James Moore

“Paradise Lost” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #248

As I write this, dear reader, I become acutely aware, that this harrowing tale of hardship and heartbreak, longing and loss, fear and frustration. Intertwined with moments of joy and jubilance, excellence and exultation, sweetness and serenity. May fall on deaf ears, if not read with an open heart and an open mind, one that is prepared to allow itself to experience the full gamut of emotions that I have lived through in my unreasonably extended stay on this earth.To start at the beginning, A good place to start as at the beginning of my tale...

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“The Fading Light” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #245

Dylan had been walking steadily uphill for what felt like days. It had, in fact, been 3 hours and 37 minutes, a climb he’d completed many times in his life.He was lost.Or simply exhausted, he couldn’t tell anymore. Nothing around him made sense, he had started to notice this feeling come over him more often on his hikes. Since turning 50 his mind couldn’t keep up with his body and the exhaustion would go straight to his head. He had lived in these hills his whole life, losing his way wasn’t something Dylan did, but now as he looked up throug...

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“A Cruel Wind Blows” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #240

Timothy lay languishing in his own putrid expulsions of blood, vomit and faeces.He rolled over to turn his face skyward and it was smeared and sticky, coated in the brown tarry mixture of foul liquid he had been laying in all night. Some had entered his nostrils, the choking smell had knocked him awake.“EEUUUGGHH, WHERE IS…… I” Timothy gargled.“You’ve fallen down the goddamn middle of the stair, you daft drunken fool, you’ve cursed yourself and no one else to blame” Donald the lighthouse keeper shouted down the endless chasm. “You’ve been up...

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“The Untethered halves” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #239

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“The Pinch” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #238

ELCv 28 (Earth's Last Chance vessel 28) Was slowing down after 5 months at ‘Elevated Distance Speed’. The 3 person crew were starting to feel the ‘pinch’. The ‘pinch’, as it had become known, was the phenomenon whereby the greater the distance from Earth the more the human heart and brain would become... panicked. Fatigued, strained and 'lost', as though there was an invisible bungee attaching everyone’s core to the planet. There wasn’t yet an acceptable scientific explanation for this effect. But the crew of the ELC 28 were really feeling i...

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“Last Gasp of Connection” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #237

The chaotic chatter rang around Laurence’s head, the busyness of everybody’s speech, the excitable inflections of his friends, blurring together with the background noise of everyone else on the boat. He sat back and just watched everyone have fun, he tried to soak up the ambiance, the fabricated party atmosphere, and engage with it, enjoy it, but he couldn’t, once again his friends were deep in conversation, laughing and joking with each other, clinking glasses and smoking. And he just sat back and drank, he had slowly and subtly withdrawn ...

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“Marble Madness: Reconnecting Through Pixels” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #236

Kevin tossed and turned in bed, before waking bleary-eyed.“Another one of your dreams, baby?” his wife Clara asked from the other side of the bed.“Yeah, crazy,” Kevin said looking around the room “It was like I was climbing a pyramid, but this snake was chasing me up, and for some reason, I tried to outmaneuver it by going sideways and then down again. We ended up running all over the side of this pyramid, and my feet were covered in some fine yellow sand, so I could see everywhere I’d run.”<...

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“Race to the bottom” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #235

Archibald Drakeford or Archie, as the few people who knew him well would call him, was sitting in his private jet, looking wistfully out of the window, the sun was hitting his pale, sunken cheeks and he felt a wave of positivity wash over. He watched thoughtfully as the sea turned to land and back to sea again, he could see all the life beneath him from this perspective, seagulls swooping, waves crashing, he even felt like he could sense all the creatures in the ocean living, eating, thinking, fighting for survival. 'What a thi...

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“1864 Arkansas” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #234

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“Beyond the Bottle” by James Moore

Submitted to Contest #233

‘"Because it's right," George says to himself. "Since when have you ever known what's right!?" the voice in George's head retorts. "Since when have you ever been good or right about anything?" "I'm not going to sit here and have another argument with myself," George thinks. It had been three weeks since George gave up drinking. It wasn't bothering him; he had never been a heavy drinker. Not ...

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