DREW LANE

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2020

Stories (61)

61 Stories

680 karma pts

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“A paper boat named Ima” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #103

The smell of gas woke him up. It wasn't the typical smell that they warn against, the one that should alarm you. That one was fruity. It had a sweet touch that caressed his nostrils and pulled him out of sleep gently like a mum would wake her children up in the morning.But that was no morning.Through the linen curtains, the darkness of the night outside had swallowed the entire city and, from the sofa where he had fallen asleep, his computer screen still shone bright - as it loaded the last bits of a file onto the server.Eliott felt his way ...

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“It's a Long Way” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #100

Water dropped from the green-painted pits of the porch on the other side of the door. Right there, by the counter that faced the gleam of the lake. It dropped and dropped just like the clock ticked and ticked in my back. It all ticked and dropped, it all dropped and ticked.And still, she wasn't there.I wasn't expecting her to show up on time. I wasn't even expecting her to show up. At all. The opaque clouds I had expected, the fog wrapping around the inn I had foreseen, even the rain at the foot of the mountain, I had imagined. But her showi...

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“The River Castle” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #98

Charlie grabbed two large stones from under the maple tree. He rolled them like dices between his fingers and threw them again at Alicia's window."Charlie?"Her mother's face popped out of the first floor window."Sorry Mrs W., I didn't want to wake you up.""Who's that?" her husband grunted from inside the room."Charlie, Mrs R.'s son.""Who?""The teacher's son. Licia's tutor, I told you at least five times he gives her classes on Mondays and Thursdays. ""Licia takes extra classes?"Mrs W. rolled her eyes and pushed her night mask further up her ...

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“Oscillations” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #97

Fern stopped tinkering with the round button of her oscilloscope. She removed her heavy headset and glanced at the window in her back, where the shadows of dark oaks were dancing under the crescent moon.Nothing.She frowned, replaced her headset and dove back into the fluorescent waves of her screen. Another knock on the window. Fern took off her headset and stepped away from her computer.She slid up the windowpane and ducked her head outside. Her messy hair shivered in the wind as she looked at the gutter and blackened tiles under ...

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“Georgetown's Windmill” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #95

Claudia hit the back of her neck against the head restraint, once, twice and thrice. She closed her eyes and threw her phone onto the passenger seat next to hers with a sigh. How could she forget to check the battery?How?She fetched her bag and rummaged through the wrinkled receipts and sticky gums to find the round screen that remained of her worn-out leather watch. It read eleven thirty. She only had one hour left to reach the viewing site and she barely remembered the name of the street were the windmill was located. Somewhere in Geo...

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“Merry Lo” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #89

C/W: mention of suicide   Note to the reader: I have written two versions for this story and I'm not sure which one works best. If you can, please read this version and the one in comments (at the end of the story). Please let me know which one you prefer and why - thank you! As always, you'll find the soundtrack in comments.   ********   "Merry Lo."   "I'm sorry. I don't know her," Will said.   "My sister jumped out of the window because of you! And you say you don't know her?"   Will locked the door of the po...

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“Sodade sem fim” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #86

Dear Philip, Such a delight to, at last, feel the pen roll onto the paper. I would like to thank both Maggie and you for sending me pictures of the paths you hiked and the mounts you reached, despite my lack of answer in years. Knowing that someone cares somewhere means the world to me. Those three years without Laurie felt like an infinite drift. Across waves and storms. Clinging onto rafts thicker than my sorrow, at times. Illusory and shallow, at others. But I somehow managed to build a raft for myself and it seems I may now be ...

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“They Say it Snows Outside” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #84

“They say it snows outside.They say outside is another world, a world I’ll never get to see, let alone understand. A world I should fear. And they must be right, for how else could it be?But you say there's plenty to see and absorb.It must be deep, limitless. Bold. And I can't grasp it. But I trust you, when you say it exists. They once tried to illustrate that danger. With diagrams and arrows. They made it clear, on a blackboard where the chalk cringed with each point, that I should never get out. But I barely remember. Certainly, because n...

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“Vanilla, knuckles and wood” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #82

The ocean looked different. The waves rolled the same. The sky was as dense. The foam still like scum. And yet, the air tasted fade - as if its salt had evaporated.Colin threw a stick of wood at Henry to get rid of him and dive his sharp eyes deeper into the tide. While Henry barked away, Colin felt the wind against his fleece jacket. It was one of those March mornings that soaked into your bones. One of those March mornings that tasted like rust. Rust from the ocean.Rust that he wished could bend his mind.*His thick hands brushed the pan in...

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“Prince Ali, Amorous He” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #81

“Alistair Green... Your team arrived three hours ago," the hotel receptionist said as he looked up his screen. “Your colleague, Harry, said -” “That's fine, I spoke to him.” Ali hinted at his key - that trip had exhausted him, and he was in no mood for details.As he pressed the lift button, Ali realised he had forgotten his luggage at the reception desk. He went back and grabbed it from the floor, avoiding the mocking eyes of the receptionist. What he needed was a month of sleep, not a ski trip.Ali rolled from side to side in his bed. S...

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“Death and the Maiden” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #79

This story is a sequel to "Behind Closed Doors" that you can find on my page.Tonio's saliva dabbled onto the scattered music notes as his nose rubbed the paper. He tried to run his fingers across the music scales to feel the music score but his arm was too numb under the weight of his head. For sure, he hadn't finished his composition and had already forgotten its air."Argh... " Tonio moaned as he tried to lift up his chest. His arm hit something that rolled across the table and shattered down on the dusty tiles. A smell than he knew all too...

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“The Roaring Bus (Al Bostah) ” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #78

Disclaimer: This story is purely fictional. Toy theatre does exist as a discipline (and it seems to be a very nice world) but I had to create this atmosphere for the story to progress. This is not based on any scientific research or experience with the discipline - and isn't meant to be a satire of it. Probably more of a metaphor for various life situations...***Ornella shook her bag upside down, kneeling on the floor, while visitors' trampled in the queue to her side. How on earth could she lose her badge?“May I help you?” a convention host...

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“Milkshakes and Cheap Shoes” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #76

Gabi's foot rubbed the coffee spot by his seat in the tube as details of his evening with Eva replayed in his head. The dry octopus, the circular conversation, her vanilla perfume - Gabi rubbed his face as he felt his stomach twisting. He should have never accepted to meet her again. Paula, his therapist, would sneer at him, the next day and he would mumble and twist his fingers. Not only had he met Eva again - when he was supposed to tell her they were incompatible - but he had also not fulfilled his part of the deal with Paula. For the ten...

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“Behind closed doors ” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #75

Janice fixed her scarf with hairpins, behind her ears and across her temples, to make a hairband. She adjusted the bun at the top of her neck and hid the remaining of her camomile strands under the silk patterns - without metamorphosis, she struggled to slip into her evening role.She rolled down the iron curtain of her dry-cleaning shop and switched the sign on the door to “Closed”. Her hand glued to the top of her headscarf, and her long pleated dress floating in the wind, she rushed down to the bar at the corner of the littered street. Che...

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“Meet me on the other side” by DREW LANE

Submitted to Contest #74

The river was frozen. A blank carpet that stretched from a bank to the other, waiting to be cracked apart by skating blades. Liv’s hair undulated in the wind, around her neck and shoulders, and she stared at the immaculate carpet calling her ahead. She walked down the bank and approached it. The ice absorbed the light of the sun and the closer she bent, the more blur the river. She stretched her hand but the wind intensified and shoved her away. Something roared in the air, up above, but as she looked up, the sky was blank. As blank as the c...

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Author bio

I'm thinking of creating a critique circle (3-4 people). If you like my writing and would like to be part of it, DM me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drew.lane.writing/