Inkstained Introvert

“the two” by Inkstained Introvert

“It’s time.”“Wait.” My eyes snap open: I’m draped over the arm of Robin’s family’s couch, staring at the wall. “Really?” I sit up with considerable effort and stare at Robin, panting just a little. He snorts. “That made you out of breath? God, you need to get in shape, Sylvia; your face is flushed.”“I was hanging upside-down!” I protest. “Asleep!”“All that rest and still: dark circles like you gave an aggressive preschooler a purple crayon and free range of your undereyes.” Robin shakes his head in mock disappointment. “Anyways, one mor...

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“haunting hour” by Inkstained Introvert

“Fuck the stars.” “What?” I look up blearily from my seat on the floor to see Aster, standing stock-still in front of the window, holding back the edge of a curtain to look out. Their suspender buckles gleam dully. “Fuck the stars,” Aster says again, quieter and more confident. “But there aren’t any.” “I know. And there shouldn’t be.” They glance down at me. “Get up, come see this.” I blink at them. “Okay,” I whisper, hoisting myself up and stepping over a dirty pair of someone’s Converse and an empty Cup O’ Noodles, my joints stiff from hav...

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“evening alley” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #103

“I told you to stay away from the back. Someone will see you.” “You will. How else are you supposed to find me?” Wade sighed. “You’re going to get caught. And that’s not going to be my fault.” “If you say so.” Addon emerged, head-first, from under a woody jumble of dirty shipping crates. “All clear?” “If it wasn’t, you’d be in danger, stat.” “All clear, then.” Addon stood up and did a complimentary quick pants-brushing. He punched the side of Wade’s arm. “Love you too.” Wade had never actually said the L word, i...

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“manic pixie dream girl” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #95

ok some quick notes - there's a part 2 to this i just haven't written it yet. it kind of does a complete turnaround and i know where it's going i'm just too lazy to write it even though i want them all to be read in one sitting ahh- this is not related to anythign but i'm bad with titles so i just went with the first thing that came to mind/is kind of a themeish in the story. but also it's the title of a song by addison grace and my favorites of theirs are actually 'overthink' and 'sugar rush' but she's an amazing artist anyways so go check ...

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“Noon and Midnight” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #90

very unfinished, trash writing as usual, doesn't really fit the prompt because it was originally written for a different one. go read 'first impressions' instead, please, it's at least slightly better and maybe (as the kids nowadays say) a little bit funny. anyways, enjoy. xxx There’s something exhilarating about the dark.  I’m not supposed to like it. I know. But I can’t help it.  Some of my friends do things like stay up until nine, or wake before sunset, or be seen on their roof wearing bright yellow at noon. (That was ...

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“one of the senses” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #90

the fair-skinned girl is crying again. she leans against you, your rough knots making rivets in her smooth forehead, her fast tears sliding down your bark and darkening a patch of dirt at your base. when at first she came running through the forest to you, of course you could sense that something was wrong, but you weren’t able to tell what. though as soon as she touched you--falling to her knees on the ground, lurching forward onto her torso, scraping the pads of her fingers against your uneven brown skin as her light hair became spattered ...

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“First Impressions” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #88

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!”  “What the—?”  Breyer shot up from the chair at his desk, intending to retreat and get a better view of the situation but instead falling backwards, hitting one of the chair legs with his knee. He scrambled up again and plastered himself against the wall. “What are you doing—who—”  “Zip it,” the person who had, it seemed, just magically appeared in his room, hissed. “I need to—oh, shit. Shit shit shit. Okay. Um—”  The person dropped a smoking, round metal object with gears and levers ...

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“End Times” by Inkstained Introvert

With great power comes great responsibility.  It was Marcus Brown’s favorite. He’d never told anyone, of course; being a pastor, your most treasured quote was supposed to be from the Bible, and he told people it was; different verses from Revelation, usually, or if people were starting to catch on he’d switch to John or 1st Peter. Marcus Brown was a gray-haired white man with a blonde-haired white wife who ran one of the biggest megachurches in the country. Before the notorious coronavirus pandemic, the huge main auditorium seated tho...

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“Seasons” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #86

Summer slammed the refrigerator door shut with her foot and rushed into the living room. “Okay, this’s the plan, boys.” “I’m right here,” Winter muttered neglectedly. Either Summer didn’t hear her, or she was just choosing to ignore the comment; but she continued, “We have two frozen waffles, an inordinate amount of condiments, three quarts of milk, for some reason, and something green and fuzzy on the bottom of the freezer that looks like ancient spinach.” “Wonder who that was from,” Winter said. “Spring! For the love! Take c...

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“Blueberry Lips” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #85

Keller stood at the bottom of a thin but wide metal ladder curving up the side of one of dozens of black trains. “Climb with me?” Farren exhaled deeply and followed his friend, who’d already begun to ascend. “Sure.” Keller, sassy wild child that she was, made it to the top before Farren was even a quarter of the way up. It wasn’t that far to climb, but the already-setting sun was rendering it difficult to see, and besides, maybe he was just a little bit afraid of heights. Maybe. At the top, the pair was met with a space a...

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“1941” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #83

It will be December 7th when you hear the news. You’ll have been at the beach with your friends all day; it will be a Sunday, and on weekends, your mother allows you to do close to whatever you want. It will be almost dinnertime, and, realizing this, you’ll scramble out of the water and pull on your clothes without drying yourself, shouting a hurried goodbye to the handful of boys floating in the water, only their heads visible, mostly shining blonde crowns of hair with one ginger and one brunette. You’ll make your way along the narrow San F...

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“The Brave Little Toaster” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #82

Cairo and I were making breakfast one morning, when my toast burnt. I turned up my lip and dropped it on the floor for our dog Dapper. She began cronching it with the kind of vigor only a corgi can have--if you own one, you’ll know. I sighed and pulled another slice of bread out from the humid plastic bag, lowering the toaster's temperature a bit before popping it in. While I waited for the bread to toast, Cairo and I sipped his monstrosity of a mug of coffee (half of it was hazelnut creamer, and the other half was honey), passing ...

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“What I Learned in English Class and How It's All Horribly Wrong” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #81

Well, I don’t know if it’s fair, exactly, to say I learned. I never paid (or even borrowed or stole) attention, because, in my mind, as an already fourteen-year-old prodigy, I’d learned everything there was to know. Right? Literature-wise, I suppose. I’d read all the books we were reading—never made any of the grammar mistakes the other kids were making—analyzed what we were fated to be analyzing in my prepubescent time by the river, stuffing the chinks between the log bridge with moss and pondering the meanings behind Austen and Orwell...

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“Calliope (part four)” by Inkstained Introvert

author’s note: this story is the fourth installment in my “calliope” series (i know, it’s a really dumb name). it’s not even that good of an idea, and writing a reedsy series and adding weird disclaimers at the beginning pretty much guarantees a 0% chance of winning or being shortlisted; though, if we’re being honest, i never really have a chance of winning anyways--i’m just doing this because i enjoy writing it, and i really like the characters. since i know that expecting viewers to read, like, multiple thousands of words in several differ...

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“Cutting Ties” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #79

“Holy guacamole.” I coughed as a cloud of dust flew up from the cardboard box I was opening. “Could Dad have been any less of a hoarder?” “Well, I’ll not say that he was exactly sensitive of peoples' allergies,” Alex began, trying hard not to let his features bend into a snicker, “but let’s not push our luck, Ky. It’s only his office that we’ve got to go through—Mom and Viv have all the rest.” “Thank God we’re the family’s worst cleaners,” I muttered, folding back the box’s flaps. Alex glanced at me and sighed, leaning back on his heels...

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