Ryan Appleyard
Bio
I just want to write stuff.
Stories (13/0)
30 Hours
I had always been eager to love. Brimming with admiration for anyone that wasn't me, that I could bounce off of and grow in a direction towards who I wanted to be as opposed to who I was. I convince myself they made me better, they helped me become who I am today and to a degree that's true, only through experience. It would be harsh to say any relationship I've had was a mistake, perhaps closer to a misstep. So when a colleague suggested I join Tinder, I was sceptical.
By Ryan Appleyard2 months ago in Humans
In Memoriam
The outside world was unknown to her, but she could see a glimpse of it through the window in his room. The sky burned orange and dust filled her lungs, barely kept out by the plastic wrap tapped around the window edges. The room was sparse, filled only by the warm orange glow of the sky, the old mattress on the floor she had woken up on and a rotting door presumably leading to the rest of this mystery building. Every terrible thought ran through her head, had she been kidnapped? Did she have amnesia? Oh God, what if she was dead?!
By Ryan Appleyardabout a year ago in Fiction
Me, Dad and the Skate Park
My father is a good man, but when I was born he was just a teenager. It takes its toll on a person being that young and being expected to raise a child, to be present in a soon to be broken home in South London. Despite the doom and gloom of the concrete jungle, despite the ruthless predators and harsh environment, he and I still managed to carve out our own pieces of the city, namely our local skate parks.
By Ryan Appleyard2 years ago in Families
Snuff the Flame
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The fierce glow of the light through the now cracked window was obscured by a tangle of web and dust, though from miles down the hill at this late hour, it caught the attention of an old man walking his dog down old country roads. He had taken this path many times before and neglected to give the old cabin more than a moments notice, perhaps due to a youth spent hearing tall tales of the rickety old shack.
By Ryan Appleyard2 years ago in Horror
Uphill Battle
The sun was beating down, it was midway through the summer holidays, I was only 9 years old as was my friend Jamie. The summer holidays had barely begun and we were gearing up for all kinds of mischief on our sleepy estate of houses. With only one bike between us and barely 200 metres of road to peruse, we had to get creative. Though we managed to fill the days pretending to be spies or soldiers hiding behind brick walls and tall bushes, today we found it was just too much. The heat was getting to use so we settled for an afternoon at another fiends house. Courtney was a sweet girl, a year older than us and had the entire Sky package meaning we could kill time in tears of laughter at the latest cartoon network shows. As it got dark I realised Jamies insistence to stay at Courtneys for as long as possible. Even at 9 it was obvious, he had a crush on her. His first crush in fact. We would both get in trouble if we were late home so I left, let my mum know I was stay at Jamies for the night and somehow managed to persuade Jamie back to his own home, bidding Courtney farewell. Little did we know what the next day would entail.
By Ryan Appleyard3 years ago in Humans
The Waking Genius
The Acquired Savant It's 2006, Colorado man Derek Amato is playing a game of football when he attempts to catch the ball while jumping into a swimming pool resulting in a headfirst dive into concrete. He suffered a serious concussion and ended up in a semi-coma. When he awoke he had partial deafness, frequent headaches and memory loss, although another effect of the accident was quite a shock. He was suddenly a proficient pianist. Having never played the piano prior, this seemingly unlocked talent was perhaps an unexpected blessing as he was able to compose beautiful melodies and went on to commercialise his newfound talent by releasing a solo and later an album. As bizarre as it may sound it was not an isolated incident.
By Ryan Appleyard3 years ago in FYI
Divine Appreciation
There's a moment in any day where they clubs clear, the sun sets and beams light fall from the sky, tumbling to the ground with heavenly grace. A divine moment of natural beauty, perfectly capturing the power of the universe and the cosmic flukes that happen within it but this can happen any day, you merely have to look for them. That ideal window of time where nature boasts it's tremendous humble being. Similarly, a storm that rages maintains a similar sense of outstanding elegance, littering the sky with brilliant bolts of lightning and roars of thunder. Rage incarnate on display for the world to behold. It provokes a sense of mortality, a modest understanding of our role in the world, with each other. Art, at least for me, has always had a similar quality.
By Ryan Appleyard3 years ago in Motivation
- Top Story - July 2021
Reasonable AssumptionTop Story - July 2021
A knock at the door alerts the household. None of the three occupants are expecting a visitor or a package, and yet there is someone at the door. The mystery is elusive and each of the guys struggles to manage their excitement at the prospect of receiving actual, real-life, adult-style post. They each run for the door, Tony from his bedroom upstairs bounding down, shaking the house on its already poorly constructed foundations, Aaron from the kitchen, rubber gloves still on from doing the washing up, and PJ lagging behind after rushing off the toilet, stumbling towards the front door still doing his flies up. Each has a similar running commentary on what could be outside their own front door. Perhaps it is the hot pizza girl, "accidentally" delivering to the wrong address again. This had already triggered numerous arguments over who she truly wanted to sleep with when in reality she simply worshipped chaos and saw the fragility of this households combined ego.
By Ryan Appleyard3 years ago in Fiction