Write a story where ghosts and the living coexist.

Posted in Halloween on Oct 20, 2023

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✍️ 69 stories

“Hard To Accept” by Jed Cope

Submitted to Contest #221

I read a funny quote once. The problem with stupid people is that they don’t know they are stupid. The joke is a paradox. Stupid people read it and they laugh. The problem is we’re all stupid. That’s the joke. And it’s not funny. It’s not funny and I’m certainly not laughing. If I’m honest, I doubt I’ll ever laugh. Another oft used quote is something along the lines of we all make it up as we go along. We’re all muddling along and trying to make the most of things. Making the best of a bad situation, and grinning and beari...

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“The Ghost of Me” by Hannah Andrews

Submitted to Contest #221

She appears peripherally, in a shimmering blaze of brightness, like sun glinting off a mirror splice. I catch my breath and turn my head slowly towards her, anticipating her disappearance. She crisps into focus. I blink, and then again, slide my sunglasses down my nose, then back in place, positive the polarized lenses will render her but a glare. She remains. If she is real, am I the ghost? I pinch myself. Per usual, I feel nothing. My feet hold fast as if weighted, as if they are sandbags guarding against a flash flood. My mouth is...

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“Maaaaybe” by Kristi Sturgeon

Submitted to Contest #221

MaaaaybeBy Kristi Sturgeon For a period of my life, I was obsessed with ghost shows. It’s not because I was scared of such things. Any show about hauntings and the search for spirits intrigued me, so I watched them all. I was fascinated by the technology and how those machines were used to hear things we could not hear and see things we could not see. So when my cousins, who were paranormal investigators, came to visit from Kentucky and offered to take me on a ghost hunt Thanksgiving night, I jumped at the chance. Tim and his son, Mike,...

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“Hell House” by Ian Patterson

Submitted to Contest #221

TW: Child AbuseThis isn’t so much a story, as a real thing that happened to me. The more time that passes since though, it feels like fiction. I’ve never been the most honest story-teller either; I would embellish details shamelessly if it added to the drama. Couple that with a memory that’s half as good as it should be at my age, and I don’t always trust what I remember. So year after year I’d search the internet to see if I could find another version of the story out there, find someone else that had been to that abando...

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“I Miss My Wife” by Jerry Thomas

Submitted to Contest #221

Charles Martin stood in the aisle of Halloween Center USA, adjusting items on the shelves, watching kids and their parents rushing through the entrance and file into the spooky warehouse. Each kid had to be restrained by their parents from knocking over items on the shelves. All he wanted to do was find some discount candy to hand out at dark to kids from all around his neighborhood. &...

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“Sole Heir” by Stuart Lawrence

Submitted to Contest #221

The road bore the signs of an earlier hard rain. Marti switched the wipers to intermittent to remove the light drizzle that still remained, hitting her windshield. The sparse streetlights offered an ominous atmosphere, adding to the foreboding ambiance as her SUV traveled down the stone-embedded asphalt. She slowed to a stop at the flashing light, the only traffic light in Keysville. The white clapboard building at the intersection, which once served as the gas station butcher shop and post office, was now just a two-pump service station. A ...

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“The House in the Park” by Gisela Woldenga

Submitted to Contest #221

Gisela Woldenga 752 Runnymede Ave. Coquitlam BC, V3J2V1 email: gwnovels@gmail.com Tel.: 604-939-5357 THE HOUSE IN THE PARK Emily stopped and pointed. “Look at that house, Claire. It’s like a left-over from another time. And those colors.” Claire focused her camera. “Yeah, who has skinny, pink houses with yellow shutters nowadays.” Emily felt a small shiver going down her spine. “Not shutters. The windows are boarded up. They look like dead eyes.” Claire giggled. “How dramatic. Maybe we can find out what it’s still doing he...

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“Desert Clouds Like Ghosts” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #221

An interesting thing finally happened after a very long time of nothing at all happening in the life of little Penelope Winston. She sat in the dusty dirt in front of her family’s covered wagon, her little zombie rag doll named Sycamore to her right, and a potato peeler in her hand. There was a dog on the horizon. The wind picked up and a dozen dust devils whirled about the outskirts of her family’s camp. They looked like pale translucent ghosts dancing those whirling waltzes she’d spied her parents participating in when she was ver...

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“Spirit World” by C.E. Simon

Submitted to Contest #221

TRIGGER WARNING: Contains mental health issues, mention of suicide, and a child's death.“Welcome to Spirit World,” the guide greeted the group of kids and adults alike.I slid my keycard over the sensor and opened the double doors.The guide ushered the group down the hallway, more like a hospital than a zoo—we were told never to use the term zoo—and the presentation continued. As he told them the history of containing ghosts from all over the world, I watched closely at pockets, looked for cellphones or recording devices that were snuck in. N...

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“When?” by Kimberly Walker

Submitted to Contest #221

When? Upside down and confused. Cold. The sirens are getting louder; where are they going? Can't they see that I need help here? Whoa, I'm down here! Shake it off, girl. You can do it, okay there, that's better. Well, it is cooler out here now than when I left home. The weatherman said it would be in the lower 70s tonight, but when do they get it right? What did he think? March 17th has never been 71o after dark, even though it was 75 by noon. I should have worn a jacket. Now that I have freed myself from the seatbelt, I must get out of th...

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“Communion of Chocolate Cake” by Sarah Dean

Submitted to Contest #221

It was an unreasonably hot summer day. Much too hot to make a cake and yet here she was, baking a triple chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and pomegranate drizzle. Why Glaudia was pouring sweat in her tiny, cramped kitchen covered in various sticky, sweet substances, was relatively simple. She was going to summon a demon. A demon to do her dirty work. Mostly that included doing her laundry and feeding her cat while she was at work. Just a simple lesser demon that would be satisfied with a handmade cake in return for a week'...

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“Truce” by Tim Shuman

Submitted to Contest #221

Truce By Tim Shuman The smell of gunpowder, death, and fresh earth fought in the air like the two armies engaged in the great civil struggle. The slaughter was halted by Christmas. As the ranking NCO Dooley had been tasked by the Captain to inform the lieutenant that terms for the truce had been negotiated and that he was to send someone to recover the Union dead. “Begging the Lieutenant’s pardon, but I have an important message from th—” Before Dooley could deliver the message, Lieutenant Cain burst o...

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“Lost” by Cedric Busteed

Submitted to Contest #221

“Don’t eat that.” Ashley jumped away as the cold words slithered up her arm and into her ears. She darted her head around to find the source of the voice, to no avail. It took a few moments before she realized that she didn’t remember hearing the words. No, she felt them like a chilling breeze slipping into her mind. She stepped away from the bright mushroom, perched tantalizingly on a rotten tree stump. Ashley had learned about ghosts, much in the same way she’d learned about ‘stop, drop, and roll’, quicksand, and how to spot a poisonous sn...

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“Conversations with the Departed - The Journey of a Psychic Medium” by Karin Eriksson

Submitted to Contest #221

There’s no brightly lit pink neon sign in my window. Nothing that can be seen as a beacon for the curious from a hundred paces away in the dark of night, through rainy mists and fog. No color is reflected in the ripples of water in the street puddles below.No images showing a palm, crystal ball, or the words “Tarot”, “Fortune Teller”, or “Psychic Readings” … No multi-colored plastic beaded curtain, or black velvet drapes accessing a backroom within a brick-and-mortar shop selling crystals, incense, b...

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“Sally's Soldiers” by Lashun Williams

Submitted to Contest #221

There’s a girl that crosses the forbidden sidewalk every other day. Granted, no sidewalks in town are “forbidden”, but the road this girl traveled leads to nowhere. My café, Steven’s Greens, is a botanical café that was open for less than a year. It’s on the edges of town where very little people attempt to stay. This was intentional since my town was prone to tourists. As a town housing more than a dozen haunted locations, this main road entering and exiting the town seemed to be the best place to put my new dwelling. Although rather qui...

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Write a story where ghosts and the living coexist.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 69 stories

“Hard To Accept” by Jed Cope

“The Ghost of Me” by Hannah Andrews

“Maaaaybe” by Kristi Sturgeon

“Hell House” by Ian Patterson

“I Miss My Wife” by Jerry Thomas

“Sole Heir” by Stuart Lawrence

“The House in the Park” by Gisela Woldenga

“Desert Clouds Like Ghosts” by Tanya Humphreys

“Spirit World” by C.E. Simon

“When?” by Kimberly Walker

“Communion of Chocolate Cake” by Sarah Dean

“Truce” by Tim Shuman

“Lost” by Cedric Busteed

“Conversations with the Departed - The Journey of a Psychic Medium” by Karin Eriksson

“Sally's Soldiers” by Lashun Williams

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story from a ghost’s point of view.

Write a story about someone who is haunted. Whether by a ghost or something else is up to you.

Write a story about someone trying to raise the dead.

Set your story in a world where contacting the dead is as easy as making a phone call.

Contest #221

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

426

Contest entries

148

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

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