TJ Samek

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2023

Stories (5)

5 Stories

90 karma pts

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“Hench” by TJ Samek

Submitted to Contest #263

Sunshine. Sunshine stabbing him, assaulting him, hijacking him like a mugger on a cheap amphetamine high. George groaned and rolled over. Wrong move. His stomach roiled, tossing like a hurricane sea, and the turbulence fought its way up his gullet and– He made it as far as the edge of the bed before vomiting on the floor. He stared at the mess with bleary eyes. He really should clean that up before it stained. He should get up, get moving, eat some breakfast. His stomach churned again in response. Breakfast was definitely out. Apparently, so...

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“Hotel Minnesota” by TJ Samek

Submitted to Contest #206

Minnesotans have a special relationship with the seasons, especially winter. Being in tune with the turning of the year is a survival skill in a place where snow covers the ground for months at a time. But Cara ignored the biting below-zero windchill and the blizzard warning as she packed her car. It’s Minnesota in winter, she reasoned. There’s always snow. And she really didn’t want to wake up early the next day to drive to her cousin’s wedding. Her scratchy throat and tight head foretold a respiratory infection, and she wanted to...

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“The Vacationers” by TJ Samek

Submitted to Contest #199

Remote. That’s the best way Gina can describe the land below her as she sits perched on the edge of the hill. It’s the tallest hill around and it’s taken her an hour to reach the summit—although it was a very leisurely hour. Now she looks down to where the rolling plain, with its windswept golden grass, meets the blue horizon. The sky is stamped with fluffy white clouds, and their shadows flow across the land below her, making a patchwork of the prairie. The closest neighbors’ farm is over three miles away. On the other side of the hil...

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“Dogsbodies” by TJ Samek

Submitted to Contest #197

I have two dogs. I would call Cade the brains and Bucephalus the brawn, but in reality, they are both frightfully smart and uncannily strong. People often ask me how I chose my dogs’ unusual names. The truth is, they named themselves. My mother has given up chiding me for walking alone from the shop back to campus after dark. I know she’s worried about me, and if I were anyone else, she would have reason to be. I have to cross a dark, abandoned area between residential neighborhoods, and two-legged predators lurk there. With my dogs to p...

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“A Roomful of Dragons” by TJ Samek

Submitted to Contest #185

Asha takes a deep breath as she enters the room. The heavy oak door has been expertly fitted on its hinges; it glides open with only the softest whisper. Golden sunlight streams from the high windows, catching the dust motes that dance in its radiance. The paneling on the walls still fills the room with the scent of cut wood, all these years later. She used to love this room, her sanctuary. She carefully does not look to the center of the room, to the circle traced on the floor or the statuette within it. She knows she has a job to do ...

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Author bio

I went from being a kid who would narrate the world around me to an adult who always has a story in her head. Now I find sanctuary in my Minnesota woods, where the quiet of nature helps my ideas develop.