reedsymarketplace
Hire professionals for your project
reedsyblog
Advice, insights and news
reedsylearning
Online publishing courses
reedsylive
Free publishing webinars
reedsydiscovery
Launch your book in style
Author on Reedsy Prompts since Feb, 2021
A GHOST STORY MISSING TEEN — FAMILY AND POLICE WORRIED FOR HER SAFETY. Family and police are seeking information about the disappearance of Bernadette George, 16, who vanished from her family home sometime Saturday. Bernadette was last seen by her parents at 3:00 p.m. Saturday when they travelled out of town for the evening, leaving Bernadette alone in the house. Upon their arrival back home at approximately 2:00 a.m., they noticed signs of a struggle in the house, and found Bernadette missing. Her parents, Hilary and Wins...
This is a continuation of another entry, but is still a stand-alone story THE CHICKEN HOUSE — JEMMA 2021 Jemma put her phone down. It had been her brother Allister. He wanted to get together and talk about the what had happened at the Chicken House. She had agreed to come over to his place on the weekend, but she was conflicted. Did she really want to dredge up the past? 1997 Jemma maneuvered her head between the spindles at the top of the stairs. She tilted her head towards the kitchen, where ...
BROKEN tw: school shootingPROLOUGE 9:11 am I looked at the clock. There had been no sounds for almost two minutes.“Okay, okay, okay” I whispered to myself, heart pounding in my chest. “What do I do now?”I looked at the twenty-three faces looking back at me, waiting for me to do something. Waiting for me to save them. I felt sick.The pre-recorded message started again: “ATTENTION. THE SCHOOL IS IN LOCK-DOWN. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. STAY IN YOUR CLASSROOMS. LOCK YOUR DOORS. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.” We sat on the fl...
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...
Oops, you need an account for that!
Log in with your social account:
Or enter your email: