Jess Norton

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2022

Stories (5)

5 Stories

130 karma pts

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“A Picnic ” by Jess Norton

Submitted to Contest #273

Trent lets the red gingham blanket billow out in front of him. The breeze flicks the edges of the blanket this way and that until finally allowing it to settle over the grass. Trent and Jenn both drop down. With her knees bent to the side, Jenn smooths her long brown dress over her knees, and Trent, with his legs straight out in front of him.   The sun peaks shyly through the oaks' branches. Trent unpacks the picnic basket, placing peanut butter jelly, Reese's cups, and a cold Dr. Pepper in front of her. “I hope these are still you...

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“The Mirror Maze” by Jess Norton

Submitted to Contest #272

Content warning: Death of a parent, mental health issues, minor injuries “Happy birthday, honey!” Her Dad walks to the dining table, hand covering the candle’s flickering flame from the fan’s breeze. He smiles with all his teeth. Sarah wishes the smile reached his eyes. As her gathered friends and family sing to her, she smiles but looks past them, locking eyes with the portrait of her mother on the wall. “1…2…3” She has blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a dimple on her chin that only shows when she smiles. It feels like staring into a mirro...

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“The Blip” by Jess Norton

Submitted to Contest #271

Arune has made a fatal error.   He follows the tip of the finger, pointing directly at his nose, up the veiny arm with cut-off sleeves to the well-trimmed beard of a man he had hoped never to speak to again. Barnabus Creel, better known as Bat the Tracker. A prized fighter for the king and notorious for being the best bounty hunter in the land. One whiff of your scent, and he would track you to the ends of the earth. The man’s eyes were wide for a brief moment, tilting his head to the side, nostrils flaring. Arune searches for a tr...

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“Cupid's Arrow” by Jess Norton

Submitted to Contest #133

content warning: graphic violence2/14/22 11:59 pm“The rules of the game are simple. Live through the night, and next year you’ll be playing Cupid.” 2/13/22 2 pmEliot nursed his whiskey in an attempt to numb the pain of his broken heart. The old woman next to him droned on about her third divorce. He tried not to look too closely at her snarled teeth. The quaint town he had chosen for him and his wife’s Valentine’s weekend no longer appealed to him. Not since he’d walked in on her, with her legs wrapped around his best friend’s hips. But...

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“To Hate Bernard Hastings” by Jess Norton

Submitted to Contest #131

For the life of her, Eleanor could not think of a single thing she hated more than Bernard Hastings.  There had to be something.  Slow walkers, people who chew with their mouth open, or the person who always stands a bit too close to you at the grocery store. A close runner up may be the movie “The Bridge to Terabithia” which she blames for the reason she is such a pessimist and is still single in her late twenties. It was deeply rooted in her heart, at the young age of ten, that there is no such thing as happy endings.  &...

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Author bio

Writing to escape the reality of having stage 4 breast cancer at 26 UCSB Alum “For we all of us, grave or light, get our thoughts entangled in metaphors, and act fatally on the strength of them.” ― George Eliot, Middlemarch