Aileen Andrews

“Seeking Inspiration” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #100

My hands skittered over the keys, competing to tap the letters faster than the other, red underlines littering the page as letters get transposed. The satisfying pitter-patter shook my dainty little laptop, it would be romantic and poetic to say that its beat was to the time of my heart —rhythmic and melodious— but the words came spewing out of me in gushes of sun rays and rainy days, faster than my heart could ever accomplish. My heartbeat rose and fell as I created an entire universe, accelerating when Aileen’s feet dangled over thin air, ...

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“Este Soy Yo - This is me” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #98

A suitcase was flung out the door, toppling open to spill out its innards like a slit in the stomach, oozing out blood and guts. Magazines and underpants, showering upon him in shame. “Ve ahora, Pablo!” There was no arguing with the hurricane etched out on his Padre’s face, every wrinkled line reeked of anger and embarrassment over the truth he had learned of his son. Torrential rain began its cruel downpour, dampening the innocent pages of men repairing cars, soaking through the regular looking t-shirts crumpled in a soggy heap do...

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“Life and Death” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #97

~*potentially slightly triggering*~ A few shards of glass were clinging on the outside of the window’s pane; upon the top floor of a building. Inside that apartment… mouldy and dull coloured carpet, squishy underfoot. Rain blew into the room, eating away at the plain furniture, flat mattress and barren walls. A whole life had been lived in this room, a child born onto a rug, a teenager coming home to throw their bag on the floor, and an adult who sat and stared at the stars or watched TV shows until their mind was successfully subdued. Abs...

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“Mama” by Aileen Andrews

Soon after they left the smile died upon my lips. The flickering lights and easy laughs had all been a guise to offer up disillusionment to those who were taking it too hard. They put on a show for me. Wrapped behind their easy laughs was a strain on their souls, second-hand guilt over a death that shuddered up their bones. Kayleigh, with her sheltered life, remaining innocent and wide-eyed. Life still had wonder for her. Isaac too; despite his all-tough exterior and classic YA novel trope of a dark and mysterious brooding love interest. He ...

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“Keeping the Faith” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #95

It’s amazing what a 20-minute drive accomplished.  Watching the city lights rush past in a blur, I wound down the window and stuck my head out, feeling the night air nipping at my face. It made my veins fill up with life. For the first time in a while, I was feeling alive. I heard her laugh from the driver’s seat, a casual hand on the steering wheel, the other out the window forming waves in the rushing wind.  So this was living. We parked up in the middle of nowhere and I clambered into the back of the ute, I could barely fe...

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“The Pain of You” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #94

Her hand slipped from mine. So feeble, fragile and cold. Her eyes turned away from me in shame, that same awkward smile dancing over her lips. She couldn’t bear to look at me.  Her cobalt eyes had frozen over like a lake. There was a time I would have dug away the ice with my nails just to get her back. But now I just let her go, unable to move, to breathe.  I pictured all the previous fights. The way she had spoken to me.  There was something nagging on my mind, a voice that had been there for a while now. Of course, I knew...

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“Live a Little” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #94

I thought about it. I lay awake debating against my better judgement. Every ounce of logic explained to me that it was a bad idea. But he had made it sound so simple, turning my stubbornness against me, “I dare you”. I flung my legs over the side of my bed. Fine.  The carpet was cool on my bare feet but it braced the dull noise of creaking floorboards, convenient for when you don’t want to wake anyone. My breath was rising and falling in quick gasps but I stifled it with my cold hands. I caught myself in the mirror, gazing into the ...

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“All I Wanted” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #93

Shards of glass glistened against his temple.  “Char—” He shoved her off him, turning around to snarl and spit at her feet.  How dare she. A deep, dark scarlet concealed his vision like the theatre curtains after the final act. His show was over. Worthless days of performing and mutilating his own personality were over. A copper tang hung in the air, a warm discomfort.  He wore makeup, blue eyeliner that had run down his cheeks, meandering like a river. Tracks were carved out in the snow of foundation and concealer, smoo...

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“Candle in the Window” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #92

Her skin stretched along her thigh, so loose off the bone now. With her knees tucked under her chin to stop the quaking, she hugged herself. The curvaceous mounds of fir logs rolled along the ridges of her spine. They multiplied the disarray of purples and scarlets born out of blood vessels rupturing below the barely held-in surface. Her gaze fell upon the jagged moon scar, lightening the dark tones of her skin from thumb to pinky. Was it infected again? In the dimmed light, she was none the wiser.  An elongated outline twisted its la...

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“The War of Heart and Mind” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #92

“She gives me butterflies, I’m in love, oh I’m in love.” The snowy doves make their way up towards the stars, sending a message of dreams coming true. The sun is bright and the sky is a brilliant baby blue, filling the flowers with the greatest of joy, a scattering of ambers and greens; each as dazzling as each other. No rain has fallen for a few months. What reason does it have to? It felt as though it would never fall again. Silhouettes and puppets form pirouettes before my eyes, a mockery of life in every way imaginable as their cackles...

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“The Innocent Warrior” by Aileen Andrews

Submitted to Contest #91

Their hand, an unworthy sack of fleshy scum. Each bulbous vein throbbed beneath the partially concealed skin, rough and calloused. She knew those scars were born out of the torment of others rather than this person’s own expense. The material weaved upon their knuckles rubbed against her smooth and innocent cheeks like sandpaper, muffling any thought of crying out. Muffling any thought bar one.  The ebony room lit up in a blaze, lights refracting off of the once darkened silhouette. A man, broad and muscled, but nothing significant. H...

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