Liv Chocolate

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2022

Stories (17)

17 Stories

1380 karma pts

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“There Are Ghosts in Normal Heights, and You’re One of Them” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #276

I couldn’t breathe. Between the hot, moist gym air and the bacterial stench of sweat rags strewn across the floor, I felt a gag bubbling in my throat.I covered my nose with the sleeve of my flannel and breathed in the crisp, powdery smell of fabric softener. At that moment, I wondered why gyms were such popular mating grounds — a social hub to meet romantic and sexual prospects, as if we were at a dimly lit bar or under the moonlight.And then it happened. Through the haze of a dirty gym mirror, I, a neurotic grammar nazi with a fanny pack, h...

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“Root Beer ” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #274

cw: drowning I drowned in a paper cup once. One of those free ones that fast food places give you when you ask for a cup of water but then secretly fill with root beer, or whichever drink you like best.Only this cup was filled with water. Just plain tasteless tap water and nothing else.In my previous form, as well as every other form before that one, I had never been the type to fill my free water cup with soda. For one, I wasn’t a thief. Apparently I wasn’t a good swimmer either. I learned this as soon as I hit the water and my many spider ...

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“Candlestick Kingdom ” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #260

cw: greif, loss, deathI see my face in my mother’s. Her head, an oval-shaped mirror on a frail torso, shimmers in the moonlight and reflects my image back at me. I can see that I look just as despondent as I feel when I see my reflection in her. My eyes are swollen and my nose wet. I have been in denial for the last several years that my mother is reaching her end.When she first started showing signs of expiration, my father, the emperor of Candlestick Kingdom, took her to the appraiser, who examined her carefully under the light o...

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“Your Call Has Been Forwarded to a Place You Can Never Return ” by Liv Chocolate

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #202

cw: mild graphic material and brief mention of physical violence If you were here right now, you’d tell me this is a bad idea. You’d take away my phone and remind me that you can’t make someone stay who doesn't want to. You’d have saved me from creating yet another shame-inducing memory I’d end up cringing at five years later—while I’m pumping gas into my car, slicing a tomato, skimming the dead leaves from the pool we used to swim in.While I’ve tried to forget, the unfortunate fact of the matter is that I can recite your number by heart. I’...

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“Gate M41” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #196

cw: mentions of suicide, murder, sex, and terminal illness Balloons, apparently, are a weapon of mass destruction. Even the one that I’m fighting to get past security at this very moment—an 18” round one with the words GET WELL SOON printed above a cartoon sun wearing sunglasses. The more I look at it, the more it bothers me that the sun, in theory, is protecting himself against himself. Out of all the people in our lives, we hurt ourselves the most, my husband had warned me before I left. Are you sure you want to visit ...

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“Not-Fine Print” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #186

Background *This feeling, this dread, compressing your chest into a nervous, acidic pulp like putrid, century-old-squeezed orange juiceTM. Hereinafter referred to as “this anxiety.” Subscribers of "this anxiety" may feel worried, ill, and/or not fine. Subsidiaries of “this anxiety” include (but are not limited to) Generalized Anxiety Disorder®, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder® (“OCD”), Panic DisorderTM, and Social Anxiety DisorderTM. Services of this anxiety and its subsidiaries are operated and brought to you by the Overactive Amygdala of the...

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“I'll Stay Up All Night With You ” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #184

cw: foul language I close my eyes to sleep, but the bright, flickering light of a Liberty Mutual commercial passes through my eyelids. Suddenly, I’m awake. My heart jumps to my throat, and my face flushes hot. Still half-asleep, I take a moment to collect myself, to gather what has happened.It turns out, my husband has done it again—turned on our bedroom TV after I’ve already gone to bed. I consider turning it off point blank, or at least changing the channel to something more palatable. It’s 1:06 in the morning, and he’s chosen&nb...

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“Careful—You’ll Slip, Fall, and Die on Those Slippery Slopes ” by Liv Chocolate

🏆 Winner of Contest #182

cw: references to sexual assault, kidnapping, and murderThe first time I crossed a street by myself—as in, without one or both of my parents present—I was seventeen. My parents warned me that the outside world was dangerous, and that, if something were to happen to me, I wouldn't know what to do. According to my parents, kidnappers, murderers, and kidnapper-murderers lurked on every corner of our small, suburban town where, statistically, my chances of becoming the victim of a violent crime were less than my chances of being allowed to ...

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“Violet or Red” by Liv Chocolate

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #181

You were born on National Maple Syrup Day. Your mother names you Alcyone (pronounced AL-SEE-OWN-EE) because Alcyone means calm. It’s a cruel, unfitting choice given your family’s history of anxiety. You wish your name were something simple and easy-to-say, like Hannah.By the time you turn nineteen, you've grown tired of constantly having to correct people. It’s Al-see-own-ee, you tell them on the days you have more confidence than usual, but they don’t hear you, and if they do hear you, they forget. As far as they’re concerned, you are Aliso...

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“The Plastic Fragments of a Broken Sea Turtle Heart” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #179

cw: references to near-death experiences 1. Sea turtles, like most reptiles, have three-chambered hearts.There's no sound more unsettling than your own heart beating inside your head. It reminds Cheryl of her mortality—every time she lays her head down on her pillow the wrong way, and her pulse pounds against her skull like the Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on her door every Sunday to remind her that she won't live forever.Neither will turtles, but she’s never heard a Jehovah’s Witness talk about turtles. Turtle mortality was never a top...

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“The Papercut” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #177

When I wake up, the doctor gives me the facts. She delivers them to me gently—her voice like a warm cup of water you could steep a bag of tea in. Somehow, she’s made a car accident sound like a papercut, and so I decide that's what I'd like to call it from now on—a papercut. Can you feel your toes? she asks.I think so. It’s hard to tell. Hm. Can you tell me your name? John.Can you see anything, John? No. Is that normal?Typically. She excuses herself to check on another patient, and I anxiously wait for her to co...

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“B+Z” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #176

It’s a fact—if you and your lover carve your names into the northern red oak tree behind the gas station on Fifth Avenue, your relationship will last forever. Most people don’t think to try. The few who do are mostly driven by either curiosity or superstition. Compared to the curious ones, the superstitious ones are the more dangerous of the two. They flock to the tree with their utility knives and unhealthy attachment styles, desperate to do whatever it takes to make the object of their obsession stay.Beth sees this happen one summer w...

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“ Last Seen on the Corner of Melonbee and Fig” by Liv Chocolate

Submitted to Contest #174

Stop looking for me, Vivian. I command you. Your efforts are futile and beginning to border on idiotic. I can no longer stand it—watching you and your makeshift search crew of suburban moms pace up and down Melonbee and Fig Street, looking for the very being who terrorized you for years.With my omniscient feline eye, I'm aware of everything happening in this and every moment—the neon green LOST CAT signs stapled to the necks and torsos of the weeping cherry trees; your Lululemon-clad troop of PTA moms flooding every rosebush with t...

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“How to Return a Half-Eaten Cheeseburger From 1997” by Liv Chocolate

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #173

2006 You’re still there, right where I left you, wrapped up in the yellow wax paper blanket that keeps you warm against the ice-cold breath of the refrigerator. Even now, I still worry about you. In those sudden frantic moments that I cannot immediately locate you, I tear apart my refrigerator, pushing aside the tubs of low-fat yogurt and bottles of diet Snapple, until I find you, my one and only cheeseburger, tucked away in some icy, back corner, breathing in whatever years, days, seconds you have left of your precious, predeterm...

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“Resting She-Devil Face ” by Liv Chocolate

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #172

Thank heavens you’ve brushed away that nauseating carpet of dust from my face. I can finally breathe again! The only thing separating us now is the thin sheet of picture-frame glass between your gaze and my photograph. Of course, time also stands between us. An entire one-hundred-forty-eight years since my photo was taken—a stretch long enough for fashion, language, and customs to have evolved beyond my recognition. What little I understand of this modern world comes from the conversations I’ve overheard; the little bits and pieces I’ve gath...

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Author bio

Let's be virtual writing friends livchocolate94@gmail.com slightly obsessed with Britney Spears cat mom Spotify feature: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2UCYjVEJyXfqTEZStjcNhc?si=7f768fdf2c4c431e Podcast interview w Russel and Deidra: https://www.readlotswritelots.com/podcast/episode-54-alicia-paleno/ Currently reading: -Pearl S. Buck -Cookie Mueller -David Foster Wallace

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #182

Careful—You’ll Slip, Fall, and Die on Those Slippery Slopes – read story

Shortlisted 5 stories ⭐️

Contest #202

Your Call Has Been Forwarded to a Place You Can Never Return – read story

Contest #181

Violet or Red – read story

Contest #173

How to Return a Half-Eaten Cheeseburger From 1997 – read story

Contest #172

Resting She-Devil Face – read story

Contest #170

The Okayish Kids – read story