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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

“Sweet Bitterness” by Sadie Vander Wey

Submitted to Contest #221

Author's Note- This story contains, gore, physical violence, mental health, and self-harm. Please at your own discretion. “Don’t walk away from me, Naomi.” Connor’s voice echoed down the hall, chasing after me. I stumbled down the hallway to our room. Why did I have to be such a coward? Why couldn’t I stand up for myself? I ducked into my room and deadbolted the door. My knees gave out, and I sank against it. My hands balled into fists against the carpet. Mara floated around my head like mist, and her short hair brushed my...

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“Am I a monster?” by Mike Ramsey

Submitted to Contest #221

Joe could not stop thinking of Angie Sanger. It was strange because he could not remember what Angie Sanger looked like, other than a vague idea that she was taller than the other girls in his fourth-grade class. She wasn’t remarkable or popular. In fourth grade, Joe Banks wasn’t remarkable or popular either. If there had been a ranking of the 20 or so kids in that class, she would have been the one with the fewest friends. Or at least that would have been the guess of the other kids. But Joe had just as many friends as she did, which was to...

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“I'm Your Biggest Fan” by Kitty Turner

Submitted to Contest #221

The morning took on a sickly green cast as anxiety crawled across my skin. I wracked my memory, trying to piece together the events of the party from the night before, but all I could summon was an unsettling void. My clothes lay scattered on the bedroom floor, no errant blouse in the living room or shoes in the yard, and my wallet and jewelry remained untouched. So far, so good. As I slouched my way back from the kitchen, I caught a flash of myself in the hall mirror. My slept-in makeup and disheveled hair actually looked kind of sexy.I set...

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“Adeline Lane” by Amanda Wisdom

Submitted to Contest #221

Dear reader, The last house on Adeline Lane was supposed to be a new beginning for us. What happened within those walls is something I have never spoken about. Until now. Clay, my younger brother, was at the center of it all. I wasn’t able to save him. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but for me, it’s the stuff monsters are made of. It’s ok if none of this makes sense right now. Soon it will. In time, you’ll know everything about the last house on Adeline Lane, and how my little brother, in a way, is still there.Y...

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“Incoherent Unbalance” by Shannon C.

Submitted to Contest #221

April 6, 1998Dear Darcy,I am so sorry that I haven’t written in so long. My days have been long and unnerving lately. It’s getting harder and harder to write with the crippling pain in my hand, and this big empty house is starting to get the best of me.When Charles passed on and left it behind, I had no idea what kind of upkeep it would require. I have resigned myself to the first floor only these days, as it does help not using the staircase anymore.It’s getting hard to even keep the lower floor up too though, if I am being honest. The cobw...

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“A House Called George” by Helen Anderson

Submitted to Contest #221

A House Called George She had spent most of the day painstakingly sweeping away more than one hundred years of cobwebs from the high ceilings. They had shimmered, wave-like in the breeze. The resident daddy long-legs spiders up there were the biggest ones she had ever seen. Her curly red hair, normally very neat and tidy, was now messy and covered in dust and cobwebs. Her face, smeared with brown streaks, where she had wiped away the sweat. The glass louvre windows were coated in so many decades of dirt, you could barely see through t...

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“Whisper of the Bouquet ” by Daniel Snyder

Submitted to Contest #221

The ghostly bouquet sat in darkness, waiting. A freshness washed over while the wet wind whistled. Jack, 23, was undeterred by the rainy weather, so he strolled outside. As he looked down, he saw an arrangement of flowers on the sidewalk. They were a set of pearl white ones that still had the tag. The flowers whispered to him as he got closer. You’re alone now, Jack. She’ll find out your secret and never come back. Jack started to quicken his pace and take his mind off of the flowers. As he walked back, he noticed the plants were gone. The...

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“THE VISIT” by Glenna Agnew

Submitted to Contest #221

THE VISIT The sheets wrapped around me tightly and I felt like a mummy in an Egyptian tomb. The roof of the loft was only inches from my face. I started to hyperventilate. Breathing heavily. Breathing fast. I felt a tightness in my chest and a tingling in my arms. I felt like I was in an oven, no, trapped under the ice, no I don’t know how I felt, just get me out of here. I pulled roughly on the sheets tearing them from my body, hearing them rip, not caring about how much I had paid for the Egyptian cotton whatever thread count. Free a...

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“Sleepwalker” by Mattea Brown

Submitted to Contest #221

Allen, you’re still online? Allen jerked up from his chair, knocking his headphones from his ears, slipping downward, and hitting his forehead on the side of his desk. There was another muffled question. Another: Allen? Says you’ve been online for 3 days. Allen pushed himself off the floor, arms trembling. He grasped his stomach, not realizing how much his hunger gnawed at him. After three days, he didn’t notice the pang of hunger. At some point, the numb scraping turned into dense emptine...

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“The start of a good day” by Eddie McKenzie

Submitted to Contest #221

As a child, the scratching frightened Maxwell terribly. Steady desperate clawing at the windows, the floorboards, and once or twice he was sure the blankets that he had drawn up over his head as he tried to hide from the onslaught had been tugged at in such a way that made it alarmingly clear that whatever it was had gotten so much closer than he ever would have been comfortable with. Keeping him from falling into the much-desired embrace of slumber, instead spending long hours of the night jumping at shadows and any noise at all that he hap...

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“The Shadow in the Window” by Eric Ellison

Submitted to Contest #221

Jess finished unpacking the last box and sat on the edge of the bed to rest. The past few weeks had taken a toll on her physically and emotionally and she just wanted to rest, there was just too much to do and too little time.The breakup with Sara went well and they both felt the time had come to move on, but it still hurt. Things like this were never easy, but sometimes necessity drives the changes in our lives and this was one of those times. They were growing apart, either through their careers or in what they both wanted in life and it w...

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“The String” by K A Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #221

If there had been a presence in the house, born of otherworldly energies and bound only by the invisible thread of unfinished business, it would have watched from the second story bedroom window as the Peterson family arrived in a burgundy station wagon around 10PM on a windy Thursday night. It would have scoffed as they hauled in their two suitcases, three smartphones, a laptop, a work laptop, a tablet, a smart speaker, a mobile hotspot with no service, and one very tired little girl. Notably absent from the family treasures was a stuffed...

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“Vocally Haunted” by Keila Aartila

Submitted to Contest #221

The woman/wife/mother had hiked a good distance on her own to breathe in the healing power of nature and listen to the wisdom bubbling up on the bank of the winding creek, replaying the final scene she’d had with her son, prompting this isolated trip. “Go to your room!” she screamed as he walked through the front door. “You’re grounded!” She pointed a shaky finger firmly toward the hallway leading to his room. She knew it was irrational, but she was just so angry. He looked at her in wide-eyed confusion before continuing silently to his ro...

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“I Never Sleep Alone” by Maria Otto

Submitted to Contest #221

It was still early autumn and most of the leaves had not turned yet. We were too busy moving into our new apartment to notice the change of seasons. Actually, it was our first apartment together, so as you can imagine this was one of the most exciting moments of our life. Our new home was definitely not too fancy; old, small and located in a ‘’don’t go out at night’’ type of neighbourhood. Yet, all of this was sheltered from our view by the magic dust of happiness and youthful ignorance. Away from our parents and finally fully in control of ...

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“Verdugo Hills” by Deirdre Fryer Baird

Submitted to Contest #221

VERDUGO HILLS By Deirdre Fryer Baird Jimmy hasn’t slept well lately. He sits on the edge of his bed and his gray mane of hair hangs in his face. He can’t seem to remember the day or the date, and he is tired. He wanders the house during the night and at times li...

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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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