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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#272: Fright Night

Don’t forget to use the hashtag #ReedsyFright to share your stories (and potentially be featured on our social accounts)!

Spooky season has arrived, and what better way to embrace this time of year than by diving into some spine-chilling writing? I’m constantly amazed by the variety of enthralling narratives we come across in this contest — from subtle, eerie stories with sinister undertones to tales that are outright macabre.

So, as one of the year's most popular holidays approaches, let’s get into the Halloween spirit and conjure up some creepy tales. Grab your coziest sweater and favorite hot drink, and let’s get writing!

🥇 Winner

“Drone” by Mortimer Ridgewood

🏆 Winner of Contest #272

She first heard it while she was making coffee.The morning was already off to a rough start. Rachel had woken up, lazy and languid in the wake of her twice-snoozed alarm, and reached for her husband’s side of the bed. Much to her disgruntlement, the spot where he should have been was empty and cold. She glared at the empty space for a moment, then promptly snoozed her alarm again out of spite. One of the downsides of working from home was she missed out on good morning kisses as Mark got ready for his morning commute. The upside, however, wa...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Gardeners' World” by Chris Miller

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #272

You’ve chosen a good time to pay me a visit. I’ve pulled up some pretty decent leeks this morning, got some lovely onions in the store and a rosemary bush that is totally oblivious to all the nonsense that seems to have befallen our world. My garden really has been my saviour, my little farm. I can grow what I need and get by very nicely on what my garden supplies.I do wish I’d had a better crop of carrots. I used the finest bone-meal fertiliser, but they were a total bust this year. My soil is a little too heavy for them, too much clay, but...

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“Ghost Song” by Joseph Ellis

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #272

They came to hurt us again. Not just me. They bring a machine specifically for this purpose. They came to hurt The Doctor and little Lulubelle, and the transient ghosts who sometimes occupy the cells. The first time they turned the machine on, I didn’t hear the screams of the others, only my own. The second time I heard them all, but mixed together. The third time I could hear each one, discreetly, distinctly.This is the fourth time they’ve come. The first time it was just one man, carrying the machine like a child carrying a watermelon, set...

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“Visiting Time” by Penelope Stansfield

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #272

This story contains themes of grief, loss, and trauma. Mentions a car accident, death, physical injuries, and emotional pain.Early Sunday morning, the bus station is quiet with just the remains of last night's takeaway wrappers rolling around the stands, like dirty greasy passengers who’ve disembarked but have nowhere to go. The November chill turns my breath into little lost clouds and the slight breeze carries the scent of autumn, tickling my nostrils. Of all the places to be on a Sunday morning, this isn’t what I’d choose. ...

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“The Spook Who Sleuths” by Daniel P. Douglas

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #272

My office was darker than FDR’s fireside chats and twice as smoky. That’s how I like it—keeps the clients on their toes and the spirits at bay. Name’s Roxie Hart, and I’m what you might call a supernatural tomfoolery private dick. Some folks get their knickers in a twist over that last word, but in my line of work, you gotta call a spade a spade and a detective a dick. I kicked back in my chair, feet up on the desk, pondering life’s great mysteries. Like why dames always fall for the wrong guy, or how Spam manages to be both a wartime delica...

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This week's prompts

Write a story with the aim of scaring your reader.

Short Story – 112 stories

Start or end your story with someone running away from something, literally or metaphorically.

Dramatic – 85 stories

Write a story from the point of view of a ghost, vampire, or werewolf.

Short Story – 144 stories

Center your story around someone trying to resist their darker impulses — and they’ll either succeed or fail.

Angst – 63 stories

Write a story in which the narrator or a character says "Did you hear that?"

Short Story – 84 stories

Stories

“Drone” by Mortimer Ridgewood

🏆 Winner of Contest #272

She first heard it while she was making coffee.The morning was already off to a rough start. Rachel had woken up, lazy and languid in the wake of her twice-snoozed alarm, and reached for her husband’s side of the bed. Much to her disgruntlement, the spot where he should have been was empty and cold. She glared at the empty space for a moment, then promptly snoozed her alarm again out of spite. One of the downsides of working from home was she missed out on good morning kisses as Mark got ready for his morning commute. The upside, however, wa...

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“Haunting Me” by Alexis Araneta

Submitted to Contest #272

Time doesn’t march; it dashes, kicking up the ever-shifting sands of memory onto an open soul’s eye. All you can do is watch as it zooms past you.It’s even truer when you’re a ghost, floating above everything you used to know --- the same halls you used to roam, the very smells that used to tickle you every time you breathe, the people you used to hold tightly by your bosom. And yes, it still stands even if the one living being you miss embracing, the only one that made you come back to Earth on a mission to let her know that you still think...

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“Call of the Merrow” by Derrick M Domican

Submitted to Contest #272

Having loaded ice chests full of freshly caught crab into the back of his muddy 4x4, secured his sixteen-foot, red and white Orkney Strikeliner to the trailer attached to the vehicle, and returned to the pier to retrieve the nylon-mesh crab pots left behind, Myles Burke caught sight of something bobbing in the water, an object he hadn’t noticed there before.He recognised it at once as an old-style lobster pot, its slats covered in thick, brown seaweed, its netting encrusted with barnacles. Mud and silt clung to its frame, and plant matter da...

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“Come sail away.” by Trudy Jas

Submitted to Contest #272

Come sail away.Once again, I watch as the late-afternoon light creeps over the threadbare Persian rug and caresses the leather club chairs. It glints off the pewter vase holding the past-their-prime red roses and passes over the pale-blue teacup with half a chocolate biscuit on the saucer. On the once-maroon velvet chesterfield with the tired cushions and tarnished nail heads sits an old woman. In her arthritic hands is a silver frame that holds my picture. In a corner of the room a gramophone plays Winter by Vivaldi.She gazes out the French...

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“Strange Noises Strange Eyes” by Daniel Rogers

Submitted to Contest #272

There are many strange noises in a forest on an island: the hooting of owls, scurrying of small animals, crunching undergrowth of larger ones. Or are the hooting secret signals from man-eating natives moving into position to attack? Or angry grundle barrs? Or confused ellawyns about to blow the marooned sailors into the sea. Captain Wington imagined them all."Did you hear that?" Captain Wington said.He gripped his sword tighter, peering into the spooky tree line for movement. Not that his frazzled imagination needed any proof. He "saw" plent...

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“Charles” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #272

He said he’d be here an hour ago. I decided to go to sleep, because I have to get up early tomorrow. I told him that. I told him that I was going to Montreal to see my ex-boyfriend, because we might be getting back together. We might be getting back together even though my ex-boyfriend refuses to move back to the United States, because he says we’re a country built on the graves of the innocent, as if every country isn’t like that. I told the guy I was talking to that I wanted to hook up before I left tomorrow, because if I end up back with ...

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“Moon Face” by Kate Simkins

Submitted to Contest #272

I banged on the door again, loudly this time. I hadn’t seen or heard from Iris in over a week.“Iris? Are you in there?” I peered through the letter box and finally saw some movement. I took a step back onto the pavement as the locks and latches slid open.I looked around the door as it opened, hoping to see my friend, but it wasn’t her.“Anna! I didn’t know you were here!” She looked awful. “Anna? What is it?”She opened the door fully and welcomed me into Iris’s small, over-crowded living room.“Hi, Helen,” she said, dully.I looked at her prope...

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“A Thin Tether of Domesticity” by Luca King Greek

Submitted to Contest #272

My new wife adopted a rescue dog that came into my surgery for a simple vaccination. Typically, I try to keep a professional distance, but she fell in love with the shaggy mutt, and I was trying to be a good father to her son, little Nate. She called the dog “Ketch”. What fun it was to make Ketch fetch! Fetch Ketch! Fetch Ketch! It was a big tease, faking throw-ball, making that big dog lope about looking for the ball, and one day my stepson joined in the fun, “Fetch Ketch”, he cried, swinging his arm in that clunky ...

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“The Urge” by Stasia Komadinko

Submitted to Contest #272

Hi, my name is Brian, and I'm a serial murderer. I haven’t killed anyone for 365 days. They say anniversaries are the hardest, that it’s exactly when you feel like you’re standing on the edge. The emptiness inside feels so palpable, like it’s about to consume you whole. Unfortunately, there’s no '12-step programme' for guys like me. Although my addiction is just as intense, it tightens around my neck like a noose. The thing is, my urge isn't constant like it is for people who crave alcohol or drugs. It comes on suddenly and then I'm ready to...

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“The hour approaches” by Helen A Smith

Submitted to Contest #272

Turn over your shoes to stop the pixies and ogres walking in them. Shut the drapes so the moonlight doesn’t drive you mad.Keep your ladies of the bedchamber close for tis now you need them most.Gold and silver thread shimmer in my candlelit chamber. The figures of three noblewomen standing beneath a garden tree in the tapestry opposite feel as much part of me as the veins in my still slender hands. One holds a bunch of flowers, one carries a basket of eggs, and the third stretches out her hand to a pelican. Symbol of motherhood, it is said t...

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“The Werewolf’s Wife” by Michelle Oliver

Submitted to Contest #272

There is nothing worse than fleas, and I come crawling home covered in the buggers. Megan gave me that look as she stood at the counter fixing breakfast. The look that says, Oh, for the love of God! I know that expression well. The side eye roll, the firmly clenched lips that are going white about the edges, and the stiff shoulders. I slink by her sheepishly, straight to the shower, knowing she won’t appreciate fleas at breakfast.In the bathroom, I transform. I have found that it’s the best place to do so, as I always emerge from my other se...

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“Today They Scatter My Ashes” by Katharine Widdows

Submitted to Contest #272

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Mental Health Issues (Schizophrenia) and suicide.The world stopped making sense on a broken Monday morning. The leaves still fell and crunched under my booted feet, the wind still whistled through the oaks and ruffled my too-long hair, and a chill still rattled my teeth and bit my fingers. It wasn’t those things, not those things at all.I had forgotten my gloves and hat, left my scarf on the back of my chair and taken a fiver from the jar on the dresser. It wasn’t mine to take, but my wallet was empty and my craving for pum...

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“Floating Islands of Peru - Voyages of the Ship Destiny's Dreams ” by Kristi Gott

Submitted to Contest #272

Despite the fright from the puma who followed us, we wanted to continue the trek up the mountains after being at sea on the ship for so long.Afraid, yet exhilarated, shivering with thrills, sometimes running in fear with our hearts pounding, we continued into the unknown and wondered if the legends were true.These handwritten words in faded ink were in one of the journals in the wooden trunk. It was found in the attic of a lighthouse on the Mystical Coast. Some of the pages were torn or lost.The journals told the tales of the long-ago v...

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“Coward” by Breanna Dawn

Submitted to Contest #272

“Did you hear that?” Her whisper cut through the silence like a cold knife. I shook my head despite her unable to see me… We couldn’t see anything through the heavy darkness. Once surrounded by the constant buzz of electricity, the city now sat still… silent. I peaked out the windows over the helpless city. A chill swept over my skin as I stared out at the vastness. Skyscrapers that once shone like a beacon were now shadows against the stars in the sky.I tried to focus my eyes on the street below but the moonlight would...

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“John Field” by John Rutherford

Submitted to Contest #272

A ghost from the past.Like a haunting ghost story in the literal sense, it is sometimes an event in life that continues to nag and tug at our morals, the challenges to the basic spirit of one’s existence. An event or a series of events where a version of ourselves, the main character in our story, is learning about moral values, and summoning the courage to face adversity in uncomfortable circumstances, both defining character, and the spirit in one’s life.It was the fall of 1971, when Joe was packing his bags for Australia. The thoughts of ...

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$250

Prize money

488

Contest entries

176

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Oct 18, 2024 EST

Won by Mortimer Ridgewood 🏆

Title: Drone

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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