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Jethro Pili

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2021

Stories (147)

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29 Followers

37 Following

147 Stories

286 karma pts

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I Sold My Soul To The Devil

Jethro Pili

Ethan Blake stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows of Langston, Crane, and Delaney, the city skyline stretching out beneath him like a glittering sea of light. At thirty-four, he was a rising star—“the shark in a suit,” his colleagues teased. Clients loved his razor-sharp mind, his relentless work ethic, and his talent for turning hopeless cases into victories.But tonight, as he looked out at the city, he felt nothing but a cold emptiness gnawing at his chest.Behind him, his senior partner, Charles Crane, lounged in his leather chair, swi...

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Half the Rent, All the Terror

Jethro Pili

Rent in SoHo was demonic. Not in the cutesy “New York is hell” kind of way, but in the very real, very soul-devouring sense. Isabel Navarro had been living off boxed mac and cheese and dreams since her last roommate moved out—lured away by a boyfriend with a brownstone in Park Slope and a working dishwasher. Traitor.Isabel, a 29-year-old social media manager by day and wine mom-in-training by night, had done the math six times. She couldn’t swing the place solo. Not with rent going up another $450 next month. So she did the unthinkable. She ...

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The Slap Heard ‘Round the Cookout

Jethro Pili

For the Thompsons, Independence Day was sacred. Not for the usual reasons—flag-waving patriotism, backyard fireworks, or Uncle Jack’s annual recitation of the Declaration of Independence after two hard lemonades. No, for the Thompsons, the Fourth of July was about one thing: the Cookout. They were always the talk of the town, in a good way, of course.Cheryl Thompson had been planning it for months—Pinterest boards, color-coded RSVPs, a new gas grill that glistened like a Bentley. Her husband, Doug, had been assigned simpler tasks: “Don’t bur...

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Fire in the Desert Sand

Jethro Pili

The desert wind howled low and mournful over the forward operating base, hurling dust against the battered concrete barriers like ghostly fists. Corporal Luke Parrish knelt behind the Hesco walls, clutching his Bible like a lifeline. His squad was on night patrol rotation again, and the evening brought no solace—only silence, sweat, and a loneliness that gnawed deeper than the sandstorms.Luke had grown up in a tiny town in Missouri where the local church sat at the center of life, both spiritual and social. His family prayed together before ...

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A Dream Come True

Jethro Pili

Edward Yu wasn’t used to taking vacations.Not because he didn’t want to — he did — but because when you’re the CFO of one of the fastest-growing tech companies in America, vacations tended to look like missed opportunities, lost momentum, or worse, slipping behind.He lived in numbers, schedules, charts, and margins. His family, on the other hand, lived in hope.For months, Stephen (15), Scarlett (13), Esther (10), and little Edmund (8) had begged for one thing if they aced their finals: a trip to Disneyland.They hadn’t just aced their finals ...

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I Got Lost & Ended Up In Henderson

Jethro Pili

When Evan and Marissa Bellows woke up on the second Saturday of March, the plan was simple: drive to Los Angeles, meet with their tax preparer, sign some forms, and be home before dinner. Tax season was always a headache for both of them, as it was for the rest of the country, so they were very grateful for their tax preparer. They lived in San Bernardino, an easy hour just east of LA if the traffic gods were merciful — which they rarely were — but it was still doable. They had made the appointment a month ago, neatly written on their kitche...

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Wexbridge Manor

Jethro Pili

The carriage wheels crunched over the gravel drive, the sound like a thousand tiny bones breaking underfoot. Inside, the newly-minted Duchess Eleanor of Wexbridge smoothed the folds of her traveling gown and peered out the window as the vast estate unfurled before her eyes.Her new home.A gust of wind sent the banners atop the stone turrets flapping furiously, each one bearing the Duke’s crest—a rampant lion and a ring of thorns. The building itself loomed, older than she had expected, grand but worn, as if the centuries weighed upon its very...

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Beneath Rosewood

Jethro Pili

Rosewood High School sat like a brick laid flat on the small town of Rosewood, Oregon—sturdy, red, and unsuspicious. There were lockers with chipped paint, mystery meat Thursdays in the cafeteria, and that constant faint smell of bleach and sweat lingering in the gymnasium. It was the most normal school anyone had ever known. But normal is often camouflage. It started with a cough. Not from a student, but from Mr. Reilly, the AP Bio teacher. He was always punctual, stern, and unshakably boring. One day, right in the middle of his lesson abou...

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Avalon, The Isle of Apples

Jethro Pili

I. The Isle That Was There are places that live only in memory, or myth, or in the silvered pages of books so old they crack when opened. Avalon was such a place. The Isle of Apples. The sanctuary of kings. The cradle of enchantment. But before it vanished, it was. Avalon floated like a dream in the western sea, hidden by mists not of weather but of will. An island of soft hills and silver rivers, where the air tasted of honey and wind, and the trees bore fruit in every season. The apples were not just sweet—they healed. They sang. Some said...

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Merlinus Magus the Magnificent

Jethro Pili

The lights at the Fool Us stage blazed to life, sweeping across the velvet curtain as Jonathan Ross’s voice echoed grand and regal: “Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves to be amazed! Please welcome… Merlinus Magus the Magnificent!” The audience cheered, unsure whether the name was an ironic gimmick or not. A man in a deep purple tailcoat with a high collar strode onstage, his eyes twinkling behind round spectacles. His beard curled like a wizard’s, and he carried a staff—not a wand, a full-on wizard’s staff, silver inlaid with amethys...

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The Art of the Excuse

Jethro Pili

They called him a LINO. “Leader In Name Only.” It was a running joke in the youth group at New Hope Fellowship. Aaron Shepherd, pastor’s kid, junior in high school, and default scapegoat. When the youth group forgot to pray before the pizza arrived—Aaron got a passive-aggressive text from one of the deacons. When one of the sixth graders had a meltdown after being kept out past midnight on a school night—Aaron’s dad, Pastor Mark Shepherd, got an angry phone call from the boy’s mother demanding to know why the “pastor’s son” didn’t ensur...

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Midnight In Motion (Mick’s POV)

Jethro Pili

I don’t remember the last time I was home before midnight. That’s not even a brag. It’s just the truth. The whole thing started last summer—when my dad grounded me for staying out past curfew with the guys. We were just at the skate park, but he acted like I’d joined a gang. Locked me down for two weeks, no phone, no guitar, no nothing. That’s when I realized something: if I was gonna be treated like a criminal, I might as well have some fun with it. So I started sneaking out. I’d wait till Mom went to bed, then count to 600 in my head. By t...

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The Line Was Too Long

Jethro Pili

CONTENT WARNING: Death, tragedyIt was a late Sunday morning glazed in gray and black.Outside, it rained soft and steady over the town of Bellemere, Virginia, pattering against the windows of Mercy Hill Hospice like a gentle metronome. Inside Room 207, every breath was a battle.Robert Asbury, once a builder of homes and teller of long-winded stories, now lay withered and hollow-chested, each breath pulled in by sheer will. Tuberculosis, in its cruel, final march, had stolen nearly everything from him—his booming voice, his ability to walk, hi...

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The Comedy Clinic

Jethro Pili

THE COMEDY CLINICMotto: “Because laughter is the best medicine, really!”The Comedy Clinic was not a clinic, which caused confusion daily. Its neon sign blinked inconsistently—“THE COMEDY CLI—IC”—so it wasn’t uncommon for people to stumble in expecting a flu shot and leave with a drink, a blistering roast, and a vague sense of betrayal.Nestled between a pawn shop and a psychic who only spoke in limericks, The Comedy Clinic was the city’s only bar where stand-up comedy was mandatory and sobriety optional. The owner, one Dr. Chuckles—real name ...

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Around The World In 80 Days

Jethro Pili

Amy Collins sat at her cubicle, staring at the blinking cursor in an email she had no interest in finishing. The faint hum of fluorescent lights above blended with the muffled clickety-clack of keyboards and hushed conversations. The office smelled faintly of stale coffee and too many repressed dreams.It wasn’t that Amy hated her job. She had once loved it—or at least convinced herself she did. Project management at a mid-sized tech company had its perks: predictable income, health insurance, a good 401(k) match. But over the years, the dail...

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