Jae Po

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2024

Stories (8)

8 Stories

150 karma pts

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“House of Mirrors” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #252

It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and Meira lay on her bed of her apartment, scrolling on Instagram. She swiped her thumb a few times down the length of the rectangular glass, resting her other fingers on the hard plastic behind it. Once something caught her attention, she rested her thumb on the glass and stayed there for a few moments. She stared at the image, now occupying most of the screen. Big, bright slabs of light from outside penetrated the slits of Meira’s blinds, inviting themselves into her room and scattering across her bed wit...

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“No Escape” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #252

She pushed him on the swing set, his little laughter filling the air with each push. In these moments, she looked down at him and smiled. These were often Yvette’s most prized moments of the day: spending time with her 4-year-old nephew at the local park. Every workday morning, she would pick him up from her baby sister’s house, take him to the park for around a half hour, and then drop him off at daycare. She really enjoyed this rare time, uninterrupted. In between her nephew’s high-pitched laughs, she found herself looking up and around. I...

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“The Noise Upstairs” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #251

Teri looked in the bathroom mirror, realizing this would likely be her last time ever doing so. She poured as much of the nearly full bottle of her mother’s Ambien in her hand and then into her mouth and washed it all down with a four-ounce glass of Pinot Grigio.She been plagued by a certain darkness for most of her 35 years. Like a smokey thunder cloud hovering over her life and in her mind most days. It was often hard to see the positive in things. Her glasses weren’t rose-colored—they were more of a dingy, cracked rust. That was what the ...

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“Bye-bye” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #250

“Yeah, I’m over him,” Sarah said curtly while walking into the kitchen from the back deck. Thomas looked up from his laptop, pulled away by those four short words. It was the middle of a Tuesday afternoon, when he would normally be at the office, but once he confirmed he didn’t have anymore meetings the rest of the day, he had decided to leave early and work the rest of the day from home. He thought he would surprise Sarah, but she had been out back, probably gardening, when he arrived. Figuring his ears had heard something likely uneventful...

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“The Other Woman” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #250

“Tell her,” she stood firmly.“I can’t,” his words crawled out in a breath.“Tell her,” she repeated, this time more forcefully.“Look, I can’t!” He whispered again. “Not now. Not yet.”“But why not?!” She shouted.“Shhh.. She’ll hear you.”“She won’t hear me,” she dismissed in regular volume and rolled her eyes.Jeremy let that go, paused for a moment, and then continued in his whisper, “Look, I can’t yet… but I’m going to, okay?” He peered toward the cracked door of the den they stood in, listening for creaks above. “I just need a little more…tim...

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“Divergent.” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #249

Bzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzz. Bzzzzzzzzz. 8:15am. The bright-green numbers stared harshly back at her, taunting her — the result of at least five snoozes, from when Marissa was supposed to originally awaken at 7. Her eyes widened in panic. She had overslept! Now less than an hour until the interview for the job of a lifetime. She ripped off the comforter and bolted out of her queen-sized bed, nearly tumbling to the ground on the way and barely noticing her Lab mix, Riley, sitting upright near the door, sporting sad, eager eyes. Suddenly, vague memor...

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“Paradise Lost” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #248

Day 1, on my ownThe others have gone. After marching for days, we’d stopped for a few minutes to rest. I closed my eyes for what felt like seconds. When I woke up, I’m not even sure if on the same day, they were gone. I looked around and saw no one in sight. We’d been marching in lockstep and following our commander without question, as we’ve always done. So, I hadn’t bothered to pay attention, nor was given any information, about where we were or where we were headed at the time. I noticed that, it had clearly rained as I had rested, which ...

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“Up and down” by Jae Po

Submitted to Contest #246

“He killed a man.” “Oh, come on, that was years ago!!”“Okay, and? It still happened,” said the first man on one end of the purple, rusted seesaw, as he forced his body down, propelling the second man into the air, his legs dangling. “And pretty serious that it did…”“But it was out of self-defense,” said the second man, pushing himself downward, as the first gave way some of his resistance and went up. This continued as they continued. Although they’ve played this many times before, it somehow is still just as exhilarating and inten...

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