Dustin Gillham

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2021

Stories (12)

12 Stories

2303 karma pts

?

“The Last Apostle” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #247

The abandoned city roads cross like shadowy vapors, and felines move forward bony and lean. Moss-pasted stones and conspicuous passageways are abandoned beneath flickering bollards that refract an ominous harp over hidden cellar doors. Aged brick walls are jagged and plummed by harsh weather. Slanted architecture, bizarre and oblique, cross-shaped stones where names grow pale, and vines that coil left through worn weeds remain webbed by dark thread connected pole-by-pole as if it were taut kite string. Shattered and hollow bottles mingle wit...

Read story

“Job” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #246

Fade in from black. Final episode.Last season.Location: Remote island, somewhere.Crowd cheering. Opening title.Welcome to…The Ultimate Survivor.Somewhere in Hollywood. The host stands before a crowd with a background of Job. The final contender. "And now, our final survivor. Let's see how long he can tolerate this hell, ladies and gentlemen. Certainly not long. Nobody has survived!” An applause sign lights and a consecutive cadence of cheers and screams roar in the background. "And this man needs no introduction. I giv...

Read story

“Atonement” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #243

I. The Threat Outside lies dark fields, rags of snow, and an endless void of woods. Marcus sits inside a camouflage globe beneath an exquisite penumbra. A gloaming shadow cast between beams of bone-colored moonlight sharply refracts lingering specks of dust and sand that seem to transform into drops of gleaming diamonds. He opens a heart-shaped locket with Iris's picture. "Soon, My love. I'm on my way." Marcus injects a viscous bronze liquid to regulate his vitals. He consumes his ration, disengages the shield, and departs. A pla...

Read story

“Insipid” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #242

This is where the judges are taken. For now. Tied. Muffled. Their breath is shallow. Temporary… If at all. Regardless, all of them have an expiration. More often than not…Slowly. In the grime and timeless hours of the city, the roads cross like shadowy vapors in the cataclysm of morning traffic. When the homeless and the drunks float, wash up in alleyways and orphaned parking lots, and felines move forward bony and lean, forbidding perimeters etched about in shadows without any particular order. The artist paints and creates without forgiven...

Read story

“The Cost of Madness” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #241

The Winston family is among the fairgoers, stepping gingerly through the mud. Matthew leads his wife and son to his favorite game of all. "It's called the 'Wild Wild West,' Timmy. You're going to love it!" Matthew had fired guns since he was a little tyke, growing up on his father's ranch, catching vermin long before he applied for the police academy. A Ferris wheel stands against the sky like a gaudy bracelet. Minutes later, Matthew recognizes the familiar pop of a .22 caliber rifle. Mechanical ducks tott...

Read story

“Relic” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #239

Caleb observes every detail as space and time perish. Reality is constructed on an ambiguous paradigm, a wild architecture reflecting the works of men scrambling to make sense of the unknown. Every block is disorderly and mad. Past the corrugated warehouse walls and streets, indulged in tenebrous garages, are broken automobiles risen with hydraulic lifts. Flickering incandescent lights ping...

Read story

“Nadir” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #233

The bar closes.The crest of a bone-shaped moon lay cocked in the sky. The city holds monochrome boxes spackled in a sea of sleek gray windows.Jennifer sees a stock of streetlights and park signs pasted on the courthouse's perimeter. The horizon beyond is a frosted, barren, and pestilential locust wood. She lunges to regain balance in a pair of Jimmy Choo flats.Trashed papers and newsprints are buried in drifts like varied birds, ill-shaped and restless in the wind. Jennifer nods in ...

Read story

“Just Let Me Go” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #155

It begins to snow again. Colin heaves piles of wood into the room and sits before the fire while drinking coffee. He turns off all the lights and sits in darkness for five minutes or more, not knowing if his eyes are open or closed. Colin feels his way back into the bedroom, lights a small kerosene lamp on an adjacent nightstand, and takes it with him to climb up the attic ladder. He spits curses and grunts as ...

Read story

“The Star of Our Show” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #147

You witness wild eyes fall upon you through splayed fingers, bringing about a sense of eerie disassociation. A couple of eager, round-skulled photographers capture you along the carpet towards the Palace of Festivals. Distended and broken arms sway with cameras like gothic trees in a fairy tale wood. You look up with hesitation and regard them without a smile. You maneuver out of the limousine and into the chaos. <...

Read story

“Jacob's Ladder” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #146

“Awake again?” Bobby stares into the nurse’s pale blue eyes. “Still trying to figure out if this is heaven or hell.” He views her curves as she bends down to connect the IV. He looks at the clouds beyond a tree in the window and then stares at her round bottom. “Oh, and how could this be such a horrible place?” “When you’re here, I get a glimpse of heaven.” ...

Read story

“The Preacher” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #134

The weather turns overnight. With the fall, the sky grows bluer than the preacher has ever known or can remember. He sits for an hour in the windy sedge with the sun on his back as if he is storing the warmth of it against the coming winter. The leaves on the hardwood trees on the mountain burst into colorful flames, and then, ultimate nakedness. An early winter falls. An old wind sucks beneath the black and barren branches. The preacher is alone in the empty house and watches the bone-colored moon come crawling over a black...

Read story

“The Devil Among Them” by Dustin Gillham

Submitted to Contest #132

Are you there, God? It's me… Daniella Dean screams a muffled plea beneath her taped mouth. Tears flow from her eyes. She hasn't eaten in days, and she doesn't know where she is or why he chose her. There were others that night he could have taken. Her best friend had been by her side. She recalls the fireworks and the eerie feeling she had just before he took her.. The dev...

Read story

Author bio

Dustin received his bachelor's degree in comparative religions from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. His thesis was written on postmodern Biblical interpretation and hermeneutics. Reed College, “What She Really Says: A Critique of Postmodern Biblical Interpretation," 2002. After his undergraduate studies, Dustin worked on a doctorate in philosophy with a minor in biology at Portland State University. Afterward, He completed two years of law school in Santa Rosa, California. Dustin continues pursuing his passion for writing and strongly believes he has yet to write his magnum opus. Residing in beautiful Douglas County, Oregon, Dustin now owns his own business, and his greatest joy is spending time with his son and being a dad.