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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2024
Submitted to Contest #274
I saw my cousin Audrey five times after she died.The first time was at the wake. I remember looking down into her child-sized coffin and thinking that her head looked just fine. Her skin was really pale but otherwise she basically looked like she always did, her curly blonde locks flowing down her shoulders. I stood there for a minute or so, feeling awkward, and then I went and took a seat next to my mother. She was praying silently with her palms pressed together in her lap and her eyes closed, so I did the same.I mentally recited The Lord’...
Submitted to Contest #273
STEP ONE: First you have to kill the dog. If you don’t kill the dog you won’t be able to get downstairs, and the house is already going up in flames, so you really don’t have much time and the dog is always right there at the top of the staircase, growling at you.There are a few ways to do this. At first, I used the Phillps-head screwdriver from under the bathroom sink, but if you do that your hand and arm will be injured from the bites and you won’t be able to fire the pistol with any accuracy later. Then you're done.The best method is to g...
Submitted to Contest #272
Ahmed stared at the fence and the woods just beyond. He couldn’t see anything moving out there with the exception of a few birds flitting around through the branches from time to time. There was so much talk but never any evidence. Still, his eyes continued to scan the forest floor and strained to search the shadows. After a short time one of the security guards took notice of him standing there so he moved along with everyone else towards the cafeteria for breakfast, which was sure to be some kind of flavorless gruel or maybe the soggy whea...
It was already too late. I was a dead man, and I knew it.Her teeth were out and she was coming for me at a full sprint with that insane glazed-over look in her eyes. There would be no reasoning with her. No negotiations. No quarter given. I knew all this and I also knew it wouldn’t be long before she overtook me. Still, self-preservation is a basic human instinct so I ran and I ran hard. I ran for all I was worth.When I reached the fence I had just enough time to slam the gate shut behind me, and I’m sure if I had not she would have taken me...
Submitted to Contest #271
I was born in a small district in the northern outskirts of Constantinople in 1901, the son of a foreign diplomat. Growing up I sincerely believed that my father was a well-placed and influential man but as I came of age I understood that he was merely a common civil servant who frequently traveled to places that were generally not as exotic nor as significant as I thought, and he primarily did so to attend to the needs of his superiors. Still, I was always excited when I was invited to accompany him on the occasions when he traveled to plac...
Submitted to Contest #270
CW: This story contains depictions of violence, including dismemberment and murder. References to suicide and infidelity are also present. Reader discretion is advised.The following is my home recipe for Charles Stew. I met my husband Charles while we were both training to become professional chefs at the Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeepsie, New York in September of 2009. Served with fresh-baked bread and a nice red wine, this stew is a great Autumn meal and I think you will enjoy this dish, which must be made with true passion to...
Submitted to Contest #269
The ring was perfect.It was a 1.75 carat "Princess Cut" stone in an elegantly stylized platinum setting that encircled the diamond like a cresting wave. Colin had been stopping by the window of this jewelry shop on his way to the subway after work once or twice a week since he first spotted it two months earlier. He just liked to look at it and calculate how much longer it would be until he saved up sufficient funds to make the purchase. Barring any unforeseen expenses, it would only be another month now.Randa was waiting for him when he wal...
Submitted to Contest #268
Patient: James Thomas Jordan, 22 years oldDate: September 23, 2013Status: 1st stay at New Life Recovery (voluntary)Comments shared at first group thereapy session: “Hello, my name is James Thomas Jordan and apparently I am a drug addict, although I don’t really feel like I am. And I know I look like some over-privileged country club kid, and that’s basically because I am, and I also have three first names so if anyone wants to trade a last name for one of mine just let me know. I can throw in a pack of smokes if you have a good one.“Anyway, ...
Submitted to Contest #267
Perry Dupree shot the driver of the laundry truck as soon as he exited the vehicle and offered to lend a hand. He was a devout Christian man named Elwood LaRoux from just down south in Saint Francisville, and he probably would have stopped to help even if the road hadn’t been blocked, but Perry shot him anyway.It was the morning of August 17th, 1969 and his car was stalled out right there diagonally across the middle of the Tunica Trace along a narrow bend and there was no getting the truck around it with a deep drainage ditch close on eithe...
Submitted to Contest #266
Saturday 12:00pm – Nathan was out late with some friends the night before so he slept in that day and awoke to the sound of birdsong outside his bedroom window and soon he was smiling up at his ceiling. He got out of bed, did a few stretching exercises, and then went out for a run. Upon his return he grabbed a towel, hit the button on his coffee maker and then headed into the bathroom for a nice hot shower. Today was going to be a big day and he was eager to get going.Afterwards, he toweled off and got dressed in a nice white polo shirt, a n...
Submitted to Contest #265
The sun had set over two hours earlier but the international terminal at JFK was still crowded and busy outside the boarding gate for the red eye flight to London-Heathrow. The bar just across the way only had a few open seats when the man in the light grey Brooks Brothers suit walked up, trailing a roller-bag behind, and took one up. He ordered a Bushmills on the rocks and made a phone call. He looked to be around 35 years old. Surely no more than 40. He wore a Panerai Luminor wristwatch that cost more than many fine luxury import automobil...
Submitted to Contest #264
Staff Seargeant Kenny Langstrom of the U.S. Marines 15th Expeditionary Unit took two AK-47 rounds – one in the shoulder and one in the thigh – on a mission just outside of Kandahar on 30 November 2001 during Operation Rhino. Others were not quite so fortunate that day. The fighting was fierce; the memories of a greasy column of thick black smoke blowing away from those two burning towers at an oblique angle against the backdrop of a clear blue September sky were still very fresh in everyone’s minds. Perspective would come in time but this ha...
Submitted to Contest #262
The tall and dark-haired NYPD officer who clicked the cuffs on Gabriel and stuffed him in the back of the patrol car clearly looked Italian and he was almost certainly from somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens based on his accent. He was a nice enough guy though and didn’t get rough or angry or anything like that, but this was Gabe’s third pop in the last year or so. They wouldn’t be seeing him out on the block for a while. He wasn’t gonna make bail. He was going to Rikers, and then somewhere up north for a while.Angel came back out and sat on th...
Submitted to Contest #261
It was almost 12:30 a.m. as I pulled up to the end of the long driveway beside the staid and prestigious old house where I had grown up in the toney and uber-wealthy outskirts of Greenwich, Connecticut. Despite the late hour I wasn't surprised to see that the lights were still on inside the study. Whether he had fallen asleep in his deep leather chair with a book in his lap or if he was still awake - browsing some well-thumbed novel by Vidal or Mailer - was another question. My father’s sleep schedule was anything but on schedule lately, mai...
Submitted to Contest #260
Teacher: It is time. Are you ready to begin? Student: Yes, Master.Teacher: And are you prepared?Student: Yes, Master.Teacher: Very good. Today we will continue our lesson covering the history of the 21st century under the ancient calendar of pre-modern civilization.Student: Yes, Master. Further discussion of The Children of Madness!Teacher: That is not an accepted scholarly term. And please remove that facsimile of a smile from your face. You are here to learn. There will be time for play later.Student: Yes, Master.Teacher. Very go...
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