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Rodrigo Juatco

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2020

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56 Followers
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16 Stories

484 karma pts

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DEFCON 1

Weekly Contest #230

His finger hovered precariously over a RED BUTTON. Blinking crimson lights and alarm sirens blared in the bunker in a display of utter chaos and madness. It took all his effort to ignore the alarms, the knot in his stomach, the tightness in his chest, as well as the panicked thumping of his heart. He had to remind himself that the Men in Black prepared him for this situation. It was the reason they stationed him to this remote, isolated place. With eyes wide open, he gawked apprehensively at a monitor on a control panel, hoping beyond hope t...

7 likes 4 comments 4
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SAVOR

Weekly Contest #218

Gelo closed his eyes. He forced himself not to rush but to chew slowly and methodically. That was the only way to truly savor each bite, each morsel. Immediately, he was struck by the crisp, acidic, tangy, sourness of the tart green mango, which paired perfectly with the sweet, savory, spiciness of the Bagoong—a krill or shrimp paste with salt and spices. The combination of flavors was surprising, addictive, and delicious. He had never tasted anything like it. As an adventurous eater, he had often experimented with various types of food. He ...

7 likes 6 comments 6
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SIGNS, SIGNS EVERYWHERE A SIGN

Weekly Contest #112

Her name is Abigail, the most exciting and desirable woman Tim has ever known. Abigail breezed into Tim’s marketing firm a little over 6 months ago as a 22 year old intern fresh out of college. With her swimsuit model appearance and vivacious personality, she quickly became the topic of ever office rumor. In short, every man wanted her and every woman hated her. Being the center of attention came naturally to Abigail. She shrugged off the office politics with a playful-nonchalance that made her even more irresistible.Tim was never a religiou...

9 likes 6 comments 6
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THE HEART OF A SOUFFLE

Weekly Contest #111

Two middle-aged Caucasian men, Dr. Andre Lachance and Dr. Francisco Vega (aka Francis), sit across from each other in a busy diner. Andre gnaws nervously on his fingernails while Francis methodically looks over a thick file folder. Periodically, Andre would glance apprehensively around the noisy diner as though he was a man on the run. Lack of sleep coupled with a steady overdose of caffeine have elevated Andre’s hyperactive mind into a state of high alert.  “Well?” Andre suddenly blurts out after a long pause.Francis shuffles thro...

19 likes 4 comments 4
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THE TROOPER

Weekly Contest #109

It is early Monday morning. A stunning woman, Marah Stone, sits before her Edelman executive desk. Seen through panoramic windows that encompass Marah’s spacious office, a budding sun erupts from a dark horizon permeating a blackened sky with its radiating brilliance. A new day is born; an event that resonates with the words of creation: “Let there be light.” But the glorious vista is lost upon Marah as she stares at a computer screen reading an email she received with an unknown IP address. Her expression is set in concentration as she stra...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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GOOD BOYS TELL NO LIES

Weekly Contest #107

Perched before a coffee table inside a living room, a cute chubby little boy, Nicky, 2 years old, eagerly draws a picture with his crayons. Nicky has a secret that only he and his mommy knew. He was so happy that his mommy shared the secret with him. Nobody else in his family trusted him with a secret. They all thought he was a blabbermouth because he accidentally gave away a secret or two (or three) in the past. But Nicky’s mommy trusted him. She loved him more than anything in the whole earth; she told him so herself. The thought...

13 likes 10 comments 10
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SOAR

Weekly Contest #105

The simple sounds people make, during their day to day lives, tell a tale. Each sound speaks volumes about the activities people are performing; it reflects their mood, their state of mind, and even their relationship towards one another. And so, the story being told about a family of three—a Father, a Mother, and their young daughter—is indicative to what is heard at that moment: the humming of a running engine on cruise control; the jostling and clunking noises made by a vehicle as it speeds down a road; and wind whistling through a partly...

24 likes 6 comments 6
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KICK AT THE CAT

Weekly Contest #54

Inside a speeding car, an angry man drives aggressively through the city streets. The song Lunatic Fringe (by Red Rider) blares from the car stereo. The melody hearkens back to the man’s high school rugby days as his team’s hype-song before they took the field. The man pounds on his steering wheel in time with the music. Adrenaline courses through his veins. Images blurred by the windows of his car: concrete buildings; flashes of street lights; streaks of chrome; the Doppler effect of car horns. He suddenly switches off the car stereo. ...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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AFTER THE RAIN

Weekly Contest #53

Strange how a simple shift of the wind as it stirs the branches of a nearby tree could bring to mind something which occurred to me years before. It was after the rain. The path I walked upon felt slick beneath my sandals. There was a clean, crisp feel to the air. It was early morning. The birds were singing. I decided to walk down my backyard and sit on a make-shift wooden bench. Sleep had become a distant memory—my long lost friend. So many ideas, images, emotions, and feelings swirled through my head as I sat there staring out into the no...

12 likes 6 comments 6
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The Dark Scourge

Weekly Contest #51

A battle-worn warrior, DIRK, gazes up at a clear night sky. For the first time, in his 28 seasons of existence, he notices how the stars seem to pulsate with a life of their own. When he was a child, a weapons master told him that stars were pinholes in the curtain of night. But Dirk has come to realize that there is more to the twinkling stars than some childish notion. What he saws were worlds fighting for survival in the cold blackness of the void that is the night. It was a dire situation he, and his remaining brothers-at-arms, had come ...

17 likes 10 comments 10
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Redemption

Weekly Contest #50

A man bearing the burden of a hard day’s labor upon his shoulders, DEREK REED, slowly makes his way down a dark hallway towards an apartment door. The thought of his warm bed and sleep, sweet glorious sleep, were the only things that kept him on his feet. The weary man inserts his key into the lock of his apartment door. But before he could open the door, a sound from behind the closed door assaults him like a sharp SLAP to the face. He pauses, apprehensively, while listening intently. What he hears is a woman, with a pleasant voice, singing...

15 likes 4 comments 4
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SECRET INGREDIENT

Weekly Contest #49

A whirlwind of long disheveled hair and ruffled clothing, AURA STEVENS, storms towards a hospital admittance desk. Aura had the look of a person who had just stumbled out of bed and threw on whatever she could find with little regard to her appearance. Upon reaching her destination, Aura drops her heavy purse upon the desk with a THUD then addresses the attending nurse in a rather uncivil fashion. “My husband, Craig, had an accident at work. I was told he was sent to this hospital.” Make up, keys, and various other feminine items spill onto ...

20 likes 9 comments 9
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FACES OF WAR: A hero's story

Weekly Contest #48

A stone-cold killer lies in wait. The killer is camouflaged on a rooftop in the center of a war torn city. The morning sun beats mercilessly down upon him. The killer, however, is undaunted by the intense heat, by the biting insects, or by the discomfort that comes from staying perfectly still for so many hours. His TRAINED-EYE is determined. It carefully scans his quadrant for a target among hordes of potential enemies. Any one of them could be a hostile. Often times, you never knew friend from foe until it was too late. Frustration, brough...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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Within the Hour of the Wolf

Weekly Contest #47

You are no doubt wondering why such a tragic and dark-laden title, “Within the Hour of the Wolf,” was chosen for this piece. Is the writer some crazed lunatic who runs rampant into the night howling at the moon in symphony—nay in oneness—with the nocturnal beasts? “Well…no.” Yet at the same time a resounding [cue an operatic singer punctuating the last word on a high note] “YYYEEESSS!!!” Yes in that you may have observed a certain nameless individual, in the past, running, or at least stumbling, in the dark (beer in hand) howling at the moon...

18 likes 4 comments 4
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FACING THE GHOSTLY WHITE RHINOCEROS: A writer’s journey

Weekly Contest #46

There is a condition every writer, faced with a deadline, both fears and dreads. It is a circumstance so heinous and disabling that many writers forgo their craft altogether to pursue other art forms. What manner of insanity or hell could impose such gloom and doom? You may be asking. It is a simple term known to anyone who has every sought artist expression through pen and paper, err, word processor—writer’s block. Personally, I have never given writer’s block much thought, for I am seldom, if ever, at a loss for words. As I sit to write ...

17 likes 11 comments 11
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