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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2022
Submitted to Contest #218
Hello darkness, round the bend The words are clothed in the familiar. They are imposters, I know they are wrong. But that is not all that is wrong. The music comes through in ragged asynchronous waves. My eyesight pulses dark clouds of incomprehension with every beat of my troubled heart. The tune is warped and yet I know it all too well. I heard this music when I was a child. Happier times. It was beautiful then, and it is beautiful now, but something is changed and that beauty is a terrible lament that claws in anguish at my beleaguered ...
The rear of the kitchen was an after-thought, but then this was a universal truth. Eateries were like overturned cars, the shiny side welcomed the diners in and they enjoyed their time in the plush cabin. The dirty underbelly was not for them. This place was where all the leftovers and rubbish spilled out after a busy service. Kayleigh lit her cigarette, the sulphurous match staving off some of the stench of the ripe garbage. She was late to her break, prep taking precedence over her rest. Absently, she opened her phone and flicked and scr...
Submitted to Contest #217
“You’re not ready.” The words were barked. The words were a denial. Those words hit hard and they hurt deep. “I would never be ready. Not by your reckoning anyway,” said the young lad. Turner walked away. There was nothing more to say, not as far as he was concerned. And so it went. The lad returned every evening. He was not short on determination. Turner thought him stubborn. That could be a good thing, but it was likely bad. Stubborn people found it difficult to listen. And if they did listen, then they seemed incapable of ke...
Ser Grahame was as big as they came. He was bold. He was valiant. He was noble. He was chivalrous. He was all the things that a knight should be. Most importantly, he was focused, courageous, disciplined, wise, and just. Thinking of a proper and good knight would be to think of Ser Grahame. Ser Grahame was the first born son of Ser Johne, the mightiest and most revered of the knights of his age. Sir Johne was the first born son of Ser Normane, the best of knights and winner of the Tourney in the Jungle, back in an age when the forests were...
Best seat in the house. That’s where this house was at. Head and shoulders above the rest, with views to die for. There was no better place to build a dream house. That was the theory anyway. Life is a big fan of the curve ball and the kind of guy who has the money to buy a plot like that, the best plot going, well he should not be trusted when it comes to the shaping of his own dream. He has the money and he has the broad shape of a vision, but beyond that he should stand well back and allow others to deliver him somet...
They say that there is someone for everybody, and this may be right, but sometimes the planets don’t quite align and those eyes do not meet and so two people who were meant for each other spiral away on the paths of their existence, never to meet and never to explore the special life that they could have had together. Sometimes Destiny slips up and what was meant does not come to pass. There is no denying that and there is certainly no going back to put it right. You can never go backward, only ever forward. That is the nature of o...
Submitted to Contest #216
The Summer had been, done its thing, then headed off to warmer climes. Now, as the leaves hung on for dear life and shivered on the bough, a new season made itself known. Sophie was down with that. Autumn meant a return to school, and school meant a return to a life that suited her very well indeed. The Summer had been OK, but she’d felt a lack of cohesion and a growing anxiety as all her hard work began to unravel. She’d worked hard to build her little team. She’d worked very hard indeed. Being netball captain helped. She’d discov...
It was time. That time near the start. I didn’t have what I’d usually have. The stuff that I find that I need first thing. So I went out. I was dry once I was out, so the weather wasn’t a problem. I have a problem with the weather when it prevents me from being dry. I doubt anyone likes that. Not really they don’t. But I hate those storm clowns, I really do. After a bout of doubt that threatened to put the kibosh on the proceedings, I arrived at my intended destination. This was the place alright. The place itself wasn’t a pick-me-up, but ...
Submitted to Contest #215
[This and the previous four stories are all linked…] An audience with the devil himself. My father uttered these unexpected words and they failed to land in the immediacy of my conscious mind. Despite that, I knew. Deep down I knew and perhaps I had always known. I was different and I had taken a path less trodden. I put this path down to my own priggish and stubborn nature. That way I could claim agency when it came to my life journey. I was never going to be comfortable with the notion of my being a pawn of destiny. That smacks...
I call it the Dark Urge. It seems like I’ve always called it the Dark Urge, but that cannot be the case. There was a time before those words, there was also a time before the Dark Urge came a-calling. Now time, a dimension I became so accustomed to, that I mistakenly and vainly believed was of no consequence, has caught up with me. Time will always catch up with a person, even if they have been cursed with something that approximates immortality. Immortality is a broken joke. In truth, we don’t even possess immortality. Once ag...
He is the stuff of legends. But then they all are. By rights, they should not exist. That could be said about every species on this planet. Life is a precarious nonsense that fascinates me and appals me in equal measure. I’m a fan though. How could I not be? My master waxed lyrical about William, and my master was not one for praise. I should know. I was a constant disappointment to him and he was quick to tell me so. I was his Grand Mistake. After me, he avoided making another for fear that he might double down on the fo...
Sometimes, it is said that there is no manual. The reference being to life. But this is disingenuous. In fact, this sort of thing is wilfully ignorant. One only has to look around at the world around us. Bees don’t have a manual either, yet they know exactly what it is that they must do with their lives. If they were to fail in the fulfilment of this purpose then the consequences would be felt right around the world. Bees do not make excuses, but people do. As the years have passed, I have attended to those things that I should always ha...
The sun abandons a city brim full of life. This overcrowded and noisy place buzzes with an electric vitality that heats the pavement beneath my feet and shines bright lights through my eyes and into my brain. There was a time when this cocoon of hyperactivity enlivened me. But tonight I am tired. Tired of this life. My bones ache and once again I am sinking below the surface of humanity, my breath caught inside my chest, making me feel sick to my stomach. I sink lower and lower until I am where I deserve to be. I find my level and the pres...
Submitted to Contest #214
We are all made of stars. We really are, all of us are made from the same stuff as stars and that makes us truly remarkable. Each and every one of us. Our value is incalculable. We are priceless. It was only when I grew up, that I learned this. I grew up, and in growing up, I knew a great many things. Things that we should all know, if only we would see. Of course, as I began to open up and use my mind, I realised that I had not previously known as much as I thought I had. We build walls around ourselves and paint them as thoug...
Make or break. That’s what it was. That’s what it was for me. Maybe it was for him too. I don’t know anymore. There’s a lot I don’t know, now that my eyes are wide open and I know more than I have ever known. How I wish I could take it all back, every last bit of it. Ignorance was bliss, but then it became difficult. I didn’t want difficult. I think I wanted easy. Easy was a big mistake, but not the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. I’m still trying to define that one. I see its shadow, but still I can’t see it for what it is. Perhaps I do...
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