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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!

This week's prompts

Write a story with the aim of scaring your reader.

Short Story – 111 stories

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

Dramatic – 84 stories

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

Short Story – 143 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 – 83 stories

Stories

“THE ESCAPE” by Glenna Agnew

Submitted to Contest #272

Danelle Forester ran along the forest floor, dodging low-hanging branches and roots that threatened to trip her with every step. It was dusk, twilight, that in-between shadowy time; halfway between daylight and darkness where shadows deepen and one's heart starts to palpitate just a little faster, for no apparent reason. As the Shadows grow longer, objects seem to merge, forming an endless sea of darkness. In Danelle's case, the dusk only compounded the issue. In the distance, she could hear the baying of the hounds, drawing ever close...

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“In the Moonlight” by Christopher Rankin

Submitted to Contest #272

Sitting on the bus Jill scrolled through her playlist with her head against the window of the bus. It was a cloudy night, but she could still occasionally see the moon appear from behind the clouds. The autumn night displayed wilted leaves on the branches of trees passing by in the moonlight. She was on her way from Rochester to New Orleans, a place she thought that she could get lost and start a new life. Half-way there she thought as she saw the sign stating “Welcome to Tennessee” this was the furthest south she had ever been. A man approa...

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“Flirting With Death” by Belinda Baxter

Submitted to Contest #272

“Cora, RUN!” I wasn’t sure who shouted her name, but the sound seemed to galvanize the woman into action. Between the roar of the flames consuming the building, the incessant shrieking of the fire alarm, and the general calamity of people trying to escape, I was surprised she’d heard it at all. I watched the shroud of slumber fall away from big hazel eyes in a spit second as she took in the scene, standing in her doorway in nothing but an oversized night shirt. Tendrils of brown hair escaped her messy sleep bun as she shoved her feet i...

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“The Red Scarf” by Jack Sanger - Author

Submitted to Contest #272

The Red Scarf I was moping miserably between breath and death in Purgatory. An underlying boredom is part of the punishment for one’s forced time there. No wonder then, when the silver elevator temporarily connects this halfway house back to the Land of the Living, there is a mad rush of applications from its stopover inhabitants. Hope is eternal, even in Purgatory. Many who are stuck here also suffer extremes of anger and resentment because of the manner of their untimely leaving of life. There is only a lottery winner’s chance...

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“A Walk Amongst Monsters” by Patrick Huber

Submitted to Contest #272

The festival of Samhain, celebrated the end of summer as well as the ascendence of deceased loved ones to the afterlife. Celebrants would dress as animals or monstrous creatures to scare off evil spirits. 2000 years later, we mark the occasion every October 31, now called Halloween, by dressing in costumes and begging for candy. Whichever version of the holiday suits you the best is up to you, but I love it all the same. My name is Albert Lambert. I was born in the small village of Nurembeck in what is now Belgium, in the year...

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“The Bully Magnet” by Brian Webb

Submitted to Contest #272

From my favorite perch atop the mausoleum, I had often watched the skinny, bespectacled teen arriving at the bus stop early autumn mornings or returning home dark winter evenings. He always walked as if he wasn’t quite sure where he was going, but fully expected that there would be some sort of trouble along the way. And all too often, trouble found him. The school bus pulls up at the stop near the gates of the rural cemetery I call home. The sun has set, robbing the brilliant fall colors from the ash, ...

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“The Unaware Ghost” by Thomas Fletcher

Submitted to Contest #272

I have been stuck on this property for a couple decades now, I can leave the house but I can not take a step outside of the property. There seems to be invisible barriers that I cannot cross, and I have not entirely understood the cause of this. My hands slip through everything I try to touch or grab unless I focus really hard on whichever item it is that I am trying to move to be able to make it move. I look normal to myself, in fact I still look human, but every one that has been to this house throughout the last couple of decades seem to ...

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“That's the Spirit” by Brie Zee

Submitted to Contest #272

If Wren is honest, the afterlife isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. The mood is a little dead, you know? A lot of moaning and talking about the “good old days” when oxygen was a thing, which, okay, yeah. Oxygen was great and all, but Wren is quite favorable to being able to walk through walls whenever the mood strikes. And haunting. She definitely loves haunting. Helps her feel alive and all that good jazz. Despite all that, the afterlife truly isn’t what she imagined. Not that she ever imagined what dying would be like, o...

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“The Night Predator's Guide to Fine Dining ” by Michael Sexton

Submitted to Contest #272

The Night Predator's Guide to Fine Dining Jackson, Wyoming is a great place to be a werewolf. My name is Giles Garnier, born in 1343 in the Burgandy region of France, purportedly burned at the sake in the 16th century and came to the mountain west with trappers in 1708. Jackson holds a ski resort near Teton and Yellowstone parks, and you cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a billionaire. The woods and the rich folks make it ideal for us. You humans may be wondering why you never hear of night predators, that ...

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“Whispers in the Dark” by Reese Rehbein

Submitted to Contest #272

I’ve been trapped in this mansion for what feels like an eternity, reliving the same memories over and over, my thoughts tangled in an endless web of guilt and regret. The creaks and groans of the old wooden floorboards are the only sounds that break the silence, the haunting echoes of a place forgotten by time. My eyes wander to the portrait on the wall, a dusty reminder of a life I once had. My family, their faces frozen in time—smiling, laughing, untouched by the darkness that now engulfs me. Their joy mocks me, a stark contrast to the ho...

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“After Life” by Tom Hunter

Submitted to Contest #272

I died on a Wednesday. I know this because it was definitely Tuesday when I first took ill. I awoke to intense pain in my stomach, with high fever and chills following soon after. Must be food poisoning I surmised, though there occurred no disgusting but relieving discharge out any of the usual spots. The next morning, I summoned what concentration and energy I could muster to call for an ambulance. Within the few coherent moments that remained while in the emergency room I heard the doctor order immediate surgery for a gastrointestinal...

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“The fiddler” by Carissa E

Submitted to Contest #272

Warm rays from the sun fell as if God himself watched, listening intently on his lonely fiddler. The fiddler played a melancholy tune in the center of the grand room. There basking in the heavens light, which fell through the large arched windows. Draped around every window are deep rich red curtains. Red as the blood that coursed through the fiddlers veins. Red as fire, red as the passion which swelled inside him.The boy’s lengthy fingers gripped the bow, dragging it back and forth. He continued to play the sorrowful tune. A tune which only...

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“Fox and Her Warlock” by Samantha Kabiling

Submitted to Contest #272

In the town of Parrow, there is a curious witch going into the dark woods that has plenty of people, tourists or locals disappear there. Seluna deals with the dark magic that not many people know about and the coven is hidden within these dark woods. The odd thing is even the coven can’t figure out why everyone is going missing since their own warlocks and witches are part of the disappearances. Seluna Stone is one of those witches who try to be careful trying to go home back to the coven after dark. During the day she’s a school teach...

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“Urges: The Darker Shade” by Traci Tokarczyk

Submitted to Contest #272

Urges: The Dark ShadeIt's been a month since my last visit to the mall where she works. I am trying to keep my urges at bay. My court appointed psychiatrist said when the urges feel like they are taking over my mind, I should try to focus on something else besides her.“Go to the library, read a book, watch a movie, go bowling, focus on your artwork, your paintings,” she would tell me. I nod my head as she talks, but I am not listening to the words she is saying. The ...

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“Two-Legged Vermin” by Alex Holdren

Submitted to Contest #272

Two-Legged Vermin October 12, 2018. Six years ago today. I’m not claiming any kind of special ability to remember every moment. Every hunter remembers their first kill. That was the day of my first kill. Unlike most hunters though, my prey was what my father would’ve called, “two-legged vermin”. I had grown up curious about hunting. But you’ll have that, when everyone you grow up around is a hunter. I grew up blaming it on my dad for not being around to teach me, but the truth is, I put more effort into blaming him, than I did in trying to l...

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$250

Prize money

484

Contest entries

175

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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