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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

“The Bees” by Aya Tubinshlak

Submitted to Contest #221

My name was Aspen, like the place. Or the tree. I can’t remember now.I knew two places well: Home, and the White Room. I think about them often. Home, and the White Room, and Daniel, and Ma.Home was dark. Too dark. Home was air that was heavy; a silent room, but for the occasional sound of Ma, coming in to check on me. Home was Ma’s warm hand on my cheek, a cool towel on my forehead, water trickling down like a heartbeat. It was lukewarm milk and Ma’s perfume, sweet like honey and jasmine, and the low hum of insects and cars passing by outsi...

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“The Pose” by Scott Taylor

Submitted to Contest #221

“Excuse me, you’re not supposed to be here.” I turned to see a young, undressed woman with a spirit board. She was in a somewhat darkened room with only a few lit candles for effect. The shadows accentuated her attributes, making her a sight to behold. Smoke filled the air from different incense burners. All that was missing was a crystal ball. I thought it strange that I could detect the sharp odor of the incense. Distracted by her beauty, the sense of smell eluded me. Minutes earlier, I was with four generations of Graysons. I represe...

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“New Beginnings” by Hillie Jeffery

Submitted to Contest #221

Part 1 Darkness. No sound, no smell, no feeling. Only darkness. Where am I? I'm trying to remember, but my head is fuzzy. A faint sparkle catches my eyes. My chain is thrown on the ground, torn and dusty. This is the necklace I asked for for our anniversary. "Do you understand the price of this necklace?" "It is expensive, but worth every penny." "I'm not talking about money. I’m talking about the hours I'll have to work for it. Time we could spend together." A red-blue light pierces the darkness. A blinding white flashlight. A gloved ...

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“Haunted.” by Geeta Boodansingh

Submitted to Contest #221

Trigger warning :This story contains suicide, sexual assault, gore.Anger drapes the room in uncomfortable silence. Resentment and spite have become the trimmings that decorate the dinner table. Both my parents sit on opposite ends, as far apart as the space would allow. Their silence conveys more honesty, more meaning than any of their words spoken aloud ever had.I try to diffuse the tension. A funny story, some made up joy from my day.Silence, save for the scrape of cutlery. Disapproval hangs heavy in the air.I could shout and scream and th...

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“NOT AS IT SEEMS ” by Julie Aragão

Submitted to Contest #221

"No, no, no, no. Please don't do this."I can see her crossing the street, a couple of guys already awaiting with a small package in hand. She gives one of them crumpled money, and the other pulls her into a too-sensual hug, sticking something in her back pocket.Seriously, in the middle of the streets.I'm from a different part of town, and I have no idea how I got here and how to return to my place. Nobody here sees me, I talk to people, and they just ignores me. I was supposed to be at Balvanera with Leandra. She must be pissed thi...

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“Fall ” by Rita Ferreira

Submitted to Contest #221

I died a few years ago. From what? It doesn't matter. I waited for death. I thought it would be liberating. On the other hand, I stopped feeling physical pain, but the emotional pain increased. I hadn't seen it coming. I didn't know I had stored up so much pain. I've always felt close to my granddaughter, she's like me. She's always been very sensitive, and when her parents divorced, she thought it was her fault, she was still a child. I told her no, that she was enough and loved. She began to get close to me, to see me as a father, an...

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“Moonday” by Lizzie Corrado

Submitted to Contest #221

The wind howled as fog swiftly rolled through the dark streets of Moonwood. The night had fallen over the quiet town as Friday the 13th slowly approached the anxious ghouls which inhabited the land of the supernatural. Moonwood was a normal town, at least for those who lived there. It was a familiar setting, similar to earth, only filled with ghostly spirits. It was the land of the dead and supernatural, but there was not much spooky about it. The exception however being Friday the 13th. Every resident of Moonwood` had their life take...

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“Resounding Knock” by Spark Dooley

Submitted to Contest #221

A loud, resounding knock came from the front room, repeating and echoing. I rubbed the coarse sleep from my eyes, slowly blinking to adjust to the early morning light. The piercing rays from the sun penetrated deep into my cornea, rendering me momentarily blind. My room was a mess, the entire house was. I peered at my ticking clock; each click of the hands pierced my ears, growing with each tick. The hands felt as though they were reaching into my brain and dissecting the cerebral matter from my head. "5:45 a.m.," I dug the palms of my hands...

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“Last Act Loop” by Kristy Yoder

Submitted to Contest #221

She should have been here by now, my whispers come out in small puffs that seem to hang in the darkening evening. My eyes lifted as the town clock whirled and boomed out 3, 4, 7 beats. The branches of the trees seemed to shiver along with me and I tightened my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering. Shifting from one foot to another I wrapped my coat tighter around myself. Smiling at a passing stranger, they seemed to look straight through me. I shook my head, people just got ruder and ruder everyday it seemed. It didn’t help the anxiety ...

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“Darcy Girl” by Kelly Sibley

Submitted to Contest #221

Trigger Warning - Horror Story - alluding to abuse. The mirror showed a reflection that wasn’t my own, and Pa was a mighty cross I’d taken a peek! It took me three days on my knees praying for Pa to be happy enough with my contrition before he did let me back in the house. I do not like sleep’n on the cold porch and going hungry, so I was very contrite indeed! That night, I stood before him shiverin’, having had the unfriendly night’s air bight my feet ‘til they were blue. Pa sat at the table having his dinner, and it smelt might...

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“The Lighthouse” by Susan Lynn Zenker

Submitted to Contest #221

“Hand me my smokes, girl,” demanded the haggard old woman seated in the rocker. She ran her hands up and down opposite arms to warm herself. Her ragged housedress pulled up carelessly over her knees revealed fatty thighs. The room was darkened, its tattered, green drapes drawn though Lilian’s phone showed the time was nearly noon.Lilian took a deep breath. “Where do I find your smokes, Aunt Mad?”“It’s Maude, you dummy. And how would I know? Search!”Lilian studied the stacks of cardboard boxes piled up to the ceiling, which no one had m...

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“PATRICK Driscoll” by Christine LW

Submitted to Contest #221

Patrick Driscoll When Patrick had been out walking along the cliffs on their first visit to Cornwall there had been a warning from an old woman dressed in black, about six ravens circling a chalet. She had said, that it was a bad omen. The woman had then vanished into the grey curling mists. He had told Sandy about his experience and t...

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“Curtain Fall” by Harbor McGraw

Submitted to Contest #221

Thick, velvet curtains towered above Valorie. Her soft black shoes clapped quietly against the floor as she crossed the stage, heading to her place. In the center of the stage, a grand, gleaming black piano waited for her. Above the piano hung a spotlight, which glowed like a single eye over the Valorie’s bench. Following her lead, a handful of other musicians filed onstage and surrounded her. Their attire was quite handsome— all of the same smooth, dark cloth. All came to stand proudly beside their own shining instruments. Some of the memb...

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“The dark nite of the soul.” by Rose Lind

Submitted to Contest #221

CautionSwearing.Death from Cancer.Sexual references.That bag had laid next to that single bed, my single bed. It was an eternal reminder of the conflict of my life of caring, of not caring and being able to say, "I don't care!"I touched the play arrow for utube reiki on my phone, "Cleansing the Emotional Field". My emotions cannot be explained and trying to explain to others. "Them", the cause of paranoia, avoidance, pathological neglect of my heart, with the head, the ruler. As usual, I, I the culprit of that confusion, had placed a small b...

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“Fate is a Route” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #221

Sugar found that he was not being permitted to leave Coatzacoalcos by the gang he had become a part at the cantina. Don Marcello arranged a hunting trip for him with two brothers, Enrique, or Ric, and Tomas, or TT. They sat outside the first morning of his stay sitting on two brown horses with a third saddled pinto waiting for Sugar. The brothers wore short brimmed conical straw hats that Sugar had seen around but never before arriving in Coatzacoalcos. The three horses were good quality breeds and full of spirit. His horse was named Tupac, ...

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$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!

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