AnneMarie Miles

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2021

Stories (53)

53 Stories

3269 karma pts

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“Deviled Eggs” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #282

Gail had muttered an apology to the man she bumped into on Aisle Seven, but what had come out of her mouth sounded more like a muffled, Fuck off! God, what was it about the holidays that made the aisles so narrow and the men so bulky and the stupid grocery store so full? Gail couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to be there on Christmas Eve. The thought of it made her knuckles whiten around the shopping cart, and she gazed begrudgingly at all the strangers surrounding her, clearly intent on ruining her day. She wished they’d all get i...

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“Fresh Pine Creek's Parked Gossip, Episode 17” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #254

[Transcribed from a previously recorded live stream]Hello Campers and welcome to another episode of “Parked Gossip!” Coming to you live from Fresh Pine Creek RV Resort where we hook you up with more than just 50-amp electricity, water, and sewage at every site, I’m your host, Morgan Juliana, here to hook you up with all the campground gossip.If it’s your first time tuning in, let me tell you how it works. Each week, residents of our campground can drop a note into our Guest Gab box in the office, and every Sunday morning, I open it up and sp...

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“Traffic” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #253

Highway 17 is a parking lot. I'm stopped in the hottest stretch of the 26-mile route going through Los Gatos. It’s the final few miles before the ascent, and it is completely unshielded by a cloudless sky. Tall bushes line the paved highway but the sun is high above us and offers no shade. In the distance, a precious cover of trees waits tantalizingly atop the mountains, my home lying on the other end of the summit in the southern end of another county. So close, yet so far.If I knew it was an accident, this blockade of unmoving vehicles wou...

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“Spilling the tea” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #252

It was dark inside the teapot. Crowded, too. Cast iron walls created a cavernous chamber that was both loud and cold. Around him, Smith sensed an endless sea of sticky flesh. It should have been warm, all those bare bodies, but instead, it felt clammy like a feverish chill. It made Smith's skin crawl; made him retract and contort and twist. No matter how he flinched, there was only more cold, sweating flesh; and without his vision, that was all there was.That, and the screaming.The screaming echoed, vibrated through his teeth, filling his ca...

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“Monster Goals” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #231

To the human living above me, I'd like to propose some changes.It’s been a year since you issued me your set of rules, and in that year, I’ve complied. You’re still alive, aren’t you? Your dog is still alive, yes? And if you’d bothered to check under your bed once in awhile, you’d know that it’s the cleanest it’s ever been (turns out dust bunnies and ants and snack crumbs make a delicious meal, thanks for that suggestion, by the way). Overall, I think I’ve made a really great monster-under-the-bed, and I do hope you'd agree.Now, I know one o...

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“A Funeral” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #230

“It’s just you and me again,” I say.I’d waited until the flock of my relatives had dispersed, and finally, I am alone at his casket. His pale face looks at peace, and it makes him almost unrecognizable. I’m used to the anger, the depression, the mask of whatever vice he could find.On his lapel, someone, my mother I assume, has issued him a rose. I scoff at the symbol of love. That word, that feeling, had been foreign to Floyd, absent in every corner of his life. No matter how hard I tried to love him, I was nothing but a worthless, unwanted,...

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“Sensation” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #230

Dr. Adrela says it happens to everyone.“We’ve forgotten how to feel with our bodies. We get stuck in our heads, and we try to rationalize all of our feelings. Our brain is a wonderful resource, but we are overusing ours, especially when it comes to this. It can lead to problems…”Dr. Adrela says we’ve become over-domesticated, that we’ve lost our connection to our animalistic nature. “Do you think animals in the wild are depressed? Of course not! There’s no time for depression when you are hunting for food, fighting for your life, fucking, or...

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“Elf Off the Shelf” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #229

From the beginning, there had only ever been one rule: Don’t let anyone see you move. But after what I saw tonight, I was afraid I was going to have to break that rule.The Dunken’s house was full of people. From inside Mrs. Mitchell’s purse, I carefully peeked out through the open zipper and saw dozens of recognizable faces, people who had come over to pick up Oliver and Sklyer’s friends over the years. They were all laughing and eating and drinking merrily. Despite Christmas having already passed – this I knew because Mrs. Mitchell had alre...

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“Dad's Cereal” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #228

My daughter found a hat in one of the boxes collecting dust underneath my bed yesterday. Out of boredom, she had asked me if she could “investigate” the contents of this unknown space, a place in the house that she had not yet explored. If it had been December, I would have quickly said no, frightened by the possibility that the truth of Santa’s workshop would be revealed at too early an age. But in the middle of fall, the thought of purchasing presents and stowing them away felt distant and hidden. I had been busy with other things, perhaps...

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“Blizzard” by AnneMarie Miles

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #227

The blizzard was inside him now, in more ways than one. He felt his bones grow goosebumps the way he thought they could only appear on his skin. They seemed to shiver between the muscle and tissue that were once soft, now like icicles hardening beneath the surface. His fingers and toes succumbed to their numbness much quicker than they had in the earlier days, warning him that even five minutes of stillness was too dangerous. But as he shifted in the small cab of his truck, the effort felt enormous, and his breath threatened to release the l...

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“Little Red Wishes on Wild Things” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #226

Beneath a hooded cloak, I gaze up at all the things on fire in the sky, searching for shooting stars. The sky is as vast and deep as the ocean, as dark and sinister as the forest; it upholds all of its chaos, displaying its trauma, as if to say: “You should know better than to trust in me.” I distract myself, looking for constellations while I wait for morning, hopeful that a glowing streak of light might seize my wish and free me of this burden.Release me of those devil’s eyes, my heart yearns.When a cloud emerges from my lips, I pull my cl...

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“Watercolors” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #225

He tells me to sit still.It is not hard to do. I am lost in thought, lost in my reasons for being here.I keep thinking of that woman I never knew. The person in the painting on the wall in the hallway of the house I grew up in. I keeping thinking about what it would have been like to know her, what it would have been like to call her my grandmother.Or would you have preferred, abuela? Did you speak English? Even that, I do not know. Even that, my father will not say.He only says, You look just like her.I test your name out on my lips: Mary. ...

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“Carry Me” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #224

“I can’t sleep,” I whisper.I am seven, standing at the foot of my parent's bed. My father is snoring, and the rain is pounding steadily onto concrete. I imagine the worms coming up for a swim somewhere in the grass.“I can’t sleep,” I say again, but I only hear the bed squeaking as my mother shifts to her other side. I can’t tell her I’m scared. I can’t tell her my brothers shoved me in the linen closet when we were playing hide-and-seek and left me there. It’s dark in my parent’s room, and I know it’s silly, but I am frozen, too scared to ge...

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“Cerulean” by AnneMarie Miles

🏆 Winner of Contest #223

The door is cerulean, a bright and vibrant blue, but really it is the color of my sudden uneasiness. The feeling creeps up me slowly, jumps out at me dauntingly, and I am frozen in it. If the door were a mirror – and how I wish it were as innocent as a mirror – I would see my face reflected back to me, and it would tell me to run.I’m not sure what’s more jarring: the fact that this door is a clashing contrast to the rest of the library décor, or the fact that I’ve never noticed the path we took to get here before. I suppose there are better ...

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“Beowulf: Big Brother” by AnneMarie Miles

Submitted to Contest #222

I had thought old age would bring me the finer things in life, like a small staircase at the foot of Mother and Father’s bed to help me climb up without having to jump; or chicken broth in my kibble to soften it; or more frequented walks; or heck, maybe some freaking pain meds that would make the world feel like it had when I was a puppy. Those were all the things my older friends at the park had bragged about when they told him what to expect in my elderly years, and it was the only thing that made reaching my tenth birthday something to lo...

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Author bio

AnneMarie Miles is a children’s music teacher by day, writer by night, and mother always. She studies creative writing at Southwest Minnesota State University from her bed in California. Her poems are published in Beyond Words Literary Magazine, The Concrete Desert Review, Lucky Jefferson, Allegory Ridge, and Prometheus Dreaming (online). Her winning short story, “Cerulean” can be found in Reedsy’s printed anthology, Prompted: Volume 03. Nothing makes AnneMarie happier than doing choreographed dances to hip-hop music in a room full of strangers – except, maybe, sipping perfectly sweetened coffee on Saturday morning. Copyright © 2025 AnneMarie Miles - All Rights Reserved. Using content without written permission is prohibited

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #223

Cerulean – read story

Shortlisted 8 stories ⭐️

Contest #227

Blizzard – read story

Contest #221

A Ghost's Testimony – read story

Contest #217

Beowulf: A Guard Dog's Tale – read story

Contest #213

The Lucky Ones – read story

Contest #176

Opening Geraldine's – read story