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
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jun, 2021
"Another of the same?" The bartender asks, setting down another whisky with two lime wedges squirted into it onto the counter. You know when the bartender at your ex-girlfriend's wedding knows your drink order you've probably had enough to drink. But it's sitting right there, and it's free. Compliments of her new inlaws' bottomless wallet."Thanks," I mumble and take the glass with me. I've circled the dance floor about twelve times now. I've watched Bianca dance with just about every man in the room and she doesn't even look tired. I guess i...
Don’t Trope Over Your Shoelaces I really don’t know what to say. My story isn’t 1000 words, so here’s a rant: I haven’t written anything in a while. I got a notification that someone new followed me and I am always so incredulous at the fact that real people are seeing my work and like it. I’ve been doing other, bigger projects lately, but I would love to come back to doing short stories every Friday! I hope you enjoy this extra short story. It was such a fun thing to write after working on things that never seem to end. So close! Ah I just ...
I know the pouring rain outside can’t be helped. Just as nothing could have stopped him from leaving. Just as no one can help me. The drip drip drip of the rain falling off the ceiling into a bucket is the source of my annoyance. No, the source of my annoyance is much deeper, much darker. I know there is a soft blanket around me, but I no longer feel its warmth. The warmth has left this house for good, just as I must. The thought of leaving the leaky ceiling and the rotting floors and the creaky doors is too sad, too depressing. I know the b...
Part I The cold saltwater numbs my feet as I stand in the ocean in the shallows of Rea, one of the Islands of Palea. The fish I came to collect lay in a net back on shore. Ysac will be expecting me, I’ve stayed much too long. I take a deep breath and trudge back to shore. As I heft the net full of fish over my shoulder, a soft, clear voice drifts across the water. The sound is so sweet, so lovely that I find myself walking unconsciously towards it. I wade back into the water, dropping the fish. I’m up to my waist in the water when the singin...
Blue water. For miles and miles. There is nothing else to see out of the small porthole in my cramped bedroom. The smell of sweat and baked potatoes drifts down from the men’s room and the kitchen where Smiley cooks night and day. They call him smiley because he’s the only member of the crew without any missing teeth, besides me of course, but I already have a nickname. I relish the quiet of the night, punctured only by the occasional snore. Nothing like the sounds of the day. Yells, orders, waves, and the ring of the meal bell. Our little s...
Jexx knew his parents wouldn’t be happy if they knew he was here, but at the moment he couldn’t bring himself to care. As a child, Jexx had been know as Infant 1708845, but when his parents had been allowed permission to give him a name, they’d chosen Jexx. He was different from the other Infants, not quite what he was supposed to be. When he started to go to lessons, he tried hard to make acquaintances, but no one wanted to be around him. Whispers started to follow him everywhere, a range of ideas to explain his abnormality. He’d felt like ...
Submitted to Contest #105
Six swords, three Acquirers, and two days to complete the mission. Seems low odds for success, but we’re professionals. There is no way we’ll fail. I met Aleck and Katalina when we were entered at five years old to be trained. The Masters ripped us from our families and destroyed anything unique about us. The girls were separated from the boys and we were given drab clothes and matching haircuts. No one slept that night in the uncomfortable canvas cots. The evening was filled with sobs and cries for mothers. I didn’t cry. I knew why I was he...
The craving began so quickly I hardly realized what it was. My heart hammered in my ears, the muscles in my arms pulsing. I was excited. So excited I wanted to cry. I wanted something and I wanted it so badly it hurt. All night was spent tossing and turning trying to rid myself of the persistent feeling that was both annoying and somewhat pleasing. It continued through the morning. I tried to calm it by reading, but somehow that just seemed to make it swell. It felt hopeful and desperate. I wish I could just have the thing and silence the ne...
Submitted to Contest #103
Down the street, only three blocks away from mine, lies a big dark house with windows that are always shrouded in shade, even when the sun is out. All the kids on the block avoided it. Except on Halloween night, when all the kids dare each other to ring the doorbell. I never accepted the challenge, even when my friends called me names. I knew better, there was something off about the place, some kind of weird smell hung around the place like a molding blanket you wrap around a poor child. Plus I’ve seen the signs that others haven’t. The kid...
I hope everyone is doing well, just wanted to say: Thank you for reading my stories! It makes me happy to know that other people out there like my writing too. I hope everyone is having a great summer. Thanks again!!! And I hope you enjoy!Will You Still Love Me?Margot PierpointWhen two children meet each other it is what people call friendship at first sight, but when two children who are destined to love each other, always, that is what people call a miracle. And when Elyse and I met, it was more, it was so much more. If it could be called ...
Submitted to Contest #100
When Life Gives you Lemons Margot Pierpoint Just wanted to say that it so far has been a really hot summer, and it's not usually so hot here, but if you have a lake or beach to go to it's not so bad. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story, I try to submit one every week, even if it's not that good. So I present to you: When Life Gives you Lemons. *death, mangled bodies, sadness* Back then I was young and willing. Now look at me, mother to six: three girls three boys. Back then I was young and beautiful. Now, look at me, old and wrinkled, ti...
Submitted to Contest #99
Some people say that as you get older your memories fade. Others say with age comes wisdom. I say the moments that change your life you never forget, no matter how old. I know that I won’t forget that day sixty summers ago when I was just a girl. That fateful day when I met Ruby. It was the night before the solstice gathering and my mother was putting the final touches on my silky dress. My mother had worked long and hard on the dress, saving up to buy the soft floral printed fabric. I stood there in the wavering light of the oil lamp, as my...
Every year on the fifteenth of the sixth month, which is thought to be the center of the year when anything can happen, my family celebrates with a strange tradition. No one but my mother entirely understands why we do it, but we go along because if we don’t, supposedly some dark spirit will eat our soul. We all have our own crazy definitions for the tradition, my brother Pup thinks that my mother wants to entwine our histories and destinies so that we will never part. I think she does it because of the dark monster that swells in her chest ...
Submitted to Contest #97
It was a warm summer Saturday, ordinary and oppressive. I was in the corner store my family and I started ten years ago, when my daughter Sunny was just an imagination. Just like every night I was scrubbing down the surfaces and emptying the cash register. Then just like very night Sunny and I walked three blocks to our small home. We passed the small garden Sunny’s mother made and the mural Sunny painted on the side of the house last year. The smell of our home wafted out to greet us when I unlocked the door. We walked in and took a deep br...
Submitted to Contest #96
I remember the night like it was yesterday. I was asleep when the loud knock came on my door. I reluctantly heaved myself out of bed and down the stairs to the front door. I remember thinking it was probably my nextdoor neighbor/sister coming to talk, so I left my hair in the messy state it was in. I remember the utter surprise when I opened my yellow door, with the chipping paint and squeaky doornob, and the person outside my house was a tall woman with dark hair tucked under a wide brimmed hat. It was hard to tell in the darkness but I cou...
Oops, you need an account for that!
Log in with your social account:
Or enter your email: