Advice, insights and news
Free 10-day publishing courses
Free publishing webinars
Free EPUB & PDF typesetting tool
Launch your book in style
Assemble a team of pros
A weekly short story contest
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2020
When you board the train bound to The Edge, that means you are on your way to the ends of the Earth with very little to no chance of going back to where you came from. That means you signed up for a sort of exile or banishment or death. No one ever has come back from The Edge. And I don’t think I will be an exemption.***I sit on a small cabin of a train where there are about thirty passengers. I think the area is suitable only for about fifteen. People who boarded found their place on the floor. Some ar...
After seventeen years, Cecilia's hair was finally cut for the first time. She took the scissors and indulged in cutting her long thick, jet-black hair that extends to her waist. Chunks of hair strands went through the scissors' blade and fell off one after the other. She didn't care about the style or whether the hair was cut evenly. All she wanted was to cut it.She went out of her room. Her hair's length was just until underneath her ears, which she intentionally showed to her papa, who made it a law in their house to n...
Finally, Wanda spots her potential meal, her first after a century. She is pretty lucky for there's not only one but two human beings walking towards her house. Wanda grins then licks the window pane. She spits in disgust after tasting the thick dust and wonders what happened to her home.'Every part of my house is supposedly edible,' she says in her wicked, hinge-like voice. She looks around the house and remembers that this is not her ginger-bread house anymore.'But never mind, I think I will have...
April woke up earlier than usual, and at half-past seven, with disposable gloves on her hands, she's ready for her annual tradition.Candy broke into the door and screamed 'Happy April Fools' Day!''Why should I be happy when I'm getting fooled?' April asked while putting slices of white bread in rows on her table. Her friend came in belly first, shaking her body and screaming to the top of her lungs Baby shame on you if you fool me once. Shame on me if you fool me twice…..Oooooh life goes ...
Not because you named your child after a flower already meant she would be as delicate, pretty, and as fragrant as the flower she was named after. It could be otherwise.Jinta would be seen every day in front of her flower shop. Her face would be a frown, her rich dark eyebrows a V-shape above her huge crooked nose. She was a strange sight amidst the beautiful flowers surrounding her. Toddlers would cry when they see her. Bigger kids would shoot her with pellet guns from behind and run away when she looks back at them wit...
That’s the thing about this city. It’s so loud and it never seemed to sleep, yet at dawn, it shows its mellow side. The streets are still almost empty, the train platform desolate.The first train of the day crawled towards me like a giant yellow caterpillar. Sleepy-eyed, I pulled my luggage and entered the wagon, inhabited by few sleeping passengers. I sat on that long, empty bench beside a luggage area. The train's announcement was played, mentioning the next station followed by the Arabic and English versions of the ph...
You come back to the surface face up, and even before you could clear the water on your face, you throw a sea cucumber on me. Its soft texture hit me and the slimy insides splatter on my face. I scream. You laugh. You like to tease me. I chase you but you swim faster than me. You look back at me and stick out your tongue. We race towards the jetty and jump into the water over and over again.We grow up together. Barefoot, salty, and sun-kissed. With sleepy eyes, we go with your father for early morning fishing trips. We b...
A delicate atmosphere enveloped the dining area. Each word said sliced through. Like cracks on a frozen lake, they stemmed out little by little. Tiny brittle sounds filled my ears. The silence was like forever, waiting for a random passerby whose step could break the entire frozen lake and drop him into the oblivion of a dark, cold universe. That wasn’t the mood we expected to have for Ma’s 60th birthday celebration.The table was filled with my fa...
Sweat dripped from her forehead and her white cotton shirt, soaked. Sally could have sat inside the cafe, the air con could have cooled her down. Instead, she sat outdoors because the view was better. Pavement cafes lined up on that narrow cobblestoned street. Bougainvillea vines crawled down from the second floor of the building down to the glass windows of the cafes, albeit neatly cut. Café Romana, that’s where she sat; its wooden tables topped with lacey white runners, chairs were cushioned with either pink and...
The aroma of instant coffee woke me up. It wafted into my nostrils, whirled its way into my every nerve, and woke up every bit of my sleeping body parts. I sat cross-legged; hands tucked inside the pocket of my grey sweater, absorbing every heat they can get. My eyes squinted as the tender light of the dawn entered the tent. The fog slowly vanished in the presence of the early morning sun. Puffy, white clouds enveloped the Lover’s Summit – as what everyone called the twin mountains. Mike smiled at me as he transferred freshly fried eggs i...
Bound to Javahiru Rah, Malediven Express left Male’ at exactly nine on a Saturday morning of November. A thin silver line hemmed the cloudless neon-blue sky and the lazy deep blue. Frothy waves ebbed and flowed as the speedboat slammed the perfectly idle sea. Nature-trimmed palm and banyan trees on islands waved at the high-speed ocean toy. The three passengers of the speedboat were bound to Javahiru Rah which means Jewel Island, all with different reasons.
Tom can’t count the days of darkness. He’s been sitting in the middle of that room for what seems like an eternity. He cannot differentiate day and night. He can only feel the temperature change. He thinks it’s nighttime when his feet, tied to both legs of the chair, ache with the touch of the freezing floor and daytime when sweat drips from every pore of his body. There are no windows for light and air to pass through. He’s surprised he’s still breathing, taking in the stench of mold, sweat, and piss. He’s been in and out of sleep, he ca...
I slam my apron on the bar counter and leave as the printer vomits paper after paper of orders: beer, mojito, whiskey, cosmopolitan, tequila shots, and vodka orange. The night is young and the swelling crowd is vivacious. Gerard looks at me as I storm out the counter and head to the stage. He must think I am crazy to leave him as he sweats profusely with the number of drinks he needs to serve. But I really don’t care. I’ve had enough of life compromising my dreams. Sandra and her shiny, wiggly, skimpy dress th...
When you die, you won’t matter to anyone or anything anymore except to the worms that would feast on your flesh until only your bones are left under your grave. Fragments of your flesh will soon be ashes or dust, subject to dissipation, and just another element that can cause a sneeze. Family and friends will keep you in their memories, but their world will continue to move without you. You will just be like another file in their hard drive, kept, to be forgotten. Soon you’ll fade away, and even the closest of per...
That wasn’t the first time I’ve seen her pale face. She has haunted my dreams like a storm surging on to an unsuspecting, still night. Her ceramic-white face appeared like lightning, cutting through the apocalyptic sky. Her long black hair loomed on my face like torrential rain. Her melancholic cries for help came in like the howling wind, pounding the dormitory until it’s cracks and hinges wept....
I'm mostly quiet when I'm not angry. I'm mostly happy when not hungry, I write on www.aysabaw.com
Our free writing app lets you set writing goals and track your progress, so you can — finally — write that book!
Oops, you need an account for that!
Log in with your social account:
Or enter your email: