Iona Cottle

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019

Stories (97)

97 Stories

3033 karma pts

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“Everything and Nothing” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #78

It started with football. It was something that all the kids did, and Mia was no exception. She’d gone to the club every Saturday for two months, until one Saturday morning she refused to put her boots on and sulked under her bed until her father gave up. When her brother came back from practise Mia said nothing about it, carrying on as though she’d never pestered her parents to let her go in the first place. Dropping in and out of extra-curricular activities was part and parcel of growing up in the schools Mia went to, and each year, term...

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“The Melt At The End” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #77

The snow had fallen all night, and now the light from the early morning sun glistened off the vast white panorama that had been the back garden. As she waited for the kettle to boil Hannah stood at the back door and stared in wonder. The lawn had never been so flat or perfect, and it looked as though it were made from a single sheet of pure white felt. The path wound down the middle, visible only as a slightly sunken trail of perfection. Great clumps of snow clung to the branches of the tree and the bushes, weighing them down, smothering t...

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“Hiding Behind Our Screens” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #76

The metallic ringtone went off and, after letting it buzz for a moment, playing it cool, Maria click the green button. “Hello!” she said as the picture came into focus. Pixel by pixel Suzanne’s face resolved itself. Another precious few seconds of isolation, no sudden meeting of their eyes across the room. As she waited for a response Maria clenched her hands and twisted the ends of her jumper. “Hi!” Suzanne said at last. The fuzzy image didn’t pick up the way the tips of her smile dropped at the bad picture or at the short pause before ...

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“Death Meets A Life(Coach)” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #75

“It is time for you to go.” The shrouded figure leant heavily on their scythe and peered out from the depths of their hood. An outsider might’ve suggested that the hump in its back was old age, and the pressure of the millennia of work that it had endured. In truth, it was boredom. “But I wasn’t ready!” the obese woman cried. “I was going to the Bahamas next month!” The figure looked at what was left of the woman in the corporeal world. The bag from her takeaway chips was still perched on the arm of the sofa next to her, with half a do...

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“250 Days” by Iona Cottle

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #74

Esme sat and watched the sun pass across her room, just as she did every day, waiting for the right time. That wasn’t to say that she watched it all day, every day, although she did spend a lot of her time – probably more than most – just watching the box of light trek across her painted wall. It wasn’t as though there was all that much else to do. During the morning, when the light was best, she did draw and read, but after her lunch arrived through the little flap in the middle of her door, she’d settle into her large armchair and watc...

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“Lonely Cages” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #73

When the phone started ringing, Jacob jumped, and there was a moment’s flailing about as he dug out the television remote before he answered. “Hello?” “Hey bro, are you in at the moment?” Jacob blinked at the muted TV screen. Where else was he supposed to be going? There was a lockdown on, in all but name at least. “Yeah. I’m in. Though I can’t have visitors.” On the off-chance his sister Maria had forgotten, though how anyone could have done when it had been going on all year was a wonder. “No contact delivery, it’ll be fine. Simon...

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“Rebel Without The Numbers” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #72

“Good morning team!” The buzz in the room quietened down as the bulky man in the once-smart suit at the front of the room dropped his stack of files on the desk. “Day 1765. I’m sure I don’t need to reiterate how important it is that we don’t mess things up now–” “But you’ve done it anyway,” Bhatt muttered to Hansen, as he did every day. As usual she smiled; it was as much a part of her morning routine as the boss saying how important the day was. “We’ve all come too far for this to fail now,” their boss was still saying. “So keep your he...

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“With Friends Like These” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #71

Katrin stood in her front room, biting her lip, frowning at her coffee table. In one hand she held a tablecloth, in the other the stack of doilies. When she’d been planning the day her mind had settled on doilies, and from the instant she’d seen them in the shop she’d been picturing. But now the time had come to put them out, she was having second thoughts. It wasn’t just that half her guests would mock her for them – after all the years she’d known them she was used to their gentle teasing. The problem bugging her was whether the skinny whi...

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“The Proof of Grief” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #70

The verdict rang out through the silent courtroom. “Not guilty.” And after that Shannon heard nothing. A gun could’ve gone off next to her and she wouldn’t have noticed. Her mind was reeling. Not guilty?! But… how? In a fugue daze she sought out the young police detective who had liaised with her on the case. There he sat down below, shaking his head, but not looking surprised. Shannon grabbed the rail in front of her and started pulling herself to her feet, before her boyfriend Martin caught her. “Don’t,” he whispered, his voice sof...

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“Not My Lie” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #69

Jason took a deep breath as he leant on the window. The meeting room was just down the hall, but it might as well have been a million miles away. No matter how much he tried he couldn’t get his legs to work, couldn’t push himself away and turn and walk. Come on, he thought, walking is easy. Even children can do it. Yeah, thought the knot of fear in his stomach, but children don’t have to walk into that meeting. The plan – the great plan that he’d been concocting for weeks – had been to arrive early, so he could be the first one in the ro...

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“New Beginnings Start With A Gun” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #68

The gunshot echoed around the foyer. Anya had never heard a gun go off before, not in real life, and yet she knew what it was straight away. The coins she was dividing up into the till scattered to the floor, the noise of them lost beneath all the screaming. There was another gunshot. “Everyone, shut up!” The single voice reverberated as loud as the gun, cracking a little at the end with the strain of being heard over all the chaos. Bit by bit the hubbub died down, until the only sounds were whimpering and the occasional soft sob. “Tha...

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“The Empty Notepad” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #67

The interview room was cold and dark. No; not actually dark, not with all the bright lights overhead, it just felt… like the wrong sort of light. No windows, Alice thought, no natural light. She’d never realised how much of a difference that could make until now, but then she couldn’t remember the last time she’d spent so long sat in a windowless room. The door buzzed as someone outside scanned their security pass, and Detective Inspector Hall came in, clutching two take-away coffees. “Here we are,” he said. “One coffee, with milk and tw...

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“Always Improving” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #66

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.” “I’m not assuming that I’ll win, but that’s a very different thing from ‘planning my defeat’. Geez, Aya, why do you have to be so melodramatic about everything?” Tyler tried to laugh it off, but Aya wasn’t buying it. “Because you do this all the time. You’re a really good artist, why can’t you see that?” “Can we not get into this discussion again? Fine, I’ll enter the stupid competition. Maybe I’ll win, but the odds are against me. I’m not going to go pinning my dreams on somet...

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“On The Gray” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #65

Though there were tall iron fences, the gateway was empty, hinges rusted up with nothing on them. In the dark of the October evening, it struck Zara as wrong, and the things she’d agreed to on the bus took a darker and damper turn. “Are you sure they won’t lock up?” she asked. “How? There’s nothing to lock. And besides, we could just climb over the fence if they did, or stay till morning.” Rose slipped up behind her and put her arms round Zara’s waist. “Come on, you said you would. Don’t you think that’s romantic? Watching the sunrise to...

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“Old Lessons” by Iona Cottle

Submitted to Contest #64

The rain lashed at the windows and the wind howled through the trees. The curtains had been drawn hours ago, and yet a draft from somewhere kept blowing one of them open slightly, though nothing was visible in the grim night outside. “Worst. Summer holiday. Ever,” Katrina sighed. “Well be fair, we did come to Scotland. What did you expect?” her father said. She tried to glare at him, given it had been his idea after all, but he hadn’t even looked up from his newspaper. Since arriving two days ago he’d become as archaic as the house. Seri...

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Author bio

My debut novel, 'Death Was Its Name', is out now! https://tinyurl.com/y46ymq94 I've been putting pen to paper longer than I've been able to write, and my first story – written age five – was about dinosaurs that lived hidden under a city. It’s an idea I'm going to come back to one day, because dinosaurs are cool. I'm keen to improve my skills as a writer, and would grately appreciate feedback on any of my stories. Leave a constructive comment on one of mine and I'll leave a comment on one of yours! Writers in this together :) www.ionawrites.co.uk https://www.amazon.com/author/ionacottle

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #57

Et Tu? – read story

Shortlisted 3 stories ⭐️

Contest #86

The Eyes In The Forest – read story

Contest #74

250 Days – read story

Contest #27

A Faithful Bet – read story