Vince Salamone

Author on Reedsy Prompts since May, 2020

Stories (10)

10 Stories

279 karma pts

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“A Question of Why” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #212

[Taken From the Writings of Alinte Euchorte] 4 Maun. Korona Visited Roran with Vani and Ina. Still embedded, but his rattling had quieted, with vitals enough to fuss and flutter over my arrival and that of his granddaughter. Ina, bless her little soul, blunted much of his edge with the raucous joviality that endeared her to Vani and I; one day, when she is older and he is perhaps gone, I shall have to impress upon her my gratitude in those moments. For now, it was enough that I was not interrogated fiercely, and she was contented to be w...

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“In Defense of She, Who Stands Forsaken” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #211

Silvio flickered in the doorway, fixed like a shadow, as if cast into being by the golden fire at work within the simple hearth. From his vantage the small study revealed itself in full, and the window at its edge, whereupon he watched with pursed lips the falling snow. Winter had been at play in Rullenroot for several ellipses now, and though his cycles of service in the Order had indoctrinated him to all manner of climes, his southern blood would forever balk at such miserable fare. Old wounds twanged. He resisted touching his face, where ...

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“A Miracle in Moonlight” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #199

The cabin waited for her at the foot of the mountain, sheltered in its shadow like some forsaken traveler, weathered and crooked with age, and abandon… Yet, for all its scars, for all the time apart—twenty cycles hence—it stood preserved, as if made manifest from the very depths of her memory. A warm breeze pressed against Ahmelia Valunkroft’s back, gentle and carrying the life of summer with it. Insects chittered their songs to the evening sky while somewhere in the forest climb a valun cried out. The grass dragged its fingers against the ...

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“When Love is Sin, Become the Heretic” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual. The incense was lit, Binding wraps anointed in the proper oils and dusted with unfirth bone-ash. She’d taken care in preparing the room, clearing it of furnishings before drawing out the containment channels with the strange metal shavings she’d taken from the Belfrost mines—what felt like a lifetime ago now, though only a few years had passed. Mounds of marrow candles fought to hold back the darkness suffocating the corners of the room; unnecessary for the binding, but paramount to Ahmelia’s peace of mi...

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“Of Ashe & Aether” by Vince Salamone

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #116

Emelyn tugged on her shackles—a feeble effort, she knew, but one despair demanded of her. The idonsteel bit into her flesh, and a scab peeled away as the restraints added another gouge to the red-rubbed mess of her wrists. Blood trickled down her arm, striking the floor below, the once-pristine tiles sullied in a rorschach of dried blood; a pitiful reminder of her struggles. She raised her head, despite the protests of her weathered body; gazed past the armored sister-sentries to the door they protected. A threshold to freedom. +It is your...

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“A Pale Siege” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #115

Warning: Contains Graphic Violence, Gore, Suggestions of Suicide “It’s just… I’m worried about the drinking. You know?” A gasp of static from the phone: a sigh, long and stratified. “Again? I thought she quit?” “She did, but…” A pause. How much to burden them with? It was a well-trod road, but she had no one else to talk to. And Obert at least could claim some experience in this department, coming into a decade of clean living—so long as one overlooked the smoking, that was. “You know it is hard for her, with her job and all—” Obert’s...

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“The Drop” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #115

Warning: Contains Langauge, Graphic Violence, Gore. The call came through late, a tone engineered so precisely that no amount of heavy sleeping—chemically-induced or otherwise—could shut it out. Prolonged exposure led to mild nausea and other unpleasant side-effects that all but guaranteed it would be answered… and since the device was embedded into every employee via a terribly invasive and irreversible procedure, it could hardly be claimed that it had been lost or misplaced. Reyna knew she shouldn’t complain; it’s not like the company ...

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“Confess, And Be Consumed” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #114

The door before her was simple yet elegant, its edges sure, the ornamentation carved into the ebon surface maddeningly intricate in a way that even the most prodigious crafter would struggle to emulate. A curve of smooth, polished brass made its handle, matching the hinges and keyhole; mechanisms of such meticulous design that never would they perform their functions to anything less than the peak of their capabilities, a sentiment echoed by the rest of the Moonswath estate. Her father would settle for nothing less than perfection. It was n...

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“They Visited Cruelties Upon Their Savior” by Vince Salamone

Submitted to Contest #113

The Grayhaven inquisitor was a tall, porcelain woman whose features hung like a lynched body from the uncaring noose of her face. There was a detached quality about her that lent itself to lifelessness—a stiff, jerky manner of articulation, as though she was little more than a flesh-and-bone puppet conducted by some unseen master. But no, she was real enough, and without a doubt of her own mind; the oculus revealed no touch of the malignant about the torturer—nothing otherworldly, anyhow. Nor was the voracious hunger present as it had been ...

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“A Pale Flood” by Vince Salamone

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #112

Content warning: cannibalism, graphic violence, goreThey were in the stairwell when it started raining.Sergeant Vanya Kraz bent her ear to the sound, even as her booted feet continued to trample up the flaking ochre steps; muted bass thumping to counterpoint the drumroll reverberations from the armored men and women of the 6th Urban Pacification and Counter-Terror Group.Strange, she thought. The skies had been clear when they’d deployed, a crisp autumnal morning that had smarted the eyes, its brilliance intensified against the wan skein of t...

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Author bio

I'm a PA-based writer and author of science-fiction and dark fantasy. From 2019 to 2020, I was a frequent contributor to the Kyanite Press Journal of Speculative Fiction, where my novelettes Sabanae, City of the Gods, and Black November earned cover features. My work has also appeared on Cold Open Stories, in their Warhammer 40K-themed Fast-Fiction Contests: https://40k.coldopenstories.com/in-search-of-peace/ https://40k.coldopenstories.com/legacy/ When not freelancing for BookLife as a critical assessor/book reviewer, I'm either cobbling together reviews for my blog, burning my life away on Diablo IV, or agonizing over my unpainted miniatures collection. Iguanas are the best. Blog: whimstowords.wordpress.com Twitter: twitter.com/AuthorMetal.

Shortlisted 2 stories ⭐️

Contest #116

Of Ashe & Aether – read story

Contest #112

A Pale Flood – read story