Rebecca Hurst

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jul, 2024

Stories (10)

10 Stories

215 karma pts

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“The Interpretation of Dreams” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #268

Dr Selznick asked the lady opposite whether she would prefer to kick off her shoes and lie on the couch. The lady opposite knows she has holes in her socks so declines. The walls are painted a sumptuous shade of eau-de-nil and she notices that all the leaves on his cheese plant are serrated, unlike hers. She approves of his style. It is old-school and unpretentious, and he writes with a fountain pen. This object, once so commonplace, fills her head with a plangent nostalgia. ‘So, Emily Davison. Why is that name ...

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“The Beheading of Sarah Churchill” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #267

Victor Churchill turned off his 600W, 1700 RPM hedge trimmer and stared, open-mouthed, at his wife’s headless body lying on the lawn. The tray, which had slipped from her hands at the moment of decapitation, lay right-side-up, and although the tea was all spilt, the biscuits, sitting in a little pile on a bone china saucer, were perkily undisturbed. The silence was profound. Even the birds had stopped singing. As his senses adjusted to the reality of the moment, he heard the splashing of the ornamental fountain in the fis...

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“The Halls of Meh” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #266

Every profession has its own Valhalla. The cops and the firefighters have clubbable halls, where there is much back-slapping and drinking. A lot of reminiscing. Eventually, these people will fade into oblivion, but their full stop is gentle. It’s pleasing. There is no heaven or hell, but purgatory is cosmically vast. The rules, however, are earth-bound in their petty-mindedness. Supermarket workers have an enormous, well-stocked hypermarket where they enjoy a permanent tea break. Lawyers engage in endl...

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“The Church With No Name” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #265

This story contains non-descriptive references to child abuse Alys Morgan was always a Pembrokeshire girl. She was born with her face to the Irish Sea. Poppit Beach was her playground when she was allowed to play. The nearby town of Aberystwyth was always out of bounds, and so she found shells and wore bracelets of kelp when other children were licking ice-creams and playing the arcades in flip-flops and shorts. She had a brother, but he left when he was fifteen. His last words to her were ‘This is shit, Alys.&nbsp...

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“The Gamophobe Blues” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #264

There are three very specific things I hate: Cologne Cathedral, bananas and weddings. Unlike pollen, it is possible to avoid these things, but weddings are the hardest. No one would be too offended if you said you hated a German cathedral or a yellow fruit, but you try telling someone who has invited you to their wedding that you would rather eat a toenail sandwich, and you get a different reaction. I’ve been lucky. The year of my birth must have coincided with a rogue spore in the native soil which left most of my p...

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“The Napoleon of Crime” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #263

Sing Sing, New York: Thursday April 23 1914 ‘Professor Moriarty, thank you for agreeing to see me today. My name is Ted Pilsworth from the New York Tribune.’‘Time is of the essence. Tomorrow will be too late’ said Moriarty. Pilsworth took a hard seat in the Death Room of Sing Sing, swiped the pencil from behind his ear and opened his notebook to the first page. Moriarty was gratified to note that a new book had been procured especially for him. This was quite the assignment, he thought. Pilsworth must be go...

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“The Private Hotel” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #262

On a high sedimentary cliff overlooking a small fishing town in north Devon, England, there stood a rather unique hotel. It was built in the 1880s, which made it something of a parvenue in comparison to its shoreline neighbours, some of which could remember, within their walls, witches dragged from their rooms, the hooves of Cromwell’s horses, and various and sundry drumbeats of early-modern history. The town church, and several buildings adjoining it, had been around since the Second Crusade. The town pub was built in the rei...

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“The Regenhardt Dilemma” by Rebecca Hurst

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #261

Nelly Regenhardt had been writing to prisoner B6732FH for nine hard years and had never received a reply. But she had seen The Shawshank Redemption, and came to understand that in the matter of correspondence, persistence always won the game. And win the game it did. Ten years after her husband had been shot in the head by the very man she had been writing to, she received a standard reply: Prisoner B6732FH will see you on (appointed date and time), at a venue very much decided upon: HMP Wingfield: Category A. But le...

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“Erwin the Reporter” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #260

Erwin enjoyed a walk in the country. As a man of tidy habits, he bethought the English countryside amongst the finest in the world. There were no grand canyons nor impertinent mountain ranges which outstayed their welcome long after the second international time zone had elapsed: no featureless steppes nor treeless tundras, but rather all was in perfect proportion and elegance. The temperature was affable, the mosquitos had left for the Edinburgh Fringe, and a faint, salty breeze lay on the air. The green pastures beyond the s...

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“The Maharaja, the Elephant and the Prime Minister” by Rebecca Hurst

Submitted to Contest #259

The Maharajah of Phutim, whose name was Dorji, surveyed his small kingdom from the east-facing balcony of his palace. He had been educated in the finest of England’s schools and spoke the language with the clarity and diction of a statesman whom people remember long after they are dead. His voice was deep and commanding, and his charisma was such that even the snow pigeons and the fulvour whistling-ducks dipped their heads in respect as they flew over his majesty’s dominions and balconies. He was the sixtieth son of the last M...

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Author bio

After a series of unsuccessful career paths, I find myself quite old and unemployable. My stories will often seek to highlight the absurdities and hypocrisies of modern life, the one human failing I find difficult to forgive.

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #261

The Regenhardt Dilemma – read story