Byline
Tracie+L Mauriello
@tracielmauriello
Lifetime
Lines
25
Awards
Earned
12
Member
Since
'21
Awards
Tracie+L's Stories
plane crash
The plane was crashing. I didn't know what to do.
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Dreams Wash Away: Part II
Or so I think my father thought. I wouldn't know exactly because that was the last time we all saw him. He knew he was risking his life out there, but when he promised me that he'd be back, he looked like he really meant it. Or maybe it's because I believed him that I broke down.
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TikTok tactics
Alice was in trouble. She was floundering. She was sinking. The worst possibilities her friends had suggested were no longer abstract potentials. They were concrete and absolute. Waves of probability had collapsed and now formed the violent landscape she had failed to navigate.
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The Best-Laid Plans of Rats and Men
Clouds of dust plumed up as sheets of residue fell off the windowsills. Long abandoned, the house shuddered under the force of the bombs as they made impact nearby. It was a pity they weren't closer. They could have drowned out the wails of the sirens and the screams of the dead.
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Realtors and spies
We are building a bridge...a new path to a new town. This area was recently bought by a big company and they want to develop a new concept in housing. Modern, futuristic and environmentally friendly...with state of the arc technology...
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Witches and Toothpaste and Cats, Oh My!
Never leave a container of mint balls next to a witch's cauldron. But the trick to this is, what exactly is a witch? When I first came across this warning, I avoided every kitchen of every woman senior citizen that I came across. I even avoided my grandma. But a witch is nothing
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In A Purple Haze at the Edge of Space
Maybe it was the length of time I’ve spent in the silence of space, but music has meant a lot to me these last 5 years. I’d gotten used to only hearing my own breath and cursing inside my helmet, no matter how much damage my blaster did. Music helped. Time for some Hendrix.
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Putting the Mush in Mushroom
Once, I had read how the mushrooms we see in the forest are not individual organisms, but part of a much larger whole that exists underground. But as best as I can tell, moving mushrooms don’t exist.
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Which Witch Doctor Doctored the Witch, Doctor?
Her hands trembled as she took the reigns, knowing what it meant to leave. She tapped Lancelot with her heel and he left the open door of the stable. She covered her bald head with the child’s blanket and…
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Too Many Legs
My partner and I pulled up outside the scene of the crime, annoyed to find the news crew had already beaten us there. It was the third time this week at the same location which was, rather conveniently, just across the street from the news station. “This can’t be coincidence,” I
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A Voice In The Dark: Part II
Mitch and Mindy leapt up, terrified what lay beneath. They twirled around, examined the human remains occupying their chairs and, in unison, let out a shriek. Within moments the cloaked figure had dropped its clipboard and moved toward the pair with the determination of eternity.
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Gilford, the Unnecessarily Magical
Where am I going to find a box of grits at this hour? It’s an unconventional ingredient, as far as magical components go, but Southern Magic did things differently. For one thing, the incantations are spoken much slower, and for another…
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A Shell Unlike Any Other
The boy suddenly woke up on the shores of a beach. Bitter cold and the familiar stench of coastal decay overtook him. The deafening cawing of seagulls and distant sirens clouded his mind. "I have to get back..", he grunted while trying to get to his feet..
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Emerald Eyes
Finally after 3 years of searching, I had found my little sister. There was only one problem, directly on top of the cage that she was locked in slept an emerald green elder dragon.
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Good Morning, Beanstalk
The giant’s body lay face down in what this morning had been Halbert Haversham’s home, stables, and small orchard. The giants left foot however had planted itself squarely into Jack’s bedroom on the second floor of his mother’s home. Even now, the beanstalk had begun to whither.
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An Assemblage of Dolls
The doll continued sewing in the dark corner, greeting the needle spiders as they clattered across the wooden shelf. Many avoided her, if possible, so solitude was the only constant friend she could rely on. Besides that, she had patients who screamed at her tattered face until
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Life Is A Game
He brought his hands together in glee, his eyes gleaming. He received looks as if he had lost his mind, but that just increased his initial excitement. He finally knew the truth.
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Mugwort’s School for Murderers
I ran through the hallways trying to get to class. It seemed like one of those scenes in a movie where the main character is comically late. But it wasn’t I was a mess. A real life mess.
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Celtic Maid of Disaster
Grind the beans until they turn as smooth as sand in an hourglass. Pull the lever until the water streams down in an iridescent cascade. Pour the mixture from the pot into the cup elegantly and with a cold expression. Hope that you're not pretty. That is how you survive as a maid
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Becoming One
He looked at the night sky and imagined other worlds. Alternative universes where he was happier, wealthier and maybe a couple of inches taller.
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The Mythical Sword of Fromage
It had been eleven months to the day since the storms first began. Most cities were but flattened piles of crumbling brick and rotting wood. People—those who survived—lived in small shanty tent collectives under highway overpasses. My sister Gwen and I had found an empty trailer
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From Wicked to CEO
I started out as any normal child. I’d pass the days away playing silly childish games, like duck-duck goose or tag with the neighborhood children. The day I turned 10, I noticed I was different. A weird mark appeared on my hand in the shape of a moon, and my mother hid me away.
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The Wanakalagooga Wifi Experience
Once a year we traveled to the same camping spot. It was a place called Camp Wanakalagooga. Wide open space in the middle of nowhere. I liked it there, I felt like I belonged there, in nature...with the bugs and the snakes.
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Night Owls
Jerry glanced down at the photograph in his hand, then back up again at the woman sitting alone at the back of the cafe.
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