Kate Strong

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2019

Stories (19)

19 Stories

372 karma pts

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“I Never Said That We Would Die Together” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #97

It all happened in what seemed like a fraction of a second.           The pain was so intense that it was tangible, and I almost crumpled to the floor in an agonized heap. I was shaking, shaking so hard that I couldn’t see straight and I couldn’t help but to grip the edge of the table before I passed out. I blinked twice past tears that seemed to feel like they belonged in my eyes, but I couldn’t cry. All I could do was to stare at the ceiling with lips trembling and the taste of blood i...

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“Nobody Said That It Would Last Forever” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #82

She smiled over at the sunflowers brightening the darkness of the room, reaching out a cold hand to feel the warmth of the sunlight on the petals. The slatted plastic blinds let in little sunlight, most likely because of the fact that Dr. Kierland had sternly told her on more than one occasion that she should be asleep for sixty-five percent of the day if she had any intention of getting better. “Who are these from?” Sadie glanced over at Uncle Liam who was slumped over in the chair with his face buried in the crook of one of his arms. Win...

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“Just the Way the Cookie Crumbles” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #71

“That man’s hair is so red he must be making gingersnaps for the competition,” remarked Keira nonchalantly as she slid a tray of macarons into the oven and tossed the mitts onto the countertop. Ruffling her tousled dark curls, she rolled her eyes and chewed at the corner of her lip while eyeing the master list scribbled in Karen’s chicken-scratch across the rustic chalkboard. “How many minutes?” Lanie asked with a frown as she glanced over at the unset timer. “This is the third oven you’ve walked away from…” “Yeah—yeah,” Keira responded ...

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“Friend Before Fatherland” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #40

It all had happened slowly, first the uncomfortable silences filling the gaps where friendly quiet once had been, gradually turning into days stretching into weeks when they didn’t see one other anymore. There was much going on in the world, but to two boys who had once been more brothers than friends, nothing would have been able to keep them apart.Until 1937.            Briefly glancing at his reflection in the mirror above the small sink that had long since ceased to bring water throu...

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“The Sign of the Yellow Jack” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #40

A brisk musky breeze invigorated with everything that bespoke the rolling blue sea fluttered the crisp pages of the logbook dangling from Captain Jones’s long, slender fingers. Lackadaisically, the young captain closed his eyes and leaned against the smooth rail of the quarterdeck, his chest rising as he inhaled a deep breath of the clean ocean air.“You have the last account done, Jones?” inquired Captain Tates who was stroking the glossy feathers of one of the parrots brought aboard from the Canary Islands.“Which one?” hummed Jones as his b...

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“The Prodigal Father” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #40

The day was a cold one, drifts of snow blanketing the ground and a bitter wind shrieking through the bleak stone buildings of 321 E. Robertson Way. If one stood in the middle of the narrow, wet street and looked upward, there was a good chance that it looked as if the gray stone reached all the way up to the clouds…and also of getting a thorough dousing with the gradually-melting snow gathered on the eaves.On this particular day, a young man wove his way through the motley crowds of Robertson Way, his threadbare coat pulled close about his s...

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“Schwarzer Wald Salvation” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #37

It was early afternoon when a smoldering, burning wreck was discovered by the SS, deep in the heart of the Black Forest. Sheet metal along with different metallic alloys were twisted and bent completely out of recognition, and nearly half an hour passed until the soldiers could advance closer to the wreckage without having their faces and hands blistered by the scorching heat radiating from the ruin. “Was ist das?” queried one of the SS men as he crouched beside the smashup and closely surveyed a plate of metal that seemed to have been torn ...

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“The Man Without the Mask” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #37

It was late October of 1916, a chilling, wet day when Edward found himself abandoned with Lieutenant Patrick McCarthy of one of the Irish divisions assigned to the eastern trench. Like a crooked, winding serpent, the lines of trenches ripped through the earth and snaked their way all along the whole Allied front. Once sunbaked and almost as hard as the rock below the ground, the dirt walls now clung to the soil from which they had been dug and even started to fall away from the embankments in some places. If it were not for the wooden posts ...

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“Through My Fault” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #36

RomeA.D. 222Well, let me just begin by saying that I never imagined that this day would go as anyone would’ve thought it would. Why in the world do we make expectations and then become angry because they didn’t result as expected? I’m no Athenian philosopher, but I think it’s one of the reasons that today I did something I know I will live to regret…that is, if I live.For anyone who ends up reading this in one hundred years from now—which I will not be surprised if no one ever does—my name is Cyprian Justus Aurelius, an aspiring officer in t...

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“Blood in the Nile” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #35

Amenhemet treaded down the palace steps leading into the cool, dim courtyard, his lungs thirstily drinking in the refreshing air. He shook his head as he slowly sat down on one of the cool, limestone benches, his eyes falling tightly closed while he remembered a year ago this same day.Pain was etched in all the lines of the young man’s face, agony exuding from his fine bronze skin. The courtyard down the steps and away from the commotion upstairs was cold and quiet, but his face was burning and perspiration coursed down his forehead and temp...

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“Enemies No Longer” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #35

The day had dawned with a vengeance, not to be forgotten by any of the blue-coated soldiers as they arose in the early morning.Corporal Elias W. Killough stretched the small of his back as he stood in line for the weak coffee that was being offered along with the paltry portions of what the cook called breakfast. Half-warmed watery porridge and some leathery strips of bacon, when what he craved was a steaming plateful of flapjacks and sausages, perhaps even with a side of a corn muffin or something of the sort.“Here you go, Corporal,” smiled...

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“The Last Gift” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #26

It had been when I was young that everyone told me that I would grow up to be a doctor—that, in language that five-year-old me could understand, I would fix people and make them better. Pretty much change the world, they had made it seem. It didn’t seem much too difficult of a job, from the way Grandfather worded his experiences in medical life. All you were required to do was to come in after the nurse had seen the patient and taken vital signs down, discuss what it was exactly that the patient was suffering, and then prescribe whatever med...

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“Playing in the Key of German” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #26

Pierre St. Lacouis squinted at the page shivering before him in the night air, the gentle wind rustling the tree leaves that shimmered in the moonlight. Even in the dim light, his sharp eyes caught every single note of Camille Saint-Saens’ piece, a piece he knew by heart. It was another one of those songs that instantly touched his heart—instantly made his fingers yearn with the eagerness to produce the sweet notes on his own instrument. The violin he held balanced under his chin waited, the bow held just so above the strings, and the audien...

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“Remembering Down Under” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #25

Sunshine streamed in through the bookstore windows, the late afternoon light falling through the slatted blinds and onto the short gray carpet. Barely a sound could be heard in the small bookstore but the padding of footsteps several aisles towards the back. A tall man with striking gold-blond hair strode back and forth in the row, his gray-green eyes scanning the shelves and roaming across each and every spine of each book. Inhaling a deep breath, Lachlan blinked several times to clear his finally blurring vision and shook his head. &n...

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“The Star in the Window” by Kate Strong

Submitted to Contest #19

1939 It was only the shop down the street, only the one that had been visited by the SS more times than she could count. Brita closed her eyes and remembered the one day when Hans had been out shopping in the street and had come so close to entering the forbidden tailoring shop that Mr. Hopkins and his family had been running for more years than she could count.           The silence in the streets now was unnerving. No barking dogs to shatter the stillness, no children running and playi...

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