Anthony Stauffer
Bio
Husband, Father, Technician, US Navy Veteran, Aspiring Writer
After 3 Decades of Writing, It's All Starting to Come Together
Use this link, Profile Table of Contents, to access my stories.
Use this link, Prime: The Novel, to access my novel.
Stories (99/0)
Gerry Goes Home
Gerry stared into the flames. The aroma from the boiling pot hanging from the trivet took him back to the days of the victory celebrations in Paris eleven years ago. The Great War was unkind to so many of thousands of soldiers America had sent, and it was no less for him.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
Here There Be Monsters
Phoebe unlocked the door to her apartment and let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t shake the feeling of her skin crawling, and it made her feel dirty and chilled. As the door closed, Sheba came bounding out to her from the bedroom. It always comforted Phoebe when she saw the cat’s eyes in the dark, because they seemed to shine of their own accord, a bright green that saw everything at once. She flicked the light switch on and bent down to Sheba.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
Escalation
The sound of thunder erupted from the cell phone on the bedside table and startled Tom awake. Groaning, he picked the phone up and tossed it across the room. The hangover haze and fog from the night before made his stomach lurch. That’s the LAST bachelor party I’m ever going to! Thank God his students had a test today, he could use the quiet time for his recovery. He trudged out of bed, the dry mouth and terrible taste in his mouth making his stomach lurch again. Tom brushed his teeth and washed his face, feeling mildly better. He made his way to his dresser and CRACK! Letting out a guttural yell, he looked down at his now bleeding toe. Son of a bitch!
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
The Break: Bruce
Fired again… AAAAHHH!!!! went the voice in Bruce’s head. It had been a shitty month, and here he was walking down an alley in the rain. His girlfriend went the way of the dodo three weeks ago; she claimed that he was out of his mind and dangerous. Looking back on it, sure, he may have overstepped the bounds a bit. But she was going to the gym, ALONE, three times a week! There is no way that her visits there were platonic! Bruce knew that she had to be seeing somebody else, and that ripped the heart out of his chest. He had given Diane everything! All he wanted to do was to please her…
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
The Break: Fisher
Fisher was exhausted… For days on end, he had been on the run, the Highwayman hot on his heels. Despite feeling that his quest was nearing its end, he couldn’t help but feel that he would never find his prize. The brooch was the key to his salvation, but he had no idea why. He only knew that he needed it. Yet, it was always was just out of his reach. He had been all over creation, it seemed, and each clue that sent him to his next destination only led to another clue. Months ago, his journey had started on the very street he now found himself trudging down, the rain falling heavy. How could the brooch be here? Something had drawn him back, though, something so strong that he could not ignore it.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
The Break: Broken
This was the night Diane had been dreading… One moment, she was standing in line at the Black Onyx arguing with her date, and in the next moment Bruce was there beating the shit out of him. Diane really didn’t care about Drew, he was an arrogant putz who deserved a good beating, but to see Bruce show up out of nowhere and guarantee Drew a lengthy hospital stay was beyond the pale.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
Nevermore
Lenore woke suddenly to the chirp of her laptop. Her bed called to her loudly, she had no idea how many nights it had been since she felt the warmth of the covers and the fluff of the pillows. She trained her bleary eyes to the screen and saw that it was the midnight hour. It was the message notification that had woken her from her dreamless nap, and after she slowly opened the messenger, she realized that there was no message to read. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to her search for ideas. ‘Twas a phantom message and nothing more.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
Prime
God had always been ethereal, esoteric, a figment in which to ground her soul in the real world and give her a mechanism to cope with how shitty life really was. That all came to a screeching halt when she met Gabriel. It hadn’t taken Claire long to figure out that she was jumping from one reality to another. The fact that she was able to was the astonishing part. In Plague World, she met Gabriel. As she stood over the body of her infected “twin”, he strolled out of the diner’s kitchen like a spring-breaker at the beach.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
Death Waits Another Day
Human nature is very much like a child, able to adapt to change at a moment’s notice, yet resists that change with the whole of their being. The history of the human race is rife with such sentiments, all to its own detriment and demise. Andy was never one to wax philosophical, but as he stared into his glass of synthohol, its greenish hue matching what he imagined was the color of his upset stomach, he shrugged to himself and thought that now was as good a time as any for it.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
The Prize
The great bell of St. Stephen’s Tower tolled the midday hour, and Talia stood at the tower’s base waiting. She despised being out during the day. Even beyond the dull pain of the sunlight upon her pale skin, she just couldn’t abide the joviality of the humans as they went about their human-crowded lives. At night, when she was hunting, the human stench was covered by the aromas of stale ale, cigars, and pub food.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction
The Replacements
[Recorded] Bridge Log, USS Feynman, 31 October 2099 The Europa Project has succeeded beyond all expectation. And humanity is now in danger. Twenty years ago, we sent a probe to Europa with a capsule full of nanomite dust. Nanoscale AI, not just cybernetic, but biosynthetic. We had no idea what we did. This message will be sent out on broadband SOS frequency in the hopes of finding human survivors or preparing alien civilizations for what to expect in this star system. This is Jason Cornan, Navigation Officer, USS Feynman, signing off. To my family, I love you.
By Anthony Stauffer3 years ago in Fiction