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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

“Back from the dead” by F Maestro

Submitted to Contest #221

Ginny laid at the centre of her cold, bleak void. A single source of illumination: her phone’s screen, brought a bit of contrast to the blanket of darkness that cocooned her. She robotically scrolled her screen, feeding her dopamine addiction. A soft chuckle filled the space as the echoes of a comical interaction faded into nothingness. Perhaps this was the only way she could silence the harsh tones in her life. She continued scrolling through her feed, hunting for content to sate her addiction. Suddenly, a notification popped up on the scre...

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“Holiday Field Trip” by DeborahR Bluestein

Submitted to Contest #221

A blue mist drifted over the historic graveyard. Vandals dressed as goblins had dropped globular mounds of slime on ancient headstones in this Salem, Massachusetts location. At the same time, in the center of town, masked children and adults—many with rubberized chimpanzee frowns along with jutting hairy witch chins and orange-faced Trump effigies filled the streets and shops on this Halloween night. The mist added to the fright factor, weaving through the cemetery and town in ribbons, obscuring the bats who congregated in fits and star...

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“Spooky” by David McCahan

Submitted to Contest #221

Things came easily for me as a child. Math was simple. Reading was, too. I knew how to read before any of my classmates. Even in Kindergarten I was knocking through Sally Dick and Jane while the rest of the class was struggling to sound out the words. My closest friend then was Billy Connors. Billy was a good kid who just lived down the street. We played football in each other’s yards, climbed trees, rode bikes everywhere in a time where you just told your parents you were going to go play on a Saturday morning and all they said was to be ho...

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“Diary of a Dead Girl” by Annabelle Soley

Submitted to Contest #221

My Dearest Sarah, June 7th It’s not my fault. My therapist used to tell me that I shouldn’t blame myself as much. She didn’t know me. She didn’t know what I could do. It is my fault. I did it. They can’t know that though. Good Bye Sarah, Daisy Dear Diary, June 2nd Today was quite the day. I lost my best friend. She’d tell me that it wasn’t my fault. She’d tell me to blame Ryan for eating my lunch and making me on edge for the rest of the day, but I’m going to blame myself regardless of what I know she’d ...

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“The Prank” by KD Weinert

Submitted to Contest #221

The wind whispers threats through bare branches, and clouds race each other across the sky, their edges lit by moonlight. Perfect. I can’t ask for better weather. I check my watch and curse under my breath. I’m late. Trick-or-treaters are already prowling the neighborhood and I haven’t finished setting up. Shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not trying to scare the little ones, just the teenagers, and they don’t usually come out for another couple of hours. As I inspect the stain on my driveway with my flashlight, a trio of tiny superheroes a...

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“A Ghost Visits Ogunquit, Maine ” by Bob Long Jr

Submitted to Contest #221

If her math is right, this was approximately Aubrey's six hundred eightieth trip to Ligonier Memorial Park where the cremains of her beloved husband was located. Today was the fifth anniversary of his passing. A massive heart attack took his life while they lay peacefully in bed. She never had the chance to say goodbye. Some things can haunt you forever. Three times a week, she faithfully visits the memorial site, regardless of the weather. There were days that she really did not want to make the trip, but she pushed herself in to doing so...

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“To Raise Them Up” by Mahtan Runya

Submitted to Contest #221

“Scath Kokori.” I looked up from my desk, scattered with the latest reports from my spies and commanders on the front lines. Death tolls, enemy movements, proposed strategies. All of them thinly veiled with desperation, every one of them saying the same thing: ‘We are losing.’ With a simple gesture, I set them aflame as I looked at my right-hand man, Captain Adalyn Belos. Older and wiser than me, he had acted as a sure, guiding hand, and now that I was the one in command, he had been invaluable in both aid and criticism, often in eq...

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“The Tome of Night Terror” by Meghan Brooks

Submitted to Contest #221

Trigger warning: violence, mentions of Hell, and gruesome deaths.The Bat Wing Society bookstores had many customers come and go, renting spellbooks to those who wanted to experiment and use them for whatever purpose they wanted. The lady of this particular Pondview store, Miss Foxglove, cautioned against using books that involved the use of dark arts, especially necromancy. She kept certain books like a book with the face of a blue demon on the cover locked up as a precaution. Miss Foxglove wanted to ensure that no one stole them at night or...

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“The Seance” by Renee Langley

Submitted to Contest #221

Anna and Kari had graduated high school last spring. They had been best friends since grade school. It was almost Halloween which was Anna’s favorite holiday. She loved exploring cemeteries and old vacant homes and anything paranormal. While walking home, they passed the old Dell mansion. It was vacant for at least twenty years. Once owned by a woman named Agnes Dell. She supposedly died in the house on Halloween. Since then the house was left vacant. It was an old Victorian style home. Back in the day it was probably quite the sight to see....

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“A movie date” by Sinbad Omorodion

Submitted to Contest #221

The woods were spooky, owls hooting and for some reason in sync with the sound of crickets, Eddy had never been there, especially not at night. According to him, anyone with half a brain knew this was where the evil vampire or werewolf in a high school fantasy show gets you to either feast on you or turn you into a monster like him. The only thing compelling Eddy was the thought of a date, one he had been promised by his crush, Evelyn. Ever since the second year of high school, he had been madly in love with her, but she never gave...

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“Poisoned Threads of Solace” by Jolie Cleoce

Submitted to Contest #221

Poisoned Threads of Solace by Jolie Cleoce (with thanks to a colleague) Sadie Lester drove like a maniac whenever it was nighttime– but somehow was always cautious of her surroundings and never got in trouble. Some rumours say her maniacal driving caused her death. Some rumours say it was drinking. The Market knew it was murder. It was botulinum neurotoxin– the most toxic and poisonous biological substance found on Earth. I couldn’t help but always wonder who wanted to kill her. I always wondered if she had been killed by ac...

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“I will always be there” by Peach Wells

Submitted to Contest #221

It all started our first year of university, we were both starting our bachelor’s in psychology. You sat beside me and told me your name was Elsie, I informed you mine was Arthur. We made small talk about our class until our professor came, we continued to talk after class, and this became our routine. I always found the mind to be a vast and fascinating place, but you brought that interest to an entirely new level. The way you thought and looked at the world was simply exhilarating, and you took me for the ride of my life. You said walking ...

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“They Danced” by Amy Mahlke

Submitted to Contest #221

They say that the deepest definition of youth is a life that has not yet been touched by tragedy. But I know better. Dashed illusions are every bit as destructive to youth as tragedy.My childhood ended on a Friday night in October of ’89, when I was in sixth grade.My little sister Shelby and I were lying at opposite ends of our Grandma Bea’s couch watching T.V., when our Grandma Bea hollered, “Brownie’s are ready, girls!”Shelby scrambled off the couch so fast she kicked me in the face and then staggered into the coffee table, sending Grandma...

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“Sally's Soldiers” by Lashun Williams

Submitted to Contest #221

There’s a girl that crosses the forbidden sidewalk every other day. Granted, no sidewalks in town are “forbidden”, but the road this girl traveled leads to nowhere. My café, Steven’s Greens, is a botanical café that was open for less than a year. It’s on the edges of town where very little people attempt to stay. This was intentional since my town was prone to tourists. As a town housing more than a dozen haunted locations, this main road entering and exiting the town seemed to be the best place to put my new dwelling. Although rather qui...

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“Lost” by Cedric Busteed

Submitted to Contest #221

“Don’t eat that.” Ashley jumped away as the cold words slithered up her arm and into her ears. She darted her head around to find the source of the voice, to no avail. It took a few moments before she realized that she didn’t remember hearing the words. No, she felt them like a chilling breeze slipping into her mind. She stepped away from the bright mushroom, perched tantalizingly on a rotten tree stump. Ashley had learned about ghosts, much in the same way she’d learned about ‘stop, drop, and roll’, quicksand, and how to spot a poisonous sn...

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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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