Menu

Prompts

Directory Contests Magazine FAQ

Apps

reedsymarketplace

Hire professionals for your project

reedsyblog

Advice, insights and news

reedsylearning

Online publishing courses

reedsylive

Free publishing webinars

reedsydiscovery

Launch your book in style

Bestseller Podcast Book Cover Art Success Stories

Tools

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Directory

Contests

Magazine

FAQ

Kenley Ellis

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2021

Stories (7)

Comments

Library

19 Followers

12 Following

7 Stories

220 karma pts

?

First Love in Waves & Dimensions

Kenley Ellis

Submitted to Contest #179

Don’t you remember? I see it every night in the shapes in my ceiling, flickering to technicolor when I hold a pillow close and imagine it’s your body. It was one of those warm summer evenings you could feel in your teeth. Everything that mattered was right there, biting; the fireflies blinking to life outside the window, the sky closing over your parked car. The lights on the dashboard played over your fingertips as you tinkered with the volume and traced them over my arm - “Why can’t you just hold my hand?” I asked, trying not to la...

16 likes

These Enchanted Shallow Waters

Kenley Ellis

Submitted to Contest #137

Life is not love, but then some people put life in a cardboard box with “LOVE” block lettered on the front. For those the world is special. And instead of being left with a dark and shadowy mind their memories will bend over backwards to show themselves in order. --- Once upon a time, she was sipping tea and candlelight with the great navy sky held aloft by the wind, right outside her window. She was still and listened only to the faraway sounds of the street. She was free. Once upon a time, a time very similar, he stood in ...

12 likes

Redolence

Kenley Ellis

Submitted to Contest #134

Marianne insists on taking me to the party even though I don’t want to go. Marianne, like that old song, and Marianne is more than a feeling. She lives for all the feelings. She doesn’t care about a lot of things but she likes to play with people’s minds because it makes her feel guilty, and excited, and fearful, and she gets a real kick out of it. She tumbles right into some conversation with some people that I’ve never heard of, and she hands me a drink absentmindedly that tastes just like orange juice but I know it isn’t because my...

11 likes

Little Red Raincoat

Kenley Ellis

Submitted to Contest #112

On the afternoon of my sixth birthday, the rain comes down hard and slow - just the way I like it. It patters against the window, comforting, as comforting as fingers on a typewriter, comforting like the beat of changements against the studio floor. My party inside is cozy. Mother and I sit by the fire. She’s the only guest, which is a title she earned by being my best friend. After all, it is us two from day one. Day one like the one gift, a small flat package. I tear it apart with greedy fingers. Inside is a little red raincoat, tho...

25 likes

Finding You

Kenley Ellis

Submitted to Contest #102

Love is a strange premonition. Love is like religion, I think. It hops from person to person, changing every time. Some people can say “I love you” after two months and some people choke trying to say it to their kids. People always like the idea of love. But the thing is, the truth that they don’t want to accept - the real thing only works for a select few. You wish for love, like everyone else. But what can you say? You haven’t found love. Not in scarlet-stamped letters, not in silver teardrops at the train station. Not under black um...

12 likes

Talking's Not a Sin But We Avoid it Anyway

Kenley Ellis

Submitted to Contest #94

I guess we’re all just supposed to fit into some sort of mold, aren’t we. But my brother and me, we’re not designed like that. Shiny new and perfect. Not really our style. The thing is just that he doesn’t feel anything. My brother, that is. I mean, he’s just there. Standing at my bed like a guardian angel, if guardian angels had faces like stone. Every day, I’m told that I should be grateful for him. Every day, I am also told that I am one step closer to death, and every day he does nothing but stare. So that’s how things are going at ...

12 likes

The Shadows of the Flowers

Kenley Ellis

Shortlisted for Contest #92 ⭐️

A general misconception about countryside homes is that they are beautiful and bright; I am basing this off of my personal misconception of the same kind. Countryside homes - they are like any other place on earth. They harbor equal shadow and light. Light is not always a fearless defender, you know. It does not chase away shadows. It is not on your side. More often than not, and always in real life, it shares space with the darkness. Nothing is fighting for you but yourself. It’s just the way things are. I understood that as a common l...

41 likes