Start your story in an empty guest room.

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 150 stories

“unoccupied” by R E

🏆 Winner of Contest #96

Guest rooms were always hiding things. No one starts out wanting a guest room. It’s usually an office first, but then you got fired and can’t look at it anymore, so you throw a bed in it that you’ll never sleep in. Sometimes it’s a kid’s room, but they’ve moved out into a college dorm room. It used to be storage but then the divorce happened leaving it depressingly empty. A studio for recording music but the bass player was in a car accident, and the band broke up. Guest rooms are rarely ever intentional. It’s more of a ritual. Something s...

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“Maybe it’s bedbugs, maybe it’s -” by Kathleen `Woods

Submitted to Contest #96

The room is empty of life, as far as the observer is concerned. Though such an assessment would be willfully ignorant of the veritable metropolis of insect life beneath the bed. They are unaware of their long accepted voyeur, as they luxuriate among themselves hidden from the light. The observer watches on thinking, ‘I should really deal with what’s under the bed.’ But this is all the observer could really think at that moment, as they didn’t know where they were.They woke alone a little while before, on the bed above the shee...

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“Sandrita” by Jubilee Forbess

Submitted to Contest #96

The smell of homemade fried chicken and small, microwaved okra wafted in through Sandrita’s window. She sat behind her curtain and watched her neighbors run from their apartment to the car. They were helping their mom get the groceries, and even though Sandrita knew it was a small thing in their day, she wished she could help someone carry food into the kitchen. She wished she could put on her mother’s big high heels, like the oldest neighbor boy had, and feel the crunch of soft gravel as she balanced plastic bags of orange juice and milk in...

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“petunia” by Batool Hussain

Submitted to Contest #96

Psychopath. Psychopath. Psychopath. You’re sitting in a small room with paint peeling out from the walls. The only thing talking back to your physic talks is your echo. You look around for water and get up to fetch some, only to realize there is nothing around. They call you a psychopath. Your shirt is always torn and the pants you wear are too baggy for you. There are dark circles underneath your eyes and your once blue eyes look almost colourless now. Your teeth are yellow and rotten for you only dine in on squirrels and dead rats. Y...

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“That One Midnight” by Aiden Otaktay

Submitted to Contest #96

Ryan laid on the bed in the empty guest room. It had nothing in it except for a wall clock and the bed. He was lost in the book he was reading, but the doorbell pulled him out of the endless depth of the engaging story. "Who could that be?" he thought as he walked up to the front door. He proceeded to unlock the door and was frozen when he saw a girl standing in front of him. She looked scared, and her teary eyes begged for help. "You have to save me, please! They're after me!" she said just before she fell on his shoulder. ...

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“Unexpected” by Trina Ann Pion 🍀🌹🍀

Submitted to Contest #96

A ruckus in the hallway startled Cate Carter awake from a fitful sleep full of bloodshed and heartbreak. The ten-year-old’s compact frame stiffened as she strained to hear the strange voices squabbling from outside the guest bedroom door. Two distinct voices clashed and attacked each other, but Cate failed to decipher what the dispute was over. When a third voice joined in the chaotic commotion, her heart clung to her ribcage, holding on for dear life. It was only once Cate identified the three voices as female that her anxiety mollifie...

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“I am not here” by Austin Diaz

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #96

The definition of a guest room: a bedroom in a house for visitors to sleep in. I am not, however, sleeping here. It is four in the morning, and I have not slept. Also, it is unclear if I am still a visitor or if I ever was. Two of the four criteria, then, are not fulfilled. It is a bedroom, and this bedroom is in a house, specifically Grandmother’s house. A short description of the guest (?) room: There is a bed and a nightstand with a lamp, a picture on the wall and a clock. That’s it. No chest of drawers, no closet,...

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“Rosa Mori” by 𝕊𝕚𝕝𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕊𝕖𝕣𝕡𝕖𝕟𝕥 ☾

Submitted to Contest #96

Author's Note: I don't really like this story but it's my first step to get back into writing again... so constructive criticism is always appreciated!!! Rosa Mori is Latin for 'dying rose' which you would later make sense of towards the end :) Thank you to Ruth for helping me fix my grammatical errors!We were moving again. My dad had left us to confinement within the empty barriers of that cold, unforgiving room. That room bound me through its dead walls, walls that lay a pale grey as those suitcases were ready to be piled again.The tuft of...

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“Pulling Threads” by R K

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #96

At the beginning of each summer, there was the necessary trip to the hardware store to comb through the aisles for glue traps. Each year, she counted how many traps were needed, based on what she found as she bent over couch-backs, crawled into corners, and reached behind bookcases to pull out the previous year’s traps. There were wolf spiders mostly, but occasionally a centipede, who had wandered onto the smooth, sticky surface. She examined the paths of the creatures who somehow managed to crawl deeper and further into th...

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“Come To Visit” by Monica June

Submitted to Contest #96

No one has stayed in my house for a long time. They used to come, back then. But now no one will even call anymore. I wish they would just stay for a couple of days, then they could see how I changed up the wallpaper in all the rooms. I switched the bedsheets, too. Now each room has a different sheet on it’s bed. I did that one day, just to switch it up. I rearranged the lamps, and hung up a different picture in each room. I redesigned until I realized that I had designed them by color. There was a blue room, a purple room, a green...

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“The Four Post Majestic Bed” by Geshanie Dias Desinghe

Submitted to Contest #96

It all happened in that Lonely Guestroom as she stood there.The tall slender figure of Namali stood looking at the door at the end of the Corridor with thousands of memories gushing and rushing into her head. Namali started walking the corridor.She approach the door at the end of the corridor. She held the broad brass door knob and pushed the door open. A single ray of sunlighet and rushed through the parted curtain brightening the entire room. She entered the Guestroom allowing the door to close by itself. Namali ...

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“Temor” by 𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙠𝙞 ☾

Submitted to Contest #96

As I glanced back one last time at the empty room, tears flooded my eyes. The room that once used to be used when my parents had childish arguments was now empty. The guest bedroom was probably the one we used the least, but probably the closest to our hearts. The deep red suitcases distracted from the once pastel blue walls which looked like a gloomy sky. We had to move houses after my dad left us… It’s been tough but I think I’m getting the hang of this.“¿Listo para ir?” My mum said.“Io penso di essere”We put all the cardboard storage boxe...

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“The Masterpiece” by Silver Pen: Temporarily Inactive

Submitted to Contest #96

TW: PTSD, suicidal thoughts. The bedroom is white. Empty, lonely, and white. The color of absence. I hate it. Have you ever felt alone? I certainly do, even as Winnie walks in, her maroon sweater sharply contrasting against the stifling walls. “How are you?” She asks softly. I clench my fists. She doesn’t understand. They never understand. I don’t need her hospitality. I don’t need the people and their sympathetic apologies. I don’t need the white walls as they stare, shifting into the walls of the hospital, echoing the horrid beeps ...

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“Mythology” by The Manticore

Submitted to Contest #96

cw: murder, implied abuse, mentions of suicideEidos had been left alone before but this was probably the first time there was a locked door involved. And she didn’t know when she could unlock it. She didn’t know when she could be safe.She stood stricken in the middle of the floor, damp from the last time it had been mopped, hands by her side. Her hands were stinging, the fingernails close to the quick and beaded with pearled blood. Eidos finally moved. She took two steps backward, hit the wall, and slid down into a crouched, defensive s...

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“Ready for an Adventure” by Rachel Kenley Fry

Submitted to Contest #96

Wanted: a full-time, live-in nanny to care for twin five-year-old boys in our Manhattan home for the summer. Must be responsible, energetic, willing to work hard, but most of all, ready for an adventure! Serious inquiries only.Natalie heard the door click behind her and let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She was alone.The room—her room— smelled like fresh white paint. It was small, maybe a ten by twelve foot rectangle, she guessed. Just enough room for a twin bed, a small dresser and a tiny rolltop desk under a window. E...

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Ended on 23:59 - Jun 04, 2021 EST

Won by R E 🏆

Title: unoccupied

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Start your story in an empty guest room.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 150 stories

“unoccupied” by R E

“Maybe it’s bedbugs, maybe it’s -” by Kathleen `Woods

“Sandrita” by Jubilee Forbess

“petunia” by Batool Hussain

“That One Midnight” by Aiden Otaktay

“Unexpected” by Trina Ann Pion 🍀🌹🍀

“I am not here” by Austin Diaz

“Rosa Mori” by 𝕊𝕚𝕝𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕊𝕖𝕣𝕡𝕖𝕟𝕥 ☾

“Pulling Threads” by R K

“Come To Visit” by Monica June

“The Four Post Majestic Bed” by Geshanie Dias Desinghe

“Temor” by 𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙠𝙞 ☾

“The Masterpiece” by Silver Pen: Temporarily Inactive

“Mythology” by The Manticore

“Ready for an Adventure” by Rachel Kenley Fry

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about strangers becoming friends, or friends becoming strangers.

Start your story with the arrival of a strange visitor in a small town.

Write about someone welcoming a stranger into their home.

Write about a character who has to rely on the hospitality of strangers.

Contest #96

Enter our weekly contest!

$50

Prize money

860

Contest entries

0

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: