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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 – 134 stories

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

Halloween – 138 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

“Malik The Undead Menace” by Anthony Carello

Submitted to Contest #221

Malik walked down the hall with purpose, each step echoing through the grand halls of his home. Every dozen or so paces stood a pair of undead. Each one was ready to fight to the death with only a thought if he commanded it. Though it wasn’t like anyone was stupid enough to try and attack him—or to even get through his first line of defense at the bottom of the mountain. As he walked, his estate reacted to his emotions. The anger and frustration he had felt over the past decades had only increased in recent years. # A long time ago, when he ...

4 comments 4
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“Bella Ciao” by Eric E

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #221

Until I met the man with the accordion, I wasn’t the kind of person who believed in ghosts. * Who am I, you might be wondering?  Well, the name isn’t important. But some details are. Yes, it is a ‘cardinal sin’ of storytelling to dump information in the exposition, but some sins are needed to live life effectively. I’m a 29 year-old English teacher who lives in London. Where I’m from is not important - what’s really salient here is that I’m not a nut-job. I don’t buy into conspiracies, I don’t do drugs and I enjoy the odd drink, bu...

5 comments 5
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“Fidogeist” by Bethany Brown

Submitted to Contest #221

My husband David is wrong. It’s pure coincidence that everything started while we were watching Hocus Pocus. What does he know about it anyways? He was on a business trip. Threatening music surged as Sarah Jessica Parker sat bolt upright. I gasped and Livie jumped, her popcorn flying. I laughed and went for the broom, missing our furry vacuum Leo who had passed the week before. I kept saying what a mess a new puppy would make, but I was weakening. When I reentered the bonus room, the popcorn had disappeared.  “Who ate popcorn off the fl...

9 comments 9
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“Banishing the Shadow” by Awen Kerr

Submitted to Contest #221

I found Ms. Scarecrow—Maggie—at very real risk of burning down her entire house with the sheer number of candles surrounding her. Some of them were propped on books and other smooth surfaces, but the rest were dangerously close to tipping, teetering precariously on the plush rug in her living room.  “Oh!” She clapped. “I was so hoping you’d come over today, dear. Come in and close that door. We don’t need the wind to blow out the flames.” “What are you doing?” I shut the door, gesturing to the flickering room. Flames danced in respo...

6 comments 6
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“Among the Stars” by Finn Archer

Submitted to Contest #221

Whether it was a faulty comm relay or a disintegrating airlock lining, something always went wrong in space. In my specific case, my cryo container started emitting false signals to the bridge, indicating that my engineered sleep had ended and my “bed” needed to be cleaned. Cryopods were cleaned with a special mix of chemicals that Yumi referred to as “Space Agent Orange.” The stuff killed me instantly. I didn’t feel it at all.  As I gazed back at my corpse, greying slightly due to the fog-like substance that surrounded it, I began to...

8 comments 8
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“Susan's Pond” by Dorothy Adams

Submitted to Contest #221

Susan’s Pond The tiny green traffic light blurred by the wintery mist glowed in the distance. Its glow was a stark contrast to the dark black sky and the glistening white frosted ground. The irony of what it represented struck me. The green light, a future and a hope for freedom glinting and winking, almost knowingly, at me signaled my go ahead to take that leap and finally leave behind the pain and guilt of this place which held me captive for so long. Yet, all the memories of fun adventures before that one fateful night were like the con...

1 comment 1
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“The Keep” by Bonnie Jackson

Submitted to Contest #221

Luigi Molinari felt spryer than usual when he got out of bed that morning, despite the falling snow. It was as if a youthful tide of energy had washed over him, restoring the last twenty years of his life. His brain hummed, his skin sang, and he felt a renewed kindness for the animals in his care. They were his whole purpose for living, ever since his beloved Maria had departed.            The beasts were strangely silent this morning. Not only that, the solar power seemed to be down, p...

3 comments 3
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“Forever Yours” by Francesca Tsakonas

Submitted to Contest #221

If I had gotten to choose my last words to Wesley, I would have said something like: “I love you forever.” Or: “You’re my home.” Or: “It was always you.” You can infer how besotted I was from the painful predictability. Three years and two months of togetherness, and those burnt-honey eyes still made my skin tingle. So did the way he sucked in his cheeks when he tried not to smile. And the way he nodded enthusiastically when I rambled about the happenings of the latest book I was in the middle of.It was Wesley, after all, who had saved me at...

3 comments 3
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“Graveyard Dates” by Rabbitt Sharp

Submitted to Contest #221

Okay! Picture the scene! We’re seven college-aged, amateur ghost hunters trespassing on a huge graveyard late at night. Besides my infrared cameras, Lou's digital recorders, and Judy's various thermometers, we also had John and Charles who were psychic sensitives, and Mark's perpetually chattering, air-headed girlfriend, Beverly! Sensing a strong ghostly presence in a secluded, tree-lined plot, John and Charles grew more excited and Beverly got more chatty when suddenly a voice snapped out from the shadows behind some large head stones. ...

10 comments 10
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“Ghostly Characterizations” by Nina H

Submitted to Contest #221

Raising the dead is not an easy job. Just ask Gretchen. She has been tasked with this tricky venture for years. How is it she got so lucky? Well, she sort of just stumbled into it.  Gretchen is a 60-something, introverted, book loving, people loathing, crochet crafting librarian. Every day, she wakes up, drinks her tea, and sets out on foot to the local library where she rules the roost and rafters. She demands silence, respect, and book spines perfectly aligned on the shelves. Soldiers in the fight against screens, ignorance, and illi...

14 comments 14
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“Call Me Margaret.” by Heide Rembold

Submitted to Contest #221

For as long as I can remember, my name has been Theresa. I had never had a reason to question this until tonight when Mom called me Margaret. I wouldn’t have thought twice about it until I ask, “Margaret?” And she answers, “I meant Margaret -- Theresa!”  It hangs between us as we stand across from each other in between the kitchen and the dining room, still posed from the conversation we had been having. My eyebrows furrow slightly, lips mouthing the name again; Mom’s eyebrows rise slightly, lips parting in exasperation.  ...

9 comments 9
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“An Unconventional Haunting” by Keelan LaForge

Submitted to Contest #221

Haunted. That’s the only word that adequately describes it. It mightn’t sound like that to other people that have dealt with true hauntings: ghostly apparitions that appear at night in old Victorian houses with more history than future possibility. To be haunted by something is no less unnerving. It conjures up images of Halloween in my soul; the worst parts of it. I feel the prickle of hairs standing on end like pins shoved into voodoo dolls. I feel the tremors that come when my heart is filled with terror, and I can see my breath in front ...

6 comments 6
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“Resurrecting Dreams” by Leilaine Mori

Submitted to Contest #221

Under the enchanting canvas of the sky, painted in hues of pink and purple that evoked the dreamy essence of a cotton candy, Daniel stood in front of an aged tombstone in his hometown. His heart raced, and he felt like he could not breathe properly. The cemetery was a place of memories, each gravestone holding the story of someone's life. But for Daniel, it was different. For Daniel, this place held a piece of his past that he hoped to resurrect.He gazed at the tombstone, which was written his own name, a birth date of September 25, 1993, an...

1 comment 1
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“Cold Feet” by John K Adams

Submitted to Contest #221

I watched Helen, my wife, my widow, drift through the house each day, like smoke wafting from an extinguished candle. I could relate. But what could I do? I was the ‘dearly departed’ whose passing sapped the juice from Helen’s life. That’s right. What could I do? How do I explain my being here at all? Neither here nor there, in or out… A presence within the absence. It’s admittedly hard to describe. Those poor souls who think they’re taking the short cut out… They arrive when the party’s just starting.  Who knew? Even thinking you’re ...

13 comments 13
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“Lovely Rotten Place ” by Michelle SHAAY

Submitted to Contest #221

It was autumn and tree leaves popped with brilliant color alongside the winding highway. As many commuters began their evening rush to enjoy fall festivities including the annual Halloween hayride, Violet was less than thrilled. On the eve of the most ghoulish day of the year, she was headed to survey and assess a distressed, ugly structure that use to be a safe, cozy home in Peach Falls Subdivision. The area was once a desirable community for families until a violent tornado destroyed several homes and news of an unexplained, suspicious dea...

10 comments 10
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$250

Prize money

425

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!

Prompts | Big Blue Hand | 2024-11

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