Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Alexis Araneta

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2023

Stories (53)
Comments
Library
559 Followers
841 Following

53 Stories

6236 karma pts

?

The Lady in the Gilt Mask

Submitted to Contest #316

I still know the gleam of those large, meadow eyes, even behind the garish sheen of the gold silk of her mask. Her head might be tipped up, every centimetre precisely calculated to showcase a swan-like neck dripping in diamonds, but I recognise every flutter of those lush, upturned lashes. I could instantly detect how her bow lips shake like autumn leaves, even as they’re painted a luscious carmine. She may be a picture of elegance in her luxuriant merlot dress, every jewel scrupulously encrusted on the bodice, but I notice a terrified pinki...

30 likes 27 comments 27
Read story

Letters to Allegra

1 February 2022 Dear Allegra, I know you have no idea who I am; if you were to list everything you know about me, all you’d come up with is a blank page. Why is it, though, that every Austen heroine rolled into a divine being would still pale in comparison to your splendour? Right now, I watch you saunter in front of me, each stiletto-clack step tuning the pavement gold. As if from a scrupulously conceptualised film script. Your sumptuous Yves Saint-Laurent maxi dress and those perfectly coiffed burgundy waves jeté in the winter breeze, only...

51 likes 53 comments 53
Read story

Entwined Flowers

Submitted to Contest #306

1 February 2024 Dear Diary, Today, I picked out my wedding dress. In the blinding ivories and lily whites in silk, lace, taffeta, and tulle, I transformed into a bride. Then again, from the very moment I met him, I knew I was meant to walk down a flower-lined aisle towards Florian’s tearful earth brown eyes. As soon as he extended his hand, the aquarelle rows of vibrant blooms at the Keukenhof Tulip Gardens seemed to fade in colour. At that moment, the only thing planted in the soil of my memories of my holiday in the Netherlands was his qu...

69 likes 80 comments 80
Read story

The Fire Inside

Submitted to Contest #300

My Beloved Lucius,You have always seen the fire inside me, a smouldering beacon rising to the heavens that not even the gods could quench. I will never forget that, you know.Many leering eyes have beheld mine, each one a piece of rope tying me down to the columns of the temple of expectation. Yours, azure like a summer sky, lift me to Jupiter’s throne room, there where time bends to the will of his thunderbolts. Whilst the city views me as but a mere glass doll, — delicate, decorative, hollow — you cut through my silken tunics and find a hea...

54 likes 45 comments 45
Read story

Midnight Pretenders

Submitted to Contest #297

CW: Allusions to sexAbel, because of you, my favourite time of Saturdays is now midnight. Just a thought of that glorious moment where the clock’s hands stretch to the heavens we’ll both get lost in and the stars twinkling like crystals on ebony silk, and I float through the loop of the work calendar.As if it were written on an agenda, it all unfolds to the most precise of milliseconds. At six o’clock on Fridays, I would race to my room, swipe a perfect winged liner on my lids, and apply scarlet on my lips. An hour later, you would rapt a dr...

52 likes 58 comments 58
Read story

Green Is for Remembrance

Submitted to Contest #292

Rowan, if remembrance were painted in only one colour, it would always be green for me. Of course, that’s all because of you.Yes, my love, every single seed of a moment with you, I’ve nurtured in the greenhouse of my memory. There, I watch it sprout, breaking so deftly out of the rich earth of everyday. Little by little, buds begin to form until it is ripe, ready for the rainbow of petals to open up and perfume every crevice in the heady scent of joy. Now, every time I step into my forest of recollection, a smile creeps onto my countenance l...

70 likes 79 comments 79
Read story

All of the Cherry Red Marks

Submitted to Contest #290

My Beautiful Nicole, One thing you should know is this: every single time your soft lips have left those delightful cherry red marks all over my skin, you’ve also marked my heart indelibly. Why yes, ma chouchoute, your kisses have carved their way into the inner recesses of my mind. From the first moment you broke into that moonglow smile as your ‘hello’ wrapped me into its velvet arms, I knew that I will always crave for those bright stains on my face and my clothing. It’s gotten to a point that even when you aren’t around, all th...

85 likes 90 comments 90
Read story

Earl Grey Everywhere

Submitted to Contest #287

Colin, this is how I know I’m totally besotted with you: No matter which place I’m in, from the dizzying buzz of London’s streets to a sun-bathed tropical plain, I smell earl grey everywhere when I think of you. I just can’t deny it. It seems that anytime my mind fixes itself on your honeyed smile or your warm velvet laugh, every single drop of affection in me boils over until it whistles in my ear. Then, like clockwork, the air infuses itself with the sweet hints of bergamot rind and an aromatic haze of lapsang --- pervasive like the i...

82 likes 95 comments 95
Read story

Through the Peaks

Submitted to Contest #286

My Dearest Darling Theodor,If there’s any taint in the snow-white assurance in your mind that I’m coming to you, let this letter quell that fear. Yes, my love, as I’m penning you this little message, I am attempting to stuff my beat-up mauve suitcase with a fraction of the rainbow of clothes that always made you shake your head and elicit that low, velvety chuckle that cocoons me with warmth instantly. I leaf through the soft, watercolour renditions of the dew-kissed, blush roses at the Schloss Mirabell that have, a myriad of times, pai...

62 likes 63 comments 63
Read story

Home for Christmas

Submitted to Contest #283

Christmas 2024Dearest Victor,I hope you know that even if you’d left me, even if you took to the skies for 17,000 kilometres and 22 hours to spread your wings away from the nest we’ve built, there’s nowhere I’d rather spend Christmas but home with you.This morning, my fingers brushed the supermarket tinsel draped around the banister and yet, there was no tickle for all I could sense was the weight of the atmosphere pummelling my exhausted lungs. My bunny slipper-donning feet dragged across the wood floor to fetch myself just another bowl of ...

57 likes 67 comments 67
Read story

Worst Job Ever

Submitted to Contest #282

Hey, Olly, I’m really sorry to say this. This is the worst job I’ve ever had to do. I know you won’t begrudge me. Then again, there are things you won’t…. you can’t…Oh, I don’t want to think about it.I find it hard, though. How can I not notice you sprawled out on the dove grey bed sheets you’ve inhabited for almost a year now instead of barrelling down the stairs with your favourite fire engine red skis, the ones you’ve christened Pepper? The freshly fallen snow taps away an invitation to hibernal enchantment on your windowpane, but yo...

42 likes 48 comments 48
Read story

Without Question

Submitted to Contest #280

14 December 2024My Sweet Princess Beatrice,Firstly, Daddy must apologise if I can’t answer your question about Moana speaking in Tahitian. You know that even if I’m all grown up, have navigated the sometimes-murky crests and troughs of life for longer than you have, there are little mind-bending queries I can’t respond to. As you will know, the more we shoot up towards a clear, cerulean sky, the more we reach our arms only to snag on even more curiosities, more puzzles, more uncertainties. I hope you could forgive me.All of that’s a long way...

52 likes 55 comments 55
Read story

Words I've Waited For

Shortlisted for Contest #278 ⭐️

Just one look at the penmanship, --- a solitary glance at those loopy, almost oblong letters, a furtive regard at the doughy circles dotting the small I’s --- and I feel a million glass butterflies flutter as they’re compacted inside of my stomach, their fragile, delicate wings catching on every tissue and cutting my insides. I’ve waited countless mornings of teardrops splattering into my tea, years of watching the postman like a hawk, for this blush-coloured piece of paper. Now, that it’s in my hands, her name resounds in my head once more,...

86 likes 129 comments 129
Read story

An Open Letter to a Lifelong Love

Submitted to Contest #276

Dear You,Yes, I have always known that you were with me. How could I ever ignore that honey sweetness that coats every single inch of my mouth with a mellow warmth when I speak to you? How could I deny the rush inside me every time you sweep me in the powerful yet refreshing whirlpool of your majesty? Is there even a way to hide how a giggle bubbles up inside of me – minuscule at first, then, slowly encasing me in prismic wonder --- every single time I recall how I sometimes stumble and stutter, all because of your golden presence? No, ...

69 likes 90 comments 90
Read story

Love's Not an Alien Concept

Submitted to Contest #274

CW: SwearingHer profile stated that she loves the colour periwinkle. I had no idea that she was talking about her latex-like skin. She said that she wants held softly, deftly --- as if she were the most delicate of hydrangea petals. I didn’t know it entailed caressing her nine protruding tentacles. She mentioned that she’s originally from far from London. Who knew that she hails from outside the Milky Way, from some dwarf planet called Lila Centauri?As I observed this non-Earthling twist the flounced sleeve of her watermelon maxi dress with ...

58 likes 62 comments 62
Read story