Sam W

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Jan, 2020

Stories (18)

18 Stories

550 karma pts

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“Succession” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #103

The Heartsmith’s chest ached. She had not slept well the night before. Now her tired limbs dragged her down, and her skin felt dry like old parchment. She was ancient now, and she could say that it was the void in her chest that dragged her back to her swamp, to her heart. She could say that the parched dirt of this underground city was to blame. She could say that her faraway home- her abandoned...

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“The Same Ground” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #99

Sunsets were shorter on this moon than on Gaína. Everything had moved too fast since he'd woken up, healed but weaker. Since he had told Jaya she would be better off without him. Jaya had crossed the doorway of his hospital room and left him alone on a planet he did not know the name of. He had made it to the Intergalactic Academy after three months of... three months of work. It had gone by like a blink, like a nightmare. He has no rights beyond the basic right to life. No right to the money in h...

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“Gladiator Bait” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #94

“What makes you think I’ll get any sleep at all tonight?” “Because I said so.” Septimus answered. He scratched his stubbly chin, and the sound reached Primus as clearly as his own voice. “That’s what.” Dark had fallen. Cold bore down on Primus, making him shiver, heavy and painful as the animal dread in his chest. A few yards away, a bony tiger slept in a cage of its own. On Primus’ other side lay Septimus,...

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“Of the North ” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #73

The night bites, bitter cold. Five hours of daylight, five men asking for my hand. Each praying he’d have more luck than the last. I clutch my bear coat tighter around myself, fight to move through the snow. The moon lights my aimless way; no ghostly lights grace the sky tonight. I wonder if I’ll die out here, buried beneath the snow. A storm stalks me, threatening in the wind, more fearsome than any bear or wolf. I breathe a sigh of relief, and it chills me down to my bones. ...

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“Electric” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #72

Day 1Süssday, 3rd black moon, 20 New Age RevoI’ve arrived!I stepped out of the spaceship into a marvelous, clear, jungle-like wilderness. I did not even have to disturb the blue trees with their silver trunks and the soft, thick bushes with yellow stalks like tentacles as I walked. The Sestry have carved a stone path that winds clearly across the blue, just wide enough for a creature to walk on. I wanted to stay where we landed and observe my surroundings for hours. But I must rest.

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“In The Dark” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #70

Before the sun rises, Natalia bathes in the dark with cold water. She dresses in silence. All her clothes are plain-black pants and blouses, grey turtlenecks in the winter. Her father buys her clothes. Natalia has no time to pick them out herself. She doesn’t mind. She and her father are, after all, still in mourning. And this way, she can dress in the dark without risking a fashion disaster. Today, however, she left her clothes out hanging on the wardrobe door. Today she wants to wear a dress...

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“The Duchess” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #70

The duchess’s hands were covered in blood.She hid them under her shawl, but the shawl was bleeding too, dripping blood from the beating heart it was wrapped around. The duchess ran out of the king’s bedchamber, stumbled down one of the servants’ passages to the kitchen and ran out one of the back doors where the king’s horse was waiting.The duchess’s white hair, usually up in a tidy bun, trailed behind her. It too was stained.The duchess climbed up on the horse, ignoring her aches and pains, not caring she must ride w...

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“Stones from Earth” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #67

Gaína(Planet)Gaína was the center of the so-called Intergalactic War. It’s nearly barren of vegetation and its fauna is feral and aggressive. Gaína is the only known source of the metals and minerals necessary to build vessels strong enough to tesser in.Gaína’s only so-called rational race are locally called Sestry. Outside their planet they are known only by the name of said...

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“A Coward” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #66

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat.” The commander says.“Death is not defeat, sir.” The strategist retorts, leaning forward on the desk. “One man is not an army.”Commander March-a tall, square-set man in his early forties-checks the urge to roll his eyes. He looks up from their plan. He’s spent too much time in this room, too much time with the cocky, disrespectful man in front of him. The past three days have drowned March in grim reports from the watchmen and snark from the str...

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“Cempasúchil” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #65

Cempasúchil have a particular smell; and it isn’t until you’re dead that you can appreciate how different it is from absolutely everything else. That’s what they say, anyway. I myself spent an absurdly short time in the lower world, so I wouldn’t know what cempasúchil smell like for the living. But to me, they smell like adventure. From far off they look like cotton bolls, perfectl...

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“Financially Yours” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #64

Dearly Detested,I write this letter to thank you for saving me from the fire. Hopefully, the ship that carries it will be overtaken by pirates and you never receive this proof of my abysmal humiliation. The Dean says I must thank you, because that’s what people are bound to when they’re saved from a fire. No matter that I would rather have gone down in flames than be saved by your ridiculous, arrogant, infuriating self.My report card is on the line. So here we are.You denied me my destiny, you dumb, square-jawed, dark...

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“Candy Corn Latte” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #63

“Discontinued?” What do you mean, discontinued?” She shrieks.Laura has waited all year, as she does every year, for autumn to come. She’s waited all year to come to the local coffee shop, Lus Córdoba, and drink the Candy Corn Latte every Saturday, for as long as autumn lasts.For the rest of the year, it’s too painful for eighty-year-old Laura to come to Lus Córdoba. Ever since her husband, Beckett, died of a heart attack coming out of the shop twenty years ago, Laura can’t stand the sight of it. She can’t stand entering the ...

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“Crusader” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #62

My capsule is not metallic white or plastic blue. My capsule is not made of synthesized materials, nor is it surrounded by a human facility full of expensive machinery and even more expensive brains.My capsule is to be leaf-green. It is to be filled with the purpose of the Sky.I was born to the Sky, born to its purpose. I was born to be a crusader-and I am sacrificing an eternity to this capsule, so I can become one.Because that’s how long I’ll be in there. An eternity.I’ve worked hard and traveled f...

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“Screwy” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #60

When the end of the world panned out, I took my turn, burned the last corpse in the hospital driveway, and went to bed.I thought it was over.Today I wake up to the sound of my best friend bellowing at my bedroom door. Like he’s gone bonkers, batshit crazy, out of his overcooked mind.I thought it was over.Not by half.“YOU STUPID, CHICKENSHIT DEPRESSIVES, I’VE HAD ENOUGH OF THE LOT OF YOU! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU’VE DONE? YOU WANTED TO DIE, AND MAKE THE REST OF US DIE, AND THE STRAGGLERS KILL EA...

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“Heartsmith” by Sam W

Submitted to Contest #59

He schleps through the swamp, grateful he’s brought only a t-shirt and jeans, no backpack, no food, no nothing. He’s forgotten what it felt like to wear his own people’s clothes, forgotten how to take off the glamour. So he trudges to the alchemist’s smithy in human form. He remembers the day he decided to become the Heartsmith’s apprentice-she’d shown up to the city to ‘see the reckless boy’ who would succeed her...

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Author bio

Hello! Your friendly leftie writer, language aficionado and lover of art in all its forms. Ask me to read your stories, I love to leave comments! I'm kind of busy doing life and don't spend a lot of time browsing, so make yourself heard! It might take me a while but I will get to you. Comments and critique are also my favorite thing to receive. Ergo, I comment back as soon as I can:) If you would like a critique partner let me know at samiswritingatm@gmail.com If you would like one of your OCs to make an appearance in my stories, do me the honor of e-mailing their descriptions as well. I am in the process of making a magic survey portal through which you can drop your brain-children in the future.