Set your story in a countryside house that’s filled with shadows.

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 170 stories

“On the Origin of Shadows” by Nina Chyll

🏆 Winner of Contest #92

There are two things I have always wanted you to know about the house. Ever since you picked it out, in the middle of a recession, at a heavy discount, as you put it. As if it was a carton of milk about to go out of date. For us, you said, finally away from the hustle. And there are two things I have wanted to tell you. But I didn’t know how.1. I hate the glass door to the back garden. It’s like a wound barely held by shaggy stitches. One measly screwdriver stuck into the lock would suffice to split it open, exposing the house’s organs viabl...

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“The Locket” by Sasini Athapaththu

Submitted to Contest #92

The sky was crying so hard and the ground was soaked with tears. A booted leg stepped in a puddle of water in front of a rusty gate which leads to once a magnificent manor but now nothing more than a half-ruined building. By the look of it; dead trees, overgrown hedges, flower beds that looked more like weed beds, ivy-covered walls, broken windows which were blackened with dust and half-fallen roof, no one would have thought anyone could live there. The only evidence of life was the smoke coming out from the half-broken chimney. She looked...

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“House of Shadows - Burning Bronze - Chapter 1” by Clinton Ernest Murphy

Submitted to Contest #92

Jim - February 12, 2001 - 9:13 amMy footsteps echoed through the grand room as I paced the empty redwood floors. The glossy shine of intermingled reds and dark browns were dulled by a layer of dust. I passed by six unveiled windows and stared through them in turn. The flat plains of the Midwest sprawled out to the horizon. A group of orange, black, and grey finches hopped around in a patch where green grass poked through the melting blanket of snow. I stopped pacing and turned to face my dad. “Rianne was your fourth attorney. You can’t keep ...

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“The Cottage ” by Nainika Gupta

Submitted to Contest #92

My father once went to his Great-uncle’s countryside house. He went there with his cousin, and he was the only one out of the three to come back. He never spoke of them ever again; the police never found any bodies even though they searched the surrounding woods and that cottage thoroughly. Though the events of that summer caused him to lose his leg and some of his memories, he never once told me about it. And I had never been brave enough to ask about it. Until one night, when I was sitting at the dining table, mutinously eating my Bru...

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“Shadows and Stars” by TJ Squared

Submitted to Contest #92

In a deep, dark and lonesome place, the moon gave a little light to a darkened countryside. The grass was a never ending sea of pitch black, rippling in the soft breeze. The sky was magnificent as the stars adorned their mother. The breeze shifted slightly, as a child shifted uneasily. The sea of onyx grass stopped their appeasement to the hypnotic wind. The breeze grew stronger, lifting up hopeless leaves and twisting around endless tree trunks. The wind found its way to a little abandoned shack in the middle of a plain. The wind sized up t...

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“La Sombra” by Alex Arias

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #92

TW: abuse Evita lied awake in the corner of the room her family shared, the moonlight casting a white glow that she manipulated with her hand’s shadow. The howling of coyotes was long gone, but they still echoed in her brain as she shaped her fingers into a snout, its mouth open. The shadow was dear to her, protected her not only from the Sonoran Sun during the day, but cloaked her from danger at night. She knew this land and the darkness it cast in its folds better than anybody else in her family, and in return was respected by the shadow. ...

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“The Tyranny of Light” by Kristin Neubauer

Submitted to Contest #92

The old grandfather clock, invisible in the darkened dining room, whirred and clunked through its gears just before chiming eleven times. As the last tone faded, the innkeeper heard a creak. This was not the groan of the country house settling. For 42 years, the murmurs and sighs of the aged walls and floors had woven themselves into the innkeeper’s consciousness. She knew those noises as intimately as she knew the pops and clicks of her bones.No, this was the squeak of one Early American floorboard being pushed against a...

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“Ghosts” by Amelia Bowen

Submitted to Contest #92

It felt wrong to be anything but a ghost, in this house. Felt wrong to liken yourself to anything but a drifting specter, white dress or cape billowing after you like a train of unfinished thoughts. She was alone. It felt wrong to be anything but alone, in this house. The curtains were made to be rustled by some invisible hand; frosted windows crafted specially to frame the longing face of a life-long captive. The house was drafty, inconsistent in its moods; she liked to think that she was too.There was a trunk in the attic. An old, wooden t...

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“The Shadows of the Flowers” by Kenley Ellis

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #92

A general misconception about countryside homes is that they are beautiful and bright; I am basing this off of my personal misconception of the same kind. Countryside homes - they are like any other place on earth. They harbor equal shadow and light. Light is not always a fearless defender, you know. It does not chase away shadows. It is not on your side. More often than not, and always in real life, it shares space with the darkness. Nothing is fighting for you but yourself. It’s just the way things are. I understood that as a common l...

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“Barry and the Burning Dog” by A.R. Eakle

Submitted to Contest #92

The sun beaming in through the window lays so still on the wooden floor that it’s hard to walk without feeling like I’m going to wake up the sun. Like I’m tiptoeing around fire. A glance out the window are green hills rolling into the horizon, like green ocean waves covered in wildflowers. It’s hard to believe in sadness with a view so beautiful. The house is full of antique farm equipment and knick-knacks and the kind of junk that only a lifetime worth of love and passion could ever hope to appreciate. The areas where the sun cuts through ...

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“Memories and cobwebs” by Echo Sundar

Submitted to Contest #92

My small honda Prius bumped around as I drove up the gravel driveway. Rocks hit the side of the car with tiny plinks. Mud covered the wheels and the doors of the car as I drove through puddles and I thought miserably that I would probably have to give it a good washing when I got home. A small house lay in front of me. Small it might be but it felt like it was towering over me.I hadn't been inside in years. Cobwebs were strung from the doorway like Halloween decorations. The windows were cracked. Mice skittered over the steps and the wh...

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“'Dancing Shadows'” by Asha Pillay

Submitted to Contest #92

The old house on the hillock had always fascinated Rudra. It was away from hustle and bustle of the village, and had been deserted for many years.One day he had told his mother Mira that he wanted to visit the house on the hill. Mira had heard various stories about the house, and she forbade her son to go up there."Promise me Rudra, you will never go up to that house ever" his mother warned him"But why, Ma?""There is a witch living there who eats small children for lunch" Mira told him, trying to scare him...

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“Ring a Ring a Rosie” by Vicky S

Submitted to Contest #92

The floorboards creaked as the small group of people, all wrapped in thick coats and scarves, huddled closer than they normally would have done as they climbed the grand staircase, several torches lighting their way. The light from the full moon trickled through the dirty windows, but the panes of glass were so grimy, the hallways and rooms were still dark; thin beams of light reaching the dusty, dirt covered floor, adding to the eerie spookiness. “Ring a ring a Rosie, a pocket full of posies.” “What was that?” one of them asked, spinning ar...

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“Shadow House” by Ed .

Submitted to Contest #92

The house was filled with shadows. As soon as me and Gemma stepped into Auntie Fled’s house that was the first thing we noticed. “I’m scared Triton!” Gemma whispered partly to herself and partly to me. My older cousin was spooked. I am frightened too. “Did you just see that?” I asked her pointing at a shadow; That looked like our Aunt. In fact, When we looked up there she stood with a face that could make any normal person faint. And I am technically normal so I faint too.I have breakfast the next morning when I wake. It was the normal cerea...

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“Of a Captive Angel” by Genevieve Taylor

Submitted to Contest #92

Oh, look, there he is. Sebastian Bloom. He’s staring at you, waiting. Sebastian Bloom, downturned mouth and blond lashes. Sebastian Bloom, coattails long and grey. Sebastian Bloom, prematurely silver hair falling over key lime eyes. You have just woken up. The world is fresh, still dewey, sticky, leaving cobwebs between your fingers as you open your hands. The world is curved lines and long-legged water bug wonderings on your wet lips. Who called you here? But it is Sebastian, of course. He clears his throat. “It...

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Ended on 23:59 - May 07, 2021 EST

Won by Nina Chyll 🏆

Title: On the Origin of Shadows

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Set your story in a countryside house that’s filled with shadows.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 170 stories

“On the Origin of Shadows” by Nina Chyll

“The Locket” by Sasini Athapaththu

“House of Shadows - Burning Bronze - Chapter 1” by Clinton Ernest Murphy

“The Cottage ” by Nainika Gupta

“Shadows and Stars” by TJ Squared

“La Sombra” by Alex Arias

“The Tyranny of Light” by Kristin Neubauer

“Ghosts” by Amelia Bowen

“The Shadows of the Flowers” by Kenley Ellis

“Barry and the Burning Dog” by A.R. Eakle

“Memories and cobwebs” by Echo Sundar

“'Dancing Shadows'” by Asha Pillay

“Ring a Ring a Rosie” by Vicky S

“Shadow House” by Ed .

“Of a Captive Angel” by Genevieve Taylor

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story that begins in the light and ends in darkness, or the other way around.

End your story with a truth coming to light.

Write about a character who thinks they have a sun allergy.

Write a story set in a city where the power suddenly goes out, leaving everyone in darkness.

Contest #92

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

1050

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: