dipped his head against the rain and tucked his chin into the soaking-wet collar of his parka. It was coming down so hard he could barely see twenty feet in any direction. The relentless hiss of water drumming against the concrete completely swallowed the night’s silence. Normally, at 3 AM, the city was eerily quiet, but tonight it was deafening. His teeth chattered as he blew into his fists to warm them. He was so tired. Tired of not being able to go home, not having a bed, and not having had a decent sleep in over two weeks. His back ...

34 likes 14 comments 14
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Razorblade Suitcase

Weekly Contest #369

My hands were shaking when the envelope arrived. I sat there staring at it, barely able to breathe. I picked it up, tore open the corner, and ripped it down the seam. The sound felt like my heart tearing apart all over again. I missed her so much already. The faint smell of vanilla and old incense drifting from the paper brought everything back. I remembered buying her a bottle of Shalimar perfume. She lit up and squeezed me so tight it felt like she’d never let go. That was right after I found my own apartment. She was sad to see me leave, ...

36 likes 26 comments 26
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Things We Need Not Say

Weekly Contest #368

Davy Marsh hadn’t even stepped inside, but his heart was already pounding. Tommy pushed his palm flat against the door and looked back over his shoulder. “Davy, get it together. You look like you’re going to pass out.” Before Davy could choke out a response, Sara’s head spun around, glaring at him. Davy laughed nervously. “What’s so funny, four eyes?” she hissed. “You,” Davy said. “You just reminded me of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. I swear your head spun a full two turns.” “Burn!” Tommy cackled. “Whatever, buttface. Just don’t screw this u...

52 likes 33 comments 33
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Carnal Cruises

Weekly Contest #367

On the other side of the flatbed, Cam flashed a hand count: 3, 2, 1. Dexter Quinn clenched the lifting strap, his grip nearly peeling open as he straightened his legs and lifted his end of the 20-foot section of insulated carbon fiber piping. They shimmy-stepped forward and paused. Looking over his shoulder, through his fogging visor, he could barely see Cam nodding. He nodded back. Together, they executed a synchronized clean and jerk, swinging the pipe overhead and moving forward to rest it on the temporary supports. Dex groaned as he lean...

38 likes 22 comments 22
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The Last Stand

Weekly Contest #366

Across the street, Jenna had been mean-mugging me for the better part of an hour. Ten minutes. That’s all it took. Ten minutes from the moment I hammered my sign into the lawn until her dad was dragging a folding table to the end of their driveway like he was building a forward operating base. Three minutes later, her mom dropped off a pitcher. Pink lemonade. No pulp. The good stuff. Of course it was pink. Jenna wouldn’t have it any other way. This was the third Saturday of summer holidays, and the third Saturday she tried to steal my thunde...

48 likes 26 comments 26
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It's Just Business

Weekly Contest #365

Koji sat in the back of the StratoGlide eVTOL as it cruised toward Bay Forge. His eyes fixed on the window, peering into the vastness of the night, an infinite black expanse broken only by the ripples of moonlight dancing across the water below. But he wasn’t enjoying the view. He’d barely noticed it at all. No, Koji was running through the meeting to come, calculating the odds, gaming every scenario. Nothing in his world was ever guaranteed, yet nothing was ever left to chance. Every move, every deal, every carefully planted bluff was engin...

27 likes 12 comments 12
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Order of the Nine

Weekly Contest #364

The sharp scent of fresh pine and wet earth crept into the back of his throat as he lay there with his face flat to the forest floor. The bush obscuring him shook as a spear thrust through it. Tom Sheffield held his breath and stayed perfectly still despite the voice in his head screaming at him to run. On his flank, feet crunched through the underbrush. Under heavy footfalls, branches crunched, and alders swayed, clawing at Tom’s back. Then stillness. The silence whistled in his ears like a panicked steam kettle. “Must’ve been a rabbit,” a ...

28 likes 19 comments 19
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Vampire's Kiss

Weekly Contest #363

Julia wasn’t like the other girls. She was weird, but not in a bad way. She didn’t pick her nose and wipe boogers under the desk, like Amber. She didn’t smell like she’d rolled around in a bed of garlic, trying to fend off a flock of imaginary vampires, like Gemma. And she didn’t shove her face right up against mine every time she talked to me, like Samantha did. No, she wasn’t weird because of the things she did. It was the things she didn’t do. She didn’t talk about herself as if she were the center of the universe or try to upstage everyo...

56 likes 61 comments 61
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The Lightsworn

Weekly Contest #361

Bone-dry straw scrunched and crunched under her boots as she tried ever so carefully to sneak back through the stables and away from the chicken coop. Her stomach twisted. Guilt or hunger, she wasn’t sure which, as she slipped the warm eggs into her coat pocket. She hadn’t eaten in days. Gross, she thought as the stink of fresh horseshit wafted into her nostrils. Then the smell curdled and grew unnaturally foul, a humid bouquet of decaying flesh and sickly-sweet fruit. It stung her eyes and kicked her in the back of the throat. A fly brushed...

47 likes 22 comments 22
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Song of the Murkwoods

Weekly Contest #360

Sensitive Content Warning: graphic violence, body horror, suicide, and the death of a child. Song of the Murkwoods ​Splash. Crack. Thump. A day’s worth of rainwater masked the pothole. It felt as deep as the sea. The sudden fall and abrupt slam of the hard oak bench was simply adding insult to injury at this point. The road through the Murkwoods was bad enough on a good day. But today, after three hours lost to a busted wheel, it was unbearable. The shoddy repair left the wheel sitting unevenly, jostling the carriage at every turn. A gro...

39 likes 19 comments 19
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The Third Man

Weekly Contest #359

I watched the regolith dust sparkle like fresh snow as it spilled off the end of the conveyor belt. It was almost pretty. But the rhythmic, low-frequency vibration of the heavy machinery climbed into my boots and traveled straight to my head. It rattled my teeth. I’d been in such a rush this morning that I forgot my mouthguard. The sensation was nauseating, and I could feel a tension headache creeping in behind my eyes. Each automated excavator processed over a hundred tons of lunar surface material a week. The entire outpost could handle r...

38 likes 18 comments 18
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Accumulation

Weekly Contest #357

He's sleeping again. He's always sleeping. Even when he's not, he's not really here. Not anymore. Not the way he used to be. When I first moved in things were different. It's not that I was never sad, never anxious, I'd be lying if I said that. Maybe more to myself than to anyone else. But it was a different kind of sadness. One that came from a different place. One that didn't ache like this. Back then, my heart sank every morning he’d slide his polished work boots out from under the bed and lace them up. I just couldn't bear to see him...

33 likes 32 comments 32
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