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Tori Routsong

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (31)

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184 Followers

23 Following

31 Stories

1019 karma pts

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Miss Defay's French Lessons

Submitted to Contest #32

Emmerson flinched as the cashier reached out with the change. “Your change is three sixty-three, and I’ll have those out to you in just a second.” “Thanks,” Emmerson murmured. Rubbing the palms of his hand with his thumb nervously, he sat down at the table across from the coffee stall and avoided eye contact with the other customers. If he had his phone this wouldn’t be a problem, but the Holly Circlet hated technology so. Emmerson popped his knuckles, lost in thought, and jumped when the barista called “Hot ginger tea, an iced Mint-to-be ...

14 likes

Where to Find Baking Soda at 2 AM

Submitted to Contest #31

The mattress itself is stained, but I suppose I’ll deal with that later. Taking care only to touch the dry parts of the sheet, I wrestle it and the pillowcases into a laundry basket and carefully pick my way out of the room—the police said it was okay to move stuff around now, they’ve got what they needed, but I still feel like I shouldn’t disturb anything. Except the sheets, I guess. The hallways are quiet. The usual parties that rock our dorm ended abruptly when the cops arrived, but by now they would’ve ended anyway. Everyone retreated b...

16 likes

A Spring Breeze in Winter

Submitted to Contest #30

Corina woke up and her sheets, damp with cold sweat, clung to her body. Her dream still swam in her vision—the dizzying vertigo from the view off the bridge started to turn her stomach. She’d woken up right as she’d jumped, and yet she could still feel the wind on her face as she’d fallen. Her ragged breath echoed around the barren apartment. She couldn’t still her heartbeat, and she looked around wildly for Shoebox before remembering that she’d dropped her cat off at her new home yesterday before—wait, before what? As Corina closed her eye...

17 likes

A Stranger in the Woods

Submitted to Contest #29

Adelphie played with her food, pushing bits of potato around her plate with her fork. “I know his mother is the best Healer in the palace. That doesn’t mean I should marry him.” A particularly fat pigeon alighted on her wrist and rubbed his head on her thumb in support. Her mother sighed. “Del, I told you to keep that thing off the table.” &nb...

12 likes

Evelyn's Gone Mad and I Feel Fine

Submitted to Contest #27

“Pirates? Like in Peter Pan?” “Well, technically pirate. Singular. Just one. A girl.” “A girl pirate?” “She says her name is Anne.” Evelyn fidgeted uncomfortably, pulling at her skirt. “I didn’t know there were girl pirates.” “Well, there were. At least two, anyway. Anne tells me that she had a friend called Mary and they were pirates together on the sea.” I tore into the scone Evelyn had given me with unladylike vigor so I’d have time to process this. The only pirates I’d ever seen were the mustachioed men from that Peter Pan play I saw ...

12 likes

A Lose/Lose Situation

Submitted to Contest #27

My husband slams the table, surprising the doctor and I both. “You’re lying to us!” To her credit, the oncologist doesn’t flinch as he leans towards her. “I know this must come as a big shock.” “We came here to help her depression and now you’re telling me she’s got a tumor in her head? Her head doesn’t even hurt!” I’m the her, and I suppose I should be advocating for myself, but I’m so shocked that I don’t particularly want to speak. There can’t be a tumor in my head. I came to the doctor because my therapist said I should seek medication. ...

8 likes

Tendu, Tombé, et Brisé: Bina's New Dance

Submitted to Contest #26

“Plié, and straight. Make a window, and shut. Feet together, and straight” Bina looked down at the remnants of her term paper, marked profusely in red. Biology hadn’t been this hard in high school, had it? She only had two days to fix this, and she was supposed to have Mommy and Me time with her daughter after class tomorrow, so now really was the best time to do any of the edits. To make matters worse, she couldn’t get her old warmup out of her head and it flowed through her body and her toes itched to get up and dance again. She sighed in...

11 likes

An Uncertain Future

Shortlisted for Contest #25 ⭐️

The ground isn’t burned beneath your feet. It makes sense that it wouldn’t be—the bombs never came here—but the grass under your toes is deceptive. You sigh, and put your shoes back on. You’ll never admit it, but your mom is right. There’s too much broken glass left over from the riots.Nobody thought it would come here—there hadn’t been a war on American soil since… well, the Civil War, you suppose. Nobody was expecting it, at least. And in true American fashion, the backlash caused uproar throughout the city. More people had been killed by ...

24 likes

Lylia, Malou, and the Intangible Impossibility of Imperceivable Physics

Shortlisted for Contest #24 ⭐️

“Dr. Niwwel, if you summoned the thing, why can’t you just send it away?” Lylia held her tongue. It wasn’t that Malou was stupid, and most of the time it wouldn’t even bother her, but she was running out of ways to explain an unexplainable being. “I didn’t summon it. I just created a way for it to access our world.” She peaked out at the dark hallway—the problem was there was no precedent. Did it matter if there was light? Could the creature even see light? And would staying quiet even matter? Lylia stroked her long, blonde hair as she thoug...

39 likes

The Corundum Conundrum

Submitted to Contest #23

Aminta watched her boyfriend drum his fingers on the steering wheel, impatient as ever. As far as she was concerned, however, the blizzard was a godsend. She’d promised herself she’d confront him as soon as they got to the restaurant; if they never got to the restaurant, there’d be no confrontation. She and Fideo could sit in this car for the rest of their lives and Aminta would be perfectly happy. Fideo clearly felt otherwise, and he flicked on and off the windshield wipers as if that would make any difference. “We’re going to miss our res...

9 likes

A Royal Execution

Submitted to Contest #23

It’s almost time for my midday break when my sister runs up to me, almost tripping in her oversized robe. Adelphie has to catch her breath, but whether it’s because of her excitement or the running I can’t tell. “Have you heard the news?” “What news?” A brown and white pigeon alights on her shoulder, carrying a scroll. “The prince is dead!” “The… wait, what?” “The prince is dead!” “Really? When? How do you know?” I reach towards the bird and Adelphie instinctively shrinks away, which hurts. Twenty years and she still doesn’t trust that I can...

18 likes

The Guilt of Living in a New Year

Submitted to Contest #22

"Chill out." Melinda smacks her lips together, smudging her brilliant ruby lipstick a little. "It's a party. You look like somebody died." “Your lipstick is smudged.” I look dubiously around the room. Everyone already looks wasted—a good sign, I suppose. Even though I’ve always lived in this city, the college life is so different than the townie life that it shocks me that this frat house is only a block away from mine. “It’s dark, nobody will notice.” “I did.” “Nobody fun will notice.” It’s a subtle jab, and she smiles so the impact is soft...

11 likes

Ready

Submitted to Contest #20

Jaime couldn’t stop pacing. The waiting room was too small. Should it be taking this long? Something was going wrong. Something was going terribly wrong. “Nothing is wrong.” His husband, Eric, hadn’t moved from his chair, one leg up as if this was normal, as if they were at home and he was about to do a crossword. “Calm down.” “Something is definitely wrong,” he insisted. “It’s been hours.” “That’s normal,” Eric insisted. “Look, Julie knows what she’s doing. This is her fourth kid. It’ll be okay.” “But can’t births be hard on aging mothers?...

19 likes

Accidental Magic

Submitted to Contest #20

Dahlia and Finn both looked up in shock at the chandelier that hovered a few inches above Finn’s head. A red glow shimmered around the edges. “Magic,” whispered Dahlia. She’d grown up with the stories from her ugogo and evils of witchcraft, but she never really believed in it. “Magic,” said Finn, looking at Dahlia, shocked. Her face was bathed in a red glow, and Dahlia thought she could see the same red sparks dancing in Finn’s hazel eyes. The chandelier still looked menacing dangling over Finn’s head, so Dahlia was glad when it floated t...

18 likes

The Sound of Peter

Shortlisted for Contest #20 ⭐️

Bright, bright, bright. It was always too bright, always bright, always grating, grating at the back of his eyes, in the back of his mind. Peter no longer squinted. The lights that lined the room bored into his brain, boring and drilling, but Peter no longer squinted.The window, the singular window, told him it wasn’t food-time yet, but he couldn’t help but wait, shivering, by the door slot. She would come soon—or maybe not. Time didn’t exist in his blinding cell, not until the sky outside the window slit turned dark. When he stood, he could...

13 likes