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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2025
Submitted to Contest #331
Snow poured out of the darkening sky, covering the branches of the pine trees that lined Paul Mullen’s backyard. His floodlights illuminated the fenced in area, where Sam ran in circles, grabbing snow flakes with her tongue. The rottweiler pittie mix served over there with him, and all those years in Afghanistan left some scars on both of them. Now, it warmed his heart to watch those horrors forgotten, at least for a moment, while she goofily snatched white powder falling from the heavens. Paul raised a cup of cocoa to his lips, steam tickli...
Submitted to Contest #330
Prince Chadwyck Metmornos Viriili sat in his own muck, straw, and sick, trying to remember his old life. He waved at it in his mind, watching it pass him by. He knew that he wouldn’t leave his cell alive, but for the first time since he got there, he didn’t care. His nose still hurt from where his jailers had kicked him, breaking it. His face was smeared with the blood from the injury, and dirt from his ratty bedding. He thought he must look even worse than the peasants who toiled outside his castle. Well, her castle now. Chadwyck held his f...
Submitted to Contest #329
Private Willie Smaull pressed himself against the dirt wall of the trench. That shelter, combined with his helmet, meant that he was only mostly soaked by the downpour, the third this week, that made his and almost every other man here’s life miserable. That didn’t go for the Captain, who was peering through the periscope to the German lines yonder. Willie had been in this trench four times since getting to France, and not once had he laid eyes on no man’s land, much less the enemy fortifications, or even a Boche. A one armed Frenchie had to...
Submitted to Contest #328
R.I.P. Andy... Waves lapped on the sandy shore, a warm breeze caressing the skin of the man sitting along side it, his feet touched by the very tip of each wave. A sea bird screeched, its wings flapping keeping it aloft. A fish leaped out of the water, reaching for an insect. He stared at his hands, the tendons moving under his skin as he waggled his fingers. He looked up at the bird, watching it glide on the air, when he spotted another person, walking towards him. He craned his neck, and could see footprints stretching back to the horizon....
Submitted to Contest #327
It was the last nice day of the year, for real this time, as Virginia Crabble waited for her coffee, outside at Pat’s Cafe. It had been her hangout, her center and her confidant since she enrolled at State three years ago. They mixed in the most exquisite flavors in with their beans, especially this time of year, the pumpkin spice was just to die for. The light breeze blew her brownish red curls into her face as the new girl barista emerged baring her warm delicious drink. “Virginia?” “Yes, that's me.” “Oh, I would have thought you would be ...
Submitted to Contest #326
CW: Gore, body horror Mrs. Chathamford’s salon was filled with laughter and mirth, the bright rays of sunshine warming Embry’s ladies as they discussed the events of the past week. Daphne Harris, and her sister Araminta had wanted to be invited to this exclusive event ever since they turned fourteen. Now, that they were on the cusp of sixteen and to be introduced at the town’s masque tonight, Mrs. Chathamford invited them so her circle could inspect them. She nodded at Daphne, but spoke little. To her twin, the ladies hemmed and hawed, as Ar...
Submitted to Contest #325
It has been three months since my incident with the mimes, things just wacky since then. And then I met HIM, and what a dream. Right now I am curled up on my Papasan chair scratching Puddles’ ears, while Karl watches from my bed. He’s coming over tonight, just when its starting to get cold. I love this time of year. Leaves changing, sweaters, pumpkin spice. It was warm today, so my windows open. Then, all of a sudden, a wickedly chill breeze scratches across my arms, raising what little hair I have and sending a twitching chill down my spine...
Submitted to Contest #324
CW: Explicit sexual imagery Waves gently folded into the wet sand and flowed between Claire’s toes. Rays from the sun warmed the sky, narrowing her eyelids to keep too much light from her eyes. Spray misted in the air, wetting her face but salty water flowed down her face, not that the ocean noticed. It took more than a few tear drops to roil the Pacific. *** Claire met him on a cold smoky night, a late blast down from the Rockies that pricked up the flesh on her bare legs shivering due to the lack of cloth or hair. She went into Donovan’s, ...
Submitted to Contest #323
The sun’s light peaked through the stained glass windows of Saint Neot’s, the twin fishes gleaming brightly. Father Michael Dravin stood for a moment, watching the illumination. That window in particular had grown on him in the last three years he had been here. When he first arrived, he didn’t understand why there was a church named after the patron saint of fish in a city whose closest body of water was thirty miles away. St. Neot’s was small, and an older building with a graying congregation. There was talk about closing the church, but t...
Submitted to Contest #322
“Have you read him yet? Isn’t it just succulent? Pure honey to the literary world, and the talk of everyone. I heard that he has a spot on Oprah, and Kimmel! Just a tour de force!” Annabeth gushed, her sickly sweet words curdling Daniel’s blood. That didn’t mean that he hasn’t read Christof. He had. This party was supposed to be for him. Daniel paid his dues, put in his blood, his sweat, his tears into his writing. He wrote short stories, ghost wrote, and took every low paying, demeaning job. He had a mountain of rejection letters. His car w...
Submitted to Contest #321
CW: Deals with themes of abuse and abortion “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, the facts before us are clear. The defendant, Cameron Mitchell, knowingly kidnapped the child, from the safety and security of his mother, Mrs. Gloria Burnam, in the dark of night. Let me remind you, that the child has not been recovered, and the defendant has not cooperated with law enforcement in locating that child. The current status of the child is unknown, and this heartless, cruel man certainly isn’t taking care of this child while he resides in the county ...
Submitted to Contest #320
Kacie walked between the pine trees, sunlight trickling through the needles. A bit of smoke tinged the air, a remnant of the Canadian forests that burn each year. Each step she took she felt her heart lighten. Nature brought her to center. Something she definitely needed, more than ever. She spoke to her mother that morning, as she washed their breakfast dishes by hand. Her mother always played Fox News in the morning, something that Kacie tuned out. She never cared for those talking heads, and her professors told her they were horrible peop...
Submitted to Contest #319
Danielle opened her eyes with with a start, coming back to consciousness. Darkness greeted her, and when she tried to rub her eyes, she discovered her wrists were restrained. A click echoed in the black, and she felt air conditioning. It was then she knew she was naked. What had happened last night? She remembered meeting up with Michelle at Charlie’s Tavern, and two cute guys buying them both drinks all night. Then someone came up to her. Danielle curled her toes trying to remember what they looked like. All that came to mind was that he wa...
Submitted to Contest #318
His applause, instead of echoing off the walls backstage, soaked into the thick red curtains. Paul Blaggert’s hands started to hurt, so he stopped clapping. Lisa couldn’t have heard him, she was on stage taking her bows. But he knew that she heard it in her heart. “Paul! Stop staring and pull the curtain!” shout whispered Mrs. Golden, the stage director. He grabbed at the rope, and yanked on it. The cardinal drapery swished and swayed, and then Lisa’s hand pushed it aside, and gave Paul a big hug. “We did so well out there! Don’t you think w...
Submitted to Contest #317
The afternoon sun beat down, prickling the back of Officer Bradley Longram’s hand. It was his first week, fresh out of the academy, and as a newly minted, duly appointed officer of the law in the Cedar Falls police department, he had answered the calls nobody else wanted. The noise complaints from the elderly busybodies, the cats stuck in trees, the reports of a serial defecator were the calls dispatch gave to him. He stood in an empty parking lot, save from a brown 1991 Honda Civic. It was only a few minutes before he had opened the back do...
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