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Tahlia Malpas

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2025

Stories (5)

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5 Stories

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The Circle Of Ash

The air tonight tastes of storm and iron. The clouds hang low over the mountains, swollen with unshed rain, while the paths of Iron-Throat Pass tell tales of miners who first traversed these rugged terrains, naming the pass after the resilient echoes of iron ore in the tunnels' throats. Long ago, the scent of sage fires warded off a plague that once threatened our ancestors here. I can hear Thane moving inside, pacing, muttering to himself as he grinds the herbs into dust. He thinks I am asleep, but my body is restless, humming with the quie...

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The Saturday Spell

Every Saturday morning, just before the clock struck nine, Bramblewick could be heard muttering to himself in the cozy confines of his cluttered kitchen: "Let us see if I can survive another brew without catastrophe." This self-deprecating mantra was as much a part of the ritual as the brewing itself, an ancient art, in Bramblewick's opinion, that kept his spells from exploding quite as frequently as they had in the past. He often recalled the infamous brew that once leveled half the lane with a rueful chuckle and a formidable resolve to avo...

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The Candle in the Window

Trigger Warning: This story contains themes of grief, death, obsessive behaviour, and supernatural horror. Reader discretion is advised. The desert goes quiet when the sun drops. The cicadas hush, the heat slips into the dirt, and the world folds into that deep, trembling stillness that only the outback knows. I wait for that silence before I light the candle.It sits on the windowsill facing the flat, red horizon. Beeswax, pale and smooth, the wick trimmed to half an inch. I strike the match, listen to it hiss, and breathe in the first curl ...

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The Lantern Keeper's Bride

Submitted to Contest #323

The world ended in soft light, not flame.Each evening, as the sun dropped behind the peaks, Lysandra climbed the path to the cliffside lanterns and lit them. The glass orbs shimmered with starlight, drawing on drifting sea magic. The lanterns, it was said, steadied the veil between worlds—without them, night would engulf the coast and drowned spirits would rise.She was the last Lantern Keeper of Arathen’s Reach, and she was alone.Until he came.Cael arrived one stormy night, half-drowned and furious at the sea for letting him live. Lysandra f...

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The Last Heat

Submitted to Contest #322

The afternoon sun bore down on the dusty athletics track, making the air shimmer like a mirage. It was the last Saturday of summer in Werribee, and the annual community games were in full swing. The smell of sausage sizzles wafted over from the Lions Club tent. Kids darted about with icy poles dripping down their wrists. The loudspeaker crackled with the voice of old Mr Tomkins, who had volunteered as announcer every year since anyone could remember.“Next up, the men’s one-hundred-metre final. Line up, boys. Give the crowd a show.”The crowd’...

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