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CJ Rodgers

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2021

Stories (13)

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105 Followers

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13 Stories

747 karma pts

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By The Whistling of a Tea Kettle

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #160

The tea kettle whistled again. Cayd hit the timer on their phone and took the kettle off the stove. They wrote down the time in their journal and added more water to the kettle. Something wasn’t adding up. “The neighbor said the kettle was whistling for thirty minutes before he went to check on her,” Officer Bell said as Cayd’s sharp eyes swept over the crime scene. Cayd crouched in front of the stove, squinting at the knobs. “Did he turn the stove off?” They asked. “Yes, but after he called 999,” Bell said. “It’s on ...

6 likes

Miss Unsinkable

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #138

(Based on a true story.)When you regularly survive the unimaginable, it lends itself to the idea that the unimaginable may become commonplace.Violet Jessop was a stewardess and a regular survivor of the unimaginable. On her first voyage ever, aboard the RMS Olympic, it collided with a warship. Nobody died and her ship made it back to port. She even went on to serve several more voyages aboard it. Then she watched the unsinkable Titanic do just that, all while cradling a baby in her arms, wondering if she was now their caretaker, or if a mira...

7 likes

I May Destroy You (but even when I had nothing, I had you)

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #131

Somewhere in Northern Africa, 252 BCEThey were soldiers on either side of the First Punic War and their battle was intense. Under the hot North African sun, Carthage locked blades with Rome. Their swords dented and dulled with each blow. Rome refused to fight fair and resorted to hitting Carthage between the legs, knocking him to the ground.And as Carthage lay dying, he looked up at Rome and grasped the other man's bare leg."You will not escape me," he gritted out. "I will hunt you down. I will kill you. No matter how many times it takes. No...

5 likes

The Bonsai and the Dock at the End of the Universe

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #130

Eleri Lloyd was not someone you'd expect to be a colonist. She was on the shorter side, with dirt brown hair, casually blue eyes, and a frame that had once been described as "kindly", in an unkind way. On Earth, she had been a housekeeper. Not even to a rich family. She had worked around her village in Wales, going from house to house to do whatever it was people needed. Cooking, cleaning, babysitting, etc. But here she sat, billions of light years from home, and a few hundred years older for it, without a single wrinkle to show for it. Cr...

11 likes

Hunger Wins Out

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #127

(Trigger warnings for gore, semi-graphic murder, and cannibalism. Unreliable narrators, out of order sequences, and possible time loops abound as well.)Emma coughed, her eyes fever bright. When Matthew touched her forehead, she groaned at the touch and he nearly yanked his hand away. She was burning up."Come on." He carefully tipped water into her mouth. "Stay strong.""Matthew." Klara was crouched in the tent door.He followed her out and zipped up the tent behind him."Mattie." She looked at him with unflinching black eyes. "We're basically o...

14 likes

Every Time

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #126

December 31st, 1879Another life, another New Years. She smiled and danced and kissed cheeks in the Continental way, trading giggles with the other unmarried women as she did. She danced and sang a duet and offered a handsome boy her final dance of the night. She quite liked this style of a New Year's. Parties were such a more preferable way to wait for it all. She was so used to just waiting around that this was a breath of fresh air. She hoped the party tradition continued.A few minutes before midnight, she went out to the garden.He was wai...

10 likes

Six and A Half Drafts

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #123

“At 7:40 yesterday morning—no no no…” He took a deep breath and tried again. “Yesterday morning, a tragedy struck and—no, I can’t do that. Panic is not what we need right now.” The mirror didn’t offer any constructive criticism as he looked into it. All it showed was his tired face and new wrinkles. He grimaced and rubbed at the crows feet at the side of his eyes. Perhaps he ought to take Ellie up on her offer of some night cream. He sighed and tried not to meet his own gaze in the mirror. Eye contact with himself was unnerving. Instead he ...

8 likes

The Nature of Being a Necromancer

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #121

There were three Laws of Nature. One: Don’t change the natural order of things.Two: Don’t expect the universe to play fair.And Three: Never, ever try to cheat Death. A necromancer’s job was to violate all three rules (and get paid for it). Ashby wiped their forehead of sweat and leaned on the shovel, taking a deep breath as their stomach churned. They hadn't eaten before this but now it was coming back to haunt them. Digging up the grave of the deceased was the worst part of being a necromancer. One might think it was wat...

9 likes

Dreaming As Wars Go By

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #120

The fire was low and the noise outside the school was getting louder.“Alice!” A frantic girl called. Alice looked up, hardly flinching as the windows and floor rattled under the shockwave of a shell landing. “They need you in the office! They’re performing an amputation!” Her French accent mangled the English words, fear thickening it. Alice swallowed hard and gestured to the soldier in front of her. “Take over here, Lucette.” She passed over the roll of bandages and dipped her hands in a bowl of cold, red water. She dried her hands on ...

17 likes

No Bad Deed Ever Goes Unseen

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #119

tw: mentions of murder, child death, rape, religious trauma, and light goreIt hadn't been too scary in the daytime. But Josie couldn't deny that it had sent shivers down her spine.Tait had thrown up, so she was at least faring better than him."What is this place?" Josie peered into a room without a door, stunned to find beds in three neat rows."A residential school." Tait had spat the words like they were poison. "A torture chamber. Hell." He listed like they were adjectives of each other.There were three rooms of beds, each room holding abo...

12 likes

Girls Like Gravity

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #114

Ophelia Waine was like gravity, like a sun with a planetary system surrounding her. Jessalyn was just one of them. The Pluto to Cherrie’s Venus and Lucy’s Earth. She thought the world of the three older girls. At fourteen, she was the youngest, and the only freshman privy to Ophelia's personal circle. The four girls attended Guerin Academy together, a tall, imposing sort of building. Settled at the very outskirts of the county of Granite Falls, Minnesota, an hour’s drive from the town of seven hundred people and three hours from the city...

8 likes

Mornings Past

CJ Rodgers

Submitted to Contest #111

London, 1861, April 29thIt was a cold gray day. Florence blinked tiredly at the tea set in front of her as she mechanically stirred in too much sugar and only a little cream. She forced down a yawn and accepted a scone from the maid, Emilia. “Is it bedtime yet?” She muttered, reaching for the butter. “Not yet, I’m afraid.” Emilia went to the fireplace to stir it up and add a log. “Your father should be along shortly.”Florence wondered if she could request coffee and have it arrive before her father did. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be...

29 likes

Diner At The End

CJ Rodgers

Winner of Contest #109 🏆

It was around ten after Life when he came in. Nightshift was the best shift, to the three that worked at the diner at The End. It let the dishwasher have a break when their feet started to hurt. It let the cook wear headphones while he worked. And it let the waitress write in her journal. The customer was no one special. An average joe with a bit of scruff and a plain, if respectable outfit. He sat at a booth near the kitchen and ordered a cup of coffee, some pancakes, and a side...

273 likes