Use a personal memory to craft a ghost story.

Posted in Dramatic on Oct 25, 2024

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 72 stories

“Hunting shadow” by Claudia IONAS

Submitted to Contest #274

I often found myself reflecting on the time I spent with my father. He was my hero, a strong and soft character in the same time. When he passed away, the world felt a little dimmer, and I was left grappling with the void he left behind. It was a cool autumn evening when I first felt his presence after his death. The leaves danced outside my window, their colors a vibrant mix of oranges and yellows. I was curled up in bed wrapped in a blanket, with a book that had long ago lost its grip on my attention. My mind wandered to memories of m...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Pond” by Darlene Mosley

Submitted to Contest #274

A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook today. It was Long Hollow Stormwater Pond in Pensacola. It’s unusual in that it was built back in the 1940s as a pond to collect stormwater runoff, but it has since grown to the size of a small lake. Nobody really knows it’s back there and exactly who is supposed to make decisions about what happens to it, so it’s just staying a bit of a hidden gem. I remembered Long Hollow. About twenty years ago, I had just finished my graduate degree in Counseling and Psychology with the pl...

1 comment 1

Read story

“The Woman Who Loved Stephen King” by Angela D'Agostino

Submitted to Contest #274

The man at the entrance mistook Claire Creegan for one of the volunteers. “Coat check needs help,” he said, waving toward a red velvet stanchion. Claire apologized for his mistake and explained that she was with the event. He looked dubious even after scanning the QR code that allowed her into the foyer of what was once the summer home of a shipping magnate. Claire stood awestruck before a marble staircase, gold leaf walls, and hundreds of red poinsettias in the shape of a twenty-five-foot Christmas tree. Some may embrace the ostentatious d...

1 comment 1

Read story

“Harbinger” by Maria Wickens

Submitted to Contest #274

HarbingerDeath is absence, drowning in black. Clinging to the memories of people you love as they dissolve into nothingness.When I wake my throat is aching and my cheeks are wet with tears.“Oh,” I say out loud to my husband. “I do miss you.”Reaching out I am surprised to find he is lying next to me. He gives a grunt of a snore, unaware of the relief I feel.I am not dead. Just dreaming.The cat lying at the end of the bed lets out a cat snarl because my dead brother stands at the end of the bed, smiling.“I miss you too,” he says.I’m stuck betw...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Trappings of Fall” by Nina H

Submitted to Contest #274

The memory spider inside my brain spins her webs, silken threads of moments. She spins a colorful October of red, orange, and yellow. The colors fall around me, they float down the street, they hide under my feet. My October web smells of leaves, campfires, and sweet candy. My October web looks like glowing Jack-o-Lantern faces, full white moons, yellow glowing eyes of a black cat in the alley. A sound makes my October web vibrate,rattle, and shake. It’s the sound of a child’s cry. A scream. I can’t get the scream out of my memory web....

10 comments 10

Read story

“The dark that holds” by Luana Campagna

Submitted to Contest #274

Most children are taught to fear the dark.It’s not an innate fear; after all, I can’t imagine much light makes its way into the womb, that safe place we will never return to. In bedtime stories, villains slither in the shadows, sneaky and sinister, and we soon learn to associate light with everything safe and darkness with everything that isn’t.The astute reader might have already guessed that, in this story, everything will happen the other way around, while the curious reader will find themselves caught in the tight weave of my words, wond...

0 comments 0

Read story

“A Personal Account of an Earring's Journey to the Other Side” by Cindy Calder

Submitted to Contest #274

How can I find the words? It was infinitely worth millions, an enlightenment in an otherwise ordinary existence – an escape into fantasy or an abundance of things derived from an unimaginable realm. In an experience unlike any other, it was thus, my journey began. The night was ordinary, much like any other, but dark and quiet with an ominous foreboding of something otherworldly in the air. My mistress slept in her ornate antique bed with only the smallest sliver of moonlight to illuminate the room. Unable to rest, I lay on the mahogany...

4 comments 4

Read story

“Sundown” by Sherri Moorer

Submitted to Contest #274

Why am I here? Crows call from the swaying branches of the trees, the wind sweeping through the open playground into the neighborhood beside the abandoned school. Cold air sways rattles the chains of the swing set behind me. I smell the old metal of those swings, of the nearby monkey bars, the dull sliding board, and the dirt of the abandoned grammar school playground. A shiver wracks my body as twilight sets in a place passing into decay. But I don’t see decay. I see colorful leaves blowing through the sunshine, swirling in the cheers and ...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Quiet Shadow” by Sasha Darré

Submitted to Contest #274

Michael Hughes set his teacup down with practiced grace, eyeing across the veranda. Behind him, a red pagoda cast long shadows over his otherworldly garden, where solemn statues stood sentinel among unfamiliar plants. His blue-grey eyes, piercing and astute, seemed to look through Margaret. "Drawn by the occult, are you, Miss Hodgkins?" His voice coarse and unfeeling. “I understand Gothic fiction is quite popular these days among the youth.” Margaret nodded weakly, relaxing a bit as the familiar subject took hold. "It’s for my writing assign...

5 comments 5

Read story

“The Bell Tower ” by Paul Vi

Submitted to Contest #274

As far back as I can remember, I have always felt different. I don't say that as something that I'm proud of. My mother was the first to point this out, and she described it almost as a disability. "That boy is not right in the head," she would say. "It's that damn Nintendo." Like most Mexican parents, they loved to blame any behavior issue on those damn Nintendos. Mental health problems are too unknown or too taboo to be discussed openly in the Mexican household. They say we reflect our parents' virtues, but it’s their failures that ma...

4 comments 4

Read story

“3:00 a.m.” by Ingrid Barclay

Submitted to Contest #274

Cara was rigid, her fists clenched as she stared at the glowing numbers on the display beside her. It had just turned three o'clock in the morning, the dead of night - the witching hour. No matter the name, that time of night had now become the focus of Cara's existence. Bedtime had gone from unremarkable to an anxious waiting game for tiny lightsabers to change through their numerical sequence each night until they reached that time. The door hinges squealed, heralding Cara's punctual visitor. Cara swallowed futilely against her stubbornly ...

8 comments 8

Read story

“Tour From Beyond” by Elizabeth Johnston

Submitted to Contest #274

My husband and I traveled to Albany New York from Colorado to visit my 98 year old grandfather who was recovering from a fall that resulted in a broken hip, He was in a rehabilitation hospital to receive therapy and it was nice to see him and other family members that live in New York since we live across the country and don't have a chance to come out as often as we would like. Having visitors can be tiring so instead of sitting in his room driving him nuts staring at him, we decided to take a day trip to Lake George and visit Ft. William M...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Pale Angel” by Ilan Licina

Submitted to Contest #274

THE thick silence reigning in the hotel’s lobby weighed on me, drowning out every rushed step of mine along the frail wooden planks. The furious beat of my heart drummed through my ears; perhaps out of fear, perhaps out of lust for destruction – an eagerness to bring this madness to an end. The moment that the idea – the ever so trivial idea – to simply destroy this abomination of a statue had occurred to me, I was determined to see it come true, and as I paced past the receptionist, not even the glamourous chandelier – whose shining ornamen...

0 comments 0

Read story

“The Visit” by Lora Sells

Submitted to Contest #274

“Mommy!” I open my eyes fully alert, like I hadn’t been dead asleep for the past four hours. I feel a tiny body jump on my stomach and crawl her way underneath the sheets and blankets. “What’s wrong Vi? Did you have a nightmare?” Violet presses her face into my ribs, wrapping her tiny arms around me and squeezing as hard as she can. “No.” She squeaks, wiping her eyes on my black camisole. “Then what is it baby?” I ask softly, brushing her long golden hair off her forehead. “My closet door opened and I heard voices,” she whi...

5 comments 5

Read story

“New Jersey's Deadly Brew” by Bob Faszczewski

Submitted to Contest #274

New Jersey’s Deadly Brew #ReedsyOctoberFor nearly 360 years the area of my birth and early upbringing, Elizabethport, New Jersey, has given its residents plenty of fodder to produce tales of the strange and macabre. Much of its eerie history has evolved from its location along...

0 comments 0

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Center your story on a character filled with love and fear in equal measure.

Character – 65 stories

Write a story that includes the line “Fate is resourceful.”

Short Story – 77 stories

Write a story where a creature turns up in an unexpected way.

Short Story – 99 stories

Center your story around a childhood fear that – as much as you try to shake it – still resonates in adulthood.

Angst – 93 stories

Contest #274

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: October Country with Peter Cameron

$250

Prize money

406

Contest entries

120

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Nov 01, 2024 EST

Won by M. Darrow 🏆

Title: Sweetbread: An Epilogue

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Use a personal memory to craft a ghost story.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 72 stories

“Hunting shadow” by Claudia IONAS

“The Pond” by Darlene Mosley

“The Woman Who Loved Stephen King” by Angela D'Agostino

“Harbinger” by Maria Wickens

“The Trappings of Fall” by Nina H

“The dark that holds” by Luana Campagna

“A Personal Account of an Earring's Journey to the Other Side” by Cindy Calder

“Sundown” by Sherri Moorer

“Quiet Shadow” by Sasha Darré

“The Bell Tower ” by Paul Vi

“3:00 a.m.” by Ingrid Barclay

“Tour From Beyond” by Elizabeth Johnston

“The Pale Angel” by Ilan Licina

“The Visit” by Lora Sells

“New Jersey's Deadly Brew” by Bob Faszczewski

🌟 Similar prompts

Center your story on a character filled with love and fear in equal measure.

Write a story that includes the line “Fate is resourceful.”

Write a story where a creature turns up in an unexpected way.

Center your story around a childhood fear that – as much as you try to shake it – still resonates in adulthood.

Contest #274

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

406

Contest entries

120

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: