Rayhan Hidayat

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2020

Stories (36)

36 Stories

10506 karma pts

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“emotion sickness” by Rayhan Hidayat

It’s not easy, asking you out. You’re fleeting, like a firefly flitting through a sticky evening, refusing to be caught. I give chase anyway because I want to open the palms of my hands one day to find you glowing there, bright and ethereal, a flame on wings.At first, I don’t know what to make of you. Your eyes are downcast when you shuffle to the front of the class, as if the floor is more interesting than the eager faces waiting to learn more about you. The teacher tells you to speak louder, to enunciate those two syll...

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“Ragtag” by Rayhan Hidayat

Morena will go crazy if she doesn’t shoot something in the next fifteen minutes. Reza is making her do lookout duty as usual, which means she has to lie on her belly under the three suns of Elios Major doing fuck all while she waits for her target to pop up. From her vantage point on the roof of a star cruiser parking garage, she has a pristine view of the compound below. Thick grey walls jut out of the earth to surround a series of squat, boxy buildings—ZenoTech Research Facilities, where Morena’s plasma rifle has been pointed at for the...

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“bastard” by Rayhan Hidayat

Bastard.It’s the first thing he hears when he comes into this world, pink-skinned and pink-gummed and dripping with pink fluids.A midwife holds him against the soft glow of an aqualamp and waits for tender eyelids to peel open. When they finally do, her smile withers away. Two syllables drip from her mouth like acid. It’s only once she presses him into her mother’s embrace, as if she can’t bear touching his flesh any longer, does he hear his own name. It should be the first thing he hears, and it’s too ...

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“mie goreng” by Rayhan Hidayat

I’d rather be asleep.I’d rather have ignored your request at my door, small and pleading and moist with youth. I’d rather the song of your furtive feet retreating as quickly as they’d come had been a stray breeze in the night, or the cackling melody of mating geckos. I’d rather have curled deeper into the naked mattress that carves brutal shapes into my spine, because sleep is something I don’t get enough of.Yet here I am, groping for a light switch in a kitchen that I spend more time inside than my own...

326 comments 326 WINNER 🏆

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“tiny piscine heart” by Rayhan Hidayat

Talia watches the sun set over a field of corpses.It’s a red sunset, rich and shimmering like the blood forming rivulets between the soot-stained uniforms at her feet. A bleeding sun casting its forlorn gaze over bleeding bodies.Bodies that Talia had danced with to the tune of swordplay not an hour ago, steel kissing steel, until hers had tasted flesh and relished it. She searches for any sembla...

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“there’s plenty of fish in the graveyard; there's plenty of ghosts in the sea” by Rayhan Hidayat

The Winterlands at night are freezing at best and lethal at worst, so of course they’re making Leif go on a Quest during the second sort, when half of his village’s population have beards beset by icicles and the other half are nursing a frostbitten toe in front of a blazing bonfire.“You bear the gift of the Walrus Belly,” reassures Torsten as he heaves at the oars, threading their rickety little boat through frigid saltwater. By the amber luminescence of a lantern powered by whale blubber, Leif watches his companion’s b...

86 comments 86 SHORTLIST ⭐️

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“A Sky Filled With Freckles” by Rayhan Hidayat

Vivienne stands alone in a desert of blood-red sand as she watches the only person that has ever mattered drift even further out of reach.“Weird, huh?” says the face in the hologram. “It’s almost identical to the sand back home, except it’s red because of trace amounts of iron.”Red, Vivienne thinks numbly as she cradles the small metal cube projecting the hologram.

102 comments 102

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“Ashes Two Ashes” by Rayhan Hidayat

Ash grits her teeth as the rock bites into her fingers, teasing out blood that wriggles down the cliff face in ribbons of shimmering crimson. Flecks of snow spin and dance around her on their merry way down, and she thought the cold would numb her flesh, would make the climb bearable.Idiot, she chides herself as she hauls herself up another painful inch. This was never supposed to be easy.

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“Crush” by Rayhan Hidayat

It’s raining when she wakes up for the first time. A gentle chanting at the cusp of her awareness, smoothing the raw edges of her mind as it whirrs into existence.She’s sitting with her back against the wall of a room brimming with lights, the same ones that will be her sun for the months to come. Two faces hover over her, uncannily similar despite the age difference, but only one will really, really matter.“C’mon,” urges the face with eyebags. “Let her scan y...

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“Uphill Battle” by Rayhan Hidayat

It’s a sun-baked Sunday afternoon in a suburban neighborhood and Little Timmy is contemplating murder. He turns the water gun in his hand, inspecting the sleek plastic finish, gauging the amount of ammunition sloshing around inside. From his perch on the front porch, he scans the yard for a victim.There. A mound of dirt not a dozen paces away from where he sits.Little Timmy ambles over and points the nozzle at the earth. A string of black specks trundles by in his shadow, oblivious...

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“Die A Log” by Rayhan Hidayat

Put your hand down.Why?Because you might get the answer wrong. And that is assuming Miss Garcia picks you out of everyone else that has got their hand up.But I know what the answer is.Is that so? W...

129 comments 129

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“Heart to Beat” by Rayhan Hidayat

As soon as her eyes snap open to a dark ceiling and her body registers the sense of unease, she knows the Dream has begun.She climbs off the mattress and slides the bedroom door open to reveal a short stretch of hallway, dimly-lit; at the end of it is a staircase descending into the light. Any time now, the seconds will start to tick down.And I’ll only have ten.It’s a small house, and from her vantage point she ...

121 comments 121

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“Words of a Feather” by Rayhan Hidayat

On the way home from the funeral, Diego lets his wife drive. He’s gone numb from the sight of his mother, devoured by a dusty oak coffin, descending into the earth while bowed heads shed tears into the rain. Camila studies the hollow, unblinking eyes in the rearview mirror and knows this is something far beyond her abilities. She suspects a double helping of chicken tamales, his usual foray into decadence this time of year, would be equally powerless.“Sweetness,” she signals with a smile once they’ve pulled into their dr...

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“~Uncle Dallas (collab with Orenda)” by Rayhan Hidayat

author’s note: This is a collaboration with Orenda, who is as beautiful as she is chaotic. Is this story coherent and sensible? Probably not. Did we have a blast writing it? Heck yeah. So please take this with a grain of salt. 😙 It’s three in the morning when the doorbell jolts Risa lucid. Another sleepless Saturday night had prompted her to grab a tub ...

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“Light Yearning” by Rayhan Hidayat

13/06/2096--Hey, sweet pea. Just got your message.Not sure if you’re being genuine about what a sunrise looks like from space or trying to make me jealous (if you were, you’ll be pleased to know it wasn’t in vain), but it almost makes me want to get enlisted as well. So, the sun’s white up there but yellow down here because the Earth’s atmosphere filters out the other colors? Yes, I know that’s a shameless regurgitation of what you said, but I’m not the one with a degree, or on a milit...

164 comments 164

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Author bio

There’s a High Fantasy novel out there, screaming for me to finish writing it. Not sure when I’ll be posting again. Thanks to everyone for making my writing journey worth every heartbeat. You know who you are 😉 It’s been a fun ride. - - My winning story 🥇 has been featured on the delightful Katie Kanning’s brand new podcast! Listen to it here if you're down: https://bio.link/katiek - - Stories that are very dear to me (I’ll love you forever if you leave your thoughts on any of these): ❤️ tiny piscine heart 💚 Shell 💙 Heart to Beat 💛 A Sky Filled With Freckles 💔 Crush ^Really wanted these to get the judges’ attention 😔 - - Humans are cruel. They are also beautiful.

Winning 1 story 🏆

Contest #100

mie goreng – read story

Shortlisted 2 stories ⭐️

Contest #98

there’s plenty of fish in the graveyard; there's plenty of ghosts in the sea – read story

Contest #66

Virtual Reality Show – read story