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John Kieffer

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2020

Stories (16)

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9 Followers

1 Following

16 Stories

175 karma pts

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Deep Dive

John Kieffer

Down, down, down. The DSV Kelpie had been descending for nearly four hours into the Challenger Deep. A year prior a massive submarine earthquake originated from the Challenger Deep. The earthquake wreaked havoc on the surrounding islands, but the Philippians suffered the most damage. Shortly after the earthquake sonar readings of the Challenger Deep showed that the Challenger Deep had grown significantly in depth. This happened in the central basin, and if sonar readings were correct it showed the new depth at just under forty thousand feet....

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A Man Out of Time

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #239

He lay on the frozen ground, staring at the dark sky. A single star twinkled amidst the infinite shadow of the abyss. No clouds impeded the view, it was merely the only star that remained. He let loose a long sigh as he watch the last remaining shred of light. He was unwavering, unblinking, waiting for the end. Long, long ago, he came into existence. It was so long ago that it was barely a moment in the entirety of his existence, and he had long since forgotten nearly all of those experiences. He remembered feelings and concepts from his ea...

7 likes

Planned Extinction Level Event

John Kieffer

“Are you telling me…” Petunia trailed off, absolutely gob smacked. “That humans are not alone in the universe, or that you’re being recruited to potentially eliminate another species?” The man across the diner table said very plainly then took a sip of his tea, then smiled while he relished the aroma. “Yes, that is correct. This tea that is green is spectacular.” Petunia stared at him with a most perplexed expression then lowered her head into her hands. “To be absolutely clear Mr. Smythe,” she made sure to annunciate each word. “You’re te...

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Hiding in the Light

John Kieffer

The lights flickered the way they always do during the storm on the colonies, and I’m cowering in the one small space where the lights don’t flicker, not even in this rain. Every year this storm comes. It is always starts on the exact same day each year, and always lasts exactly eighty-four hours. I’ve been told the rains of the storm aren’t quite like the rains back on Earth, but having been born on the voyage to get here, I wouldn’t know. Our parents were sent after contact was reestablished with the Cygnus-8 colony. Contact with the orig...

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Life Goes On

John Kieffer

I woke up earlier than normal. My wife and child still slept soundly in their sleeping bags, though our mutt had noticed my stirring. I lay there for a time, wondering what had caused me to awaken. There was something, something nagging at the back of my brain like an itch that I couldn’t quite scratch. The itch started to become a need to move, until finally I extricated myself from my sleeping bag and prepared to go outside. More often than not we slept in our clothes. Doing so made it easier to get ready and be prepared for the day, whet...

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At the Veil

John Kieffer

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you don’t know how you got there? I don’t mean the kind of situation where you didn’t expect to be there, but how it happened is known to you. I mean when you suddenly find yourself in the middle of something and you literally have no idea how you got there, when you got there, or the context of what is happening at the immediate moment. Kind of like when a dream starts, and you have no idea what is going on or how you got where you’re at, but you just roll with it… that’s what I mean when I ...

2 likes

What Happened?

John Kieffer

I stood in front of my home in Wisconsin after being gone for over two months. I don’t know how or why, all I know is that one night I went to bed at home with my wife after putting our two year old to bed, and when I woke up I was in some strange cave in the middle of a forest. It was so bizarre and disorienting that for the longest time I thought I was in a dream. Then the mosquitoes started biting. They were voracious, and their bites didn’t itch so much as they stung. I fled the cave, almost falling flat on my face multiple times as I s...

2 likes

Going Home

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #96

It was a hot day, but not unusually so for the middle of spring. The citizens of the small town of Bael went about the normal routine of their lives. This consisted mostly of farming, hunting in the nearby woods, and generally keeping to themselves. The people of Bael owed allegiance to no matriarch, were part of any kingdom, nor did they have any roads or marked paths to their little town. They simply lived and wanted to be left alone in their own little paradise. The self-isolation of Bael went on for so long that the town was eventually f...

5 likes

The Meaning.

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #95

Julie was confused. She had gone to bed in her tiny apartment, wearing heavy pajamas, under two heavy comforters, and with her overweight tabby cat curled up at her feet. Where she found herself now was not her tiny apartment. She woke up in a strange room wearing casual mid summer appropriate clothes, with a pillow but no blankets of any kind, and her overweight tabby cat was nowhere to be found. The room was an especially curious thing. If Julie had to guess, it appeared to be about twenty-five feet wide by twenty-five feet long, and abo...

12 likes

It Wasn't Her Fault.

John Kieffer

It always pissed her off that, no matter what, Francine’s younger sister Joan was always right. Their parents always fawned over Joan, and valued her input over Francine’s every time both had a say. Growing up, their friends would always take Joan’s advice, and would take Francine’s with many grains of salt. Everyone Francine grew up with would always shoot her ideas… her beliefs… down, but Joan? Well she always seemed to be right. In high school, Francine finally managed to find some people who accepted her for who she was, and validated h...

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Caught in the Carnival

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #93

You know, I never really cared for carnivals. Ever. Nothing about them has ever appealed to me. The crowds are annoying, and the noise is a headache. I don’t like the rides, and they feel like they are a loose bolt away from coming apart and killing all of the patrons within them. The food is deep fried nausea. Seriously, I feel like I’m going to get heartburn and some kind of communicable disease just looking at it. And yet… here I am. A couple of my friends managed to drag me out here. Well, trick me out here is more like it. They know I ...

9 likes

Uninvited Guests

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #65

The night sky was fast approaching as two young men sped down the road on horseback. They had been riding hard since midday to escape an angry mob of villagers, and still the villagers pursued them.“Okay, I have to admit Leon… this was fun at first, but now it is growing tiresome.”“It is growing tiresome just now?” Leon asked. “Are you sure Devon? It didn’t grow tiresome hours ago, back when we could still feel our legs?” Anger and annoyance dripped from his words.“Well it was somewhat amusing before.”“You mean when they started chasing us, ...

8 likes

Fiamma

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #64

Phobias are such an odd phenomenon, an irrational fear of one particular thing. My particular fear was pyrophobia, a fear of fire. It’s strange; however, I cannot explain why I am so afraid of fire. Throughout my entire life, I have never been burned, but there was something about fire made my blood run cold. You never really realize how much a phenomenon like fire affects our lives until you have a crippling fear of it. Camping becomes a lot more miserable, mostly because everyone else wants to have a campfire in the evening for the ambian...

8 likes

One Last Trip South

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #63

It is always pleasant to watch as I pass by the trees. Orchards are especially pleasant as there was a rhythmic pattern to their passing in and out of my perspective. They look like a geometric illusion, and it feels like walking past infinite hallways… one after another, after another, and so on. Something about that just helps to calm the nerves of travel. Sadly, there is no orchard going past at this moment. But the random assortment and fluctuation of trees can still be relaxing in its own way. Occasionally a tree will pass by much clos...

9 likes

The Amazing Mr. Shazzlefop

John Kieffer

Submitted to Contest #61

Valerie always despised spring-cleaning, and for various reasons too. It was a tedious chore that took too long, more often than not it saw many things she had once cherished end up in the garbage or being sold, and it never seemed to actually occur in the Spring. This year was no different. The spring-cleaning began midway through the summer and was miserably hot inside, even with the air conditioner running full tilt. Every aspect of the event was just as repetitive and boring as it had been the last every single year. And Valerie paused ...

9 likes