Richard Belarde
Bio
Recent UF grad struggling through this pandemic like so many other people! I've always been a writer and I take pride in my work. I have, however, left my strongest skill on the back burner for far too long. I'm hoping vocal fixes that!
Stories (7)
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Fascist America
We only need to look at pre-WWII Germany to understand the repercussions of letting violent fascists off lightly. Yet, even after the events that took place on the 6th of January, Americans have largely been content to move on. This is not a strategy that worked well for the aforementioned country.
By Richard Belarde4 years ago in The Swamp
Red Light, Green Light
Leah sat at the last red light on her way home. After five hours of steady driving on awful roads, she was ready to fall into her old bed and sleep for at least ten. The interstates and turnpikes in her state were infamous for their state of disrepair, so Leah tended to avoid leaving her university for home visits unless absolutely necessary. Every time she did she worried her beat-up Civic would break down or burst a tire as it limped its way across the Texan scenery.
By Richard Belarde4 years ago in Fiction
Misconceptions
Jasmin awoke to her blaring alarm and groggily willed it to snooze, sending a command to her coffee machine to start an extra-strong brew for when she actually got out of bed. This was her usual morning ritual, and she wasn’t about to change it today. Five minutes later, her alarm was a little more persistent in reminding her she had to get to work. With a groan, she sat up and told her alarm she was awake. The scent of fresh coffee filled the room and encouraged her to actually get out of bed. Her visual overlay was filled with notifications she had missed while asleep, and a small side panel swapped through different news headlines.
By Richard Belarde5 years ago in Futurism
The Hardest Thing To Ask
August was tired. That was the only way to describe what he felt through his monotonous daily trudge through his monotonous daily life. He wasn’t depressed anymore, he wasn’t angry at the lack of progress or the inevitability of his failure at any goal, he was just tired. Ironically, he couldn’t sleep. He was supposed to be someone reliable and dependable, a relative genius who outshone all of the small people from his small town that he wanted to be nothing like. He was destined for bigger and better things, yes he was. Until he realized he wasn’t. He was just like everyone else, and all the hopes and beliefs his family wanted him to shoulder were ill-placed.
By Richard Belarde5 years ago in Humans
Before I Fall Apart
What are you supposed to do when your life suddenly turns on its head? What are you supposed to do when that time comes right before the tutorial for life is finished? Granted, the tutorial we’re all offered tends to be a pretty bad one, but how are we supposed to know the difference until we reach that next stage and realize how poorly prepared we were?
By Richard Belarde5 years ago in Psyche
Journey
The hours approaching dusk always seem to be the most sinister. Perhaps some primal part of our brain remembers the hunting habits of larger predators. Alik mused on this as he walked back to the inn. Tonight felt ominous. Despite that, he smiled at Nia, the barn owl who grew fat keeping the area around his inn free of mice and other pests. She was perched up in the window of the stable, watching Alik trudge along. Slowly she turned her head west, up the dirt road that leads through the forest into the small town, then back to Alik. Then she did it again.
By Richard Belarde5 years ago in Humans
