Katya Z.

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

Stories (5)

5 Stories

88 karma pts

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“House of the Prairies” by Katya Z.

Submitted to Contest #102

I am traveling this summer, to a place I have not been in years — but, you see, this time, it is not so easy. This time, there is a citizenship to sort out, a visa to adhere to, a claim to identity that I must uphold when faced with customs and border patrol. This time, I am no longer a child, and I no longer am accorded the niceties and forgiveness people grant to children who do not know better, and have little reason to. This time, I will be a woman alone in a country I have only seen on western, American news — backwards, they call it, a...

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“The Blinking World” by Katya Z.

Submitted to Contest #101

Some time ago, on a slow morning of the lovely kind, Aramina woke to find she had finally slept the night. The mortal weight had settled in her joints, in the tissues between them. There was a crick in her neck. She sat up and stretched and felt the energy crackle in her muscles, felt a quiet groan crawl up her throat. These would be her mornings, now. She would always wake like this.A triplet knock on her door, then Lark walked right in. “You slept.”“I did.”“Did okay?”“I think so. No visions, no dreams.” Aramina rolled her neck, letting her...

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“All the Little Things” by Katya Z.

Submitted to Contest #100

When the moments come, they do so quietly, as though they never meant to stop by at all.From the car trunk come the groceries, paper bags overflowing with meat and fruit and wine, store-fresh flowers for the table, perhaps a watermelon. To enter the house is to descend the driveway and pass through an old gate, its shuttering belabored by the crowding weeds, then to cross the open patio. The bird-baths murmur gentle greetings. Wind spins music from the over-arching trees. Place your paper bags down on the doormat and turn the knob — this doo...

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“Promise Me, Little Bird” by Katya Z.

Submitted to Contest #100

They broke for camp late, too late, and waking up alive and alone was the greatest surprise that it could have been. Lark crawled free of the tarp first, to start the fire and set the coffee. Aramina stayed under to wrap their mats and stuff their bags. A lovely form of monotony, packing up camp. The meat of it never dared to change.Aramina tossed their bags, then followed them outside. Pine-scent brushed her nose, thick in this ring of evergreens. The ground was soft with their needles. Luck had been with them last night, and the spot they ...

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“The Hill House” by Katya Z.

Submitted to Contest #95

The Hill House pretended to stand on a hill in much the same way it pretended to be a house, which is to say there was a hill but no house to stand atop it, and the adventurous who tried to reach it often found themselves confused and ambling back the way they had come. It was not a place one returned to. From the sky, the only way was down, and down began at the gates of a house-like thing that could never quite decide what kind of house it wanted to look like. It did not know how many rooms it had, or what kind of rooms there were, i...

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