William Simon

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Oct, 2022

Stories (18)

18 Stories

349 karma pts

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“Morx on Site” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #266

Morx gripped the armrest of his seat a little tighter and tried to think steadying thoughts. He wondered if it was too late for different career path as the ambassadorial class cruiser skipped nimbly past the sixth planet of this solar system and flickered down the astral shute towards their destination. Each short quantum leap carrying them rapidly forward and skipping chasms of empty space. The sensation for a passenger was like that of your foot reaching for a step that is just a little further away than was anticipated. A mild drop you...

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“Dubai Diaspora” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #265

“She isn’t really from here though.” This is what I had said to my husband in the departures lounge of Dubai’s international airport. I emphasized the word “from” in a way I felt my made my point irrefutable. Dan had frustratingly not accepted this truism for the statement of fact it clearly was. This tendency to obstinately refute that which I considered irrefutable was a consistent trait of his. Dan lives quite relentlessly in reality. Even more irritatingly he can often support his position with a series of, on the surface, reasonable st...

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“Best Man Doing His Best” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #264

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, my name is Roy, and I am the best man. When Paul first asked me to be his best man, I was surprised but honored. I couldn’t say no. I first met Paul four years ago when I joined KDWC. I am a Junior Manager at KDWC and Paul is a very respected partner at the firm. So, as I said, I could not say no.  As I didn’t know Paul in his younger years, primarily due to not yet having been born, I have spoken to those who do remember those times and will share some of those stories now. Paul’s mom, Judy, remem...

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“Prey” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #252

 She could feel his eyes on her. Could feel them boring into her unabashedly.  That ill-defined sense of being watched, of being observed, presumably gifted to us at the expense of so many mangled and surprised primates in our primitive past. That sense was so strong she felt like she could hear it screech like a kettle on the boil.  The train continued its vibrating amble around an easy arcing bend as the rain continued to slide down the windows. It was already dark outside and the street lights, shops and headlights blurre...

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“Cold” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #238

The research station existed as a tiny speck of humanity in a screaming white wasteland. The temperatures were relentlessly inhospitable, regularly hitting fifty degrees Celsius below freezing, gale force winds shifted constantly trying to find some purchase on the station to blow it away. At this time of year, the darkness was never ending. I arrived seven months, three weeks, and two days ago. Life before felt like a fading dream of warmth and abundance. The isolation was acute and would have been completely overwhelming if it wasn’t for ...

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“Haunting Day 1” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #221

Nicholas has been dead so much longer than he was alive. The house was all eggshell whites and seashell ivories, though it all looked grey in the darkness. Nicholas made his way from room to room taking it all in and occasionally stopping to jot down some notes in a small pad. The place was huge and appeared to have been decorated along the theme of cliché tasteless rich tosser. He could feel a headache coming on already and it was early in the morning of day one. Why he was even able to still feel the pain of a headache was something he’...

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“Assas-son” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #214

“Are you joking?? This is a joke. This is a really weird, really bad, really not funny Joke, right?”, said John gesturing to the array of guns and ammunition laid out on the hotel bed. His parents, Antonio and Heather, shook their heads. Nina, his younger sister, lounged on a chair so big she could have curled up and slept on it. She appeared deeply engrossed in her book and was clearly trying to ignore the scene unfolding. John took a pause, “But, assassins……….. that makes no sense. I didn’t even know assassins was like a real thing an...

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“A Face that Fits” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #213

Everything Mike Stanley touched was worse for the contact. It had always been this way. They say, “into every life a little rain must fall” and Mike was a one-man rain cloud. An off-key note in the melody of your day. If you confronted him with this observation, admittedly a rather cruel one on the face of it, he would look back at you with an expression of total incomprehension. After all what made him so bad? Was he not a man just trying to navigate the world as best he could like everyone else? Sure, he might admit that the world...

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“Coulda Been Someone” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #201

The right hook landed clean. Vincent must have thrown a million punches in his life; he’d probably been hit by just as many. There was nothing he understood better, nothing that felt more familiar. He knew the fight was over as a contest. Joe Maddison reeled back, he instinctively raised his hands to protect his face but he looked like a sailor trying to keep his balance amidst a storm. His legs unsteady beneath him, he staggered backward drunkenly. Vincent felt the moment, heavy around him. Normally when he fought, he was a blank sl...

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“Fresh Frontier” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #196

“BRACE FOR IMPACT!!” hollered Lieutenant Blaze. The ship shook violently as several consoles inexplicably exploded; their unfortunate operators sent tumbling across the deck dramatically. The air smelt of burning chemicals and the blaring of alarms made it hard to hear what was being said unless it was shouted. “WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS COMMANDER?! SHIELDS ARE AT JUST 40%. WE CAN’T HOLD OUT MUCH LONGER.” Commander Nova Apollo-Jones, Supreme Admiral of the 7th Solar Fleet, hero of the United Alliance of Civilized Planets, saviour of the pr...

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“Do Not or Donut” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #186

“Go on, Brad. Take it, nobody will notice.” “Don’t do it Bradley! You’ve already had one. There were eight put out and there’s eight people here. If you have another one someone here’s going hungry.” “’Someone here’s going hungry’, do you hear yourself? Give it a rest. They’re meeting room donuts not Ethiopian aid packages. Besides, that tool Jonathan is going to be banging on about whatever it is he’s banging on about for another twenty minutes easy. You really think he’ll even remember there were donuts? Never mind how many there were....

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“George the Genius” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #184

George Roundtree’s childhood had been normal to a fault. He was born and raised in the suburbs of Birmingham. A perfectly average place, and for the most part he’d been perfectly average himself. The 50th percentile in mostly everything he was involved himself in. Right at the tippity top of that bell curve was where he’d grown up.  He’d been an ok footballer as a kid, nothing special. His grades were all C’s and B’s. He wasn’t unpleasant in appearance, but his face was very forgettable. If he’d ever gone missing the description porti...

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“Turned Around” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #181

Enzo pulled the keys out of the ignition and got out of the car. His back was tight from the long drive, and he stretched languidly. He always liked it up here, it was peaceful. He’d started out when it was still night in New York and driven for hours with just a short break for gas and a breakfast of sugary doughnuts. Now he stood on a thin dirt road with the morning light shining through a thick tree canopy. The weather had been fair for most of his journey, but it was clear that it had rained through the night here. I better get on w...

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“Fresh Air, Don't Care” by William Simon

Submitted to Contest #181

“Let’s go for a walk,” said Dad.  Elliot was immediately suspicious. It was midday on a grey, January Saturday. He’d been horizontal on the couch, with the football on, for no more than twenty minutes and was exactly where he intended to be for the whole weekend. “A walk??” “Yeah, why not? A brisk walk down to the town and back. It’ll be good for us, some fresh air before it starts raining again.”  This was a very out of character suggestion. Not that Dad didn’t go for walks, he went for them all the time but usually with...

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“New Year, New Brackk” by William Simon

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #179

Resolutions for a New Year Resolution One: Total Rebrand No more Brackk the Terrible! I’ve got get my act together. Every year I say “no more impaling people just because I skipped breakfast” but then a week into the new year I’m having a rough Monday and some pleb doesn’t bow low enough and I’m right back to square one. Not this year. I might never work my way up to Brackk the Great, or Brackk the Merciful, but Brackk the Reasonable? Brackk the ok if you get him on the right day? That seems possible. I’ve read the trick is to come ...

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Author bio

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Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #179
New Year, New Brackk – read story