These are some short stories I've written, as responses to prompts in reddit's r/writingprompts subreddit.
AJ Butterfield froze in mid stride, grasping at his suit for comfort and stature, as he tried to comprehend the sight before him.
Snuggles the cat was being... being attacked. By some heathen stranger who must have broken in because AJ always made certain to lock the doors and he had a horrified inkling the attacker had caused a lot of damage to do it. The insurance was going to be awful about it, he just knew it.
The stranger screamed at Snuggles...
Alfred Penton sighed, balled his hands into fists, and stomped the ground. "Again?!?"
His shout startled some passers-by, who gave him a bit wider of a berth. They were right to give him a wider berth, but were doing it for the wrong reason. Alfred's issues were not limited to some shouting on street corners...
You know that feeling where you wake up feeling refreshed and ready to take on anything?
Yeah, me neither.
My morning routine was to set my alarm clock for six if I had to get up at nine, so I could go back to sleep for a few hours and pretend like I'd slept in.
So looking back, it should be no surprise that when I woke up with a bomb strapped to my chest...
"Ack! Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!"
The sound of Toad being smacked in Mario Kart 64 plays back in my head, like on a tape, but an old and battered tape. It's been decades since I played the N64. I thought I had forgotten. But now it takes on a dark pall. My stomach turns as the sound plays over and over again. The more I try not to think about it, the harder it comes back.
I rush to the safety of my computer and put some death metal music on...
When I first laid my eyes on her, my heart skipped a beat. She looked like something sent from heaven, a gift from above, fate blessing me with its almighty powers.
A twenty-four pack of toilet paper and no sign saying I couldn't buy it because of limited stock due to a pandemic. Tenderly, and with a wipe in hand, I placed it in my cart and turned to head for the checkout. That's when I saw him...
Deep underground in a bunker, the existence of which was known only by a few dozen individuals across the billions of teeming lives on the planet, an elite black ops team sat around a large table. The team was a hodge podge of nationality, gender, size, shape, and attitude, but they all shared one thing in common: They were the best of the best; the elite of the elite; the covert of the covert. Their country's greatest assets that didn't exist, debriefing for a job that would never go on record...
With an instinctive flurry of movement, I tuck into the little room under the stairs and close the door as quickly and quietly as I can, heart thumping, hands going clammy.
I swallow hard and try to get myself under control. The voices echoing inside the house come at my ears like an assault. They must have come back. After all this time, they must have come back. I could have gone elsewhere, should have gone elsewhere, but I told myself it was over. I told myself I had nowhere else to go...
Captain Jason Sterling greeted the intelligent magma-based lifeform from a distance, glad that he was inside a protective suit.
The magma-based lifeform, who had identified itself with the name Grokmok, was surrounded by several other magma-based lifeforms oozing about.
When Grokmok spoke, its voice sizzled and spit with a deep bass. "So you have finally found us, human. We wondered when the day would come. I hope that you come in peace?"
I kick at the dirt with my sandaled foot, knocking a little bit of dust into the clear night air. It's dusk. The lights are coming down. The sun is disappearing. I won't be able to see the marks on the ground anymore.
Decius Maximus needs me to find who killed his brother, Tiberius. Decius is a roman guard and he's got some nice connections. I'm doing him a favor, but it benefits me too. The kind of deal you don't pass up, not when you're down on your luck in the roman empire.
The trail is gonna go cold if I don't find the end of it soon. I can feel it in my bones. I follow the marks in the last vestiges of light. They lead to the door of a little hut. It's the only lead I got, so I knock on the door...