Kelsey H

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021

Stories (11)

11 Stories

1140 karma pts

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“Another Woman's Son” by Kelsey H

CW: Child lossMy husband had warned me Josh Carter was back. Still when I came out of the supermarket and saw him, the shock of it stopped me.I stood frozen with a bag hanging from each hand, people parting around me. He was almost exactly as I remembered him. The same dark hair, the same swinging stride.I knew without having to think how old he was. Twenty-two next month. Just like Ryan would have been. Their birthdays were three weeks apart and I always used to make a cake for Josh t...

44 comments 44 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“The Living Things” by Kelsey H

I came to this beach as a child, but that was before any of the bad things which would happen had happened, so it was another world. My parents smoking and arguing in the front seat as they searched for a park, me and my brothers jostling for space in the back, the scent of coconut lotion on my arms.As an adult, here in the night, it was a different place. Black water under a black sky. The car park emptied out, the tip of the cigarette glowing in the darkness of the car. “Here,” the man in the pas...

43 comments 43 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Working Late” by Kelsey H

There were three good things about working graveyard shift. One was the drunks who came in and paid cash for their late-night energy drinks and snacks and didn’t notice him short changing them. A dollar here and there, it all added up. It didn’t even feel like stealing.It was for his boy, after all. Jamie had school sports and school trips and the good kind of shoes no one would give him shit for. His son deserved it more than those who had enough they didn’t count it to the last dollar.It was five...

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“The Lake” by Kelsey H

The summer I turned sixteen and got my license, Kyle Lewis was pulled dead from the lake. It was the week before Christmas and heat pressed down over the town. People went to the lake to cool off, but Kyle didn’t drown. There was no water in his lungs.Coming back now, ten years passed, like always when I returned to visit my parents, I found myself slowing down when I reached the lake. The turn off was on the long road which led to their house and then on into town, and I felt myself pulled toward it, as if a magnet lay ...

160 comments 160 WINNER 🏆
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“A Sad Song” by Kelsey H

It was 2AM and daylight felt forever away. Janie lay in her bed, staring at the lines of shadow cast around the room as the sodium light outside burned ceaselessly through the slat blinds.She couldn’t sleep. The house felt new and strange and empty, and the sound of a guitar vibrated through the wall from the unit which adjoined hers. What sort of person played guitar at 2AM? It wasn’t even a tune, just a twanging sound. Like he was plucking at the strings with his fingers. A small sound, as if he ...

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“When We See Him” by Kelsey H

He’s not like all the others, he’s different. That’s what my mother told me. But she said that about the others too.The day I met him he walked into the kitchen as I ate my breakfast, his boots heavy on the vinyl floor. He filled up the doorway, blotted out the sun.“Connor, this is Shane,” she said.I looked up at him, saw the shaved head and tattoos circling his neck in a dark ring, like something strangling him.He came into the kitchen and put his hand toward me, lik...

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“The Wanted One” by Kelsey H

Offensive language & mention of drug useShe’s crazy as hell, my mother is, though if anyone else said it I’d kick their head in. But I was my father’s son, everyone said so. I let them say that.When I’d left the house she was flinging all the windows open, saying it might explode from the change in air pressure. She tried to stop me when I told her I was going to Holly’s place, but the kitchen door was already wide open and I walked out.“It’s just a storm, not a damn torna...

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“Rain” by Kelsey H

There’s this photo in the hallway I can’t stop looking at. My mother sat astride a golden horse with a blue ribbon pinned to the bridle, her hair the same yellow as the horses. It’s hung in a wooden frame, the colours faded behind glass.My mother was nineteen years old, the same age as I am now. She’s not smiling yet she seems happy, a serene and satisfied look as if she had all she needed in this world. The horse’s name was Rain and she was ten years old. I was inside my mother still, bu...

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“Ouroboros” by Kelsey H

Ava parked in the dark space between streetlights, under the shadow of a tree. She looked across the road at her sister’s house and saw the light spilling from the bare kitchen window, casting a ghostly rectangle across the lawn.“Just act like everything is normal,” she’d said to Annemarie. “Make him something nice for dinner and crush a sleeping pill into it. Make sure he has a whiskey with it.”Don’t you remember, she could have added.She left the ignition running and the vap...

27 comments 27 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“Postcards to Nowhere” by Kelsey H

Six weeks after his father left, the first postcard came from him. “A postcard,” his mother said. “Where’s the return address? Where’s the goddamn cheque?”The postcard read Greetings from Perth in a swirling printed cursive. That was all the address they got. Three months after that they moved out of their house and went to live by the graveyard. At night he kept watch through the gaps in the metal slats of his blinds. He could see the high steel gate black and gleaming ...

15 comments 15 SHORTLIST ⭐️
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“What They Say” by Kelsey H

Somewhere near the West Coast, when we were almost out of the mountain pass, Jackson slowed the car, pointed into the dense forest, and spoke over the thud of music.“My uncle went missing around here, long time ago.”“What happened, was he found?”I didn’t look at him, not wanting to seem too eager. We met nearly a year ago, long enough we had moved in together, short enough I was still discovering new things about him.Like this, he had blasted music all the way down si...

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Author bio

Down here in New Zealand, reading and writing.

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #151
The Lake – read story

Shortlisted 4 stories ⭐️

Contest #164
Another Woman's Son – read story
Contest #158
The Living Things – read story
Contest #137
Ouroboros – read story
Contest #134
Postcards to Nowhere – read story