Nina Chyll

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2021

Stories (11)

11 Stories

907 karma pts

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“On the Origin of Shadows” by Nina Chyll

There are two things I have always wanted you to know about the house. Ever since you picked it out, in the middle of a recession, at a heavy discount, as you put it. As if it was a carton of milk about to go out of date. For us, you said, finally away from the hustle. And there are two things I have wanted to tell you. But I didn’t know how. 1. I hate the back garden glass door — it’s like a wound barely...

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“Raw Sienna” by Nina Chyll

Different day, same nurse with a stump where her empathy should be. ‘And you’re absolutely sure you fell down the stairs again?’Sienna nodded and the nurse rolled her eyes. ‘You sure are a klutz,’ she commented and licked her finger to turn the page on the form she’d filled out last time. ‘Still no family history of inner ear disorders? Strokes? Brain tumours?’Some nurses at the emergency department tried to coax the truth out with words dripping like honey, but Sienna was allergic to honey. Some raised their eyebrows so hig...

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“The Tree Surgeon's Dictionary” by Nina Chyll

Content warning: terminal illness IMBIBITION: the absorption of water by a seed, stimulating the enzymes required for growth. They’re visiting the quiet grandparents when her father says, ‘One day, you’ll find me here, too. Nothing is forever.’ His voice sounds like it’s coming from under the ground, like he’s already training her for what’s to come. The girl is so small her feet dangle off the folding plastic bench. She stares at her grandparents’ names and oval phot...

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“Come Again” by Nina Chyll

CW: suicidal thoughtsMy mother dropped a thermometer once when I was little. I leaned over the mosaic of broken glass and mercury beads, and a hypnotised hand extended to pick up one of the perfect balls. The sight ripped a screech out of my mother, so shrill it sounded prehistoric, making the hand retreat immediately. She took me in her relieved arms. ‘You’re like a magpie, aren’t you? Can’t say no to shiny things.’It’s twenty-five degrees outside. I know because I’m looking at a thermometer similar to...

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“Medium Red Riding Hood” by Nina Chyll

CW: recurrent thoughts of self-harm and assault, mental illness, violence against women He was just leaving the empty off-license store, clutching a bag with a bottle of ouzo and three packets of cigarettes, when he spotted the woman. There was something peculiar about her. He squinted in the dark, trying to zero on in the silhouette on the other side of the road, but the neon sign tirelessly flickering behind the owner had filled his vision with floaters. How did those lights not make him go insane?

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“Poisson d'Avril” by Nina Chyll

“Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. In the Julian Calendar, the new year began around April 1.People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called ‘April fish.’ These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs.”...

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“Wasp Season” by Nina Chyll

Mark had lived the perfect cul-de-sac life for almost three years until that one summer, when godly providence clearly abandoned the dead end for some greener pastures. Until then, birds would chirp at dawn without fail and sometimes, if the night was really silent, they’d stir up an anxious song even in the dark. They’d weave feeble nests between the branches of the old maple tree growing fifteen feet from his...

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“Knocking. Up” by Nina Chyll

They were having a fight again. Never before had she seen a man try as many tricks to get a woman into bed. He cooked homemade pasta — granted, every piece looked different and they all clumped together in the pot, forming into an unsightly pasta monster, but at least he’d tried.He bought himself a new pair of boxer shorts — but because men never receive any advice on how to dress up sexily from screaming, almost pornographic ads, he got a pink pair that highlighted piss stains he’d accrued during the day.He even cleaned the...

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“Osteoarthritis” by Nina Chyll

To get to the very blank and very ominous page, it took exactly four clicks. First, he’d need to lift the top and press any key. As the screen lit up, he’d have to point the mouse at his name and his profile picture, set to a photo of the front of his house for a reason he decided not to ask his Granddaughter the Giver of the Laptop. Then, he’d have wait a few seconds for everything to order itself, render itsel...

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“Kodak 35” by Nina Chyll

Somebody yells quick, snap the bloody picture already, but she can’t understand anything apart from the word Foto, a word which scares her. She’s brave, she keeps still, her lips pursed, huddled together, her eyes staring into the black abyss of the lens. That’s how her mother told her to be — a statue. She’s only four. Her father’s night-time stories have grown darker lately, he’s been saying the camera steals a chunk of a person’s soul every time the shutter clicks, and she shudders, expecting to hear it any moment now. The man who hold...

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“Lady with an Isabelle” by Nina Chyll

In her messages, sometimes sent well into the night, she talked of the rustling trees and the little creek murmuring in the woods behind the house. He thought it sounded like bliss and felt so annoyed, lying in his rented single bed of a small, fourth-floor flat, that he would often get an angry erection. He did nothing about it. If anything, he’d try to walk it off. She wasn’t particularly pretty. She wasn’t particularl...

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Author bio

Honesty, even the brutal kind, always welcome - I love me a good cry. Ultimate fantasy: to be Colin Firth in that church in "Kingsman". Bis ihr alle Brecht wie Bertolt Das ist für mich echter Erfolg Shortlisted ⭐ Contest #82: “Osteoarthritis”

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Contest #90

The Tree Surgeon's Dictionary – read story