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Matthew Gorrell

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Apr, 2021

Stories (5)

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9 Followers

7 Following

5 Stories

88 karma pts

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Blood Lake

Matthew Gorrell

“Everything was ready for the ritual,” I said to myself as my skeletal hand reached out to pull on the beaded cord of the dated light in my basement. The shallow pool of light shone upon rusty shelves overflowing with assorted tools and, as Johnny saw it, useless junk. Of course, it was not his own, not the reason he was in the dark crypt of a room. A thin haze of dust floated before his eyes. He pulls away a plastic crate full of his parent’s unused electronics and cords. He nonchalantly drops the box on the floor after struggling to li...

0 likes

Code Fifty Five-A

Matthew Gorrell

Submitted to Contest #94

“One dead Caucasian female wearing a floral blouse and jeans -- possible code fifty-five a.” The first official remark made about Janene after she found herself lost in a foreboding mirage of a locale most considered to be euphoric. But she saw past that. She saw it for what it really was and still suffered the same fate of so many beguiled teens before her.The controversial Baldwin Brother’s Carnival had arrived in Janene’s small town enticing teens out of their usual recreations. Most of which included recreational drug use or drinking out...

8 likes

Wounds for the Innocent

Matthew Gorrell

Submitted to Contest #92

tw: murder, violence It’s amazing what you can find on the internet these days- thought Diane Morales. Hell, maybe I would have even used it to find my Dad if I hadn’t given up on him entirely. Diane’s dilapidated apartment walls were almost completely barren minus a framed newspaper clipping entitled, “Will teenage prodigy Diane Morales follow up her hit novel, The Stalker’s Pray? A tale encompassing the life of a young pedophile killer.” The name of her novel was deliberately misspelled to emphasize the theme. Outside of her apartme...

10 likes

Magna Mater

Matthew Gorrell

Submitted to Contest #90

I hear the muffled roar of a junker being pushed past its limits just behind me. This cacophony is not alone as I am. Instead it is a fervent combination of tires fighting what I can only believe to be rugged back roads with gargled metal music that sounds more like the shrill of a boisterous demon. Hidden beneath all this disarray are the muted whisperings and sparse laughter of men stranger than the roads we speed down. The chaotic atmosphere reminds me of my family’s drunken gatherings comprised of howling matches and blaring m...

15 likes

Fear Itself

Matthew Gorrell

Submitted to Contest #89

Nothing is worse than having your sleep stolen from you unexpectedly. But, in retrospect, the unexpected is becoming the new norm. Death is in the air; people are hiding themselves from anything that’s real anymore and here I am, sitting up in bed, stirring due to a case of late-night insomnia. At any rate, I decide to check the time on my phone, despite knowing it would only make the fight for sleep all the more challenging. The simple action of pressing down the rubbery power button provides some sense of ease in my late-night unrest. I ...

8 likes