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Laura Camacho Frias

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2024

Stories (49)

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69 Followers

24 Following

49 Stories

1264 karma pts

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Trouble

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #303

My heart stopped beating at 11:35 on a Saturday morning. I heard someone saying I had waited for my daughter to arrive before giving my last breath, but the truth is that everything has been planned before, and I'm a man who likes his plans. That was the time expected, and that's when it happened. While a group of people discussed the music, candles and company I should have around in my last moments, the machine stopped beeping; I opened my eyes, choked, grabbed the first person who dared to hug me and died in the most gruesome and traumati...

27 likes

Sunday brunch

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #297

The end of the year was never easy at work. Not only did we have to meet the targetted results and face personal appraisals, but we also had to play it cool and smile whenever things did not go as expected, which was exhausting. You never know which part of your day and looks can be used as ammunition against you when competing for a promotion, so the only option is to prevent the enemy from gearing up against you. In the corporate world, no excuses are allowed on the path of survival and success. Those TV guys who travel to a desert island ...

20 likes

Tonight we drink

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #295

We were in the bar where my life had changed one year before. It was an odd place to celebrate a funeral, and still, convenient. It was dark, and close to a good alcohol supply. People would know what to do once the service was finished, and the poor lighting would be a perfect prelude for the dark night they would enter hours later.When we entered the place, the little silver urn on the counter reflected the light from the street as if someone were blinking at us. It did not suit him, the silver. I would have chosen a mate black, something ...

16 likes

Human Resources

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #294

[Follow up to Submission to Contest #193: The midnight ride] People are paid to do their job, no matter how much they say they like it. If the salary factor were removed, no one would stay at their desk, no matter how much they like what they do, their colleagues, or the work environment. That’s a fact; if anyone says otherwise, they lie. Still, to me, at that point, salary was the least of my concerns. Since I had had my promotion, I had spent a fair amount of time trying to understand what I was supposed to do about my job and how I was su...

28 likes

The midnight ride

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #293

It was a dark night, one of those without any stars to look at and a dark moon. Not even the Universe was interested in what was about to happen. There was no spotlight over me nor a guiding light to help me escape. As I ran to my car, one of my heels broke, and I twisted my ankle. I took out the shoes and limped to the door while looking for the keys in my purse. Damn big fancy bags. This whole scenario would have been much easier with jeans and sneakers, but that was not something I could change, and dreaming about better times would not h...

33 likes

Three

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #290

[You can decide how to read this story: Read the paragraphs up--> down, or scroll down and read your way up. Enjoy]--------------- Three o'clock. The bells chimed with uncontained joy, the frogs in the garden's pond croaked, and the priest said out loud, "You can kiss the bride." The guests clapped and cheered for them. The noise was unbearable, and the echoes in the building sounded like the roar of a hundred lions. Elias cupped his spouse's face with his hands and approached his lips to hers, but when they touched, she did not move. She...

31 likes

Happy Never After

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #289

[Ernesto] I reached the exit door, happy that no one had punched or yelled at me, but as happens to the overconfident, my happiness did not last long. Someone came after me and grabbed my shoulder, an older man I recognized as the groom's father. I turned my head, saw his fist, and heard:"You stupid son of…"He had no time to say anything else. Before his fist could even touch my face, I saw someone else come between us, someone who threw a punch at him: the bride's mother. "You knew it!" she cried. She looked at me and gently said, "Thank yo...

34 likes

Washed away

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #288

"Get out now! I'm telling you! Either you open that damned door, or I will knock it down!"He was completely soaked. The rain had not stopped for days, and no one was on the streets but him, competing with the deafening noise of the droplets hitting the roofs and windows. His shouting and screaming, though, was nothing like the water's roar. People had been complaining for months about the lack of rain and the cuts in the water supply, but after a whole week of nothing but water around us, no one spoke about that anymore. The river level had ...

43 likes

You can't always have what you want

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #287

After weeks of messages, everyone was in town. The last time I had shared coffee with my girlfriends had been six months before, during the Christmas holiday. That rainy afternoon, while they told me horror stories about children's presents and family dinners, I smiled inside, grateful for my simpler life, which did not require as much work or stress as theirs seemed to. I could not stop wondering what the point of such a daily rush and continuous pressure was when it was clear to me that it did not make them as happy as they pretended to be...

18 likes

That one day

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #285

I had to pee. I woke up in the middle of the night and walked the corridor to the bathroom. I was exhausted. I had not slept properly for weeks, and to make it worse, I felt like an old lady, having to visit the bathroom at least twice every night. With my eyes closed, I sat on the toilet and started to think about everything I was supposed to do the next day, or in three hours, to be more specific. Things at work had been complicated at best. We were in the middle of a department restructuring, and I was supposed to make my case to keep all...

7 likes

The present

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #284

"I don't think I can give you a promotion this year," he said. I felt a kick in my stomach. I wanted to scream and cry. Still, I did none of those things, and instead, I smiled at my manager. The year before, he had made me believe-- during the recruitment process-- I had better chances to climb the Corporate ladder by working in his department, but sitting in front of him in that tiny meeting room, I felt like a fool. Once more, I heard how difficult it was to make upper management give me an opportunity. After all, I did not behave as expe...

8 likes

Job description, role (un)clarity

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #283

[Continuation of Story Submitted to Contest #281 "Becoming"]I wasn't expecting that.My boss's smile was getting creepier and creepier, and I was losing my patience. Maybe it was because I had finally woken up to all the news of blood, job change, and world domination—this last one had not been mentioned, but the part about blood drainage and corporate vampirism made me think about it."I'm sorry, I'm what?" I asked. The cut on my arm was completely healed, and I still held the ceramic piece I'd used to prove my point."Part of the management t...

4 likes

Becoming

Laura Camacho Frias

[Continuation of Story Submitted to Contest #279 "The promotion"]"Nothing will taste the same," he said. "I'm really sorry we had to do it like this, but there was no other choice. The budget has been tight this year, and I only knew I could propose this to you this morning.""This? What is this? I don't understand what you said or what you are doing here. What are you doing in my house?" I said, looking at the coffee machine. I had not pressed the "On" button yet because his words had triggered something in me I couldn't understand. I had re...

4 likes

Forgotten

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #280

"Rita, is everything okay. Did I forget to kiss you goodnight?""Open the door immediately, Ernesto. We need to talk." "I'm here, it's open, what's happening?""How could you? Why didn't you tell me?""You seem upset. I don't understand.""I'm not upset; I'm furious! You should have told me!""What are you talking about?""We did it! We did it, and you said nothing.""Can you be a little bit more specific?""You need details?""If you don't mind, it would really help me to know what you are speaking about.""You think you are at work? Speaking wi...

8 likes

The promotion

Laura Camacho Frias

Submitted to Contest #279

This whole mess started last year, three weeks before Christmas. I was then working in a big company where everyone moved a lot, but no one really knew what they were doing. "Chasing the future," "shaping the world," and "Bending the rules of engineering" were our mottos, which, looking back, sound borderline delusional, but back in those days, it was my way of life. I was doing something awesome, even if it was almost impossible to describe my job or challenges to anyone from the outside world. It was too complicated and abstract, and I had...

16 likes