Janelle Hammonds

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2019

Stories (14)

14 Stories

266 karma pts

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“Acceptance ” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #60

Bryan mutters to himself as he makes his way up the stairs to his three floor apartment. He sticks his key into the lock, the school issued lanyard dangling from the end. “Hey,” Bryan greets, kicking off his sneakers, knocking them into the corner by the door. He drops his arguably unnecessarily heavy backpack to the floor, his books rustling around within the canvas, courtesy of his relentless reading assignments. He drops onto the couch, the motion slightly shaking his roommate, Iven, in the process. “What movie is this?” he asks, knocking...

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“Lost To Never Be Returned” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #56

Heather sulks into the room, surprised a rain cloud isn’t over her head or that the room doesn’t immediately drop ten degrees. With her arms crossed over her chest, she surveys the room, internally groaning at the arrangement of the chairs. She’d been hoping for rows, that way she could hide in the back row, only speaking if she had to, but no luck. The sad plastic chairs are pushed together to form a close knit circle, only enough room between each chair to allow someone to walk between them. She feels someone move closer until she can feel...

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“One Night ” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #56

Piercing ocean blue eyes that I wouldn’t mind drowning in if I had a say in how I go out, with impossibly long and dark eyelashes surrounding them, even if they are fake, and I hate that all it makes me wonder is what else about her is fake. She isn’t made up like a doll, but there’s definitely significant effort put into her look. Multi-colored acrylic nails, loose but flattering jeans, plain blouse tucked into the front of her jeans. No heels, which I’m surprised about. If I had come across a head shot on her desk or online, I definitely w...

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“In Every Friend...” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #56

Josephine enters the seedy bar, begrudgingly wiping her hands on the dark fabric of her jeans, hoping whatever sticky substance had been on the door handle, and then on her hand and now on her favorite jeans, isn’t disease riddled. She carefully pushes her sunglasses up off the bridge of her nose to rest on the top of her head. She waves a silent greeting to the bartender, Ran or Dan, she thinks, but even then she’s not entirely sure. She rarely bothers to learn the names of her brother’s employees, they rotate out at such a rapid rate, by t...

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“It Takes A Village” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #56

“Okay, you can do this, breathe,” Katherine mutters, repeating her new mantra to herself. Albeit it’s rather simple, but she finds saying the words out loud helps them ring true more than just leaving them to swirl around in her head. She forces herself to exhale heavily, a scent lingers in the air, and suddenly she’s questioning when the last time she’d brushed her teeth was, and all she knew was that the answer was definitely not today. Same goes for brushing her hair, eating more than a protein shake, changing clothes. She looks down at h...

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“And Sometimes, Against All Odds, Against All Logic, We Still Have Hope” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #56

“Oh my god, LyLy, come here, you have to meet this guy I was telling you about, he’s totally gorg and has an accent to die for,” her, very clearly tipsy, friend says, her voice rising and dropping with her excitement.  A few people around turn in question, the louder parts of her sentences breaking over the barrier of the music. If Lyanna had one wish at the moment, she would wish to disappear. She technically could try to make a quick escape, it wouldn’t be the first time she left a party early and hastily, but Melody’s grip on her arm...

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“Death Doesn't Discriminate ” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #55

“How much longer?” Kaylie groans, her finger absentmindedly swiping up on her phone, nothing loading despite the little icon at the top of the phone swearing it’s connected to the wifi. She tosses her phone aside, tired of watching the little circle spin around itself over and over again.  Bennett moves a box from the far corner of the room to the landing just above the stairs. Kaylie huffs, no one paying her any attention. She hadn’t wanted to come in the first place, she was supposed to be at the pool with the girls, putting the finis...

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“Deal of a Lifetime” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #55

Melody steps into the apartment, relishing the silence, well as much silence as she can get, the late night New York City traffic audible from ten stories below. She shakes her feet until her heels clatter to the ground, then pushes them under the small table she kept by the door, just enough space left to toss her keys on, the rest filled with random clutter. A sharp pain shoots through her body, stopping just behind her eyes. “No, no, no, not right now,” she mutters, stumbling forward and gripping the plush faux velvet of the blanket ...

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“Always On The Job” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #54

Liza steadies her breath, forcing her legs to keep moving forward, despite every warning system within her body screaming at her to turn around. She intimately knows the feeling, the screaming kicking up every fire they respond to, but at least then she knows what they’re warning her against, but as she stands in the middle of the park, she can’t for the life of her figure out what could possibly be setting off the bells. She continues to her destination, the ring of trees just in the distance, the memorial that the city had dedicated to tho...

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“First Day Jitters” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #54

Students shuffled into the class, some with confidence, taking a seat without any seemingly difficult decision making. Elizabeth is far from it. She hovers near the doorway, stepping aside to allow others into the room. Her eyes scan the room, starting at the back row, crossing it off her list of potential seats as it quickly fills up. She’s left to choose between the middle two, she doesn’t dare to choose the front, she’s already going to stand out enough as the oldest student, she doesn’t desire to be seen as a kiss up. A light tap on her ...

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“Lost” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #53

Emilia blinks slowly, as if it would help slow down her brain from the rocket speed it was currently operating at. She leans forward, carefully watching. To her it seems the two are in a race, of which could make it’s way down her arm faster, the grape juice from the popsicle, or the blood leaking from the cut on her palm. The two liquids settle in the crook of her arm, mixing to make a deep pink, darker than the blood, but lighter than the artificially sweetened fruit juice. She tilts her head, narrowing her eyes at the puddle, partly wanti...

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“Out Of The Jaws Of Death” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #52

Come on, Angela, pull it together. She shakes her head, as if to knock her brain around to get some sense into it. She rolls her eyes at how deeply ingrained Tyler is in her memory, to the point she refers to herself as Angela in her own head. She wasn’t Angela until she met Tyler. She was Angeline, or Angie, or sometimes even Ang to her friends and family, and Angel to her grandmother, but Angela came from Tyler’s first attempt to flirt while simultaneously gain the upper hand, she just hadn’t realized it at the time, thought the nickname w...

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“Once Bitten, No Longer Shy” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #51

A scream rings out, bodies quickly moving to make room for the petite blonde pushing her way through the crowded room, whispering questions echoing off the walls of the church, surprised the stained glass didn’t shatter. “You’re here, you’re really here,” Kat exclaims, her voice cutting through the chatter, pulling Taylor into a hug, squeezing her until Taylor pats Kat’s back, silently asking for a reprieve, part of her wishing she didn’t value her ability to breath just so that they could stay like that for a moment longer. She doesn’t blam...

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“Above, Within, & Below” by Janelle Hammonds

Submitted to Contest #51

The open air club is bustling with sweaty bodies, moving to the blaring music, the words lost underneath the heavy beat, the cool night air circulating being the only reprieve from the heat radiating from each body making up the crowd.  Verea doesn’t pretend to understand how people manage to lose themselves in this kind of atmosphere, or any for that matter, but she does pretend that she is one of them, capable of forgetting the stress of the brutal day underneath the glowing night stars. She lets her gaze drift upwards, past the bodie...

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Author bio

Life long reader, with slightly less time spent writing, but not by much. @lovelyjanelle13 on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Goodreads