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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2022
Submitted to Contest #319
TW: mentions a child’s death. A magpie darted past the ward window, an eggshell clamped in its beak, its black-and-white wings catching the morning light like a flash of warning. Only Anna noticed. One for sorrow, one for joy. “Come and meet your sister.” Anna hadn’t expected a baby to look so strange. Just hours after being born, the bundle lay in the bassinet beside their mother, swollen and wrinkled, a scrap of humanity caught between worlds. The man who had made it all possible reached down and took the tiny hand, as though he held a mir...
Submitted to Contest #318
Other than a faint glow coming from the back, the town’s only charity shop was in darkness, its front door locked. Though it had opened in 1985, the building had been used as a pharmacy, a bank, and even a tavern. Close to the river in Marpleton, an English market town with priory ruins nearby, it carried its past heavily. Across the road, stone monks still watched over the diminished market square.Now, regulars peered through the shop window searching for signs of movement. The main lights stayed off, but a handful of helpers were huddled i...
Until a fish swallowed me, I had been waiting in the dark at the bottom of a river. After the fish was gutted, I was examined, then pierced and attached to a chain. Humans call me lucky until they learn that luck is never free. It is I who decide the wearer’s fate. Beth My sister Charmaine always had to be the best. Beside her, I faded into the background. Not exactly an ugly duckling but missing some primary feathers.When this story began, I was eighteen and she was sixteen with brilliant green eyes, golden hair, and a cheerleader figure. O...
Submitted to Contest #317
“You look worn out,” Scott said, stricken by the water dripping from his wife’s face. He would never have called it sweat – not for Ellie. “What do you expect?” she asked. “We’re in the middle of a heatwave.” The air was thick and oppressive, the fan failing to stir it. Even the curtains hung limp, too weary to move. Scott was heading to the fridge for ice cubes when she said the name aloud, as if testing where it might land. “Johnny.” Hearing it, Scott reeled. But with time running out, Ellie was reshaping boundaries. “What are you going to...
Submitted to Contest #316
The Veil Lifted Floating along the cobbled main street, I hover outside the Black Bull, where once I entertained punters with ghostly tales. My behaviour was the subject of endless discussion, but my friends knew the truth. Others were more than happy to indulge in conjecture or false reports. Biographies of my sisters only made matters worse — they rarely did me justice. More often than not, I was cast as the villain of the piece, a disreputable figure incapable of fulfilling his artistic dreams and bringing shame to his family. Yet it didn...
TW: contains themes of abuse. It’s that time of night when you have no business being awake, with thoughts for companions no one would want. Switching on the lamp, you fiddle with odds and ends in the bedside drawer. Earplugs. Vaseline. The odd paperback you’re no longer able to read. You scrabble for a pill only to find all the packets are empty. Story of your life. Can it really be thirty years since his life ended? If you can call it a life. Only thirty years — forever wouldn’t be enough. Your bony hands grip the bannister. Another fall w...
Submitted to Contest #315
TW: Some swearing and mentions of self-harm. Fingers catching on a loose thread, I smoothed down the sequin top.The voice always started when I was ready to go out. Her voice.“Aren’t you a bit old to go clubbing?”I picked up my eyeliner, hand trembling slightly.“Why do you say that?”My eyes met my own reflection, star dust sprinkling the sides of my face.“Well, look at you!”“What do you mean?”“Hardly love’s young dream!”“Maybe not, but—”“But what?”“But…”“But, but, but…”“Don’t be mean.”“Isn’t it time you faced facts? You’re too old to dress l...
Submitted to Contest #312
Maisie watched the news announcement with keen interest. Her lifelong fascination with technology – perhaps something she’d passed onto her son – still burned bright. Her grey hair – thinner than it once was – remained neatly styled. The immaculate presenter, probably in her mid-thirties, spoke in the crisp, yet neutral tones of a news presenter. If you didn’t know better, you might have mistaken her for one of the very AI models she was reporting on. Designed to integrate seamlessly into everyday life, the Soltek models promised to eliminat...
Submitted to Contest #309
Armed with a bitter tasting coffee that was strong enough to stave off a hangover, Mike barely heard the waves lashing the lighthouse walls. Once a popular artist, he had spent the past ten years in his solitary home painting stark seascapes. They were mostly black and white, with hints of grey breaking out as an afterthought. These days, applying brush strokes seemed like chasing empty dreams on canvases. Unlike his earlier crowd-pleasing scenes of bathers enjoying the sea, Mike was never satisfied upon completing the dark sea pictures. Ins...
Submitted to Contest #308
At dawn, on the longest day of the year, a throng converges on the temple grounds. All eyes are drawn to the rising sun. A throbbing ball of radiance, it rests a while, bobbing on the horizon. Gradually, it recedes behind a line of distant palms, trailing ribbons of red in its wake.^^^Canet, my faithful young servant, was intended for the priesthood but when I saw him struggle with the hieroglyphs, I took him on in the lesser role. His loyalty is a useful resource in a temple that has turned into a pit of vipers.Entering my chamber, the dark...
Submitted to Contest #307
On campus in May, the roses in the plastic tubs are blooming. It’s still too early for sunflowers, though she remembers them being around during the early weeks of that carefree first year when the best part was making new friends. Rosie had felt free then, capable of doing anything, overcoming every obstacle. If fate and sheer hard work had given her the chance to escape the demons of her past, she didn’t want to get it wrong. Except she had, and it was all because of him! Telling herself she’s only visiting his office before the first exam...
Submitted to Contest #306
RECIPE FOR BAKED ALASKA INGREDIENTS You’ll need two quarts vanilla Ice cream. There you have me. What’s a quart?Siri will know. I’m wondering if I haven’t become a bit too attached to Siri lately. Maybe it’s that “manly” voice. Firm but friendly with a trace of “If you try my patience too far, you never know what might happen.” Hey Siri. (In my breeziest voice, but really just practicing for R later).Uh huh.WHAT IS A QUART? (Clear enunciation to avoid misunderstanding).(Circling of what looks like an AI brain at the bottom of the phone scre...
Submitted to Contest #304
TW: Mentions physical gore.Any moment now Mike’s motley crew, which was how he thought of his art group, would be joining him. He turned the radiator up two notches in the attic room that currently served as both studio and workshop.With sheets spread over his most recent canvases, a faintly surreal air hung about the place. Regarded as a successful artist in his heyday even if that was some time ago, the only work on permanent display was the self-portrait painted in oils not long after leaving art school. It depicted a man with white-blond...
Submitted to Contest #302
It happened a month ago and it was an accident.It started off with my mum saying why didn’t I give being a volunteer at a charity shop a go as I might enjoy it. I’d been working part-time in a restaurant kitchen. It was ok at first but then they kept changing my shifts and everyone was running round all stressed.I don’t like stress!Anyway, the first charity shop I went into seemed ok. There was a big model of a dog outside with a slot to drop coins into to help raise money for dogs in trouble. I was surprised to see it as people don’t carry ...
Submitted to Contest #297
A bird must learn to spread its wings, or it will fall like a pebble. Unless it’s a puffin. In which case it might land in a comical heap on the ground or end up in a classic belly flop on the waves. Such antics, combined with a plumage designed for attracting a mate during the Spring months, may be why this colourful auk is sometimes called “the clown of the sea.”Just before midnight, a pair of red-ringed brown eyes peep from a burrow opening set high on an Atlantic clifftop. Belonging to a fledgling puffin named Puffle, they are mesmerised...
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