Kathleen `Woods

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (111)

111 Stories

2498 karma pts

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“What Do You Do When the Wishing Well Eats Your Sister?” by Kathleen `Woods

“What the hell was that?” Isabel screamed, the great claws of the well long lost along with their youngest sister. The world had spun from last they’d seen, sick and hungerless as high noon marched on. To their vision, between the two it was madness, Claudia playing like children do before one running joke ended in horror. They held fast together, still reeling from that harrowing moment, neither could move for loss of balance, the terror of it. “Get off,” Isabel moved from Alina’s tight hold. No matter how high the sun was now, Izzy wasn’...

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“Never Drop Two Coins in a Wishing Well ” by Kathleen `Woods

‘Where are you going?” She looked up and around her path, the sun’s rays cut between the thicketed leaves above, to share a wrong colored sky. Claudia was alone on her path for the first time in her short life, and to spite everything Aunt Gillian had taught her, she felt unprepared. She was trapped in a forest more a labyrinth than collection of trees, and she wasn’t at all sure what that meant for her. So she walked, hand braced against the trees at either side of her as she wandered. She was lost and she knew it. ‘Wh...

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“Women and Apples” by Kathleen `Woods

Summer had been shifting beautifully into autumn, and Murcia had been having coffee with Glika almost every other day for months now. They still went to swim on warmer days when the line between summer and fall proved thin, but that wasn’t the case this time in Murcia’s house duly invaded by her friend.“You wanna do something fun?” Glika asked early that day, carrying a bag of mysteries.She was beautiful, Glika loved summer, though if anyone had asked Murcia, autumn matched her better. The colors didn't even have to be dull, olivin...

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“Strawman Circus” by Kathleen `Woods

“You shouldn’t do this, i-”, a simple slip of the eye, and he saw it. Beyond the immediacy of his lecture, the very notion of his thoughts previous, derailed he looked back at his- Costar?“It’s wrong?” he was losing his lines. He was off his queue. What was he even talking about?“Are you alright?” she says, eyes bright, like she was finally seeing something worth contemplating. He doesn’t shy away from what he sees.“Do you see them too?”“Really, I thought you were aware,” she lied, like she apparently was before, “we’re a story.”“Really.”“Ju...

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“Stretching the Metaphor for the Inflexible ” by Kathleen `Woods

It was a late morning New Years eve at the Mount Cubitus Courthouse, something momentous and at the same time expected had occurred, and Tomas Reid is just a bit too bored to care. “Back in my day-” the old Lawyer starts, a big mouth for the reckoning that oh so bright past is facing. He’d say it was raining men for all the three mile drops he’d seen on the social ladder as of late. But it seemed like the wrong thing to say about his colleagues. There was something in the world marked against good metaphors, in due part to the literal in...

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“Love, Salt AND Impossible Prices” by Kathleen `Woods

One of the strangest things to learn about the world is how many professions there apparently were. There is a doctor for just about every little thing out there, from head to toe, from friend to foe there was room for doctors of every kind. Certainly there were quacks, no better than having a mallard for treating, but there were some conditions that seemed fake. So fake, that it would seem impossible that someone would even hope to cure it. Like a broken heart. That was actually why Vera was here, at least that was what the note said....

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“Somewhat related to @ZetharUnited, ReduceReuseRecycle? ” by Kathleen `Woods

“Listen? Don’t you hear it?” He said to the tempo of an old song that only Joan really liked. Martha couldn’t be bothered, it was a late night already in the bar, and it looked like the bartender wasn't all that responsive at their club's entry, which was fine by Martha, between Joan and Henry they should all properly sober up.But would they? For a club dedicated to mathematically deduced predictions, there was many a thing they took by chance. And sobriety during a national holiday was one of the easiest bets to make.“I’d like something-” s...

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“The Browny’s House, and The Changelings Mother ” by Kathleen `Woods

The flooring is tapped with an incessant scratch, a wandering rustle made discordant with whatever sound he’d expected to hear.There are many sounds worthy of investigation in a young sorcerer's house. A tree sawed in two by lightning, a floor board in need of correction, an especially loud fart, but today, Jerry was certain, whatever scrambled into his home couldn’t be familiar.It had only been a few months since little Nadua was found, and while the little creature should be a bit more ambulatory, even Jerry could recognize the difference ...

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“The Hydroponic-Mycobiota in a ‘Quiet’ Neighborhood ” by Kathleen `Woods

It was an unseasonably cool and humid summer, like a perpetual April, or October. It was simply one oddity of that year, really the only one Harold at all liked, outside at that moment on his back porch reading with his coffee. Another was the rash of break ins happening all over town as those who had summer cottages and timeshares went ahead and left the strange dreariness behind for the comforts of still more temperate regions. Harold failed to see the point of it, even during holidays, but to each their own. Then again he didn’t like hot ...

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“Twice a Changeling” by Kathleen `Woods

Nayden was walking in the park all by herself that day, really it was evening. She’d been feeling restless the last few days, cooped up in the attic. Her wings felt heavy, though she wasn’t tired otherwise. This was common for her. And so she’d decided to go out, just to the park, the closest one on the map. It was still two hundred times her body length, the distance between. The numbers would seem insensible, but it was a short walk for her, even for her size. Maybe only for her, if she took into account every other fairy she’d e...

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“Au-Uber missed moments used for character study, explaining Lola ” by Kathleen `Woods

Pillers strange and skyless projected from all around her, she was alone now. She couldn’t shake it, cut off from the shimmer of matching rings, her lover had failed her. All because he chose a pretty face over a stupid one. She wanted to scream- but it would be wasteful. That pragmatism she was now realizing, had been her folly, would be meaningless still in this place. Liminal hall could only be described as a great tapestry of long forgotten things, it was the point where the ever folding mass that was the world beyond death j...

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“break out for science ” by Kathleen `Woods

A murder has been committed, the last murder had been committed, beneath the last blinking of the setting sun. Everything is weightless, the eye that was the sun has swallowed everything. The world is darkness and light and strange colors, all is new, and she isn’t alone. It was only a little past midnight when she’d felt the burning wire of creation pull her from rest. It was wrong of her to miss sleep for something as apparently small as that, but Afonya could never rely on such lofty perspectives as that. Though she couldn’t muc...

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“The Ignited Willow” by Kathleen `Woods

It was a terribly early morning, but she’d be hard pressed even after the worst of happenings to stop Tanah up from a tea party, or to stop herself up from drinking tea she’d already made.That was often what it meant to care for oneself. Of course, it wasn’t everyday that the thing worrying her was just outside, or for her own safety something she couldn’t share it with.She’s worried for the willow before, a blight in its branches, pruned, culled and burned was the answer there. She could wait if the man were as such, it wasn’t as if sh...

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“#GreasyChadFlu #ReduceReuseRecycle?” by Kathleen `Woods

A quick hand and trained eye scrolled through a webpage, a site linked up along with every other to her email, and to her own worries an algorithm trained on her movements, as much as on those like her. Lilith didn’t like how this now intrinsic part of society reflected her life back at her. Or how, it became the only small window into her living family’s life. In the year of 3024 the hashtag, #GreasyChadFlu, spread by the corporate think tank Right-Clean, was trending on social media. The entirely fictional disease was rumoured in a mat...

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“Black Scales, Want and the Foolish Dreams of Human Beings” by Kathleen `Woods

“Thanks, Zoe.” went a brusque woman’s voice. It’s monday, and she’s just fetched coffee for her boss. This isn’t her real job, but she does it anyway. Mind you, this isn’t the petty distinction made by an overworked secretary. Though she is one. Her real job doesn’t generally work if you aren’t privy to the lifestyle you're trying to infiltrate. Zoe Haumann is a spy. Though, to name her true intentions, position, or affiliations would be counterproductive. In a world where such a job role could vary from criminal to corporate, ther...

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Author bio

So I’ve been contemplating this addition to my bio for a while: I’ve decided that while I’m happy to get Links in my comments to other peoples stories, I also want to get and encourage more analysis for my work. And hopefully encourage myself to do the same. Here’s an open invite: Please if you’ve posted something no matter how old on here that happens to have similarities in Subject, Character or Style to something of mine, post a link to it in the comment section of the associated work. Thanks for reading! Is it weird to say that I've learned my current writing style through instant message? you might see a preference for the fantastical, but this is mostly inexperience on my part. I believe in going first by subject then by sound, which is why I sometimes edit with an E-reader. Those who I've bothered in their comment section may be aware of its alternative use. I like knowing that unrelated people read my work sometimes. I sometimes get bogged down by my style, and by attempts at subtext. If this helps you to make the choice to comment, Remember that it's easier to cut a hemline with distance than with a mirror. By that I mean, you aren't doing anything wrong by telling me what you see, even if it wasn't intended on my part. Also I don't know whether this counts as pressure or not, but shoving opinions on my older stories is actually a really good idea, and you should do it.