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Belladona Vulpa

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2020

Stories (22)
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46 Followers
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22 Stories

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Let's circle back

The office wakes up at 8:57. By 9:00, Linda is smiling through her teeth and reminding us that "feedback is a gift," just before disappearing into the copy room, where the toner drawer has absorbed more rage than our quarterly reviews. We say nothing. Because words have weight here, too much to risk. We move through the motions, typing and nodding, careful to keep everything balanced on the edge of silence. It’s not empty; it’s practiced. The layout is painfully familiar: cubicles lined like forgotten grave markers, each personalized with fa...

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Baseline

The air tastes like copper and ash. Not metaphor—just raw chemistry. Iron in the dust, and maybe combustion byproducts from the geothermal vents. My head throbs. Oxygen’s too low—maybe twelve per cent, tops. The colony was supposed to regulate that. It didn’t. Or something pushed the system off script. I crouch beside the ridge, where a sponge-like mat clings to the rock. Pale green, faintly pulsing. Not quite plant, not fungus—synthetic, lab-grown. We seeded it to stabilize the soil and lock carbon. When I exhale near it, the surface shifts...

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Nuts and Beer: to new beginnings

I wasn't expecting to make a fool of myself like that, I used to make fun of people who danced drunk, and here I was, doing the same thing, surprise! But I had enough tequila to not care anymore. I don't even remember the music that was playing. I have a blurry memory of dancing in the middle of the crowd, with British drunk tourists all around mixed with the locals, on that island. Then I don't know how long after, Dario the bartender took me home on his motorbike. I don't know how he managed it, driving with me at his back, but he brought ...

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Picturebook

"Blue, green, pfff is this called purple, grey, green, red, green, grey, white, yellow, green, grey, green, blue...""What comes up?""I am thinking about work"."Okay, focus on that"."Grey, yellow, blue, grey, purple, white, yellow, green, blue, yellow, red, grey, blue, white...""What comes up?""I remembered a movie I saw once, it was funny. I'm also pretty hungry"."Okay, continue with that"."Grey, white, red, yellow, white, green, red, blue, purple, blue, green, grey, yellow.....""Okay, now let's go back to the picture together. How much tens...

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The Clockwork Heist

Clocks ticking, engines humming and steaming, gears turning and creaking. People were rushing into the city on their mechanical bikes in the morning traffic. Few steam cars sped up and went around them, everyone in such a hurry.Dark grey clouds loomed over the high buildings, hovering and traveling in the sunless sky in slow motion over the city of Nrah. It was not raining so it was a good day for most. Valeria, or Val for short, liked the rain though, for making a mess of everything and causing people to react with disgust to the filth spil...

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First love, final kiss

************************************************************Words to AntónioFriday night. Mia got comfortable on the chair while the pizza was getting ready. She drank a bit of her soda and felt her stomach growl. That pizza place was a popular student hub and of course a favorite date spot for the couple. Across the table, António seemed deep in thought or distracted, making a roll and fixing his cigarette for later."How was your day?", he asked"It was alright I guess, life on campus like usual. Ah, that paper I wrote with a hungover last w...

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Dancing under the night sky

************************Esme's Dance, a poemBeneath the city lights, on a rooftop high,A lone dancer twirls, under a starless night sky.Her silhouette against the urban sea,her soul yearning to be free.Voices of the Night, a dance of despair,Yet, a symphony of hope fills in the cold air.In the city's heartbeat, where emotions collide,Esme spins her tale, in each bare step, a sigh to confide.Concrete jungle, a realm of steel and stone,Yet, her dance weaves a world uniquely her own.Passion in her movements, delicate and pure,A dance of a wildf...

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Bloody Christmas

Jamie's legs and feet were heavy as rocks as she continued to strive forward. The hot sand sunk her every step, piercing her soft skin like a thousand needles. Around her, dunes spread as the only sight in all directions. It was not morning, nor noon. Perhaps, it could be late afternoon, but it was not certain. An invisible force made Jamie pick herself up after every clumsy fall and go on, and then repeat. A soft dry breeze would erase her steps and she would be completely lost again.Behind this dune, Jamie saw something peculiar. It made h...

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One of the ways to a man's heart is his stomach, what can go wrong?

As a girl growing up on the coasts of south Italy, a time that now seems like a lifetime ago, I heard over and over again that a way to a man's heart is his stomach. The women in my family passed our recipes from one generation to the next with sacred awe. I was the youngest of three siblings and was taught to execute these by the letter, be secretive about these recipes, and revere them. Cooking has always been an important ritual for us and has served this family on many occasions.Evolutionary psychology could perhaps explain this apparent...

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Jingle Bells, Psychic Spells: A DCU-inspired Holiday Edition

As the first bits of snow barely hovered over Metropolis, Dr. Evelyn Blackwood rubbed her hands together and crossed the intersection with everyone else on morning peak hour. Evelyn had forgotten her gloves at home. She soon arrived at the building and passed through the lobby with her key card, nodded hello, and moved towards the elevator, where a cheesy Christmas tune was playing on repeat. She reached the office on the 10th floor, removed her coat and layers, and looked out the window. The first snow was falling, creating a feeling of sti...

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Beneath the Surface: A Grad Student's Journey to Meet the Deadline

Monday, 7 days and 12 hours before the deadline“Oh, exams... The grand migration of stressed-out students in their natural habitat, the university campus. Here, we observe the species ‘Cramminius Scholarious,’ each adorned with their peculiar markings - coffee stains, sleepless eyes, and textbooks clutched as if they were sacred scrolls. Students gather in all the study areas, cafés and pretty much any area on campus with Wi-Fi and chargers, in a similar fashion savannah animals would gather near a water source”.Thalia, a grad student had no...

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Mr. Torres

Eudaimonia Psychosocial Discovery Facility (Powered by R.E.P.S. Solutions), Undisclosed LocationDavid Torres poured a third portion of sugar into his coffee and stirred; he knew it was not healthy, but he preferred this over energy drinks as his fuel. His mother kept reminding him that energy drinks and sugar were not good for him, together with her asking when she was going to have a grandchild. He was used to it, like listening to a broken record. Still living at his parents' home in his late 20s, he was not planning to have a family unti...

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We'll meet again: a Zombie-Apocalypse Romance

Day 1Dragă Jurnal,Today, the world as we know it changed forever. The feed of Twitter and basically all social media platforms flared up with videos and sightings of zombies on a killing spree. No official source could deny it or postpone it anymore. I have already arrived in Oslo, Norway and I'm on my way North.It all started a few weeks ago with whispers of a strange illness, rumours of food poisoning, and an increase in missing persons, violence and homicides. Politicians brushed it off as isolated incidents, but I knew something was amis...

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False alarm

(TW: Hints that might connect to any of those: physical violence, abuse, suicide, or self-harm)Saturday, people are shopping all around, carrying colorful bags from multiple brands. Couples chattering, families wandering around, groups of friends filling the air with laughter and talking. They do that in a language you can make sense from the general meaning, but you don't know every single word yet. A woman's strong perfume fills the nostrils of the surrounding people, flowery and pleasant notes like jasmine, Armani's something, but she mus...

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The Cursed Manuscript: Shadows of Ancestral Secrets

Beneath the silver glow of the moon, Lily was listening to the calling of a scops owl, when she was startled by the howling of wild dogs in the far distance. A soft breeze scanned the tall grass around the campus. She liked to sit on the rooftops of the lecture buildings alone and stare at the stars. It was as if she was present exactly at that moment, and it was how she liked to recharge. Her dorm room was full of noise and distractions after all.The campus was near a village surrounded by green scenery and was about 15-20 kilometers away f...

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