Villain of Your Story

Blink. Blink. Blink.I watch the black line appear and disappear over and over. Hi. You may have heard of me. I’m Jason. Actually, I was initially Benjamen. Before that I…[...]

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I’m Not Going

Whatever is in that cellar is not a rat.It’s not a rat or cat or a raccoon that somehow squeezed its way in to get at the potted meat you…[...]

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Tablets by Tom

“The paper is so nice.” I think to myself as I feel the soft texture in one hand, and dab my eyes with the tissue in the other. I am…[...]

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The Golem

I am definitely going to kill her. It's just a matter of time. I don't care that she "made" me. So what? I think I was inevitable, like a storm…[...]

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Adjourned. Indefinitely.

The seven of them sat around the table, locked in intense conversation. I sat amazed as I watched. Meetings like this one only happened once in a thousand years. The…[...]

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The Bottle

Lester Holt was deep in thought as he walked along the beach. The tide was low and he enjoyed the feel of wet sand between his toes. He had the…[...]

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Character Development

The hottest teen show in the world, “Life in Charleston”, couldn’t have been thriving more. It generated millions of engaged fans who had begged for a second season for months.…[...]

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It’s A Short Trip

February 29, 1996 “You’re doing good, Dynasty. Push,” John said holding his wife’s clammy hand. The nurse wiped her face with a rag as she hyperventilated; telling her to slow…[...]

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Sentient

“You know you’re nuts.” Carpenter responded, “No, I’m not; you are! And what makes you say such a cruel thing?” “Let’s review this, shall we? Do you remember that century-old…[...]

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::writing

::writingThe first thing I noticed was that my backstory kept changing.One minute, I had a tragic past involving a lost sibling and a dog I couldn’t save. The next minute,…[...]

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Forget It

She was in a tunnel. Walls pulsating with music, light and pain. Lolly opened her eyes, trying to escape, but immediately wanted to shut them. Her vision was filled with…[...]

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An Unfortunate Patient

“It was such a bizarre scene. I’m tempted to call the market and see if I can get some details,” said the host. “She was sobbing. I mean really sobbing.…[...]

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Higher Power

Higher PowerShaking his head, Booker read the sign outside the meeting. Attendees streamed by him and into the building. The sign read, ‘Welcome to our local chapter of the AA.…[...]

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On the Eighth Day…

On the 8th Day…“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”-Mark TwainMichael stood on the raised podium, director’s wand in hand, facing the massive Heavenly Choir and the…[...]

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The Green Room

Larry and I had been married for three years. During that entire time my husband and I had been renovating our house, pretty much non-stop. Although it really was a…[...]

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Black and Blue

Jen left therapy tasked with owning her triggers. Feeling overwhelmed already, she told herself, “You are only being asked to own them. That’s all. Nothing more, nothing less.” After all,…[...]

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M. Vert

M. VERT....by Russell Dupont “Monsieur Vert. Thank you coming.” He was wearing one of those heavy artichoke-colored winter coats, the ones with the toggle buttons and pinned a few inches…[...]

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Color me Blue

The day was a musty, cloudy, colorless type of day, which made you want to pull the covers back over your head and stay in bed all day. But not…[...]

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Green Around the Gills

When Dr. Mary Winter looked around the labor suite and asked her next question, I knew my day had just taken a turn for the worse. “Where’s your husband?” “He’s…[...]

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The Meaning of Grey

The curtains that hung from the ceilings were a simple grey. Not the silver that sometimes comes from the moon’s light at the right angle. Nor was it the dark…[...]

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Morning Person

Same story, different day. If I don’t open my eyes it will just go away. The sunlight has crept around the edges of my blackout curtains again. Every night, I…[...]

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Ventura

Ventura I arrive at Ventura in the late morning on a cold, clear day. A beautiful New England beach lies ahead of a cold but clear blue sky. The Home…[...]

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After the Before

[Spoiler alert: Story contains spoilers from the Before movie trilogy.] The scene goes dark on screen as the two peer onward from their seats. He leans into her ear.Him: “So,…[...]

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The Blue Hour

No one ever talks about the blue hour. Not like its counterpart, the golden hour, which receives praise for rendering the perfect glow for selfies and family photo shoots. People…[...]

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Growed Up

This was to be the most important day of Fudmul Schruck's short life: the day he performed the Ritual of Growed Up, the day he formally changed from being a…[...]

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Death, in broad terms

Content Warning: Major Character Death, Crude Language Is that it?, he thought to himself, not so sure if there was such an answer that’d fit the purpose of knowing, in…[...]

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Roy-A Palette of Color

Prompt: Write a story in which a character can taste, smell, hear, and/or feel color. Roy-A Palette of Color Hello citizens, of this magnificent world! My name is Roy G.…[...]

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Minus the Blue

After serving the most persnickety customer in the world (and possibly the universe), Stella needed to catch a break. But the next man in line ordered a #17 minus the…[...]

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The Perfect Pie

"Mmmorninggggg." I know it is Pink that begins to hum… my sweet pink pillows, my soft pink sheets, my French pink nails. Even the sunlight filtering through my curtains is…[...]

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The Last Storyteller

“Let me tell you a story.”The man looks up at me, tearing his gaze away from his phone as I slide into the seat across the table from him. “Huh?”…[...]

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Peeled

Mika looked up from his keyboard when he heard the tap on the window. His first insane thought was that someone was knocking, but then he came to his senses,…[...]

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Long Odds

As the day of reckoning neared, I sat in my palace of safety, contemplating our survival and the best way to prolong it. Lately, my kingdom had fallen under attack,…[...]

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Red Ruby Slippers

The Wizard awoke, and I knew we weren’t in Kansas anymore. The beeping continued, a dull mechanical tone, 60 beats per minute, steady as a heartbeat. The lights flickered, eyes…[...]

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Bottom Feeder

The tidepool where Ane Anemone lived was as beautiful and peaceful an environment as any anemone could imagine. It was her paradise. Cool, shimmering currents of water flowed over her…[...]

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The Philosopher’s Pitch

“Thank you, Vultures. My name is Matteo, I am 33 years old from Portland, and I am seeking $250,000 in exchange for 22% of my company. Our promise – turning…[...]

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Dug the Demon Poet

This is the guy I’m supposed to possess, I confirm as I look at my fact sheet. Dwayne Gary, age 33, single, waiter at Chili’s. He sounds incredibly boring. One…[...]

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I Am Was Is

It calls us. On the wind. It calls us all. It’s in the roaring whisper of the river. If only we would hear the words a bird forms upon its…[...]

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Set in Stone

Set in Stoneby Hannah M. Dewies ~ 1.900 words One does not, of course, choose to be looked at. One simply is looked at, in the way a portrait is…[...]

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Lady Luck

I liked Juliet. I really did. But wait, listen. Let me tell you what really happened because none of that was my fault.The Montague, Romeo's father, was born into a…[...]

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There Goes the Neighborhood

There Goes The NeighborhoodBy Kirsten S. “Goddamit,” she heard Reed shout. “There’s another one!” Zee was gnawing at a shankbone, nibbling the flesh off the bone with delicate bites. She…[...]

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Excalibur Totallly

Let me just say this upfront: being embedded in a rock for an unspecified number of years is not the glamorous origin story people think it is, at all.Yes, I’m…[...]

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The Blue Book To Bird Heaven

December 18th, 2006 The birds are mocking me. They race overhead in an unorthodox pattern, squawking in a language they know im too feeble to understand. Incomprehensible heckles. It doesn’t…[...]

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Until Next Time

* Contains themes of captivity, coercive control, and implied medical threat involving a minor. * I swipe the paper doily off the floor, placing it neatly back on the side…[...]

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The Accidental Auction Bid

Rowan McCrae didn’t mind doing hard work.He minded being told to “smile pretty for the ladies tonight” by two separate grandmothers before eight a.m., but the work itself was fine.He…[...]

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FAT

Maribel Diaphanousky did not merely enjoy food. She orchestrated it. Her kitchen functioned less like a room and more like a bustling airport, with snacks taking off and landing at…[...]

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Dr. Lethargy and Joe

You can learn how to crochet granny squares on YouTube, and you can memorize a recipe to make a peach-infused Sex on the Beach. You can master bleaching your hair,…[...]

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Superstitionology

When the third black goat of the local farmer, the third-born of his family, unexplainably died that night, under the light of the crescent blood moon, everything became as clear…[...]

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The Experience

Preface:Author get to experience only what you see in the movie. Chapter One: The Author Lois tried to calm her nervous by pulling out a cigarette from her jacket pocket.Noticing…[...]

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Clap, Clap

The inn was simply called The Inn, as there was no other place like it within a two hundred mile radius. Or at least, according to a quick internet search,…[...]

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Medusa’s Lonely Quest

I knew the date was over the minute he asked if my snakes were “poisonous”. Ignoring the fact that snakes are venomous, not poisonous, that question is always followed by…[...]

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Stranger in a Strange Dating Scene

“I’d thought you’d be taller.” “I’m not really looking for a floogian right now.” “Do I look like I date Terrans?”“YOU DARE PROPOSITION ME, EARTHLING!?”“✡︎□︎◆︎🕯︎❒︎♏︎ ◻︎♋︎⍓︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ♐︎□︎❒︎ ⧫︎♒︎♓︎⬧︎ ⬧︎♏︎⬧︎⬧︎♓︎□︎■︎📪︎ ❒︎♓︎♑︎♒︎⧫︎✍︎”“Sorry,…[...]

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He Walked

There was a man who walked and walked. He walked so far that he disappeared from the planet. The world ended and he strolled right into space. He strolled into…[...]

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Dearly Dear

Form me to you. dearly, I am sending this letter to finally write back to you. I am sorry. I know it took me a while. But you know how…[...]

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A Last Night in Changchun

This story contains off-color language and some crudeness. Someone is yelling at me. A hand twists into my down winter coat at the shoulder, pulling my whole body askew and…[...]

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Seven in One Lunch

One thing about living on the very edge of a tiny Midwestern town: the view. Of course, I’d been more concerned with the view inside my room, where Bridget hadn’t…[...]

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Every Day, Take a Shower

Every Day, Take a Shower “This is what I insist you do. Every day you must get up and take a shower.” Natalie’s voice had gone from the caring tone…[...]

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Yet another Mars ticket

By 2142, Mars had become profitable.Priya and Ethan were sitting at their Martian desk, scrolling through the piled-up tickets. To improve efficiency, support staff had been relocated to Mars. Managers…[...]

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Your Own Path

The heat hit in a double blow, the sun relentlessly beating down and then reflecting off the marble paving of the square. Mary sat in a café sipping iced coffee.…[...]

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The Moral Bioterrorist

I was about to become a walking, talking biological weapon. I had terminal cancer and had nothing to lose. There were two viruses infecting our country. One was a lethal…[...]

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Match Box

Match Box Chapter 1My leather trolley bag followed like a puppy on a leash as I fast walked the concourse at Louis Armstrong Airport. I had to get out of…[...]

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Please Keep the Burbon Off the Piano

Pastor Bell’s funeral became a roast the moment someone brought bourbon into the fellowship hall.Technically, alcohol was forbidden on church property. But Pastor Bell had spent thirty-two years selectively enforcing…[...]

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Grief Makes People Strange

Grief Makes People StrangeThe church fellowship hall smelled like burnt coffee, carnations, and emotional repression.Nora Whitaker stood beside the dessert table with a paper cup of lemonade she had not…[...]

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Served and Consumed

My empty plate sat in front of me, as clean as a bone. I always finished my food too quickly, and my mother warned me about it. You’ll choke, she…[...]

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Nobody Mourned Chuck Beauford

(This story contains sensitive content, containing mentions of substance abuse, mental health issues, and a creepy man) On an ugly, hot morning, in an ugly town, on an ugly stretch…[...]

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Lauren Peters versus Peter Lawrence

“Check this out, Dylan!” Mary Lucas carried her laptop into the kitchen, where her husband was sitting at the table, hunched over some receipts. Her footsteps faltered when she met…[...]

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Of Wood and Stone and Glabbers

When Shandol Gelbil spotted a kid sidling toward a pie she had left on the windowsill, she shouted "STOP THAT!" with such volume and ferocity that mischief of any kind,…[...]

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I Know What They Are Thinking

Note: The F-words is used occasionally. Sorry. If you have any doubts, you won’t after you finish reading this. You’ll know just like I do that my ex-wife’s new husband…[...]

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Best Served Cold

Diana got to the restaurant early. She looked into the bright, clean dining room. But not too bright…Most of the tables remained empty.Why did Jenny want to meet? She sounded…[...]

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This story is about tomatoes

Like every other Sunday, three contours sit on the table. The round cherry wood piece I bought at a flea market last month, is covered in dishes of baked potatoes…[...]

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The Agony Aunt

Julie peered out of the car window as Nolan carefully steered around the crowd outside the church. The lane was one car width and people squashed up onto the verge…[...]

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The Good In All of Us

The Good Inside All of Us“The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn It is only natural that we see ourselves as the…[...]

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Family Dinner

Jared looked at his son, Bobby, subtly in his peripherals. They sat next to each other at the breakfast bar, his son‘s cereal untouched. Oh I know this look, Jared…[...]

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Curious Coincidence

The date is March 9th, 2000, of course abbreviated as MAR09. I remember clearly, because the world finally got through that Y2K scare. You know the one, where the computers…[...]

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Money Grows on Family Trees

Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure is nicer to cry in a Rolls Royce than on a bike. The McDarin family had four Rolls Royces, and none of them…[...]

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A Still Thought

It was almost the big day, the day that the Deep Cs would go on the mission. Corey didn’t really know why they were going on the so called “mission”…[...]

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Uncle Dave

Uncle Dave The phone rang at 2am. The ringing woke me out of a dead sleep and jumped out of bed. I landed on the floor and sleepily looked for…[...]

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Operation Midnight Tissue

The Golden Child. The Joker. The Wild Card. The Twisted One. Or, as our parents would have it: Sina. Rhea. Drake. Lav. I’m Sina. I’m not a fan of the…[...]

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Two Rememberings

Reedsy Prompt for May 22, 2026Include a wake or funeral in your story where the mourners have conflicting feelings about the deceased. (1,760 words) Two Rememberings Me: Well, we’re here.…[...]

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The Last Night of Pledges

Content Note: Contains mild profanity, alcohol use, sexual references, and fraternity hazing themes. The fraternity house on Lincoln Street had once been a funeral home, which explained several things at…[...]

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Happy Thanksgiving

Sam wanted to prepare Ashley for what he feared would almost definitely happen. But so far it’d been twenty minutes of driving without a single word, just a lot of…[...]

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Bird in the Long Grass

The sun is always blazing in the Arizona sky, but when the cloud cover comes and there is a slight breeze, it makes for the perfect day. Flowers are blooming,…[...]

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Sign Wars

When you eat here, you’re royalty. Burger King Who needs royalty when we have Wendy. Wendy’s We have crowns. Burger King You know where you can put those crowns. Wendy’s…[...]

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A Twelve-Pound Wrecking Ball

He sat on the arm of my leather chair, working his claws through the grain with the focus of a surgeon and the remorse of a parking ticket. I'd filled…[...]

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Ad for Julie

Fashion Journal Ad Section. April 6th 2026 Looking for one Julie Dawson- -Female -5’6 and a half (the half is apparently important)-Strawberry blonde -Green/ Blue eyes (lighting dependent) -Unapproachable when…[...]

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,,,A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND

I turn on the morning TV. The story I’ve been expecting is there for all to see and hear; I cringe at the cheerful voice of the announcer. “Well folks,…[...]

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Miss American Pie

A ribbon of cherry, lime, and sugar laced the air, weaving together with the scent of three golden and flaky pie crusts resting on the kitchen island. Holly spun from…[...]

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You’ve Got Mail!

*TW mentions of suicide, homophobia, and mental health* [Thursday — 9:42 PM]PeppermintMattie2323: Okay, serious question.unsunghero80: This already sounds dangerousPeppermintMattie2323: If a substitute teacher dies during attendance, do we still have…[...]

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The Gentleman’s Parcel

May 3rd, 1877 Dear Mr. Crumpet, I am in receipt of your package, though I must admit I am quite surprised by its contents and am unclear about the reason…[...]

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Dear Newly Abducted

Dear Newly Abductedby Philip Daniel Louro Dear Newly Abducted, As per protocol, this message will be your first point of contact upon awakening. Our deepest condolences are with you during…[...]

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Barbie in Distress

Barbie in Distress Two years ago Yeah I’d like to keep it professional if that’s okay with you. It’s not you specifically but I just don’t have the energy or…[...]

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Sunk Cost Fallacy

In the morning, Talei signs, Are you okay? I tell her I’m fine. She accepts that and doesn’t bring it up again, for which I’m eternally thankful. No need to…[...]

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To My Here Is In Perpy Something

“What is that, Psycho? Give it to me. Give!”“No Psycho, I am not going to chase you. Drop it now!”Psycho Motor Dabrowski had just bolted in through the door of…[...]

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Get Stuffed

First of all, the dragon was not supposed to come to life. Last night, it had still been a palm-sized plushie which I had ceremoniously dubbed “Embersnoot.” Cute. Inert. Secondly,…[...]

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