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Ben Cerasi

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2021

Stories (29)

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29 Stories

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The Kanashii

Ben Cerasi

The blades bore an ancient style. James obtained the forensic reports from external experts. Security forces throughout the East Bay and the Shipping lanes of Marin had been meticulously dismantled, with each cut performed with surgical precision. The Spectre studied the forensics displayed on his screen, cross-referencing the findings with emergency rooms and whispers of a specter. The morgue held dozens of bodies, but gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma had more obvious connections to potential culprits. These victims had seeming...

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A Wake Beneath the Wakes

Ben Cerasi

October 30th, 1943. Allied Intelligence reports. Middle East Command. The magnetic audio reels will play the discussions of the prisoners and patients. “Please, put me in the stockade, but don’t bring the ship to shore. Let the valleys of the abyss claim it again. I’ve witnessed the screaming in the camps, and the blood inside the bunkers. Imagine that but on a global scale. That's what these beings want, for all of us. The U-boats pale in comparison to the leviathan made known to us. The beast that swallowed Jonah.” ...

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The Monolith

Ben Cerasi

Our dreams are haunted by demons, sometimes they hold us down in our sleep. Other times they rip us out of bed and into the night. My notoriety casts a long shadow, and the detectives withdrew from my presence. Each officer feared I carried the dark mark of a scarlet letter, and the specters that tormented me sought refuge within them too. They wore polished shoes and creased suits, wedding bands snug on their fingers. In the investigative unit, we dubbed such unions "starter marriages." Time passed and absence didn't let fondness...

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Chapel Black: The Marrow Among The Meadow

Ben Cerasi

He made a pit, and dug it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate. Authority: California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General. Acting Unit: The Violent Crime Investigative Support Section (VCISS) Inmate Earl Greene, alias the Emerald Hills Killer, has submitted a plea, facilitated by his state-appointed public defenders. The state is willing to revoke the execution order by lethal injection in exchange for un...

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Chapel Black: The Roots Run Red.

Ben Cerasi

The summer days grew colder as my time in the killing field continued. In this small town, life seemed to remain stagnant, with familiar faces from school days still residing in the same neighborhood. I delved into the bottomless well of the life of the victim, realizing that she might have been caught in a cycle of addiction and abuse. The tale of the central valley was lined with addicts and artists. The case left a haunting impression of a town grappling with its past and present, where the echoes of forgotten beliefs and so...

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The Red Nights of Summer

Ben Cerasi

Speak now or forever hold your peace, I aimed the bolt downwards towards his heart's left curve. He begged to witness the sunrise one last time before the monstrous affliction took over his humanity completely. To make it in this line of work, you have to whittle away at your soul bit by bit. Those who can’t handle it end up taking the easy way out. “I apologize, sir. I never meant to disappoint you,” he said, as I noticed the white gauze soaked with red droplets on his arms. I knew he didn't deserve this fate. He was just a young man with...

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Sins in the Shade

Ben Cerasi

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. The sins in the shadows get lost in the light. there's nothing mold loves more than dark voids. The corners of your home or a city block you pass everyday and wouldn’t give a seconds notice until the smell overwhelms you. It has to be cut out. An inoperable medical condition is one that cannot be cured by a surgical operation. It’s a term that could be applied to the medical report under my desk or the condition of the urban sprawl outside my apartment. ...

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Eranko

Ben Cerasi

The damp stains on the bones matched the red dusk that gave way the black night. Two hundred bodies had turned the rivers bed in the past season. The medical officers compared the sharp talons found on the first bodies to the corpse. The polished edges and yellow powder were too complex for a hungry carnivore. People were afraid to clock in the factories, the murders affected the bottom line. That meant the Colonial Police actually had to do their job. The Trading company that paid everyones salaries put on the illusion of action as more o...

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Permafrost

Ben Cerasi

Fire and Ice fused with the javelin as we fell from the stars. Red lights and green dots blinked without any further orders. This was like childbirth, an explosion, followed by a black void and a white light. The cramped pod collided with the blue glass caked on top of the lake. My hands yanked against the escape hatch. The small circle of fire and ash popped against the ash. The escape hatch was no different than the safety of my mother's womb. I felt like a newborn baby, as I took my first breath. Snow. I had taken it for gr...

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The Veils of the Valley (Part One)

Ben Cerasi

Freedom of Information Act: Request. Memo: United States Justice Department. Bureau of Prohibition The declassified Reports of Agent Harold Tempt. {Recovered with Permission from the San Joaquin State Hospital, Tempt family and the DOJ} The Thirst of July was upon the land it would, Soon the first fruits of August would bloom and be offered for the Regent who would soon meet her brides at the altar. The valley was kind to its tenants. But it asked for a tithe in kind. It had provided bounties during the dust b...

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The Siren amongst the Stars.

Ben Cerasi

The Last Transmission of the Divine Intercept: Security Officer Angel Ramirez. The cosmic citadel was without blemish as we floated against radiation, and space debris. The hairless apes were close to cracking the great barrier that shackled most species to their worlds. I popped a few heavy-duty pain relivers to get my head in the game. They gave me a nasty case of cotton mouth and I’d dry heave later. But the throbbing in my brain is what kept me human. Human, that’s was becoming antiquated term these days. We become the Lewis and Clar...

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The Whispers

Ben Cerasi

The black hands reached across the walls as the white noise from the television echoed across the muffled walls. My eyes locked on to the uncanny shapes on the wall. The first officers on scene believed it to be another cooking room gone wrong. Synthetic drugs could be made with a little powder and a shopping list from a local big box store. The construction crew prepared ready to put down their tools before the payroll went into the red. Rodney Jenkins liked to swing that hammer like it was an extension of his dick, the crew got a good laug...

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The Long Nights of Autumn

Ben Cerasi

The sapphire summer overstayed its welcome as it slowly withdrew from the valley, in its place the towns received the long nights of Autumn. Those little white spores that popped up up and down the south-99 state highway. The crops and cattle were met with righteous fire. It wasn’t long until people were placed in the pyres. At first it was migrant workers and poor black farmers that escaped Jim Crow south. Those didn't make headlines, once the thirst came to Large tracts on land, that's when the governor stepped in. All the kings horses an...

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The Dying Grass.

Ben Cerasi

Submitted to Contest #117

“Everything was ready for the ritual.” The Dying Grass Moon burned red as it set itself upon the land. As the seeds and the green broke through the dire earth, The valley was kind to its tenants. But it asked for a tithe in kind. The canal passageways once nourished the roots, the hoofed beasts and the tiller . The ripples shifted from black to red alongside the night fires. Smoke and ash danced across the twilight. old almond groves had to be purged and returned to the soil. The charred haze from brush fires in Sonora and Nap...

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