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Marte Van Der Linden

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Aug, 2019

Stories (51)
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513 Followers
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51 Stories

1760 karma pts

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Codename Paul

Submitted to Contest #24

He was given false papers, a gun disguised as a pen and the codename Paul. Additional tools and weapons would be given to him when he reported for duty at midnight. That left him only six hours to tidy away his meagre belongings and get whatever sleep he could. He would have to say his farewells too. Louisa was not going to be happy. Would she want to come? Would she be able to?“We’ve got your will already, I see.” The commander closed the file on his desk. “Any questions?”“No, sir.”“Good luck, then. Dismissed.”Paul saluted and went in searc...

13 likes 7 comments 7
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The colours of snow

Shortlisted for Contest #23 ⭐️

With the first snowflakes came a heavy silence. The city hunkered down to weather the storm. Flurries of snow shot down the alleyways and settled in thick piles in the parks. Andrew stood at the window of his apartment on the sixteenth floor and watched the view disappear into a swirl of white. Lena watched the same snowflakes from her apartment, also on the sixteenth floor, but in the tower block on the other side of the street. They both stood in silence as the world shrank down to the size of a window and filled up with snow.The storm ble...

14 likes 2 comments 2
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The old year and the new

Shortlisted for Contest #22 ⭐️

The annual handover party was already in full swing when Twenty-Twenty’s cab pulled up in front of the city hall. He paid the cabby and gave him a generous tip.“Thanks, guv. Have a good New Year’s eve party, and happy new year.”“And to you.”Happy. Yes, Twenty-Twenty supposed he could be happy.The doors of the hall were open and a jumble of laughter and twinkling lights spilt out onto the pavement. He stepped into the hall and let the sounds and smells of the party envelop him. At least four different songs were playing simultaneously over th...

13 likes 0 comments 0
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A normal day

Submitted to Contest #22

On the thirty-first of December, Emily locked the door, closed the curtains and played classical music to drown out all noise from outside. She started with Chopin. Outside the sun was shining. Beams of sunlight crept through gaps in the curtains and she had to keep tugging them shut. She dusted the bookshelves and cleaned the bathroom, all the while pretending it was evening, a Tuesday, somewhere in January.Around noon someone in the street set of a couple of firecrackers, and Emily twisted the volume knob on her stereo. Even at maximum vol...

16 likes 4 comments 4
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No footprints in the snow

Shortlisted for Contest #21 ⭐️

It was nearly midnight and I was beginning to hope I could spend the last hours of my shift quietly cleaning tables and polishing glasses. Then the door blew open and a man dressed as Santa Claus stepped inside.“Merry Christmas!” he said, beaming at me and throwing his arms wide. He even ho-ho-hoed.“And to you,” I said, smiling my customer service smile. “What can I get you?”“A glass of coke, please.” The guy in the Santa suit was broad and round-bellied and had a little difficulty getting onto a barstool. The padding was probably his own.I ...

13 likes 1 comment 1
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We wish you a merry doomsday

Submitted to Contest #21

There had been some discussion about the dress code for the Christmas party. Mike from Financial Exploitation had suggested ugly Christmas sweaters but he had been shouted down by the eco-conscious millennials from Propaganda. Jess from Inhuman Resources was all for science fiction, Dylan from Nuclear Acquisitions wanted horror, and Ana from Hacking said they might as well drop the dress code altogether because there was no way in hell she would change out of her ripped jeans and oversized hoodie anyway. In the end, word had come down from o...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Bleak Midwinter

Submitted to Contest #20

It will be my first Christmas alone. I’ve hardly left my room today. There’s nothing outside that I particularly want to do and no place I want to go. Mum says she understands why I’m not coming home, but she doesn’t, not really. I’ve tried to explain to her that I can’t afford to be sentimental. My student loan is growing at an exponential rate. And besides, I could use the two weeks of uninterrupted studying time. So I sit inside and read until my eyes hurt, hoping that understanding will trickle into my brain. So far, quantum mechanics is...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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Another five hours

Submitted to Contest #20

The world is ending tonight but it’s no big deal. The clock on the wall says we have five hours until the nuclear warhead detonates. It’s currently lodged near the magma chamber of a super volcano. The explosion will result in a crater the size of a continent. Next, a cloud of flammable gases and particles will engulf the atmosphere. It will ignite a few minutes later. The final result will be like the earth turning itself inside out and catching fire. If you’re a doomsday prepper with a bunker under your house - congratulations, you might l...

12 likes 3 comments 3
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The shop on the corner of the space-time continuum

Shortlisted for Contest #19 ⭐️

Inside the little shop on the corner, space and time have folded themselves back to reveal a thousand rooms on fifty different floors. The shop is more than a thousand years old. Harald Helgason, the first owner, still lives in a distant corner of the ground floor, where he sells furs and silver jewellery and trades with Viking raiders. The future confuses him, so he rarely ventures onto the upper floors where his descendants live. He has five sons and daughters, and they run the shop on the floor above his. Two of his grandchildren sell fur...

18 likes 3 comments 3
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On the use of slippers in hand-to-hand combat

Submitted to Contest #18

There’s an Egyptian dessert called Oum Ali which commemorates a murder. The story goes that Shajar al-Durr, widow of a 13th century sultan, could not be ruler of Egypt unless she married. So she found herself a total pushover of a husband named Izz al-Din Aybak who she thought would make a fine puppet sultan. He was already married, but that did not stop the ambitious sultana-to-be. She simply forbade him from seeing his first wife and his son Ali.The ruling couple did not exactly live happily ever after. The sultan missed his old family. Ev...

10 likes 3 comments 3
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Five souls

Submitted to Contest #17

Old Henry Mortimer was extraordinarily wealthy and universally loathed, two traits which had served him well his entire life. He enjoyed fast cars, fine wines and a good argument.His relatives never asked him for money. Not after what had happened Aunt Gertrude. She hadn’t asked for much, oh no, just a few hundred, to fix that dreadful leaky roof, and he wouldn’t be so cruel to his own flesh and blood, would he? The roof had come crashing down the next month and Aunt Gertrude had ended up in a gloomy boarding house overlooking the railway, w...

11 likes 7 comments 7
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The blue-haired witch

Submitted to Contest #16

Grandma used to tell me all sorts of stories before she fell ill. She told me about the witch who lived far away in the deep dark woods and would grant wishes. But only if you completed the tasks she set you. If you failed, she would cook you and eat you.I loved listening to those stories. Once, when I was about six, I declared that I would go and find the witch and ask her to give me wings so I could fly. But grandma grabbed my shoulders with her bony fingers and shook me until my teeth rattled. “Never do that!” she said. She made me swear ...

11 likes 3 comments 3
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Instruction manual: Cook-It WhirlBlend Xtreme 2.0

Submitted to Contest #15

Welcome to the Cook-It family! We congratulate you on your purchase of the Cook-It WhirlBlend Xtreme 2.0! With the Cook-It WhirlBlend Xtreme 2.0 you’ll enjoy easy blending and mixing. It is perfect for creating the richest and creamiest soups and smoothies with a simple touch of the button. Hang on, did anyone actually do a double-blind randomised controlled trial? I mean, we can’t just claim that our blender makes the creamiest smoothies without testing all the other blenders on the market. Maybe I should worry about that later and just wri...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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The crash

Submitted to Contest #14

The ground was approaching at an alarming speed and there was nothing they could do about it.Hugo was twisted in his seat, with his face pressed against the communications panel. “Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Intrepid 5, we have engine trouble, I repeat -”Sparks shot out of the panel and he jerked back just in time.“We’ve lost communications!” Hugo shouted above the high-pitched whine that was emanating from the engines.Sweat was streaming down Cath’s face as she fought with the controls. A steep hillside appeared in front of them. Cath b...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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Katie

Submitted to Contest #13

I rang the doorbell to Katie’s house and a woman in a blue dress opened the door. You can always tell whether grown-ups are parents. Parents look friendly and comfortable but also a little bit ragged around the edges. This woman was not like that. Everything about her was neat and tidy, with sharp creases in her clothes and smoothed angles on her body. She glanced left and right before looking down. “Oh, hello!” She made her voice go up a little bit at the end and when she smiled I could count her teeth. “Can Katie come out and play, please?...

32 likes 11 comments 11
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