Set your story in a house of mirrors and make the atmosphere increasingly eerie.

Posted in Horror on Nov 17, 2023

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✍️ 43 stories

“Peering through me” by Cira Flannery

Submitted to Contest #225

I live on the street the alley cats avoid and the trees lean their leafy branches obscuring my hollow hole of a mailbox. This is Luxembourg, a land of priceless Renaissance architecture, and unfathomable prizes nature behold. Every winter season the snow falls, sprinkling every European mountain peak and the headstones to the centuries-old graveyards and Catholic chapels, but I’m spared from it all, behind these windows I’m a prisoner of a prissy, darling, icing-on-the-cake reality. I have soured into a miserable witch, dreaming about the da...

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“Faceless Reflections” by Tita Martin

Submitted to Contest #225

I have the sense that I’ve been here awhile, lost in the house of mirrors. And, yet, my memories of my time here are obscured by fog. Instead of memories, it seems I only have an absence of them. With each moment that passes I do not remember the moments that came before. I do not remember for what reasons I am here, lost and trapped in the house of mirrors. I become more confused the farther I travel, each hall, each corridor, each room the same as the last. Every direction I turn all that can be seem are...

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“The Spider's Shadow” by Branson Kennedy

Submitted to Contest #225

*SHATTER* And a ball comes flying in. There is a faint sound of children egging each other on to grab the ball in this dusty, dull, crumby house, one that hasn't been properly lived in for maybe 20 years. "You get it!" Shouts one kid. "No. Devan should get it! He threw it!" Yells another. "You kicked it! And you broke their window!" The running feet at a fast pace begin to slow down and abruptly stop at the creaky porch window. A head pops through the broken window, peaking into the dilapidated house. Not only did the window shatter, bu...

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“Hermit ” by Jack Connolly

Submitted to Contest #225

My grandfather was a bit of a hermit after his second wife died. He could barely keep it together after his first wife, my grandmother, died, but when his second wife, half his age, died unexpectedly, he became a different person. He sold all of his possessions, and three of his houses, to purchase a gigantic mansion in the woods up north. We never heard from him after that, and it wasn’t until we got a call from the sheriff’s department asking us to identify the body that we got an update on what he was doing all alone out there. Apparently...

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“Hall of MIrrors” by Avery Crescent

Submitted to Contest #225

Amusement park rides swirled around us as the heady scent of buttered popcorn and fried dough wafted through the balmy summer air. Clanging bells, hissing water guns, and popping balloons punctuated the steady din of the jostling crowd around us. I'd brought my teenage sons Alex and Jake to the carnival and they were eager to try every dizzying ride in the park. Standing outside the chains at each ride, I'd watch the two of them howling and laughing their way through the tilt-a-whirl, the scrambler, and the orbiter. As my sons raced to the...

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“What Alice didn't see” by Edward Savage

Submitted to Contest #225

The squeaking wipers cleared the rain without improving the view, mainly due to my breath fogging the glass. Sighing I got out into the drearily dismal day, where the rain, more of a mist, settled on my hair and shoulders in tiny beads. The house wasn’t new, nor was it ancient, or a gothic pile of masonry and tile, boasting turrets, towers and leering gargoyles. It was a well proportioned, rectangular Victorian, tacked onto a smaller late Georgian with a large bay windowed room on its first floor. Grey stone-work, streaked by grime and wate...

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“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...” by Valentina Bondarenko

Submitted to Contest #225

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall "Mirror, mirror on the wall! Are you an object of mystery, power, fear, justice, and inspiration?" "Archimedes' soldiers could have used mirrors to burn the Romans' ships. So, mirrors are an object of victories, too!" I am an ancient mirror! I was new hundreds of years ago, and tsars, queens, princes, slaves, and servants admired themselves or shed tears of unrequited love before me! Henry VIII, the biggest narcissist of all times and nations, swore to himself, great, handsome, and glorious. James I, the son of Mar...

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“House of Mirrors” by William Duke

Submitted to Contest #225

Starla has been holding my hand, my wrist, my elbow. She has even been brushing against my arm. Twice I got a squishy arm hug, which was amazing. I’m working up to making my move on the Terror Ride, but first, she wants to go to the House of Mirrors. We have to split up to go in, but I am confident I will find her inside. She laughs and steps in, turns and gives me a wink, then crooks her finger as she moves left and out of sight. I’m practically frothing at the mouth waiting for the attendant to let me follow her in. I final...

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“From The Void Of The Other Side” by J.C. Vayda

Submitted to Contest #225

The sun dipped behind the mountain, and a blood-red aura swept across the late blue sky. This began the usual transition of day to night. The valley below turned grey, and the streetlamps began to flicker on. A few spiders had already set up their webs and awaited the first moth to fly into its trap. (You have to wait for the streetlamps to come on before you go outside, dear. It seems the ghouls don’t like the light very much.) Her car rolled to a stop sign, and she paused for a moment. She could turn around right now. Head back home—...

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“Reflections of the Past” by Gerald Fogarty

Submitted to Contest #225

Reflections of the Past by Logan Atwater The headlights from a Plymouth shined brightly as it followed the windy road leading up to Mysteries Amusement Park named for the mysterious wonders that awaited the people who visited it. The park closed in the early 1980s due to the openings of much larger amusement parks which they couldn’t compete against. Slowly the Plymouth came to a stop as it approached the rusted gates to the amusement park. The old doors of the Plymouth squeaked as the opened, a middle-aged couple gracefully stepped out o...

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“Let’s play a game: Game 2” by Agris Engelis

Submitted to Contest #225

“Hello, Jimmy.” The disgusting puppet human said. “It’s time for the second game.” “I thought there would only be the one.” The thing just smiled. “No, my boy, that was just the trial.” As he said that, he snapped his fingers and my surroundings changed. “Welcome to the second game.” Around me I saw multiple mirrors spawn in one after another. “Compared to the previous ‘trial’ game, this will be less painful.” He said, then smirked. “But there’s a chance you’ll never leave this place.” I looked at the mirrors, studying the infinite number of...

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“The Echo House Chamber of Illusions” by Leanne O'Connell

Submitted to Contest #225

A dense fog hung over the once-thriving town of Hollow Creek, enveloping it like a shroud. The deserted streets were eerie and quiet, with the occasional rustle of leaves and the distant hoot of an owl the only breaking of silence. At the heart of this ghostly town stood, The Echo House Chamber of Illusions, a towering structure of glass and black steel cladding that seemed to warp and distort in the mist this dark evening. Its countless, multifaceted windows reflected the distorted and twisted image of the town around it, a grotesque paro...

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“All I get from you” by Tomas Furtado

Submitted to Contest #225

Knowing what each other would do. That Jonas was bored and that Benson would comply, the twins sneaked out of bed during a wet blue summer night and made their way to the mirror house, squeezing through an opened window in the second story floor and closing it shut behind them, so the flying termites, who unborrowed at that time of the year, wouldn't follow them in.It was a closed circuit, stale and warm. It reminded Benson of the trunk of a car, although he'd keep that to himself. Despite the croaking of the wood, Jonas made it's way first,...

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Set your story in a house of mirrors and make the atmosphere increasingly eerie.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 43 stories

“Peering through me” by Cira Flannery

“Faceless Reflections” by Tita Martin

“The Spider's Shadow” by Branson Kennedy

“Hermit ” by Jack Connolly

“Hall of MIrrors” by Avery Crescent

“What Alice didn't see” by Edward Savage

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall...” by Valentina Bondarenko

“House of Mirrors” by William Duke

“From The Void Of The Other Side” by J.C. Vayda

“Reflections of the Past” by Gerald Fogarty

“Let’s play a game: Game 2” by Agris Engelis

“The Echo House Chamber of Illusions” by Leanne O'Connell

“All I get from you” by Tomas Furtado

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with someone buying a cursed — or perhaps blessed —mirror from an antiques store.

Write a story about someone trying to paint (or otherwise create) a self-portrait.

Write a story about someone coming across their doppelganger.

Write a story about a character who one day notices that their reflection has taken on a life of its own.

Contest #225

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

282

Contest entries

106

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: