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Tanya Humphreys

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

Stories (107)
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107 Stories

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Winter Wolf

Submitted to Contest #332

The buildings along the street were the same silvery shades as the low banks of clouds above. Their faces revealed dark windows and funereal emptiness. The muddy, snow-slushy street glowed faintly. The world here was in black and white. Though the storm had passed, the town was unnaturally subdued. There should have been bluster and people shoveling and sweeping. ‘Not right for December, with Christmas just two days away.’ Faint fiddle music grew louder as she came to the end of the street and turned the corner onto the main street where ...

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Hellpico

Submitted to Contest #326

The box of kitty litter thudded onto the driveway. There it could stay. I would have kicked the damn thing but that would only break my foot. Amazon drivers carry shit like this all the way to the front door…good thing I’m not an Amazon driver. I giggled to myself, “Heh heh heh.” We uttered this phrase around the office daily. It was always good for a laugh. It was starting to drizzle. Let it get wet. I hopped back in my mail truck and continued along the route. At the office, my boss came out of her office and said, “The old lady at 5585 Me...

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James, Jimmy to His Friends

Submitted to Contest #325

The nurse, making her rounds, peeks into the dimly lit room and gasps. She turns away and pads as silently down the hallway in her crepe-soled shoes as the cat. Seeing the cat always gives her a little start though by now you’d think she’d be used to seeing him in the hospice care facility. The warm yellowy light emitting from the nightlight by the bed was no match for the crisp white moonglow beaming through the curtains framing the open window. Gertie was one of the old-timers who welcomed the cat’s final visit so she always slept with h...

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The Interloper

Submitted to Contest #317

Moonlight on the wet cobblestones glistened like silver fishes skimming along the surface of an onyx river. The tall brick walls like crusty black sentinels, that enchanting cool blueish light shone in the uppermost windows enhancing the stony giant guardians with eyes like the eyes of God. Halfway down this alley sat three dumpsters like sleeping hulking beasts…the one in the middle seems to be waking up as the lid slowly lifts---just an inch, then two. A small grey arm reaches out, at the end is a little hand that pats around the edge of t...

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Cats Love Boxes

Submitted to Contest #313

Clanketty clank a-clank…thumpty thump…rattle rattle rattle. The racket intensified as I held my breath. Thump. Creeeek. Erch. The sound was upon the road in front of our home. Rattley-rattley…screeeeeee…Silence for a minute. Then, Thud...silence for a minute, then, Schweeeer…schweeer…schwuuuure. Silence for a minute. Thump…thump…thump, silence for a minute. Then Thump…thuMP…thUMP…tHUMP…THUMP! Like the footsteps of an angry giant!Fee Fi Fo Fum! That part was entirely in my head although I was growing concerned.THUMP!I nervously opened the ...

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Good Daughters

Submitted to Contest #309

I stared at Nick’s hands as they deftly wielded the thin silver instrument around the lemon, effectively slicing off a perfect curly-q of bright yellow peel. The movement of his hands and the delicacy of the peel bore stark contrast to the thick, long fingers punctuated with knobby, bony knuckles. It was like watching a mob thug conducting an orchestra. I glanced into his eyes, which were half obscured in shadow, and stifled a giggle. His ruggedly handsome face was contorted into the face of a young boy’s; his eyes sparkled with intense co...

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Rollin' with the Gnomies

Submitted to Contest #308

Barnacle Winterbottom scratched his red-bearded chin as he and the cat sat amongst the dense summer leaves of the oak. ‘Scritch, scritch…’ His thick red brows a fat caterpillar low over hooded blue eyes. “Lightfoot my friend, we’ve got work to do.” The big striped tabby was lighter in color than Barny’s beard and thrice as large as the gnome. Lightfoot's pale green eyes were locked on the dog. “Don’t worry my friend, we’ll be rid of the dog in no time,” Lightfoot’s ear twitched, the cat’s white whiskers splayed forward as if tasting the dog’...

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Cannibal...Creature

Submitted to Contest #307

The small skiff was crowded with the last seven survivors aboard---crew members of the infamous galleon, the Catherine’s Blood. We’d been at sea for sixty-nine days, according to Eli Upwind, the ship’s navigator, who read the skies day and night and had a head for numbers. Captain Avila nodded at Upwind’s latest decree, the nod went on until the captain’s unkempt, greying beard settled upon his chest. He appeared dead. Spiney and Jewels stole a wicked glance at each other, and I swear when Spiney skirted his mutant grey slug-of-a-tongue a...

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Lightning Fox

Submitted to Contest #304

Lightning flashed so brightly out the window next to the desk, Max was nearly convinced the next bolt would come straight through it. And he almost welcomed it. He’d been sitting at his desk for over two hours staring at the blank page in his Underwood typewriter…and failing miserably to come up with a single string of words to start the short story he was hired to compose; the deadline loomed around the corner. He positioned his thin white fingers upon the black keys and once again the lightning flashed next to him out the window, making...

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Desert Gravesite

Submitted to Contest #303

Tony scuttled around the boulder, desperate for the shade on the eastern side. He breathed a lungful of hot desert air that he convinced himself was slightly cooler than the air on the western side. He slumped against the rock and scooched under it like a scorpion with its tail curled around its delicately armored body.He heard the shouts of the man pursuing him, far, then closer. As his heartbeat slowed from a bass drum beat to a tom-tom, he heard what he was saying, “It was you who dunnit, it was you Tony…it was YOU!” The words were spoken...

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The Amulet

Submitted to Contest #302

Birds of magnificent wingspan, figure-eighted gracefully---black pirouetters in the slate grey sky. The small boy in peasants’ grubby clothes kenned their presence like reading a map. He made his way down the hill to the bloody mesa, and the bodies were fresh. He wiped grime and sweat from his pale freckled face absentmindedly with his course-spun sleeve. It was a habit he’d done since he was a wee bairn when his parents had been alive; one developed nervous habits, when living in a war zone. *** Seven hours earlier… Rhys Hughes swung his...

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The Familiars

Submitted to Contest #301

Reverend Fagmire looked out over the congregation, none of his sheep dared look into his wolfish eyes. If they had, they’d see them glowing red like dying embers, deep under the hood of his dark brow. He smiled…and the mourning dove in the middle stained-glass window dropped to the floor unnoticed by all but one. “Holy tidings friends!” the reverend bellowed over the heads of his congregation…a congregation of grim faced, sickly-looking people “We have a newwwww---” His booming voice trailed away along with his jackal’s grin. The people aw...

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The Dogs of Hell

Submitted to Contest #300

TW: Contains themes of death, violence, and suicide.Garrison Ermine Ford stepped out of the mirror. He ran his hands down the lapels of his silver sharkskin suit and slicked back his vampiric dark hair as he turned around to check himself out.Black crocodile boots with pointed silver tips, razor-sharp creases in his slacks, navy blue cuffs peeked from the suit sleeves, dagger pointed collar, top two buttons undone beneath the vest.“Nineteen-seventy-five. A very good year,” he said aloud. Then he turned and surveyed the living room of his sui...

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The Pirate and the Leprechaun

Submitted to Contest #299

Bruce McMurty first saw the leprechaun at age six but told no one about him. It had a long red beard and a fedora with a jaunty red feather in the band. He knew the little creature was magical, there were no birds in all of Ireland that wore feathers that bright shade. At nine he’d become very adept with his crossbow and snaring, and with his father ailing he’d become the meal catcher for the family. He had never forgotten about the leprechaun and may have sworn seeing him- just from the corners of his eyes, a small shadow whisked away behi...

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Dog Instincts

Submitted to Contest #294

As a dog my instincts were always spot on. I knew when a rat approaching my food bowl suddenly feels danger. In the form of me pouncing and eating its head. You see, the bowl was always empty. And I was always starving. And chained. Killing the rats was my job. And my only means of sustenance. The leaking tap where the garden hose connected to the tap provided a puddle of mostly fresh water. I am a breed called a Heinz 57. And I’ve been chained to this post…in this yard…since I was a young pup. I’d heard in the shelter that Hoomans...

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