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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

“The Misogynist Ghost” by Bob Leask

Submitted to Contest #221

This is a true story.Nick, Judy and Rob (that's me) were three nerdy strangers studying Computer Science at Curtin university during the 1990s. Living in my family home was not ideal. With two brothers and two sisters it was not only overcrowded but noisy, making study very difficult. So, when Nick advertised for a couple of students to share his rental accommodation I jumped at the chance. Judy was in a similar situation, and after a "get to know you coffee" at the university cafeteria we decided to move in together.It was an old weatherboa...

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“Brushstrokes from Beyond” by E.L. Lallak

Submitted to Contest #221

In the echoing canyons of the Rocky Mountains, within the shadowy confines of the once-thriving coal mining town of Ravenwood, lived the enigmatic artist Aria Winters. With long, flowing charcoal-black hair and emerald eyes that seemed to hold the secrets of the rugged gorge, she captivated the townsfolk. Whispers and speculations about her abounded, suggesting she possessed an otherworldly talent: the ability to capture on canvas the tales whispered to her by the departed. Ravenwood clung tenaciously to the edge of the abyss as if it were...

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“Say My Name” by Joy Allen

Submitted to Contest #221

My name is Phineas Birch and I am ghost. This place in which I linger is where I was born and died. My mother gave birth to me in the attic of the kitchen house in 1771. I died in the basement of the big house at the hands of my father in 1787. My life as flesh and blood was cut short, you see. Sixteen years did not afford me enough time to leave a mark on the world. That is one of the reasons I remain on this earthly plain in the shadows. Nowadays a women’s organization owns this house. Half a century ago, they restored it to its original ...

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“Rachael's Tower” by Bruce Clymer

Submitted to Contest #221

Bruce Clymer &...

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“Hell House” by Ian Patterson

Submitted to Contest #221

TW: Child AbuseThis isn’t so much a story, as a real thing that happened to me. The more time that passes since though, it feels like fiction. I’ve never been the most honest story-teller either; I would embellish details shamelessly if it added to the drama. Couple that with a memory that’s half as good as it should be at my age, and I don’t always trust what I remember. So year after year I’d search the internet to see if I could find another version of the story out there, find someone else that had been to that abando...

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“Walkies” by Caro Robson

Submitted to Contest #221

It hurts, but if I turn my head slightly, I can see little James in the garden. Arms stretched wide, face tilted to the clouds, eyes squinting in the welcome warmth. Though I cannot hear his voice, I know that he is singing. Martha looks up to greet my daughter, and I wonder anew if my grandchild will remember me once I'm gone. “I’m glad you came, Lydia. There has been a change in him. I think the time is near.” “Martha, that is not helpful. The doctor is very optimistic.” Martha takes Lydia’s hand, speaks gently: “Lydia, I have ...

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“The Extractionists” by Arthur An

Submitted to Contest #221

The shaggy youth cladded in leather scurried down the steps and entered Mostellaria, a beloved Flushing basement dive on the corner of Main and 37th. The bartender pointed his chin to the corner. The young man followed the directions and found the one he sought dressed in a comfortable polo and brown chinos, reading the New York Times, and sipping from a bottle of IPA. “Herr Geist. I think it’s time for us to work.” “Vhat's your hurry?” Leering over his reading glasses, the older man responded with a slight German accent which his younge...

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“The Drop Dead Cafe” by Claire Louise Poole

Submitted to Contest #221

I gloved Jamie’s small hand in mine and squeezed it so tight, in those minutes before and after take-off, that his lips disappeared into a colourless thin line. The anti-anxiety tablets I’d popped out of their little foil caskets earlier had helped a bit to calm my nerves, but I couldn’t let go—not yet. ‘It’s ok mum. Nothing’s going to happen to us,’ Jamie whispered as he smiled up at me. His watery blue eyes were drenched in a love that I struggled to hold on to without the additional prickles of guilt that journeyed way beyond skin ...

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“Power” by Lara Taylor

Submitted to Contest #221

TW: This story contains references to implied/past sexual violence. “You can do this. Don’t you trust me?” Her fierce hazel eyes bore into me, holding me where I stood. The answer stuck to my tongue, dishonesty feeling out of place even in my sleep-hindered state, so instead I asked a question of my own. “What makes you so sure?” The eyes twinkled in the half-light of the bathroom, and I might have even thought the face from which they were peering out was pretty; her hair a coppery blonde that reminded me of my mom...

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“A Ghost's Story” by Aaron Mooney

Submitted to Contest #221

It starts with the nightmare. Not every night, necessarily, but enough of them to burn an image into my mind’s eye. It climbs the stairs leading up to my room where I sleep, where I work and eke out my meager existence. I shouldn’t call it an It, really, when I know in my gut that it’s a He. He calls himself Stanley; that’s what I hear in my sleep, whispered in my ear where his breath touches me like wisps of smoke. Sometimes he does more tangible things than that. I hear Him walking up the stairs leading to my room; heavy bootsteps thuddin...

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“Poppy” by A.J. Howl

Submitted to Contest #221

Mrs. Hanbury paced along the hard oak floor. The sound of the ancient grandfather clock ticked away at her patience as she paced faster and faster. She would glance at the door every time she passed by, as if waiting for someone to come bursting through. In fact, she was expectant of it. It had been nearly two weeks since her husband, Mr. Hanbury, had come home. With every glance up at the door her heart leaped a little, as if her husband would come barging in at that exact moment. Oh, how that excited her nerves. To see her hus...

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“Reggie's Story” by Andrea Corwin

Submitted to Contest #221

Reginald absolutely hated it when Marie walked through him. She scatters his ethereal outline when she decides to enter the room while he is standing in the doorway. Doesn’t she realize it actually discombobulates my aura? I think she takes great glee in it! “Dammit, Reggie, get out of my way!” Ghosts block my path all the time, she mumbles to herself. The crystal pendants on the chandelier begin shaking. “Reggie, stop it. I don’t want crystals falling and denting the table. STOP!” Reggie heeds her shouting...

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“Oceans of You” by Courtney Moore

Submitted to Contest #221

Olivia,I miss you.Mom and Ryan miss you too.Please, come home.Olivia,I hope you’re happier.SEARCH FOR MISSING TEEN CONTINUES. WHERE IS OLIVIA KLEIN?Faded pictures stare back at us from every newspaper. You look artificial under their editing. It’s driving Ryan insane. He taped over the mailbox so people would stop sending sympathy cards. Mom barely comes home from work. She says she needs the distraction, or she’ll go insane. It’s too late for the rest of us. I thought I saw you yesterday.Strawberry blonde waves reflected in my rearview...

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“The Lover's Remorse” by Shayna Keller

Submitted to Contest #221

I was high on the novelty of Autumn when I accepted a date with Cameron Holt. Next year, I'm wearing a clothespin to avoid the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin spice and blinders to avoid all the photogenic couples that I’m not a part of. Don't misunderstand me, I'm single the rest of the year, too. There's just something about FALL that contributed to my sense of isolation. Cameron Holt. He was handsome and charming. There I was in line at my favorite cafe, loneliness draped over me like a blanket. When he casually asked me out...

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“Is there anybody there?” by Malcolm Twigg

Submitted to Contest #221

When Madam Lapinsky first founded The Ethereal Phone Company (or EPiC as the later conglomerate came to be known whilst she was living in the lap of luxury on her private yacht) it was just a con. She had always made a reasonably comfortable living from the vulnerable and deluded by rapping on tables and ectoplasmic manifestation, but when A I came on the scene she hit on the idea of getting the technology to actually ‘speak’ for the dead through the medium of the telephone. For the sake of appearances (cell phones somehow detracting...

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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!

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