Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Menu

✕

CONNECT

Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites

BLOG

Success Stories

APPS

TOOLS

Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships

ABOUT

About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#221: Ghostly

With Halloween fast approaching, I find myself thinking about the different kinds of spooky stories we like to tell each other. Year after year, there’s one particular topic I gravitate towards when in search of a thrill: ghosts. Whether they’re friendly or vengeful, these haunting spectors represent more than just our fears and anxieties around our own mortality. They’re also symbols of the collision between the past and present, and the ways what has been can tangibly affect what will be. It’s no wonder, with the universality of these themes, that ghosts feature in folklore from all around the world.

This week, as the veil between worlds continues to thin, let’s dive into that liminal space between life and death, and see what it has to offer us.

This week's prompts

Write a story from a ghost’s point of view.

Halloween – 133 stories

Write a story about someone who is haunted. Whether by a ghost or something else is up to you.

Halloween – 137 stories

Write a story about someone trying to raise the dead.

Halloween – 49 stories

Write a story where ghosts and the living coexist.

Halloween – 69 stories

Set your story in a world where contacting the dead is as easy as making a phone call.

Halloween – 35 stories

Stories

“And The Jingle of Keys” by Carina Caccia

Submitted to Contest #221

The elevator hiccupped up to the third floor, the light flickering on cue as though a stagehand had flipped a switch. Nora was used to the rattle, the hiccups, of dwelling in the throat of an unoiled tinman who would hock her up onto the third floor like phlegm. She grimaced at her pallid and ghostly reflection; her lips were a purplish blue from the cold outside, and the sterile light made holes of her eyes. She wiped at her smudged mascara with her free hand, a bag of crisps tucked under the other, and the doors screeched open behind her. ...

Read story

“A Deal With The Devil” by Danielle Obiri

Submitted to Contest #221

The act of raising the dead is not a simple task but not impossible for a professional like Celeste Douab, Contracted Communicator and Specialist of the Dark Arts; her official title (though may need a bit of renovating). However, an impressive trade requires an impressive title and Celeste was risking her life by abiding to the needs of her clients. The Dark Arts were outlawed ten years ago in all the Seven Regions, rendering it more dangerous than it was already by nature. Just walking into a graveyard, a client by her side, with the inten...

Read story

“Don't Drink the Tea” by Keith Menendez

Submitted to Contest #221

The former Legion captain woke up with a start. His hands were in irons as he rode on the back of Spitfire. Will led the way on his white mustang, Winter. The elf rode next to him, while Popson and Chang followed. The hooves clattered down the somber streets of Between. He stretched his sore neck and back. He gingerly touched the large bump on his forehead, which was covered in a white bandage. "What happened? Why am I sore all over?" Popson called from behind, "You tried to ki...

Read story

“The Summoners ” by DH Irving

Submitted to Contest #221

The Summoners by D.H.Irving Specters and apparitions danced across the darkened room; flickering shadows that spun and whirled chaotically in the sputtering light of the sickly-sweet candles that brought them to life. The low rumble of a constant, almost imperceptible chant slid rhythmically through the silence like a brackish ooze, filling the gaps of nothingness until the whispered words seemed almost deafening in the otherwise quiet room. Upon the floor, a crude pentagram had been hastily painted, its spattered lines...

Read story

“When Does Life Begin?” by Dez-Ray Davis

Submitted to Contest #221

It felt like the first time the sun met the moon. Her light washed over him; she held the night sky in a warm embrace, and kissed the star-embedded skin wrapped around his face. In the presence of the other, they gleam and glow through the darkest of moments. Their brilliance blossoms into the world something new, something that protects and guides the lost wanderers in their souls. Every time their symmetrical images overlap, their smiles throw fireworks and shine; like a solar eclipse, casting a disco of small crescents over the earth as i...

Read story

“Androids Build Androids” by Kit Gordon

Submitted to Contest #221

Bethany Ruth Douglas, the small, thin widow, sat taciturn on her couch with her late husbands gray felt hat in her lap, thumbing the rim and blotching it with tears. It had been over a year, and grief still lived fresh inside her broken heart. Behind her stood the skeletal android, Ruthatoid, waiting to serve her needs. He’d been built to function as butler and maid, handyman and watchdog. The android was the death choir of Clyde Douglas, her husband. From the doctor’s word “Terminal,” Clyde began his work. Had there been more life to...

Read story

“The House in the Park” by Gisela Woldenga

Submitted to Contest #221

Gisela Woldenga 752 Runnymede Ave. Coquitlam BC, V3J2V1 email: gwnovels@gmail.com Tel.: 604-939-5357 THE HOUSE IN THE PARK Emily stopped and pointed. “Look at that house, Claire. It’s like a left-over from another time. And those colors.” Claire focused her camera. “Yeah, who has skinny, pink houses with yellow shutters nowadays.” Emily felt a small shiver going down her spine. “Not shutters. The windows are boarded up. They look like dead eyes.” Claire giggled. “How dramatic. Maybe we can find out what it’s still doing he...

Read story

“When?” by Kimberly Walker

Submitted to Contest #221

When? Upside down and confused. Cold. The sirens are getting louder; where are they going? Can't they see that I need help here? Whoa, I'm down here! Shake it off, girl. You can do it, okay there, that's better. Well, it is cooler out here now than when I left home. The weatherman said it would be in the lower 70s tonight, but when do they get it right? What did he think? March 17th has never been 71o after dark, even though it was 75 by noon. I should have worn a jacket. Now that I have freed myself from the seatbelt, I must get out of th...

Read story

“Desert Clouds Like Ghosts” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #221

An interesting thing finally happened after a very long time of nothing at all happening in the life of little Penelope Winston. She sat in the dusty dirt in front of her family’s covered wagon, her little zombie rag doll named Sycamore to her right, and a potato peeler in her hand. There was a dog on the horizon. The wind picked up and a dozen dust devils whirled about the outskirts of her family’s camp. They looked like pale translucent ghosts dancing those whirling waltzes she’d spied her parents participating in when she was ver...

Read story

“Spirit World” by C.E. Simon

Submitted to Contest #221

TRIGGER WARNING: Contains mental health issues, mention of suicide, and a child's death.“Welcome to Spirit World,” the guide greeted the group of kids and adults alike.I slid my keycard over the sensor and opened the double doors.The guide ushered the group down the hallway, more like a hospital than a zoo—we were told never to use the term zoo—and the presentation continued. As he told them the history of containing ghosts from all over the world, I watched closely at pockets, looked for cellphones or recording devices that were snuck in. N...

Read story

“To Hear Mom Again” by Blake Taylor

Submitted to Contest #221

Losing your mom at a young age is hard for anyone. She kissed you and held you for several years, and you learned she was the one to go to when you got your knee scraped and your face wet with tears because it hurt so much. It took a little while for you to understand she was family and that she was supposed to be in your early life. Then you find out it’s a lie, and mothers can definitely leave you for whatever reason. When she’s dead, now there’s someone else you have to go to for your scraped knees and their words of encouragement,...

Read story

“I Just Called...” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #221

“It just doesn’t feel right…” Sally gave John The Look. The Look was actually a suite of looks, but John lumped them all together because one way or another he was in trouble when she looked at him like that. Maybe it was more nuanced than he supposed, but John played it safe all the same, and so far he’d kept the fallout restricted to the initiating trouble and held off most escalations. As far as was possible anyway. He wasn’t dull and limited, he understood things well enough to know that sometimes the initial trouble was an openi...

Read story

“The Bone Phone ” by Fredrick Dios

Submitted to Contest #221

I would have thought spreadsheets and purchase orders to be too trivial for eternal damnation, but by the time I walked Josh through the process for the third time, I just walked right up to the torture line and stood there. I could still hear them even after I hung up the phone. Their voices lingered in the dark red clouds of hell like distant echoes. Please cut off my ears, I thought, still waiting in line for torture, but things were moving slow today.I could see a demon walking with intent towards the line. I could see the stark whi...

Read story

“Printer Ink” by Sarah Dean

Submitted to Contest #221

“Thank you for calling Afterline, the second best call center for connecting the living and the not. My name is Timothy, how can I help you today?” The overly cheery voice coming from the small man was a far cry from the deadpan facial expression he wore. Surrounding him were dozens of other voices droning on in similar fashions. Many of the voices were ones he did recognize. Timothy had been working here since his passing almost three hundred years ago and hadn’t moved up from his entry position like a bunch of the others he’d come with, mu...

Read story

“Withering Velvet Heart” by Venus G

Submitted to Contest #221

She felt like a ribbon streak. A ray of light rich enough to give me youth yet I’m a cold. A shiver down her spine of fear after the sunsets with anxiety and every time she comes back up the fear seems to disappear but—how can she look at me like I’m velvet royalty when I’m just a midnight line of forgotten strength? I’m incomplete but when she smiles I feel heat. She’s a sunrise and I set– the world on fire… yes. How can she love me when I’m less than lavender and she’s gold? Many try to forget about the building beyond the hill. Days are...

Read story

Load more stories

$250

Prize money

423

Contest entries

148

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 27, 2023 EST

Won by Bay Colt 🏆

Title: Clearance Aisle Libations

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢