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John Britto

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2024

Stories (5)

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5 Stories

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Twenty-Nine Minutes of Terror

John Britto

Submitted to Contest #297

Twenty-Nine Minutes of Terror 5:33 PM: Nine-year-old Alison McDermont danced around the small kitchen in her family’s duplex on Pinetree Lane as she hummed, She Loves You, by the Beatles in anticipation of her parents’ arrival home from work. She had just finished setting the dining room table and eagerly looked forward to the lemon pie her mother had promised for dessert. “Muffin? Where are you?” she shouted. She glanced around the kitchen looking for her cat. From the corner of her eye, she saw a ball of orange fur race around the refriger...

5 likes

The Shadow Man

John Britto

Submitted to Contest #294

The Shadow Man I looked up to admire a pale blue San Francisco sky, and quickly inhaled the crisp, cool air—but I might as well have been back in the humid jungles of war-torn Vietnam. A car had just backfired, shattering my fragile nerves. Almost daily, a sound or a scent could cause me to turn to stone—forcing me to recall the ugliness of the battles I’d survived. Over the many years, I’d conditioned myself to freeze, to breath...

6 likes

The Betrayal

John Britto

Submitted to Contest #282

The Betrayal The door to the kitchen flew open and hit the side of the refrigerator with a loud thud. Cold air rushed in. “You rotten bitch. I trusted you.” Brock McCarthy stood in the doorway with his shoulders squared and fists clenched. “How could you do that to me?” His nostrils flared as he shook his head. Stunned, Clara Simmons gasped when she heard the commotion. After she regained her composure, she bristled at the hateful accusation. She placed the half-empty dinner plate she was holding in the sink. Staring into his brown eyes, s...

2 likes

Dreams That Fade

John Britto

Submitted to Contest #273

Dreams That Fade In The Kitchen: Wednesday, September 19, 2023, Ames, Iowa, 8:26 AM Sitting at the kitchen table, Rachel Weber cradled her warm coffee cup with both hands, painfully aware she had mere minutes before leaving for work. The apartment was quiet—except for the soft hum of the electric clock above the refrigerator. She glanced out the window above the sink trying to gauge the early fall weather. The phone rang, shattering her rare solitude. She stood to answer the phone hanging of the wall and felt the chill as she walked past the...

8 likes

Somethings Never Change

John Britto

Submitted to Contest #270

Somethings Never Change The ornate antique bell jingled when the heavy glass door to the Happy Family Café opened—just as it had for over forty years. Jane Griffen peered over her glasses to see who had entered. She glanced at the wall clock behind the counter and pursed her lips for the hundredth time that morning, then lowered her head and resumed reading the Brookville Village Gazette. Not to learn anything, but to stop people from wondering why she was sitting alone in the crowded dining room with no one to talk with or anything to do....

4 likes