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Zeeshan Mahmud

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2023

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21 Stories

342 karma pts

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The Curious Case of Chakraborty Babu

Weekly Contest #368

Disclaimer: Contains gore and brief dark material Laguna Beach, 2005 Chakraborty Babu has been driving for Laidlaw about 20 years. His grandpa came to the states in 1956 as the first wave of immigration hit New York. Ajantha, his father, was only two years old when he was orphaned as his father lost his leg in a steamboat accident and became paraplegic. So it was upto Ajantha's business acumen to live the American dream and build an empire of laundromat from ground up. Of course, the first time he sold his smoke shop franchise in 1973 to a L...

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A Bottle of Water

Weekly Contest #368

TW: Contains theme of drug usage and liberal usage of swear words "Hi, could you please buy me a bottle of water?" I was feeling like God that day. I just won $40 in lottery from 7-11 and as I stepped out this homeless looking Mexican man out of nowhere demanded. Now obviously I was feeling 'like a g' so I said, "Sure sir, do you need anything else? Here is $5." But the guy insisisted he just needs water and nothing else. So I took my 'lazy-ass' back to the store and bought the rather luxurious Fiji water, handed him the perfect gift like a ...

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Guilt

Weekly Contest #364

Disclaimer: Contains scenes of gore and sever mental health issues as well as suicide GuiltThoughts can kill. Thoughts can make people go insane.When Detective O’Leary entered the ward at 1 Rue of this quiet French quarters of the parisienne avenue, he didn’t expect the gruesome image that was to greet him.The man bashed his head… apparently they said counting from the CCTV footage 39 times before he bled to death. The city does not want any blood on their hands and not be pinned for the neglect for hauling the patient in solitary and O’Lear...

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Love is but a beautiful equation

Weekly Contest #341

Love is but a beautiful equation: Correspondences of Professor Euler and his unknown affair The following is an excerpt from the recently uncovered manuscript at Ghent about the preeminent Swiss mathematician from his memoir "La vie est une grande constant" hitherto unpublished. Dear Henrietta,Perhaps my undying love - tempest toss'd like a precious life of temple-haunting martlet - shall forever be unrequited. You are the only person who knows of my past - the buried first born by the yew tree.Forever yours,L. Euler Monsieur Euler,Cette une...

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A Mother's Day surprise

Weekly Contest #321

Disclaimer: Extremely graphic and disturbing content A Mother’s Day surprise Sarah couldn't believe how incredibly beautiful the woman still was. Her face was pale and crinkled. She had olive green eyes. And she kept brushing away the silvery strands of hair that blew across her face from the old fashioned circular standing fan.Mrs Marek was a second-generation Polish immigrant. She was half-Irish and her father was a metalworker in Warsaw who sailed to Staten Island in 1911 just before the war. Her mother, Henrietta, was a lacemaker who als...

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The Jaywalker

Officer Luis J Perez of 19th precinct in Inglewood (or as he known to his peers as Jesus) always took his profession seriously. He was never to be found dunkin a donut nor give anyone a free pass let alone take bribes. He mostly made his quota from traffic stops and you can bet he will be there on the day of court to swear testimony and bear witness. He has earned several badges of valor in his 23 years of service since he earned his stripes right after he graduated Innsbruch Valley High School - albeit, thanks to some tugging and pulling of...

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Detritus

Weekly Contest #291

Having to bury his 3-year old son pouring dirt is the heaviest thing the stonecutter easily did in his 42 year old life. However, some believed Mr Brian Smith buried his infant alive is what caused his breakdown and subsequent incarceration and reentry to society. Problem is no one knows for sure. He went a week straight subsisting on water losing 5 pounds before anyone else took notice. His lips always quivered and his frozen face was a statue itself out of which no emotion was carved as if Marcus Aurelius himself manifested through him. Br...

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I Have Never Tasted Asparagus Before

Weekly Contest #291

Greg Larsen couldn’t shake the foreign feeling away. He slowly drove to the driveway of the Methodist church with its daunting, pointed and rather gaunt arched timber rafters that resembled hands held in prayer. This was the only part of Pennsylvania with that design, secluded up in the hills about a mile drive from the nearest Giants’ from which Greg purchased the foods.He has been attending seminary for a while hoping to be a youth pastor after lacrosse habits were paused with a broken ACL. Although he was very wayward, and his single moth...

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The Last Kiss

Weekly Contest #290

He looked at the creature for four minutes straight. It was writhing on the ground, ebony skinned with a boil ballooned up from its calf. It smiled with its mangled teeth as light gleamed through the shutters. Skin folded upon itself like a tortured accordion with the frame hunched over in knurls like a failed contortionist attempting to manage inside a pitcher. It should be tied to a post. Or put in a sty. Chetan thought as he stared at the bête noire - “the beast with two backs”. He glanced at the affiancer and Murty gave a reassuring...

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There is absolutely nothing that God cannot do

Weekly Contest #276

Note: Contains mention of drug use and mild reference of trauma and mental health issues and swear words"For with God nothing is ever impossible." -Luke 1:37"Anything is possible," I say around 2003 long before my hospitalization during my stint as a graveyard security guard at a pharma lab in Irvine. "I mean Beyonce can just walk right in."I mean theoretically it's not improbable. Just like the odds of being dealt a royal flush is 1 in 649,739, or 0.000154% or as much as statistically impossible it is, people do still get it you know.T...

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The Janitor

Weekly Contest #257

[Note: Contains themes of gore, violence, inappropriate language, and substance abuse]Bus stopMario Perez always takes the 9:30 bus at 9 South down Prairie Blvd to work. He is a janitor at St. Ambrose Middle School and has been working for seven years without any raise or promotion. He makes minimum wage and manages to keep his nose above water. He waits for Rodriguez."You are late, man," Mario says as Rodriguez finally arrives.As he gets on the bus today, scans his bus pass from phone, and heads to the back, he notices three nuns on the sid...

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Wednesday

Weekly Contest #256

WednesdayTariq stood at the edge of the pool, the cool tiles with spiral blue ink design under his feet grounded him in the present moment. At 6 '3", with broad shoulders and a lean, olive muscular frame, he was every bit the champion swimmer his reputation suggested. An All-American athlete, his only Achilles’ heel was Wednesday. For the past 18 years, he had observed that the stars, sun, and moon must be in weird syzygy, the constellations in disarray, and Mercury in retrograde. His superstition… - although he did not believe in it - ...

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The Ninja from the Suburbs

Weekly Contest #256

Note: Contains scenes of violence and brief mention of mental health"I am sorry, ma'am, " the out-of-shape, African-American woman FAA officer interjected my mother politely. "We can't let you carry this.""But why?" My mom interjected. "I am allowed a carry-on. I am 67 year old diabetic patient with heart problems, cholesterol…"."Ma'am, I am sorry. But these are the rules. Our overhead compartment is full.""How can it be full? We didn't even go in." She objected."Com'on mom, don't be a Karen." I tried to make it light."No wait. Why should I ...

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A Busride to Heaven

Weekly Contest #253

I walk 50 paces...wait. Am I some soldier in Ambrose Pierce's eerie "Bridge" story that I am pretending to walk to the gallows...? So, I saunter outside [quickly googles the word to see if it was indeed apropos] and wait a gazillion kalpas or Brahma's wink to catch the 29 bus northbound (or was it south?) on Knott/Woods. I do this every other month. I am a caregiver for my mother and the time I get free for some "me time" I go around Dharma-Bumming around the city as if some Tibetan goin' a-trottin' 'nd trekkin' around Orange County with the...

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The Boy Who Loved Flies

Weekly Contest #252

Peter was fidgeting. He was seated in Kaiser lobby for a while, accompanied by his mother. There was a blue-haired, white girl across him with lot of small, circular badges on her purse that spoke as much as her perky catty glasses. It was quiet. The TV kept on playing Aladdin from circa 9,000 BC. Apart from them, there was a blond kid, of six or seven, with pale skin - almost like albinoism- who was also restlessly moving around.Peter was overweight, had curly hair and was dressed in a half-sleeve checked shirt. He was reading a monograph o...

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