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Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021
TW: Murder, mutilation, misogyny, mayhemEYE CAN SEE CLEARLY NOWTamara stared at herself in the mirror — at her eyes, in particular. She could see the differences in colour of the irises between the two, although they were very, very similar. Her right eye was just a smidge larger than her left. From a distance they looked exactly the same, almost as if she had been born with both of them. Not perfect, but so close. She smiled at her reflection. She was so thankful that she even had two eyes to look at, let ...
Submitted to Contest #105
CAN I GET A WITNESS?Detective Terry Waits drummed her fingers on the top of her desk. She wasn’t angry, so much as frustrated. Witness statements. They were the worst — always notoriously unreliable. But more so this time. It wasn’t the statements that were confounding her, but the witnesses themselves. They were an unconventional group, to say the least.“So, what do you think? Anyone lying?” asked her partner, Carlos Ito. Ito was the junior partner, and he valued Waits’s take on most situations. ...
Submitted to Contest #104
ZIGGY’S EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURE Plink, plink, plink. My head shot up from my pillow, and I looked around for the source of the sound. Plink, plink, plink. I jumped up from my bed and ran towards the sound. My leash! That means walkies! But my human, Mercedes, was standing there with my leash in her hand, and my purse on the floor by her feet. Dang! I thought. Mercedes wanted to take me out. Not for walkies, but for drivies. Not my favourite. Don’t get me wrong. I love Me...
Submitted to Contest #103
THE UNIVERSE SPOKE Brandi bounced happily into the apartment she shared with her two roommates, Amanda and Candace — or Mandi and Candi as she referred to them, much to their chagrin. The three of them shared a two bedroom flat close to the university where they were all enrolled in classes. Brandi was twenty-two, tall, with straight dark hair, and brown eyes. She was very pretty, and knew it. She also helped curate her good looks by always having the most current everything — fashion, electronics, apps, jewellery. ...
Submitted to Contest #102
Trigger Warning: Murder THE INSTITUTION OF MARRIAGE “The institution of marriage, my fat ass.” Leah slumped back in her chair, and looked across the table at her husband, Leo. “Leah, I sense some hostility,” said the other woman in the room. “No shit, Caroline. There is definitely hostility.” Leah shot Caroline — or Dr. Winter as she preferred to be called by her patients — a withering look. “Do you care to explain Leah?” “Sure,” she said, still defiant. “When we got married, we promised each other that w...
THE CHICKEN HOUSE An abandoned building draws kids to it, like a moths to a flame. And sometimes, they get burned. Allister looked down at what he had written, and sighed. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to write about his own childhood, even under the guise of fiction. He had thought that it would be a good idea — they say to write what you know, but what did he know, really? He only knew what he knew. There were the stories from the others, but what had happened, exactly? His father, a police officer a...
Submitted to Contest #101
DRINKING BLOODY MARYS MAY BE HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH“What’ll you have?” Joey, the bartender, asked, looking up at the woman standing at the bar, leaning in. She was about his age, late twenties, tall, with long black hair, hanging straight down her back. She was smiling at him, green eyes crinkling, and white teeth flashing.It was hard to hear anything tonight, though. The bar was hopping, a loud background din filling the air. It was just after six on a Friday night, and people were cutting loose, looking forward to ...
BAD ARCHITECTURE I have lived in this condo for, what, almost a year? In all that time, I would never have guessed … About a week ago, I got up to get a drink of water in the middle of the night. I’d been out with friends the night before, and we had drunk some wine. It was around three in the morning, when I woke up, parched, so I stumbled half asleep into the ensuite bathroom to get some water. This is my home, and I know it pretty well, and I have pretty good night vision, so I hadn’t turned on any lights, with o...
Submitted to Contest #100
THE PICNIC It was all over the news. Everyone was warned to stay inside. There had been an incident at the zoo. Well, more than an incident, actually. The entire zoo had been emptied out, and all the animals were roaming free — from the smallest animal to the largest. From the most docile to the most aggressive. Herbivores, omnivores, and most concerning, carnivores. All free and wandering around in the general vicinity of the zoo. The Animal Liberation Front -- AFL -- had taken responsibility for t...
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE DINNERGod and Satan sat at the dining table, facing each other.“Satan, good to see you. I’m glad you were able to make this year’s meeting.”“Thanks, God. Glad I could come. As you know, I’ve been super busy, what with COVID, and climate change, and well, the GOP. That’s a lot of pokers to keep in the fire, literally and figuratively.” Satan gave a little snort.“Nonetheless, Satan, I’m glad we’re here.” God paused. “I’ve been fairly busy myself. What with the vaccine, and the ...
GOING UP Annalise breezed through the lobby of her building, heading for her sanctuary on the ninety-sixth floor of the Central Park Tower. “Hi Charlie!” “Evening Ms. Briggs.” She was in a wonderful mood. Why not? She was having her girlfriends over for Friday night wine and cheese, and were expected in about an hour. Annalise had everything she needed in the three overloaded bags she was carrying. In the heaviest bag, she had the wine — red, white, and rosé — from the finest vintners in Manhattan. In ...
Submitted to Contest #99
TRIP OF A LIFETIME Harry double-checked that he had remembered to pack everything. He pulled out the list that he had been carrying around in his pocket for weeks — since this trip had first been planned. Everything was ready to go. It was eight a.m., and they were right on schedule. He hopped into the van, started the engine, and dropped it into gear. Before he left the driveway, he turned to his wife, Eleanor, and said, “All set?” They were on the road for an epic trip cross the country — their Greatest Hits...
Submitted to Contest #98
MIDSUMMER The three sisters were sitting together on the couch, a photo album open on the middle sister’s lap. Yes, an honest-to-goodness photo album with old colour and black and white photos held in place with a sheet of clear acetate. They were all smiling, and pointing, an air of nostalgia surrounding them. Or maybe it was melancholy. Their mother, Esmeralda — Esmy to to one and all — had died last solstice, and this was their first celebration without her. The three sisters still lived in their fami...
19, 8, 5, 10, 3, 25, 7 The woman sucked in a giant gasp of air. She looked frightened, her face pale, eyes darting, a sheen of sweat covering her brow. She put her hand to her chest trying to calm her racing heart. She took small sips of air, trying to save herself from tumbling into a full-on anxiety attack. Or maybe heart attack — based on how hard her pulse was pounding. “Are you alright?” The voice was coming from behind her left shoulder. She turned to face her husband. “Yeah … I think so,” she sai...
Submitted to Contest #97
THE MAGIC OF OWLSTap. Tap. Tap, tap, tap.Bethany-Ann Pendergast looked over at her bedroom window. Her room was dark, shadows filling every corner. In the daylight, Bethany-Ann loved her bedroom, all pink and purple, filled with all the things she loved. But at night she found it a bit scary. The green power button on her laptop glowed like a Cyclopes’s eye. Her pile of stuffies in the corner looked like a monster crouching, waiting to leap out at her. The black and white keys of her keyboard gaped lik...
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