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Karen M. Gregory

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2024

Stories (11)

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10 Followers

2 Following

11 Stories

175 karma pts

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Tongue

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #321

I stared at myself in the mirror and wondered what it would be like to reach into the back of my throat and pull out my tongue. Would it wriggle like a fish? Would it lie limp and lifeless? Would it spit back all the hateful and hopeful things I’ve said? Would it relax finally free? Would it stain my white countertop, or would it simply laugh at me? My tongue, feeble, filthy, and unsettled in my mouth. Always licking at the back of my mind. Always tasting something putrid, something fine. Itching to say but refusing to yield. My tongue oil,...

3 likes

Bella

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #301

“What are you doing?” I thought as I shifted my car into park outside Finding Hope Animal Shelter. “You don’t have a job; you just moved into a new place. You shouldn’t be getting a dog. Not now. Not ever. Turn around. Go home,” but I didn’t go home. I took the keys out of the ignition, stepped out into the hot New Mexico sun, and locked my car behind me. The first thing that hit me upon walking through the front doors was the overwhelming smell of urine and bleach. Although the floors were shiny and polished, I couldn’t help but...

13 likes

Painting

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #292

“Fuck,” Jamie muttered under her breath as yet another haphazard tower of boxes nearly crushed her. She pushed the boxes back, scurrying away from the stack before it could come at her again. After her mother’s passing, her estate transformed into a carnival of all things eclectic and dust collecting. Jamie felt trapped by these oddities. Their safekeeping, sale, and ultimate demise were all left to her.  Without her mother’s loving gaze, her belongings seemed distraught and unhinged to Jamie, as if they longed to be admired. They reach...

4 likes

Connection

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #291

Ever since she was a little girl, Ella loved darkness. She loved how the light at the end of the hallway sunk into void or how the forest seemed hungry to extinguish the campfire. As a toddler, she pulled the nightlight from the wall, and when her mother tried to plug it back in, Ella defiantly announced that she refused to have an ounce of light enter her room. Even the light from the hallway insulted the immense lightlessness she craved. She would sneak off to the crawlspace under the house just to see how long she could be immersed in the...

8 likes

The Key

Karen M. Gregory

“Hey! Wait. Stop. Come back. What are you doing with that?” I exclaimed.Finally, Wally Beaur stopped and turned around. A small silver key caught mid-flip between his fingers. He removed the wireless headphones from his ears and rested them on his neck. Wally Beaur had nothing to say. Big grey eyes watching my every move, mouth chewing at the words that would not form. Give it back,” I demanded in breathless anger. Reluctantly, he placed the key in my hard hand. Regret reached out with cool fingers as I closed my hand around the me...

2 likes

But I Love You

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #287

Today, I saw you and skirted around the phrase “I love you.” I went everywhere but right up to it. You hovered at the edge like a fixed statue as I went round and round, knowing it was coming. Dreading its coming. And, just as I was careening right to it, you stopped the movement with a tip of your head and a resistant smile. I steadied. Caught in your eyes, your body language, the disappointed rumble of your voice saying, “You don’t want this.” You traced a tattooed hand across your faded grey shirt, pulling the words across you like a sh...

5 likes

Sticky

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #286

I didn’t mean to end up here. It was never my intention to stay. Honestly, it was supposed to be a joke. A way to scare my nieces and nephews, to send them running through the house screaming before ultimately dissolving into laughter and disbelief when they realized the monster in the attic was actually Auntie. But now I’m stuck. The false wall at the back of the attic snapped shut behind me and won’t budge.  I can’t call anyone because the Airbnb we rented is way up in the Tennessee Smokies, and there’s no service. Still, I opened my...

7 likes

Pond Water

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #285

The pond was nothing special. Scummy and barely six feet across. Spongy green and stinking, nestled between unremarkable trees. There was no clamorous buzzing of insects or soft golden light. There was no feeling of surreal goodness or impending destiny, but I had heard from the tavern locals that it was the place to go if you had a broken soul. It was the place you went to right everything. A place, the locals proclaimed, would take you back in time.I stepped into that tepid water, half drunk, half hating myself. Geosmin squished between my...

9 likes

In the Dark

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #282

In the dark, I was fine. I was safe. There was nothing I couldn’t be. In the dark, I was home. It knew me, loved me, held me closely. But there comes a day when our safest places become unfamiliar and dangerous. There comes a time when we are forced to step out into the light and see. That day for me was a dagger to the chest that left me splayed open and screaming at the sky. My eyes were ripped open, and I could not help but be consumed by the beauty of all that lay before me. For years, I lived softly in the dark. I knew who I was or th...

8 likes

Box

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #281

It arrived amongst the junk mail and bank statements. It arrived unmarked and unassuming four days before Christmas. It’s been sitting on my kitchen table for three days. I haven’t opened it. There’s no postage on the brown packaging. It doesn’t even bear my name. I’m still not sure its meant for me. The package was surprisingly heavy, and when I picked it up off my front step, it felt as if it was unwilling to be suspended. As if gravity refused to let this particular item go airborne without a fight. I heaved it onto the table and put my ...

8 likes

A Conversation About Nothing

Karen M. Gregory

Submitted to Contest #280

You’re a Gregory, my father said as he took another swig of his old fashioned. That’s the problem. You’re just like me. How’s your drink. Do you like it?I looked down at my glass filled with what can only be described as a bastardized old fashioned: three ounces of expensive bourbon mixed with maraschino cherry juice, topped with Sprite, and two bright red cherries. It’s sweet and sticky, like a quarter-machine gumball. But I don’t often get to drink with my father. Yeah, it’s good. You know, kid. I wasn’t sure if you were going to make...

13 likes