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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2020
Submitted to Contest #68
I yawn loudly, stretching my arms up into the sky. I rub at my eyes, exhausted from having been woken up before the sun. Brooklyn was giddy, practically jumping as she ran up the hill, calling over her shoulder for me to move faster. Even at four in the morning, she’s as energetic as ever. I stare up at her shadowed form from the foot of the hill where we play almost daily. It was still dark enough that we should have brought flashlights but Brooklyn overruled me. So, with cat pajamas, boots with no socks, and a thin jacket that did nothing ...
C/W: Terminal illness I can’t keep my eyes from drifting to the oxygen tank. I tried not to look at it, tried not to say anything, we’ve already had that conversation. Abby doesn’t need to be reminded of it every ten minutes for the next seven months, though we all hope she’ll last longer than that. Then again, wouldn’t it be cruel to drag this on? We sat on the swings behind Abby’s house. It’s a child’s swing set, the seats are made of plastic and barely big enough to sit on but we sit here anyway. Abby sits on the swing next to me, looking...
Submitted to Contest #67
“Capt'n losin’ his marbles,” I heard the First Mate, Andras, say from outside the door. I didn’t mean to be eavesdropping, I was only delivering a message. I paused outside the door, waiting to hear what the Quartermaster would say. After all, these are his chambers. I was surprised when another voice that I recognized came through, the Carpenter, Mase. “Aye, he be. Best nah to speak o’ it.” Realizing how suspicious I would look if someone found me standing outside of the door, I knocked. “Enter,” Quartermaster Kalin said. I opened the doo...
“Stay close, Zeno. No one’s very friendly to your kind ‘round these parts,” Nikki says. He knows a lot more about the Marketa than I ever will, especially since he’s a few hundred years older than I’ll ever have the chance to be. “As you’ve said,” I commented, adjusting the breathing mask on my face and making sure it was sealed. Three seconds and the atmosphere in this place will kill me. It’s not unusual to have one, glancing around I can catch a dozen others with masks, none of them human. I doubt there’s another human on the plane...
Submitted to Contest #65
“What's the matter? Scared of the dark?” Freddy Shaw shouted from somewhere behind me. His goons started laughing like maniacs. “We’re not scared!” Tim shouts beside me, though I’m not sure if he’s shouting at them or the creepy graveyard in front of us. Tim gripped his hands into fists and stood up straight to look tough but I can see his hands shaking. He marched forward as if being pulled by marionette strings and threw open the large black gate. It creaked and for a second I was sure that my parents could hear it from four blocks away. ...
I stare up at the starlit sky, watching the full moon disappear behind a bank of clouds and drift out again. The stars are bright tonight. I sit on a chair by my windowsill, Starfire curled up in my lap like when she was a little kitten. The black cat purrs, rubbing her head against my hand as her tail wraps around my arm. “It’s a perfect night, Starfire,” I whisper. Against my will, a grin breaks free and a giddy laugh escapes me. I clutch her to my chest. She yelps and wriggles out of my arms, falling to the floor. She meows. “Right...
I used to love Halloween. I loved the candy and the costumes and scaring my little brother half to death. Most of all, I loved it when we came home. Mom and Dad would sit on the couch and turn on a Halloween movie while Brian and I would dump out all our candy on the rug and boast about how many jolly ranchers we got. We would stay up till midnight--or until we passed out--trading candy and watching Halloween themed movies but never scary movies. I could never watch scary movies before I went to bed or I’d end up sleeping in my parent’s room...
Submitted to Contest #63
My eyes skim the parking lot again, looking for that familiar 2001 Chevy. It’s painted bright purple and impossible to miss but I can’t find it anywhere. My phone buzzed with a text from Jean, saying she was stuck in traffic and would be here in ten. I texted her a thumbs-up emoji and sat down on a hay bale to wait. They were set up in lines all around the edges of the apple orchard, where Jean should have met me five minutes ago. We’ve been planning to come here for weeks but she’s been so busy lately that I haven’t seen her much. It’ll be ...
Submitted to Contest #62
I flop back on my couch with a groan, closing my eyes as I sink into the soft leather. The last five hours of my day had been spent with Sol in the training grounds. Even after sixteen years of training with swords, maces, guns, knives, and a multitude of other weapons and techniques, it’s exhausting. Sol has been training me to fight since I was born. I can’t remember a time when at least three days out of the week wasn’t spent in the courtyard, learning numerous ways to be knocked down. He always says, “It’s not about how many times you ge...
Submitted to Contest #60
I don’t know how much longer I can keep running before I collapse. It’s especially hard with this fan blade strapped to my back. I would ditch it but the whole reason I went outside today was to get it. I was searching for hours and finally found one in the old junkyard before these wild dogs caught sight of me. It's too hot for this. I ran around a corner, skidding on the blacktop as I rushed onto Main Street. I don’t need to look back to know that the dogs are hot on my tail, I can hear it from their rabid barking and the skittering of th...
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