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C. A. Janke

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2019

Stories (15)
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50 Followers
31 Following

15 Stories

442 karma pts

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Hollow as a Heart

Submitted to Contest #239

Thunk, thunk, thunk of plastic against glass. A downpour of fake emeralds from the sky, no bigger than a child’s palm. They rattle the window, gather on the sill, filtering the harsh morning light into something glowy and soft and viridian, transforming the bedroom into an aquarium. Must be Tuesday, you think. The bed is warm, but you are awake, and you need to get ready for work. The rain beat your alarm clock. It goes off in two minutes, hardly worth waiting for, but you do, watching the rain fall. In two minutes, the harsh blare startles ...

6 likes 2 comments 2
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Fate All the Same

Submitted to Contest #223

The convergence of David and I could be considered nothing short of a cosmic inevitability, as unavoidable as an earthbound meteor. Something that would irreparably alter the bounds of life and death, the fundamental meaning of humanity, a concept to which I’d never truly become accustomed.Only months earlier, at the start of our freshman year, an instance of synchronicity had us standing in the same forgotten section of the campus library for the first time. He’d been seeking out the university’s selection of occult works, discarded in a lo...

6 likes 0 comments 0
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[REDACTED]

Shortlisted for Contest #210 ⭐️

NOTE: The following documents have been recovered and organized in such a way as to give a chronological and contextualized view of the events that took place between OCTOBER 19XX – MAY 19XX. The information found within this dossier is accessible only to agents with minimum Level A5 clearance. The contents of this dossier are not to leave Floor XX Room XXX of the facility, be copied digitally or manually, and must be observed while in the presence of an agent with Level C7 clearance or higher. Failure to adhere to protocol will result in im...

21 likes 14 comments 14
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Heart-Shaped Sunglasses

Submitted to Contest #208

CW: Strong themes/mentions of eating disorders.When I was a kid, I knew I could be anything. I was as malleable and unmolded as a new jar of Play-Doh, ready to fit into any shape or size form anyone wanted to squeeze me into. For my father, something demure and dutiful, the next dolled-up thing to add to his dining room set. For my mother, something sweet-faced and empty, something to dress up in the bows and skirts she didn’t wear anymore. Never mind that I wanted to be the first mermaid-popstar-astronaut to live in a diamond castle on the ...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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Little Mouse and the Prince of Spiders

Submitted to Contest #206

The stars in the perpetual plum sky glitter green, red, blue, and gold, and when they fall, they cut like knives. There are no paths between the bare towering trees black as pitch, only the silvery mists dense as muck, which obfuscate and disorient and lead the small beasts into blackthorn bushes tall as any man or monster.Rat-faced crawlers and crow-winged fliers, any and all snatched and ensnarled and dragged deep into the bushes bearing more thorns than fruits, for the forest must feed, too.It is easy for one to become lost in these woods...

12 likes 4 comments 4
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Moonlit Rust

Submitted to Contest #199

I smelled blood. An undercurrent of damp rust and spice, a heavy tang on the back of my tongue, caught in the swell and sway of sweated and sweetened bodies on the dancefloor. Possibly fresh. Almost an afterthought once I caught sight of her.We’d brushed past each other in the crowd. I’d turned back first, thinking myself enraptured by her stature and sauntering hips, but when she inexplicably turned to me, any flickering thoughts of spilt blood were snuffed out.Even without her heels I’d have to crane up to look into her hungry, pitch-dark ...

3 likes 2 comments 2
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The Tale of the Long-Lost Crown (and the Dimwit who Gave it Away)

Shortlisted for Contest #197 ⭐️

The god stood not before a grand throne, not in a sprawling hall of jewel-dripping nobles, not surrounded by tapestries depicting the great adventures of their chosen one. No, instead of manifesting in the castle towering over the kingdom, they instead stood in a modestly appointed home beyond the outskirts of the nearest town.They fumed at the sparsely decorated hall, the nice rug before a stone hearth, the simple dining table, fury scorching the fine wooden floor they stood upon.“Oh, do come in,” their hero said, an amused glint in his eye...

25 likes 13 comments 13
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"Know What I Mean?"

Submitted to Contest #186

“What do you mean?”“What do you mean ‘what do I mean?’”“You know what I mean.”“No, I don’t.”“Yes, you do.”“Nope.”“Quit it.”“You totes know, man, quit it.”“Who are you?”“Yeah, who are you?”“I’m a third guy.”“Oh, nonono—” “A third guy? Yeah, absolutely not.”“This is gonna get way too complicated with three guys.”“Yeah, seriously convoluted. Get outta here.”“Fine. Whatever. You guys aren’t even that interesting to talk to anyway.”“Wow, rude much.”“I know, right. Who just butts into other people’s conversations like that?”“Rude people, that...

13 likes 3 comments 3
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A Millennium Hoard

Shortlisted for Contest #185 ⭐️

Four million six hundred thousand and eighty-seven, four million six hundred thousand and eighty-eight, four million six hundred thousand… Nearly seven days had passed since he began and almost every relic, coin, gem, weapon, bone, miscellaneous magical artifact, and whatever-else-have-you was categorized and accounted for. This was easily his largest hoard yet, and though Wyrith had kept only his most favourite thousand or so rubies from his preceding collection, this hoard was already more than double his last largest one.Wyrith paused his...

22 likes 11 comments 11
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Blue Hour

Submitted to Contest #176

Thomas stood outside in the cold, snowflakes landing on his shoulders and melting in his curls. Hands tucked in wool-lined pockets, boots planted on the icy sidewalk, he gazed up at the sign of the new bookstore, Blue Hour Books. He’d thought the name curious when he’d first passed it by days ago, yet curiouser still how he hadn’t truly noticed the building until now.Blue Hour Books, though it had only opened a week before, radiated the quality of a long-standing staple in his small town. The new owner had given the door a fresh coat of navy...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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The Knight and His Lady

Submitted to Contest #176

The first time he saw her, he was tucked up in the branches of an old oak. On clear, cool nights like these, after a day spent working away under the scorch of sun, he found himself drawn to the ancient forest, climbing up into the rough arms of trees to see the stars.On this night, he ventured deeper into the woods than he had on any other, as if some invisible thread was gently tugging, tugging him in. The air was sweet with late summer blooms and damp earth, the soft buzzings of nocturnal life the only sound accompanying his footfall. He ...

9 likes 4 comments 4
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Adventures in Retail

Shortlisted for Contest #173 ⭐️

I clock in at 9:53 and drop into a wobbly chair in the break room (I’m not getting paid for those extra seven minutes anyway), barely suppressing a shudder at the reality of what my life will be for the next eight hours; a sales shift on a weekend during the holiday season (no such thing as "pre" anymore). The large table in the center of the room is adorned with a seasonally appropriate plastic tablecloth, but the snowman and reindeer seem to mock me, smiling and prancing about, knowing they will be safe back here all day.I check the schedu...

28 likes 5 comments 5
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Candy Corn and Pumpkin Pie

Submitted to Contest #169

It was a stupid idea to buy the pumpkin, but when Deanna saw that perfect, picturesque gourd shining amongst its lumpy, bumpy cousins, something in her screamed to bring it home.It looked like it had been plucked straight from a children’s cartoon about celebrating the magic of Hallowe’en. A curling brown stem, pristine, blemish-free flesh the colour of autumn leaves. And its size! Hefty, but not oversized to the point of being grotesque.That last part of its charm vanished ten minutes into Deanna’s walk home from the grocery store. Knowing ...

8 likes 6 comments 6
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Adrift

Submitted to Contest #167

No one can tell anything is amiss. I make sure of that.I sit in class. I raise my hand. I participate in group discussions.I go to work. I chat with coworkers. I type away at a computer.I take a walk. I nod at passersby. I pet a dog.Most days, I remember no faces, recall no words. It’s better this way.Each of these experiences is as real/unreal as the last.Today, I am both marionette and puppeteer. I tilt and twist and guide my body along. I delicately, masterfully pull the strings so I may make my painted and wooden body dance and sing. I a...

10 likes 8 comments 8
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On, Off

Shortlisted for Contest #149 ⭐️

On, off. On, off. Onoffonoffonoff. On. I’d been standing in the cramped hall of my apartment for a full five minutes, just watching the bulb flicker.Well, I’d been seeing that light glitch out for weeks now. It’s just that today I decided to plant my feet and stare until my vision went screwy.It was always that same pattern. On and off, on and off, then it would rapid-fire blink, then it would be on again for a few moments before starting the whole damn routine over again. I think that’s what bugged me the most. The consistency.It’s not like...

41 likes 24 comments 24
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