Menu

Prompts

Directory Contests Magazine FAQ

Apps

reedsymarketplace

Hire professionals for your project

reedsyblog

Advice, insights and news

reedsylearning

Online publishing courses

reedsylive

Free publishing webinars

reedsydiscovery

Launch your book in style

Bestseller Podcast Book Cover Art Success Stories

Tools

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

Jed Cope

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2022

Stories (283)

Comments

Library

158 Followers

47 Following

283 Stories

6368 karma pts

?

Box of Delights

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #185

“No you don’t!”The words were whip cracks and Jones froze on the spot. To attempt his exit now was going to invite pain and much, much worse. Not that he thought he was going to side-step a beating this time, not even with the fanciest of dancing was he going to get away with this. Jones had ridden his luck right down to the canvas of its tyres and it wasn’t going anywhere soon, and neither was he.He stayed where he was, not daring to turn and face the music that Mr Gershwin was conducting. Jones wasn’t a coward as such, it was more that he ...

13 likes

Empty Nest

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #185

Maud stretched out languorously upon her mattress of gold and jewels. The sight of it was both grand and impressive, and then some. The gold and jewels sparkled with an inner light and even in the drab lighting of Maud’s lair the mountain of treasure glowed tantalisingly. There is nothing like the sight of untold wealth and riches to get the greed buds itching and tingling and even the least materialistic would be dribbling enviously at Maud’s incredible hoard of treasure. Then there was Maud herself. Maud was, and indeed still is, a drago...

8 likes

The Monkey's Fist

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #185

He knows the story of the monkey trapped by the bushman. Of course he knows that story, he knows a lot of stories. Stories are something he indulges himself in. The ebb and the flow of the words sooth him and for a while he forgets where he is. Just for a while. The words are sounds and little more. They make their music and then they are gone. He has access to stories from this room, and he has access to much more, but none of it has any substance, there is no meaning to be had. Nothing matters, none of it is real. That’s fine by him. O...

9 likes

The Desolation of Smythe

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #185

Gone. Every last vestige of my treasure. There is nothing left of my life’s work. The scorched and blackened emptiness before me mirrors the terrible void opening up within me. “You shouldn’t go in there…” I ignore those words. How can I not go in? This is my place. A place that I made. A place that became more and more special to me over the span of my life. Little by little and piece by piece I filled this space with the very best of things. This was as much me as anything else in this world. An extension of my self. A part...

8 likes

I Appear to be Missing

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #185

“It’s mine, and you can’t have it!” There. I’ve said it. After thirty years I have made a stand. Enough is enough. I can’t take anymore. I just can’t take anymore. No. He can’t take anymore. Piece by piece, he has taken me. That is all he has done. That is all he is about. That is all he is. The worst of it is that I gifted him those pieces. I came willingly to this lair of his and I let him do his worst. Thirty years! Oh my sweet Lord! How could I have been so blind? No! Stop that Jane! Don’t lie to yourself. No more li...

11 likes

Pushing It

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #184

It’s that time again. Sooner or later, it always comes to this. Unless of course, we are saved from all this nonsense by divine, or cosmic intervention. Not this time though, that was never going to be in the script. The way this works is that there is an inevitable build up to this show down. Good versus bad, us against them. We sort the teams and then off we go until it all gets too much, too big, too far down the line to do anything other than sort it all out, once and for all. “You have to be stopped,” she says to me ...

14 likes

When Darkness Falls

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #184

“We are all of us, afraid of the dark” he says it sadly, as though he’s delivering a terminal diagnosis, and in a way, he is. “When we’re kids, yeah,” snorts Philips. Now he’s lazily shaking his head with an economy that makes it all the more striking, “we still are. Every last one of us.” “How do you work that one out?” says Philips, disdain dripping from his words, disdain and the beginnings of aggression. There is a threat here, but it’s pathetic. Philips is showing himself to be that bully-in-waiting and I wish he’d shut up. I disl...

13 likes

Contrary

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #183

“I’ve not had enough! You’ve not had your fun yet! You absolutely must keep me imprisoned here!” I laugh and that laughter is joyful and it is merry. Even my laughter? No! It is not my laughter. Inside I am wailing and gnashing my teeth and crying out for a release from this hell, but increasingly I feel those words that are not my own, the very opposite of my own, exerting an awful power over me. Those words are changing me and I don’t know whether I can stop that. Words are my prison and I don’t know how much more...

5 likes

Upon Reflection

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #183

“We’re just too different.” I stand there and watch his lips move and I hear the words, but the words don’t come from his mouth, they come from mine. I stand there and I stare into those eyes of his. We remain like that for the longest of times and then I cry. And so does he. Eventually, I shake myself and splash cold water onto my face and I leave him there, in the bathroom. I know I’ll see him every morning, same time and same place. That’s our arrangement. He’s always waiting for me. He thinks he’s me, but that’s...

5 likes

Fade Away

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #182

“I hate you!” Poppy spat the words out at her mother. If she had been a foot closer she would have lashed out with her hand too. She wanted to hurt her mother. Her mother deserved it. The words were said and then she was stomping off up the stairs to her bedroom. Poppy had never said those three little words before. Those words were a culmination of a whole host of other words. Words that she drew to her and nurtured until they were dark and sharp enough to be thrown at her parents to hurt them as much as was possible. Her parents we...

9 likes

For Real

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #182

“How did you get in here?” She scowled and looked quite annoyed. “No really, you shouldn’t be in here, you know that right?” She blasted out a jet of air and put her hands on her hips in something approximating consternation. I looked around me as though this was going to present me with an out, or rather an idea of how she managed to get in here. “Look, you’re not staff, so who are you?” I asked her. “As if you don’t know!” she poked her tongue out at me and then she did something extremely disconcerting, so disconcerting in fac...

12 likes

Taking it Back

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #181

“Let’s go for a walk.” The words tumble out of my mouth. I’ve said them a thousand times, but this time it’s different. I am different. Everything is different and the world will never be the same again. He looks at me and time stands still. I wonder what is going through that mind of his. There was a time, when he was small and the world turned in a different direction, it wasn’t about his thoughts. We explored together and I delighted in the unfolding mystery that was him. We were in the moment and he was a gift that made eve...

6 likes

You Are Here

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #181

“I’m forty two!” “What has that got to do with it?” I stare at her face and I will her to understand, to at least try to understand. My eyes are upon her face, but I don’t see it. They bore into her. Searching for her essence, looking for something that resembles hope. I am here, and yet I am not. She sees something that is not me. She sees something unreal. I wonder whether she ever saw me as anything other than what it was that she constructed. There must be something I am missing. A single word that will unlock everythin...

9 likes

Dark Magic

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #180

Bad luck. She tells me it was luck, that I had some luck and my luck was bad. “It was not your fault,” she tells me this like it was something that happened in the past. A blip. The universe hiccupped and I suffered as a result. She’s wrong. They all are. The words in my head remind me of that. She’s wrong. They are all wrong. They are always wrong. Always and forever, wrong. You are bad, luck has nothing to do with it. I have many words inside of me, and they are all bad words. This is all that I know. That is all that I...

14 likes

Lost Property

Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #180

The pretty tune of dread rings out, impossibly loud. So loud in the confined space of the corridor that I cringe in an attempt to make myself smaller, unseen. Those few discordant notes pierce the ominous silence and they announce the beginning of my end. The ripples of those sounds send me reeling and I clutch my neck. I clutch my neck knowing that everything has changed. It has gone. I look down at the metal slats beneath my feet and for a maddening moment, I consider the merits of a futile pursuit of the one thing I had left in ...

12 likes