Ben Rounds

“The Path” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #108

Mr. Magnusun stood very still.  It was difficult for him to control his hands.  It was not that he could not resist the urge to use them, to pick something up or deal with an irritation- because always when he began to stand very still an irritation would arise, an itch on his nose or hair caught in his shirt- but because his hands had begun to start moving on their own.  It was only a gentle tremor and he could calm them when he thought to, but he had to put his mind to it, a deliberate action which began in his shoulders and...

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“A Club Story” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #106

CW: mild adult content“Would you mind? Val?” said Charles, casually waving an empty glass in the young man's direction.  Attentions focused momentarily as the group waited to see what he would do. Cindy’s eye’s, deliberately dilated with just the smallest drop of ecstasy, reflected silver in the strobing club lights.  Val checked in the act of replacing the stopper on a small bottle, his long, white fingers poised. With a small smile he slid it into an inner pocket and took the glass.Cindy’s hand tightened ...

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“The Sphinx” by Ben Rounds

“Guy… hey, guys? Do you see that, there’s a… never mind…” said Murry, his voice winding down into a self commiserating whisper. The incongruous hot air balloon, which only he had appreciated as it drifted out over the fir trees, floated into the past. His pants seemed to have forged permanent grooves in his backside and no amount of squirming would cause the humid shirt to waft from his body.“What is it, hun?” murmured Trudy. She did not lower her road trip book of Sudoku; level 2.Murry frowned, but did not answer. H...

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“The Bad Breakup” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #104

            “Cindy, I’ve… well, this is really hard to say, but I think we’re both in an abusive relationship, and... we need to end it.” Slowly, Cindy put down her cup. It seemed to titter and the Starbucks, usually so quiet up there in the front, where four cute, bucket seats were grouped around a low, oaken coffee table, was filled with a faint clatter, a porcelain crescendo. The mermaid clock on the wall did not move. She opened her mouth to say… something, but the words would not form, or perhaps they ...

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“The Sign” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #103

“I only need one, god-damn… sign,” Mark growled.He could feel a... tightness in his throat and tried to make himself relax, aware that he was acting like a fool.  But, as seemed to be the case so often these days, Mark was unable to make himself want to do so, to change, to... relax, take it easy, and, as long as he did not really want to, nothing mattered, the act wouldn’t be real. It wouldn’t fool anyone.And.If he did not want to, then.The humor would not present itself, like it had used to. Before. And like it sho...

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“Cul-de-sac Blues” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #102

“Lindsey… Lindsey! Can you hear me?”“Of course I can hear you, Betty, why are you whispering though? Are you okay?”“Someone came tearing through the cul-de-sac on a bicycle, or a motorcycle... or something, a minute ago, and just now I saw someone outside your house!”“Oh, my… okay dearie. Well, thanks for calling, I’ll have Frank take a look.”“You better, could be a murderer. I saw on CNN how-”“Frank!”“What, what? I just laid down.”“Betty’s stalking again.”“Oh sweet heavens... Well; least she warned ya’ this tim...

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“The Detective” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #101

Detective Sutherly stepped carefully into the room.  It was a large space and he well short of the body, but it was his habit, born of cruel experience, to always advance cautiously in matters of this sort.   Sir Giles Niven’s study was like something out of the Arabian Nights and the detective braced himself, glad, and not for the first time, or even the hundred and first, that he was not a member of the forensic team, those men who would have to go through it all piece by piece.   Overstuffed, high backed chairs ...

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“The Professional ” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #100

“Would you care for more coffee, sir?” asked the waiter, one supercilious eyebrow alone betraying his impatience. “No, thank you,” Ashley said automatically, then, brusquely, ‘Yes; coffee.” The waiter ticked an expert nod and vanished, from one breath to the next, before Ashley could summon the courage to be curtly dismissive.  Well, he would do it properly next time...  No, in fact, he would not.  It would be better not to call attention to himself.  He was a shadow, a fly on the wall.  He was... the invisible man...

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“Brian's Luck” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #98

“Five, six, aaaand… seven,” said Jennifer, panting slightly.  She stood straight for a moment, then pinched Brian's shirt sleeve for balance as her ear canals caused the world to twist. “What was that about?” said Brian, touching his arm lightly where her hand had been. “I forgot and touched that chair,” said Jennifer. “The rocking chair?” said Brian. Jennifer nodded solemnly. “Well, I mean, so what?” said Brian, looking up and down the Cracker Barrel stoop in case he had missed something.  There were a multiplicity of small s...

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“Morning” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #97

Having once awoken, Jonathan could only lie in bed for so long.  That had always been the way; his internal alarm clock was a savage taskmaster.  Twisting over, the moist, slightly too hot sheets peeling from his body like sunburnt skin, he focused on the clock beside the bed.  Odd.  It was earlier that it should have been.  But still.  He swung his legs over the edge.  The air in the bedroom was cool, but unmoving.  That was why the bedding was too hot, the pillow damp where his head had lain, why his...

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“Xenia” by Ben Rounds

“Hades!” bellowed the God, shaking his powerfully banded hips at the green door.Phaedra, who had been in the act of slowly closing it, tremulous gaps and jerks as if the door were an extension of her own aging body, pursed her lips in disapproval.  Should she or shouldn’t she?  Her hip hurt, the pain radiating all the way down one side from where Xxaxius had tripped her up coming from the well that morning; water like blood all over the rough, marble patio.“Give me one reason why I should let you in,” she sighed.“By the n...

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“The Now” by Ben Rounds

Submitted to Contest #95

The Now There were no instructions.   There never were at such times, in such... places.  Mary knew that, and she didn’t know anything.  Well, she knew some things. No, she didn’t. Well, she knew enough to turn a knob and walk through a door. Well, no, she didn’t. “I know how to turn a knob,” said Mary, to no one in particular. It would have been impossible to particularize.  There was no one else in the room. Maybe there would be someone waiting on the other side of the door.  Either of the doors. ...

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