Jared Lenover

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2022

Stories (7)

7 Stories

210 karma pts

?

“Dearest Clarice” by Jared Lenover

From a letter found in the archives of the Fairfield Traveling Circus, marked “return to sender.” Dearest Clarice, When I ran away to join the circus, I thought I’d be free of the shackles of responsibility. After all, if I’d wanted to continue arbitrating people’s petty domestic conflicts I would have remained on the bench. One assumes when one pulls up stakes to be ringmaster in...

8 comments 8
Read story

“Asimov's Madness” by Jared Lenover

Many years ago the oracle at Fadelfea made a prophecy. The artificial intelligence there analyzed a collection of badly damaged artifacts found during construction at the station. The oracle then broadcast a single short message before going silent: When the skies are streaked with fire, beware creatures which swarmed like ants upon the earth, for madness follows. Having no supporting evidence to substantiate or...

9 comments 9
Read story

“Dark Rings” by Jared Lenover

[ “Please, don’t do it.” ] The triple bacon cheeseburger hovered in front of my open mouth. My brow furrowed. It would have been nice to get this message before I bought lunch. “Explain,” I subvocalized so that only my Neural earpiece could hear. [ “Ongoing high cholesterol food intake in the past two weeks is negatively affecting health trends.” ] That’s ...

13 comments 13
Read story

“Monster of Business Administration” by Jared Lenover

I became aware of the silence, and a thick blanket of dread came over me. I lay in my bed, in the space between being asleep and awake, eyes closed against the darkness. Click. Click. It started softly, like the sound a mouse makes running across a floor. I wanted to go back to sleep and pretend I didn’t hear it. Click. Click. Click-click. ...

12 comments 12
Read story

“The Third Postman” by Jared Lenover

This story includes violence and coarse language. “He threw it out, right in front of me.” Pearce was incredulous, but he hadn’t been in the gang very long. This kind of thing happened. “You got it back?” “Yeah. From the main garbage bin in the basement this morning. 1025 dumped it down the chute with his trash.” Pearce was holding a padded envelope, the kind with ...

4 comments 4
Read story

“AirBnBats” by Jared Lenover

Review for Thornwood Estate Reviewer: Jane W. (verified guest) Posted: September 5 at 10:14 a.m. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars My husband and I just returned from our lovely weekend stay at this historic manor on the coast. We wanted somewhere special to stay over the last long weekend of the summer, and Thornwood Estate d...

2 comments 2
Read story

“A Very Brief Meeting” by Jared Lenover

“This company could save a fortune on air conditioning.” A shiver ran through me as I sat looking around the HR manager’s small office, wearing only a t-shirt and my boxer briefs. The cooling unit under the window rattled. It was on high and the adrenaline was wearing off. I was alone, sitting on a lime green plastic office chair facing a desk carefully arranged with standard office equipm...

17 comments 17 SHORTLIST ⭐️
Read story

Author bio

Aspiring writer in Canada. Feedback and suggestions welcome! Twitter: @autoblot

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #139
A Very Brief Meeting – read story