Jake Fordyce

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2022

Stories (9)

9 Stories

205 karma pts

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“Literally Dying” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #267

Frank finished another dungeon. He lifted his glass to his mouth while reading the messages with a sideways glance, tilted it further, tilted the glass so that the liquid should have been all over his face, looked inside of the glass and remembered he didn’t fill it up before entering the dungeon.Time for a refill. Frank queued as DPS and stood up. DPS queues were about ten minutes, it said. That was plenty of time to get a refill, pee, and do a couple of quests while waiting on the queue to pop. He started to walk away when he heard the noi...

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“A Problem With The Database” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #257

John woke up and checked his phone. It was 8:11 a.m. If he hurried, he could still make it to work on time. He skipped his morning shower, threw on some clothes, and hopped in his car.At work, John waved to his coworkers on the way to his desk and they waved back. Some frowned at him, which was confusing. When he got to his cubicle he was surprised to see someone in his chair.“Hi. One minute,” the man said. He clacked around on the keyboard, but failed to login.John was still tired, and wasn’t sure why the man was there. He scanned him and s...

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“In A Sec” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #253

As David Horton lay asleep in his bed, wrapped comfortably in his favorite quilt in his house on the north side of Lebanon Tennessee, he dreamed a peculiar dream.In his dream he was in a place somewhere between reality and the infinite swirling dark void that spawned all dreams, and in front of him, just past his reach, was a glowing orange ball the size of a lemon. He had had the same dream many times, and each time he could feel the immense importance of the ball, but could not through any effort get himself any closer to reaching it.On th...

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“Far Too Far Down” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #215

Aubrey’s first thought upon seeing the house was how desperately lonely it was, like desert rain. There was nothing else as far as she could see between the mountains on each side of the valley, and even the mountains seemed to be trying to lean away from the house. Four people, a house, and a nervous moon peeking out from behind its dark cloud quilt. Her second thought was how small it was. She watched it approach for miles, waiting for it to grow into one of the large, foreboding manors that she had come to expect from these yearly trips. ...

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“Do The Humans Feel The Same?” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #213

My mood analyzer told me that Mr. Gibson was angry as took his seat at the head of the table. I and the other androids had been sitting silently for the first 12 minutes of meeting as we waited for him to arrive. Mr. Gibson leaned back into his chair, kicked his feet up, put his hands behind his head, and let out a sigh. When he was ready, he sat forward and pulled some papers out of his leather briefcase. “I got the numbers in for this quarter. It’s not looking good. Cinema attendance is down another twelve percent. Streaming service subscr...

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“The Monster In The Silicone” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #212

From a letter found in an envelope marked “DO NOT OPEN NEAR ANY ELECTRONIC DEVICE”: Dear Mom and Dad, I’m writing this in hopes that you will believe me, in hopes that you will not ignore this entire story as some weird prank, and mostly, in hopes that you will forgive me for what I’ve done. There’s a rule of technology—let’s call it Mark’s Rule, since I’m Mark and I haven’t found anyone else claiming this rule: Any technology will eventually be used in the worst possible way. Iron became swords. Fireworks became machine guns. Nuclear ener...

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“The Last In Town” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #204

Mattie stood at the bow of the caravan as its solar sails retracted and the momentum carried the enormous vehicle the rest of the way into town. She ran along the rail and cheered as the wheels that were as tall as her father rolled within an inch of the wooden sign that read “Welcome to Hazelmoor”. She bounced in place, then ran from side to side to look at all of the buildings as the vehicle slowed more and more.The caravan finally came to a gentle stop in front of a tavern. Hanging high over the double doors was a bronze sign, now fully g...

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“A Simple Song Request” by Jake Fordyce

Submitted to Contest #199

My son is finally asleep. I tell my wife I’m going out to play for a while. We need the money, and I need the music to take my mind off my day. I’m already dreading getting up the next day and doing the battle all over again.“Okay, be safe. Let me know when you get there,” she says.Creeping toward the front door in the dark, I step on what feels like a caltrop.“You okay?” my wife asks, hearing me cursing under my breath.“Yeah. It’s that ninja turtle toy again. I’ve told him too many times to keep it off the floor,” I say.She says something a...

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“Yesterday I drew A Picture” by Jake Fordyce

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #197

Jones came in late and took his place at his computer. Instead of turning it on, he just sat in front of it, staring up at the ceiling with a dreamy smile on his face. “Jones,” I said, taking off my headphones. “Where were you yesterday?” “The most incredible thing has happened…” “And?” “I don’t know if it was a change in my medication or a stray cosmic ray, or maybe even God himself reached down and blessed me, but I’m free. I’m finally free.” “What’s that?” I asked. I had lost interest, put the headphones back on, and missed part of what h...

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Author bio

36 year old Software Engineer who writes for fun. I will occasionally be doing the weekly prompts, but most of my writing will be on my substack https://jakefordyce.substack.com

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #197
Yesterday I drew A Picture – read story