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DionTre Speller

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2020

Stories (19)

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407 Followers

2238 Following

19 Stories

637 karma pts

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The Valley

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #324

The Valley They took my name first. Then my uniform. Then my voice. It’s strange what becomes valuable when you’re stripped of everything — a breath, a blink, a heartbeat. I learned that quickly in this hellhole. Each morning, the sound of boots scraping concrete tells me I’m still alive… and that’s the only mercy I’ve come to expect. The cell is small — just stone and rust and the smell of old blood. There’s a window, but it’s too high to reach. I can see the light shift through it, though. It helps me tell time, helps me remember there’s s...

4 likes

The Last Fight

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #322

The Last Fight The air reeked of blood and iron. Smoke still hung thick over the ruins of the front line, blotting out the sun in a haze of ash and burnt metal. Two soldiers lay motionless beneath the rubble — faces caked with dust, uniforms torn and stiff with dried blood. They didn’t move when the boots came. The enemy’s patrol walked slowly between the bodies, rifles ready, their laughter cutting through the low hum of dying flames. The soldiers’ stomachs twisted as they heard the metallic clicks — single shots punctuating the silence ea...

27 likes

The Gentle Giant

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #322

The Gentle GiantI never thought much about evil. I didn’t even know the word until I heard it once on the shiny box that talks in the living room. I only know smells, tones, and feelings—the air between people. I know when someone loves, and I know when someone doesn’t. My name doesn’t matter too much, but she calls me Bear. It fits. I’m big—one hundred and twenty pounds of fur, heart, and paws that could knock over a chair with one excited jump. But I don’t. I’m careful. I’ve learned her rhythms—when she’s tired, when she laughs, when she’s...

15 likes

The Nocturnal Visitor

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #321

I always pray before sleep. It’s a habit my parents taught me, one of the few things I’ve carried unchanged since childhood. The words are supposed to form a shield, a comfort against the dark. “LORD, let us have a good night’s sleep and wake us with the morning light. In Jesus’s name I pray, Amen.” The moment the words leave my lips, I sink into the mattress, letting the hum of the aquarium fill the silence. My tower fan churns on full blast, the steady white noise masking the creaks of the house. The only light in the room is the faint blu...

7 likes

Red Smoke in the Woods

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #320

Red Smoke in the Woods The world had ended two weeks ago, but inside the walls of the abandoned weight loss clinic, it felt like the end had begun a moment ago. The air reeked of stale protein shakes and disinfectant. Five survivors huddled in the mess hall, staring at the dwindling rations. Empty wrappers crumpled at their feet. “Two days,” Marcus muttered, breaking the heavy silence. His eyes darted toward the peeling ceiling. “We’ve got two days of food left, maybe less if we’re lucky.” The others—four women, all puffed and round from yea...

22 likes

The Woods Took Her

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #320

The Woods Took Her The file was thick, the edges curled from the countless hands that had opened it, thumbed through it, and closed it with a sigh of defeat. Detective Clara Hensley sat in the precinct’s dim light, staring at the name on the cover. Case #4219 — Missing Person: Danielle Harper, Age 27. It had been three days since Danielle vanished. Three days since she ran barefoot into the night, bleeding, desperate, terrified. Three days since the woods swallowed her whole. The first accounts came from the neighbors. Their doorbell cameras...

11 likes

Don’t Mind Me

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #318

Don’t Mind Me The house fire had been the town’s salvation. Flames devoured the crumbling clapboard structure at the edge of Delhaven, painting the night sky in orange and black. The blast was so fierce it rattled windows three streets over. When firefighters finally smothered the last ember, they discovered little more than a husk of twisted beams and collapsed stone. In those ashes, the police claimed, were the remains of the monster who had haunted them for years: the Crimson Artist. For half a decade, his work had been displayed across a...

18 likes

Don’t You Remember Me?

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #317

Don’t You Remember Me? The scent of grease clung to Eli’s clothes, seeping into his skin no matter how many showers he took. The restaurant where he worked was never truly clean—tables sticky with syrup, carpets faintly damp from old spills, fluorescent lights buzzing overhead. He wiped down a booth for the third time, not because it needed it, but because movement was the only thing that distracted him from the gnawing emptiness in his chest. A vibration in his apron pocket pulled him out of his trance. He pulled out his phone, expecting a ...

16 likes

Remember Me?

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #298

The iron gates groaned open, and with them, twenty years of memories flooded back like a dam had cracked. Anthony Reyes stepped out into sunlight for the first time as a free man. The wind hit his face differently now—older, wiser, weathered. He held a Bible in one hand, a small duffel in the other, and in his heart, the weight of a past that never let go. Twenty years ago, Anthony had taken a life in a moment of blind rage. A man he’d once called “brother.” A family friend. A backyard-barbecue, godparent-to-my-kid kind of friend. It happene...

30 likes

The Weight of One Choice

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #288

The neon glow of the bar sign flickered, casting a dull red hue onto the rain-slicked pavement. The rain pounded relentlessly, forming puddles that rippled with each drop. A man slouched over the bar, swirling the last of his whiskey in a glass. His name was James, and his world had unraveled in the past six months. The divorce papers still sat on his kitchen table, unopened for days. His ex-wife had taken everything that mattered: the house, the dog, even their friends had chosen sides. He was alone. "One more," he slurred, tapping the glas...

36 likes

Before the Last Light Fades

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #287

The sky hung heavy with smoke, the distant cries of the oppressed swallowed by the towering buildings of a city once free. A mother and daughter weaved through the shadows, their breath shallow, their hands concealed beneath tattered gloves. Vale gripped Iris’s tiny hand as they maneuvered through the ruins of their former home, each step a calculated whisper in the night. The Iron Thorn’s brand was the mark of submission or death. And they would take neither. The air carried the scent of decay, a putrid reminder of the regime’s cruelty. Peo...

23 likes

The Final Upload: A Tale of Courage and Sacrifice

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #285

The air was thick with tension inside the hidden safehouse. Abby, Marsha, Jacob, and Daniel sat around a dimly lit table; their faces illuminated by the glow of a laptop screen. The sound of distant gunfire and sirens had become a grim background symphony in their lives. “I remember when all of this was different,” Abby said softly, her voice breaking the heavy silence. She glanced at Marsha, who nodded in agreement. “Yeah,” Marsha added. “I remember when we were filming makeup tutorials and fashion hauls without a care in the world. It feel...

26 likes

The Shadow

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #219

The Shadow The night was silent, draped in an inky darkness that swallowed the world outside the small security room. I sat alone, surrounded by an array of flickering screens that illuminated my face in a ghastly blue glow. The hum of the surveillance equipment was the only sound in the room, its monotony broken only by the occasional creak of the building settling or the distant wail of a siren. I was the lone sentinel, tasked with safeguarding the premises during the bewitching hours of the night shift. Hours had passed since I settle...

30 likes

A Prayer

DionTre Speller

Submitted to Contest #186

"Life just feels so much different without you, Somedays I just feel empty and hollow on the inside. It’s been rough getting adjusted to everything, Even though a piece of me feels like it died, But a small piece of me is Still Alive on the Inside. Somedays are good, While others I remember so vividly, It gets hard to not think of that one moment, But it is forever etched into my mind, That moment haunts me, Even looking at your pictures reminds me of that day, That day my hope and faith were crushed, So much so that I must redefine those wo...

19 likes

Nighttime Cruising

DionTre Speller

Just did overtime at my call center job. I got off extremely late than what I am used to. I usually get off around 8 but since it’s a holiday weekend I got off at 11:30pm. My eyes are very heavy and I still have to drive home. So many calls and dealing with the public takes a lot out of you. I clocked out of work and went to the parking garage. I spot my car which is a gray 2006 Hyundai Sonata and unlock my car doors.BEEP-BEEPI hopped in my car and start it up. As I began buckling up, I remembered to turn my dash camera on. I had a couple of...

25 likes