Center your story around someone who’s being haunted — by what or whom is up to you.

Posted in Dramatic on Nov 1, 2024

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✍️ 101 stories

“Mpho’s Love” by Amogelang Lesedi

Submitted to Contest #275

The first time I crossed the Abi I was four, nestled into my father’s arms, my best dress was wet and my stomach painfully empty. The muted agony of every companion with us was enough to make even young children sombre. We were leaving our home with war close behind, our dead and the dying already haunting us. It was another six years before we crossed the Abi again for lack of a better home after my father’s death. In the small village of Willows where we decided to settle with my Grandmother who had already wandered back here. Always we re...

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“The Pale Girl” by Simeon Whiting

Submitted to Contest #275

This doesn’t look like the kind of house that would be haunted. I chose it because it’s modern and bright: all clean lines and full-length windows. No gothic towers, cold stone or dark corners here. I’ve made the place quite cosy since I moved in a few months ago, but the throw rugs and potted plants can’t shake the indefinable sense of… I don’t know what. Melancholy? Restlessness? It was only a few days after I picked up the keys when I started to feel something was off. To begin with, it was nothing more than a feeling – a coldness, an unc...

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“Seahawk” by H.e. Ross

Submitted to Contest #275

At the same time that the sea breeze hit me I saw the mountain goats on the cliff side. I stopped walking. Sand slid into my deck shoes and formed under the arch of my foot. They stood still with heads pointing toward me. I was the only moving animal that I could see on this side of the ravine. Everything was right. Just over the dune the sun was setting. I began walking again but the goats stayed still with tiny hoofs that held onto invisible platforms on the straight sheer drop of the small hillside. My attention went to my footsteps on th...

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“What Breaks Between Us” by Andre Fryer

Submitted to Contest #275

Anwar wasn’t a superstitious man. “I’m not a superstitious man,” he told Tami as they were moving into their new home. Just three roads back from the beachfront. Tami couldn’t wait to go on long coastal runs and cool off with an Atlantic dip on hot summer evenings. Anwar was just happy she was happy. He didn’t care where they lived, as long as he could walk to a good coffee shop. “If you’re not superstitious, why are you so anal about this mirror? It’s all wrapped up!” “Just… I can’t afford for it to break,” urged Anwar, bi...

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“The unwelcome guest” by Sally Atl

Submitted to Contest #275

It was Friday evening when I entered the living room with a bowl of noodles and found a person sitting on the carpet. It was raining outside. Or was it snowing? At least, it was a cold season. It is not important. The days and months had blended into one for me by that time. What mattered was that it was a Friday evening. All this long workweek just to enjoy a sprinkle of fun that weekends used to be before my unwelcome guest’s arrival. I was confident that the door was locked. But then again, I had become forgetful lately. My wife comp...

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“The Phone Line” by Conner Smith

Submitted to Contest #275

It was cold and, as the sun fell, it became colder still. Mr. Harden sat by the fireplace in his living room, lying between the couch and a thick wool blanket his late wife had given him for his forty-fifth birthday. The interior of the home was sparsely decorated, with several old picture frames, with the pictures removed, a handful of magnets decorating the front of the kitchen fridge, and an old Meier M-111 radio sitting on the mantelpiece. Mr. Harden did not have much because he did not want much, especially things that cost him money, m...

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“Mortant!” by Marie Maher

Submitted to Contest #275

I gazed up at the old house, which lay mellow in the morning sunlight, its ancient walls covered with ivy. From far overhead came the raucous cries of the sea-gulls as they circled in their endless quest for food, while in the background was the ever present surge of the sea, and I remembered. At the landing window I looked out and sighed with pleasure. It was going to be another beautiful day. The sun, already high in the sky, shone down on the streets which were thronged with tourists. When the resort became popular this house, once the ho...

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“The Haunting of Alex Graves” by Edward J. McCoul

Submitted to Contest #275

“The Haunting of Alex Graves” by Edward J McCoul Alex Graves sat alone in the dimly lit office of his small apartment, a mug of cold coffee on his desk and the quiet hum of the city in the distance. He hadn’t been able to sleep in days, and tonight was no different. The only sound louder than his racing thoughts was the echo of footsteps that didn’t belong to him. He looked around the room, eyes narrowing at the shadows dancing in the corners. This wasn’t the first time he’d heard them. It was always the same: a faint tapping, as if someone ...

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“THE CHANGE” by Donna Marie Knuth

Submitted to Contest #275

THE CHANGE It was a pitch-black night, a night so dark that it forced her to walk slowly with one hand outstretched in a blindly desperate, breath-held search for obstacles or danger. It was the kind of night that required alertness and whispered of danger. She was but a child, small and timid, a child so quiet as to be frequently forgotten, a silent observer in a world of chaos, for she saw what others could not, heard what others did not, witnessed things that no one around her could explain, should she have the courage to break her ...

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“You Have To Let Me Go” by Vickie Riggan

Submitted to Contest #275

I opened my eyes slowly turning my head to look at the bedside clock, the one with the large, illuminated numerals I bought for the bedroom so I could see the time without fumbling around for my glasses. Instead, I saw a collection of machines with lines running back to me in the bed. My head was pounding. I reached up and felt the bandaging. "Take it easy there, Tiger. You need to go at this kinda slow at first," the voice said. I tried to focus my eyes on the figure shrouded in fog at the foot of my bed until gradually I could see my husba...

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“I Know It Seems Foolish” by Tom Hunter

Submitted to Contest #275

To whom it may concern,What is the Devil? I mean really, what is he? Or she? Or it? What is God for that matter? Please don’t think this missive is a half-baked religious treatise, for it is not. I’m just putting pen to paper, jotting down thoughts attempting to make some sense of all this one final time.Anywho – The Devil and God. Why pray tell, no pun intended, is it the Devil, and simply just God? Then again one can go with Satan. Why not the Satan? Wait...

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“Devil's Tree” by Matt S

Submitted to Contest #275

John strolled through the ancient woodland, the sound of the pattering rain soothing his overworked mind, and the evening light glistening on the leaves that carpeted the ground. He was grateful for the chance to enjoy nature without having to think about it. He stopped for a moment and watched a robin forage in the leaf litter, throwing leaves aside with a flourish as it searched for beetles. John had almost forgotten what it felt like to walk through countryside without a sweep net or an insect trap in hand. The life of an entomologist wa...

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“The Bureau” by Ava Karlsson Peraldi

Submitted to Contest #275

I feared the dark. To others, it’s simply the absence of light; to me, the shadows, the furniture, myself—all seem to change, all become different. I never truly believed in the paranormal, ghosts, haunting voices, or curses. But as a child, you have an uncontrollable sense of dread. A part of you knows that living in an old apartment by a cemetery comes with strings attached. Throughout my life, I’ve had a connection to death. I always find myself at a funeral or mourning a pet—never at a wedding or a baby shower. I hear words like cancer a...

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“Inextricable Demons” by Tirzah Young-Miles

Submitted to Contest #275

Though the air was warm and the sky was bright, an unsettling charge hung in the air, its presence like static before a storm. Portia drifted between consciousness and a void, unaware of how long she’d been out. The first thing she registered was the searing heat coursing through her body, as if her blood had turned molten. Her skin prickled and burned, and when attempting to open her eyes, the world around her appeared out of focus. Portia’s body shook uncontrollably, convulsing without her understanding that she was having a seizure. Exhau...

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“Ghosted” by Mae Hudson

Submitted to Contest #275

CELESTE Celeste Baker had seen many horror movies, and a large range of special effects. She knew how to recognise when the producers had used too much fake blood, or when their special effects budget was clearly low. She knew every quote from every 80s slasher film by heart, had seen plenty of Final Girls die gruesomely at the last second - so why did this scare her so much? Staring at the body in front of her, Celeste's hands shook. The man was young-ish, maybe late-thirties, with dirty blond hair and a trickle of blood down his temple. Hi...

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Center your story around someone who’s being haunted — by what or whom is up to you.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 101 stories

“Mpho’s Love” by Amogelang Lesedi

“The Pale Girl” by Simeon Whiting

“Seahawk” by H.e. Ross

“What Breaks Between Us” by Andre Fryer

“The unwelcome guest” by Sally Atl

“The Phone Line” by Conner Smith

“Mortant!” by Marie Maher

“The Haunting of Alex Graves” by Edward J. McCoul

“THE CHANGE” by Donna Marie Knuth

“You Have To Let Me Go” by Vickie Riggan

“I Know It Seems Foolish” by Tom Hunter

“Devil's Tree” by Matt S

“The Bureau” by Ava Karlsson Peraldi

“Inextricable Demons” by Tirzah Young-Miles

“Ghosted” by Mae Hudson

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story from the point of view of a witch, spirit, or corpse.

Start your story with a character being led somewhere by a black cat.

Write a story about someone who’s running out of time.

Write a story that includes the line “Better late than never.”

Contest #275

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

388

Contest entries

170

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: