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Harken Void

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Mar, 2020

Stories (100)
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592 Followers
22 Following

100 Stories

3735 karma pts

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Hey, Stupid!

Submitted to Contest #43

Staring down at the screen of her phone, Megan cringed at the sight of her friend’s Facebook post. It was a picture of a woman standing on a sunset beach, staring happily into the distant waves. Bold pink glittering letters were stamped on the photo, saying: ‘Hey stupid! Stop. Breathe. Smile.’Yeah right, she thought as she tapped her foot nervously. What’s taking so long?She taped on the heart icon next to the like button because that’s what Facebook friends do and scrolled down her news feed, too distracted to read, but too anxious to sit s...

22 likes 8 comments 8
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The Most Beautiful Thing

Submitted to Contest #43

“Mom?”She paused by the door. “Yes dear?”The little boy hesitated in the dark.“You want to hear it?”The gentle rustling of bed sheets indicated her son was nodding his head.“Alright,” she said and turned the lights back on. Her four year old was tucked neatly in bed, covered with a blanket full of cars and planes. Only his tiny head and the tips of his fingers protruded out from the safety of the bed covers.As his mother walked back to the bed, the boy sat up and a wide smile spread on his face. He pulled his legs closer so she could sit at ...

26 likes 15 comments 15
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Blank Page

Submitted to Contest #42

Such a complex and mind boggling concept as infinity can be represented by something as simple as a blank page. You don’t need fancy equations that don’t include a single number in them, you don’t need to gaze up at the stars and ponder the meaning of life, neither do you have to go on a psychedelic trip to experience infinity. You can do so by simply looking at a blank page, in the comfort of your home, while sipping coffee from a mug.All that’s really required is a reframe of perception. Because what else is a blank page, but infinite pote...

15 likes 20 comments 20
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That Final Dot

Submitted to Contest #42

“Yeah, this sucks.”The two of them stared at the crackling flames and observed how they licked the leftover words of the story. Redundant adverbs, some passive voice and a whole detailed description of a love scene, all burning to cinder. “I don’t want to kill you any more than you wish to kill me,” said Kozech, a human war general. His gauntlets and helmet rested by his feet and his two-handed sword remained firmly planted in the chest of an undead ogre, who lay flat on the ground nearby. Kozech didn’t even bother to pull the weapon fr...

15 likes 5 comments 5
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Butterfly Defect

Submitted to Contest #41

“It is not the way we were made, adorned by nature’s garment at birth, that determines our core worth. It is the way we come to see that garment that does so.”This is Arthur. He is a Monarch, but not that of men, although he was named by one of them. He is a Monarch butterfly and this is a story of how he came to accept, and even appreciate, his own garment.Arthur started life like so many millions of others. Innocent, fresh, beautifull. He hatched from the egg that his mother laid in pure love, and began his journey as a caterpillar. H...

17 likes 11 comments 11
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Skye and the Cloud Leviathan

Submitted to Contest #41

Skye closed her eyes and lost herself intentionally in the experience. She reveled in the feeling, that awesome, beautiful, indescribable feeling that you get when soaring high up in the sky. The wind roared in her ears as it rushed by, playing with her braided hair. The air was cool and fresh, a slight scent of rain and tree pollen carried with it.Skye often felt like she was a soul born into the wrong body. Why was she bound to the ground as a human being, when clearly all her heart was up with the sky? The sky was her passion. It was her ...

18 likes 4 comments 4
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Morgana

Submitted to Contest #41

I am the whisper in the trees. The shadow in the night. I am a tale better left untold.A tail, better left unseen.Every mother has her demon. Her worst intention, hidden behind something sweet and fluffy. Something that she sets loose when dark deeds need to be done. And Mother Nature has me. I am that demon. I am that worst of intentions, the dark deed needed done. I am the one she sets free when nightmares don’t cut it. When people fail to heed her final warning. When there is no other way.I am the harrowing that follows in the p...

19 likes 11 comments 11
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Melany Birch and John Oak

Submitted to Contest #40

Deep within the lush green forest, yet untamed by mankind and ruled over only by the sun and the rain, there was a meadow of golden grass stalks. And in that meadow, a miracle of life was unfolding.Two stray seeds, a birch seed and an acorn, brought on the dancing winds not that long ago, were beginning to sprout in the pristine soil. Encouraged by water and warmth, they cracked their shells and dug their way through the earth, until their soft, gentle leaves touched daylight. The meadow grew larger by two.With life bustling all around ...

14 likes 12 comments 12
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An Adventure Nonetheless

Submitted to Contest #40

It was a sunny afternoon in Thellarion, warming up the land from that morning rainstorm. White mists rose from the forest and climbed up the hills where they collected back into white puffy clouds atop mountain peaks. A gentle breeze blew and the sky was a deep dark blue, clean and washed. It was an ideal time for an adventure and four friends from nearby villages were already on their way up to where applecherries grew.“Quite a storm this morning,” said Desmon, a twelve year old human boy. “Hope the hail didn’t smash all the cherries.”&nbsp...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Campfire topic #1747: How did the world come to be?

Submitted to Contest #40

In a place that doesn’t exist, in a time that didn’t happen, eight friends that never met sat around a campfire, telling stories. The topic of their discussions this time was world creation, or how the world came to be.“Ah, that’s an interesting topic indeed,” said an elderly gentleman with white hair and a lush mustache. His eyes were fixed in some distant point inside the dancing flames, as he prodded the question with his mind, squatting by the fire. “Would someone else like to go first on this one? I need some more time to think it throu...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Midnight Meditation

Submitted to Contest #39

I was looking at the stars, admiring their serene beauty, wondering who made them. I knew logically and scientifically how stars are made, but still I wondered, what if it’s all more than just dumb matter? How can something so beautiful and profound as the deep dark night sky, sprinkled with diamond powder, be just an amalgamation of atoms bouncing in a sandbox?Looking up always prodded the deepest questions in me. Even when I simply looked up to forget my problems and just be with nature, as my mind calmed down, it started wandering. And al...

8 likes 5 comments 5
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Come Dusk, a new day Dawns

Submitted to Contest #39

The sun was beginning to set in the west. A ball of pure fire, red and furious, burning away its last light as mankind’s time burned away with it. Come sunset, there will be no more humanity. Only the Forsaken ones would remain to roam the world, unchecked and unbound. A devastation of everything. A cataclysm. “Hear me now, as I address you for the last time!” Weary heads of soldiers turned upward towards their general, who sat mounted atop his stallion. The horse was favoring one leg, bearing battle wounds of its own, as it trotted along th...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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Here and Now

Submitted to Contest #39

Did you ever notice how reality just… is? Like, it’s there, for its own sake, perfect and complete just the way it is. Nothing needs to load, there’s no glitches, no lag, no error 404 signs. Reality never calls in sick, it never decides to just ‘not be there’ and stay in bed the whole day, leaving us to wing it on our own. I mean, what would it look like if reality stopped existing? Anyway, these are just some of the questions I keep asking myself as I observe cars, buildings and people passing by through the bus window. I’m not listeni...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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For the Glory of Google

Submitted to Contest #39

A momentary lapse in attention was all that was needed. Henry took his eyes off the road, to change the song on his stereo, and did not notice that a goat had jumped in front of his car. There was a loud crack as the front bumper shattered on impact and the whole car jumped, as the poor animal got run over by the dark green Subaru Forester.“Shit!” Henry cursed and slammed on the brakes, too late.The car screeched to a stop, the safety belt pressing tight on Henry’s chest and neck.“Shit,” he cursed again, afraid that he hit the brakes a bit t...

7 likes 3 comments 3
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Jeff, the Organ Guy

Submitted to Contest #38

“You what?!”Jeff sighed. “You’ve heard me, honey. I bought an organ.”“Jefferson Ridgley Jones, please tell me this isn’t another one of your ‘projects’, where you spend all our family money on some ridiculous urge you get, and then we have to struggle for months!”“This is nothing of the sort,” said Jeff, though that’s almost exactly what it was.His wife, Mariane, stood in the hallway, arms crossed and eyes locked on target. Her fury could be heard almost bubbling up from inside her. Though that could just be the food that she was cooking in ...

11 likes 1 comment 1
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