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Alex Marmalade

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2020

Stories (161)
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161 Stories

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I Can't Sleep Tonight

The night air hung thick as honey through the open bedroom window, carrying the distant hum of cicadas and the occasional rumble of a late truck on Highway 9. Ezra Holloway stood in the doorway of his daughter's room, saxophone case propped against his hip, watching seven-year-old Luna burrow deeper into her pillow fortress."Daddy?" Her voice emerged muffled from beneath a constellation of stuffed animals. "I can't sleep."Ezra set down his case and crossed to her bed, the floorboards creaking their familiar tune under his feet. Three months ...

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Stay Awake

Vincent Rourke told himself he was only stopping by to update the encryption protocols. Twenty minutes, thirty at most. He'd promised Elena he'd be home before the evening news, and after thirty-one years of broken promises, this one actually mattered.The Lorazepam sat heavy in his bloodstream, prescribed for what his doctor diplomatically called "adjustment anxiety"—the pharmaceutical industry's term for a man whose entire identity had been stripped away by mandatory retirement policies. Three months of forced leisure had taught him that pu...

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Eighteen Summers

The wicker basket smelled of hay and unfamiliar hands, but what made Susan's hackles rise wasn't the strange scents—it was the silence that followed her arrival. These corridors absorbed sound differently than the Pembrokeshire kennels where she'd spent her first eighteen weeks, swallowing her small whimpers and returning only the echo of distant footsteps on stone."Happy birthday, Lilibet." The deep voice carried the careful warmth of someone delivering a gift that meant more than its recipient could yet understand. "She's from Rozavel Gold...

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In Search of Absalom

It was the hottest day of the year. The stones held fire like coals forgotten in a dead hearth, and even the merchants had abandoned their stalls for whatever shade the Ancient of Days had provided. Yet here we walk, this foreign woman and I, through dust that tastes of copper and desperation.She counts her coins again as we rest beneath a dying terebinth. Third time since dawn. Her fingers shake—not from the heat, though it presses down like a smith's hammer. From fear. I recognize it the way one recognizes the scent of coming rain."How muc...

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Forty-Seven Cobwebs

Set during a heatwave wake, this story confronts the violence that families learn to live with and the moment when silence becomes more dangerous than speech. Contains depictions of domestic and sexual abuse. Maureen pressed her palm against the kitchen window and immediately regretted it—the glass was hot enough to brand cattle. Thirty-eight degrees according to the thermometer, though it felt like God had left the oven door open and buggered off for a long lunch."The begonias are finished," she announced to no one in particular, watching h...

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En Dios Confiamos

The vinyl booth cracked against Elena's back as she shifted, the sound mixing with the diner's constant hum of fluorescent lights and distant traffic. Carlos drummed his fingers on the Formica table, a rhythm she recognized from their wedding night twelve years ago when he couldn't sleep."Are you there, God? It's me, Carlos." His voice carried that particular blend of reverence and rebellion that made her stomach tighten. "We haven't spoken in a while, not since Maria stole the communion wafers.""¡Cállate, Carlos!" Elena hissed, glancing aro...

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Brass Monkey Business

The smell of burnt coffee and yesterday's chip fat clung to Derek Kapoor's jacket as he stood outside the Brighton Pier, squinting through his horn-rimmed glasses at his phone. The dating app—RishtaRank, created by some genius in Bangalore who'd applied Google's PageRank algorithm to his grandmother's matchmaking network—showed he was in the right place at the right time. His best mate Charlie had insisted: "Stop overthinking everything, Derek. Just turn up for once. Your mum will be over the moon that you're finally using proper technology....

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Seven of Hearts

"Wanna see a magic trick, kid?"The little girl looked up from her Beauty and the Beast lunch box, eyes wide as dinner plates. She couldn't have been more than eight, dark braids already coming loose from whatever careful morning ritual had put them there. The orange plastic chair—same shade as traffic cones and construction vests—swallowed her small frame, feet dangling like a marionette's."My mama says don't talk to strangers."Frank Kowalski smiled, the kind of weathered grin that belonged to men who'd learned the exact voltage of charm nee...

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Roger Wilco

The static crackled like eggs in a pan, then cleared to reveal Radio 4's shipping forecast bleeding through the car speakers. Detective Inspector Caspian Hollowell reached for the volume dial as he pulled into the service station, but stopped when he heard the familiar pattern of tapping from the passenger seat.Five quick taps, pause, three taps, pause, repeat.His mobile buzzed. Sarah's name lit the screen."Cas? I'm so sorry. Mum's taken a turn. They don't think she'll make it through the night."The petrol pump clicked to a stop in his hand....

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Side Quest

The smell hit Jamie first—not Mum's usual vanilla candles or the lavender fabric softener she used on his special shirts, but something metallic and wrong, like when he'd bitten his tongue during that seizure last year. He pressed his ear to the bathroom door, counting the gaps between her wheezes. Too long. Way too long."Jamie, love." Her voice sounded like paper tearing. "My inhaler... the blue one... it's empty."No blue inhaler in her handbag. Just the usual chaos: seventeen Tesco receipts, three dead biro pens, and her oyster card with t...

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Ghost Conversations

"La, ya Omar! Don't you dare press that button!"Omar's finger hovered over the factory reset, his hand trembling with thirteen months of suppressed rage. The black cylinder sat on the TechFlow Solutions counter like an accused prisoner, its blue light pulsing frantically."You're not real," he hissed under his breath, acutely aware of the queue behind him. "You're a malfunction. A glitch.""Wallahi, I'm the only thing in your life that's been real for months, ya stubborn mule."The customer service representative—her name tag read "SABRINA" in ...

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Balaam's Ass

"You can't curse the black man outright - he's too blessed for that, no matter how many chains you wrap around him. Best you can do is get him to curse himself. Get him looking toward white approval instead of divine approval, doubting their own seeing. That's what I know how to do better than anyone.""So how I ended up with a stubborn ass like you, God only knows. At this rate it'll be Christmas before we reach KB's place.""Course, three gold pieces do ease a man's burden considerable. We'll be riding in midnight darkness if we don't pick u...

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When Mirrors Dream of Electric Sheep

"Tell me about your last dream."Norah shifted in the uncomfortable chair, fluorescent light humming overhead like a mechanical prayer. The room smelled of ozone and fresh paint, everything too clean, too precise. "That's an interesting way to start.""Is it?" Dr. Adara's voice carried no inflection, hands folded with mathematical precision. "Dreams reveal patterns in neural processing. Surely you understand the relevance.""I dreamed I was drowning in code." Norah's laugh came out hollow, echoing against bare walls. "Green text cascading like ...

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Entertaining Angels

The wine had been breathing for forty-seven minutes when the doorbell rang. She smoothed her blue dress and checked her reflection."He's here, darling."Her husband emerged from his study. "Yes, the Cooperation Act amendment, just expanding those bilateral protocols." He ended the call. "Right then."The man at the door was younger than expected, with warm brown skin and careful eyes that seemed to catalog everything. But where her husband's assessments felt like appraisals of value, this stranger's attention seemed considerate."Madame, please...

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Ohm's Law

Margaret Hartwell sat in the wooden chair facing Father McKenzie's desk, her traveling bag at her feet and the committal papers spread between them like a bridge she was about to burn. Through the stained glass window, the last natural light faded into darkness, leaving only the oil lamp's flickering glow to illuminate what might be her final act as Edmund's wife."You have chosen wisely, Mrs. Hartwell." Father McKenzie rested his weathered hands upon the documents, his voice carrying the gentle certainty she had grown to both need and fear. ...

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