Renée Chatelain

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Nov, 2019

Stories (8)

8 Stories

194 karma pts

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“The Man with the Purple Scarf” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #19

Bitter cold wind rushed down the streets and rattled frost-bitten trees. Ice-covered the dim streetlamps and rough roads. A few brave souls ventured out into the frigid winter wonderland to complete last-minute Christmas shopping. Their boots clomped and slipped on the slick sidewalks as they fought against the roaring winds.  A bright purple scarf flapped vigorously in the gale. Its yarn fingers reached for the snowflakes that were beginning to fall quite heavily. The naughty scarf succeeded in unwinding itself from its owner’s sh...

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“Tenerife Sea” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #18

“I know it’s in here somewhere,” I mumbled, digging around old, unmarked boxes. I was in the process of purging my attic, but I had taken a break to decorate the Christmas tree. “Honey! Do you know where we put the Christmas lights last year? The purple ones?” “No,” Jake hollered back. “I’ll look down in the basement!”  I sighed and plopped down on what I thought was a bench. I found to my dismay that my seat was not a bench, but a crinkly old cardboard box that promptly collapsed when I sat.  The hard object in the box hit my tail...

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“Come Back To You” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #17

June 28, 1914.  My seventeenth birthday.  My first kiss.  My first lover.  I really didn’t know why things like war had to happen. I didn’t understand why someone had to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand and plunge the entire world into war.  I remember the exact moment I heard the news. Damien, my eldest brother, came rushing into the family room.  “Did you hear the news?”  Everyone looked up. Mother turned pale.  “England declared war on Germany today,” he said. “Soon they’ll be calling for volunt...

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“Lean on me” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #16

I couldn’t take it anymore. It was too much for me. Why did things like this happen?What did I do to deserve this? Out of pure anger and exasperation, I picked up a nearby vase and hurled it at the wall. It shattered into a million fragments. Just like my heart. The fragments flew through the air, and I heard them pelt against the cabinets and the floor. I sunk to my knees and cried. It wasn’t the pretty cry you see in movies, when the characters are hit with peril and are at the end of their rope. It was a real cry....

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“Cuts” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #16

I’m a really good guy, through and through. It sounds a little self-conceited, but I really am. But in my family, that’s not good enough.  You don’t meet people like me around here anymore. I don’t expect to meet someone like me either. If I’m lucky, maybe another nice person will cross paths with me.  Almost everyone I’ve met here have deep cuts, even the children. All I have are the tiny paper cuts of white lies on my fingertips and forearms––consequences of little formalities and camouflages of sorts.  Some people have long...

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“The Diamond Pond” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #16

My people fear the forest.  Why?  I don’t know. No one in the village or in my family has ever told me why. All they say is “do not venture past the forest’s edge,” or “your fate will meet you if you traverse the forest’s domain.” Sometimes they simply say “you will die if you dare enter the forest; do not go in.”  Naturally, one would be skeptical. Why shouldn’t I enter the forest? What on earth could be in there? The forest seemed friendly enough. Birds could be heard happily singing in the branches; sometimes a little rabbi...

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“Emma's Secret” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #15

Just one more cut. That was all it would take. Everything would end. No man, no problem, whispered the nagging voice in her head. No one will miss you. It will be like you never existed. The knife seemed to take itself to her skin, gliding over it menacingly. Blood seeped out of the wounds as her skin parted under the blade. Nobody cared anymore. Pain and darkness were her friends. Her parents didn’t even care about her. They way they screamed at each other and her could hardly be called love. Her mother said they couldn’t div...

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“Racing the Clouds” by Renée Chatelain

Submitted to Contest #14

Hot, wet darkness squeezed on her body. She heard cries of pain and excitement. Then suddenly--  Blinding light! She wailed, trying to cough the icky fluid stuck in her lungs. Someone’s big hands grasped her slimy body.  “It’s a girl!” someone shouted. She cried louder. Of course she was a girl! Didn’t they know? The light hurt her eyes--and the noise! These older humans were really very intolerably loud. She felt her body being handed to someone. Gentle, warm arms wrapped around her; it was mother. She just knew it.  “My prec...

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Author bio

Editor. Author. Songwriter. Musician. Artist. Perfectionist. Awesomeness.