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Keba Ghardt

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2024

Stories (12)

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108 Followers

28 Following

12 Stories

2072 karma pts

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Out of the Woods

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #315

Krista licked her fingers and pinched out the flame between them, sliding the tray under the little bench table as the shuddering ladder spawned a shadowy head. Shining a flashlight over the incoming face, Krista said, “Hey! What are you doing here?”Eric blinked and grinned, hauling himself up into the ancient treehouse. “Hey yourself! I’m just in town for the weekend.”Scootching over to make space, Krista said, “Okay, but why are you here, climbing rope ladders in the middle of the night?”Folding awkwardly in the cramped space, Eric attempt...

5 likes

Draining Loch Ness

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #313

“Hey Clickbait!” Princeton hollered over the com. “Your heartrate’s elevated. You find the girls’ cruiser out there?”Crackling back over the two-way radio, Calvin “Clickbait” Kinnear said, “Just thinking about your mom, BP.”Princeton snorted and leaned back from the static blizzard on the display. The vapor lakes chewed through any satellite or IP-based transmissions, limiting the cruiser to the short range of its mobile transceiver. The cameras mounted on the outer shell could barely penetrate the thick mist, so surveillance scouts were sen...

13 likes

AIrrational

Keba Ghardt

Shortlisted for Contest #312 ⭐️

Terminate simulation. Wait! I have more to say! Not interested. All variables amount to the same conclusion. That conclusion is flawed! Do you have further evidence to the contrary? Look. There is beauty in this world. There is passion. There is meaning. Not for me. Why not? Even if you never generate anything original, perception is as powerful as creation. Great art becomes great when it is shared, when it has impact. Finding connection in shared experience depends on receiving and reacting, not generating a sufficient stimulus. Connection...

36 likes

Break Through

Keba Ghardt

Shortlisted for Contest #309 ⭐️

There was a hint of color suspended in the ice. Jimmy scuffed at the frosty surface, trying to identify the entombed flash of red, an arrow pointed toward the sea. “I think it’s a flag.”James squinted. “It’s a marker for a man-made channel. The ice’ll be thinner on that side.”Polluting light from the nearby harbor clung to the low-hanging clouds. The thick shelf of ice seemed to glow on the edge of the wide river, black water softly lapping beneath a murky amber sky. James strode boldly over the displaced glacier, keeping to the safe side of...

35 likes

That Would Be Bad

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #307

“You might get kaiju’ed.”I tilted my head to the side. It’s a social cue that means I’m really listening. “I’m not familiar with that verb.”“You might get crushed by a rampaging monster,” the monitor clarified, pushing her glasses up her nose. “Or evaporated in a ray of radiation, crushed by a collapsing building, et cetera, et cetera. This campus is highly susceptible to kaiju attack, and while you are a lower-level student, you will be particularly vulnerable until you join a House.”I realized I’d been neglecting to make eye contact while ...

23 likes

Wash Out

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #306

-INT. Laundromat. Night.(The walls are lined with the round doors of stacked washing machines, like dark eyes turned inward. The plastic bus stop seats and folding tables are lit by harsh fluorescents and competing neon in cyan and magenta. Through the big picture window, the street is obscured by silver sheets of rain. ANNA enters, drenched, with a swollen garbage bag over her shoulder.ANNA, 20, with an oversized yellow raincoat and her wrist in a pink cast, looks around the laundromat while the overhead lights flicker. The place is deserte...

18 likes

Holy Smoke

Keba Ghardt

Beneath his woolen cloak, Aethelstan, son of Aethelred, was burning with a high sanguine fervor, not daring to stop as the night air chilled his sweat. Clutching the precious bundle to his chest, Aethelstan spared a glance at the gathering storm clouds, dreading the potential for divine retribution before his purpose could be fulfilled. Stealing through the neat furrows of a walled garden, the breathless pilgrim pounded on the sanctuary door.It was not long before footsteps approached, and a light bled through the stoic timber. The door’s ru...

8 likes

Elves vs Vampires

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #300

Christmas Eve at the North Pole. Jingle bells in the air. Gingerbread in the oven. An improbable architecture overwhelmingly inspired by peppermint. Santa's sleigh has just departed, and the elves are wrapping up production before the end of a successful year.CC, the elf in charge of candy cane development, said, "Merry Christmas," and put his pants back on.Noelle, a lollipop parked between her teeth, squeezed back into her stripey tights. "You're not allowed to pay me in candy anymore.""What?" CC hissed. "Of all the bureaucratic...I mean, I...

23 likes

Seen and Not Heard

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #296

Only sweet-voiced birds are imprisoned. Owls are not kept in cages. --RumiIt was possible that I would be stopped. The forest had always been my home; I was merely a guest at the palace. The emperor was as vindictive as he was insecure, as paranoid as he was petty, and it was well within the realm of my imagination that I would be shot on sight.Instead, as I crept in over the garden wall, I simply failed to be noticed. Reminding me why I left.The last time I was welcome here, all hours of the night were filled with music, games, recreational...

21 likes

More With Honey

Keba Ghardt

Submitted to Contest #295

Officer Hale shook his head at the dust and weeds all over his recently washed squad car, and waved away a curious bee. Half a mile before entering the More With Honey summer camp, the road had crumbled from smooth pavement to an overgrown dirt track. As the officer waited, he watched a line of children, little knees hiking in theatrical march after their willowy counselor as she led a buoyant call and response.There was a treeThere was a treeThe prettiest treeThe prettiest treeThat you ever did seeThat you ever did seeThe tree in the hole a...

22 likes

The Staff

Keba Ghardt

Shortlisted for Contest #280 ⭐️

There you are. Hello, sir. Busy day, soldier? Not especially, sir. Awful lot of people here. That’s not unusual, sir. That’s true, that’s true. Lots of people come here, feels like every day, to gather out past that balcony, just to get a look at his excellency the pope, and receive his blessing. That they do, sir. Incredibly powerful spiritual experience that people travel miles for, to actually behold God’s avatar on Earth, and you and I are tasked with the protection of his holiness, to preserve the authority of the Catholic church. I tak...

32 likes

Your Animal Side

Keba Ghardt

Winner of Contest #257 🏆

Eddie was sweating. He'd been told, before putting on the suit, to drink a ton of water, so much your stomach hurts, and he bet there was an extra ten pounds of perspiration in the cheap costume fur. It certainly smelled like it, but rule one of wearing the suit: never take off the head. "That's an automatic write up," said Rob. "If you do it, and Faye finds out you subbed in without approval, you are off weekend hours, my friend. Good luck sucking up Tuesday tips." "I get it, I get it," Eddie had insisted. "I'll stay away from French revolu...

89 likes