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#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

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...

146 likes

⭐️ Shortlisted

Gardeners' World

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...

35 likes

Ghost Song

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...

32 likes

Visiting Time

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. ...

28 likes

The Spook Who Sleuths

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...

26 likes

This week's prompts

Write a story with the aim of scaring your reader.

Short Story – 110 stories

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

Dramatic – 81 stories

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

Short Story – 139 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 – 82 stories

Stories

Drone

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...

146 likes

Haunting Me

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...

74 likes

Call of the Merrow

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...

62 likes

Charles

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 ...

54 likes

Strange Noises Strange Eyes

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...

51 likes

Moon Face

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...

49 likes

The Urge

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...

48 likes

A Thin Tether of Domesticity

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 ...

48 likes

The hour approaches

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...

46 likes

The Werewolf’s Wife

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...

44 likes

Coward

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...

43 likes

Floating Islands of Peru - Voyages of the Ship Destiny's Dreams

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...

42 likes

John Field

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 ...

39 likes

Paranormal Pals and Predicaments

Submitted to Contest #272

“I’m calling a meeting!” Andrew announced, letting his voice carry down the hall to his roommate’s doors. Violet threw her door open, rubbing her eyes and yawning widely. “It’s so late, why are you shouting?” she groaned. Andrew frowned as she yawned, revealing her pointed canines. “I know it’s morning, but this is important. We need to discuss the apartment inspection; he’ll be here any minute.” “What’s to discuss?” Amy asked, her incorporeal form floating through her door. “I’m in the middle of educating some idiot on just how amazin...

37 likes

The Thrill of The Chase

Submitted to Contest #272

It was already too late. I was a dead man, and I knew it.Her teeth were out and she was coming for me at a full sprint with that insane glazed-over look in her eyes. There would be no reasoning with her. No negotiations. No quarter given. I knew all this and I also knew it wouldn’t be long before she overtook me. Still, self-preservation is a basic human instinct so I ran and I ran hard. I ran for all I was worth.When I reached the fence I had just enough time to slam the gate shut behind me, and I’m sure if I had not she would have taken me...

37 likes

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Contest #273

This contest has ended. Thank you for your submissions.

$250

Prize money

475

Entries

165

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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