Luciano Cortese

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2023

Stories (6)

6 Stories

153 karma pts

?

“A Sickness” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #279

(TW: generational trauma, PTSD, childhood trauma, all against the background of magic. )You learned a lot of things when you became a father. Especially when you were the primary caretaker. One of these things Isagani had long been forced to learn was that every child was unlike any other. They were quite like species of monsters-- each had their own weaknesses and strengths and abilities. All humans were like that, really, but children were on a whole another level. The rules one child considered fair could be abhorrent to another. In that ...

Read story

“Library of Secrets” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #223

It was quite a thing to say that you’d practically grown up in the city’s biggest library and archives. Quail could still remember his younger years right after being adopted, as he tentatively explored the halls and wandered between bookshelves, checked maps, tried to find everything he could here. The King Library and Archives was a mysterious place, full of hoarded knowledge and forgotten things. If you were looking for secrets, you’d find plenty exploring its five floors, big enough to take up an entire city block and yet still seeming b...

Read story

“Yellow or Purple?” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #223

“The white people are at it again, Professor King.” Hiraya deadpanned as soon as she found her favorite librarian.Professor Isagani King burst into laughter, interrupting the miniature tutoring he’d been giving a student. “Apologies. Do you think you understand the material now? I can come back to help later if you need it.” He crooned softly to the student he’d been with before Hiraya entered. Hiraya picked at her dark purple uniform sweater as she waited.“I think I’ve got it now! Thank you, Professor King. Can you check my work later?” The...

Read story

“Dream of Reality” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #220

Tw: heavy themes of unreality, existential dread/horror, heavy mentions of depressing real-world topicsTWEE TWEE TWEE. Anna slams her hand on the alarm multiple times, amidst it’s shrieking, and finally it shuts up. As she sits up and stretches, she thinks about the extremely weird dream she was just having. Maybe she took much Tylenol last night. She shrugs it off.She checks the TV for the weather. It’s going to lightly rain today, it says. So as she gets ready for her morning walk, she puts on her bright blue raincoat.Everything goes well ...

Read story

“Favoritism” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #219

Tw: Stockholm syndrome, unreliable narrator, horrific things seen positively by narrator.“What’s life like outside the prison?” Branimir had once asked the Warden when he was a little boy. He’d been staring out of the spaces between bars at the little bit of outside he could see from his cell, standing on his tiptoes on the stool.”Hell.” The Warden replied simply. “It’s not a place you want to be in. It’s full of murderers and gluttons who starve the less fortunate for fun. You need to stay here, where it’s safe. Besides… you have not yet at...

Read story

“Cursed/Blessed” by Luciano Cortese

Submitted to Contest #219

tw: gore, non-physical child abuse, body horror, police being terrible, mild transphobiaIn the city where Aisal dreams, there are eyes everywhere. Black towers stretch towards the twin suns, mist rolls off the lake, and floating eyeballs watch the citizens go about their day.Aisal has never minded it. The eyeballs keep a close eye on him as he walks towards a castle so black it looks as if it’s made of shadows, the light not reflecting off it at all.A bunch of kids come running out of the castle to greet him, and Aisal laughs and picks up th...

Read story

Author bio

Autistic trans man who's been obsessed with writing since the moment he could read. Only recently started trying to get original works out there. I tend to write a lot of horror and morally ambiguous folks that you can’t tell if you’re supposed to rooting for or against.