Start your story with an unusual sound being heard.

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 41 stories

“The Intruder (Warning: Some parts contain graphic content).” by Greg Gillis

Submitted to Contest #119

*THUD* *CRASH* Kelsey listened intently as she hid in the darkness above her attic hideaway. Something was happening in her house, and she was too afraid to leave her hiding spot to find out what it was. As a teenager, Kelsey was extremely outgoing and had an active social life, but one afternoon while playing with her friends at a nearby park, a ...

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“I Know What I Heard” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #119

Gregg says you can’t hear anything in a hurricane. That is not true. I can hear anything. I’m like my mother. My mother could hear a mouse dancing on a snowflake in the middle of a symphony. The women in my family have tremendous ears. The men die young, but the women live forever and hear everything. Once, at a New Year’s Eve party, I heard someone disparaging my perm all the way from across the room. This big living room with a hundred people in it, and as everyone was counting down to midnight, all I could hear was Viv Olson saying I ...

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“Fear” by Zea MindWerl

Submitted to Contest #119

An eerie skin crawling scream pierced the absolute silence. The sound sunk fear deep into my heart and panic high in my chest. I shuddered. There was something out there. Something moving about in the cool night. My heart was beating so fast and loud I thought it would give me away. I held absolutely still. I thought I might suffocate for breathing so quietly. Another slicing razor edged scream jolted across my ears. I shuddered. I could hear it now. A muffled crunching and ticking moving about in the night. I wanted to be gone. I did not wa...

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“Eulogy for a Cracked Shell” by Sydney Atkin

Submitted to Contest #119

CW: death, grief, mature language. It sounded like a shoe crushing a bag of chips or a pair of glasses. A crushing, cracking sound. From the cab of her dad’s pickup, two sizes too small for the passenger seat, Andie craned her neck to see the road below them. She pressed her face to the glass, trying to angle her head just right to catch a glimpse of what they had hit. Her dad swore in the creative way he always did, some bizarre combination of words that hinted at what he really wanted to say, and pulled over to the side of the road.&nbs...

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“The Masters of Lamaze” by Gene Strother

Submitted to Contest #119

"Hee...hoo...hee...hoo...hee...hoo." I was three months shy of my nineteen birthday when I married. My wife is five days younger than me. It seems insane to admit this in the twenty-first century when kids are still kids well into their twenties – and a few into their thirties. We lived differently, my young bride and me. We were not seeking a safe space to hide from ideas contrary to our own. There was no one to coddle us and cradle us in the arms of safety from the meanies in the world. We had no time to shout down dissenting or aberra...

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“The Walls” by Emerson St.Laurent

Submitted to Contest #119

Tap...tap...tap... Laying in my twin bed. Pink flowery duvet under me along with my ten decorative pillows my mother insist is some sort of household fashion. I always did hate this house the weird creaks in the floorboards when my mother walks around judging the way I cleaned my bedroom. The drizzle of the kitchen faucet and of course the screech of my father's old typewriter scratching back and forth the keys clipping loud and his grunts when he messed up a sentence. Old houses always have thin walls and creaky he...

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“The Night the Whispers Started” by Sophie Smith

Submitted to Contest #119

Normally I sleep through the night and dream away the darkness until the morning light. But not tonight. Tonight I have tossed and turned in the quiet darkness of my room. Seeing every hour pass by silently without a noise echoing through the sleepy house. Watching the numbers on my phone flicker to show the current time. 3:00. A slight panic coursed through my veins at the realisation of what time it was. Witching hour. The words of my Great Grandad rang through my head. Never be awake...

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“The Search” by Dakota Nugent

Submitted to Contest #119

How Mia ended up chasing a sound that may not even be real through her house, she’ll never know. It was her day off from work and all she wanted was to enjoy it by reading a book or watching television. Yet, a high-pitched whine distracted her from doing just that. She had walked through the entire house looking for whatever was causing it. When she first noticed it, she was in the living room, happily reading an old childhood favorite of hers. Mia tried to ignore it at first, but after having to read the same page multiple times, she just c...

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“A GHOULISH Encounter” by Ebony Brinson

Submitted to Contest #119

As I'm making my way home from a late-night shift at the hell hole, constantly over-worked and underpaid, I take my usual shortcut down the dark alleyway, past the trash cans, the familiar junkies but wait. I slow my pace because I hear an unusual sound. First, the sound of dripping water combined with a savage mauling, wait-sucking, slurping sound as if an animal tearing through its prey ravenously. I stop dead in my tracks and see a woman with ghoulish-like eyes, dark and black. I was frozen, shocked, amazed, but also terrified. The Gho...

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“Boarder” by William Richards

Submitted to Contest #119

A sound wakes me from sleep and my eyes open, unseeing in the darkness. My stomach churns. I’m sure someone was crying? My ears strain for more, any further hint of sound that could act as a clue. But it’s quiet. Crying in itself is not that unusual around here. People cry all the time. After a bollocking from the duty teacher, it’s not unusual to cry yourself to sleep. But this whimper happened in the dead of night for no apparent reason. And it sounded like a girl’s cry. Which can’t be right. This is the boy’s floor.I listen hard but there...

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“Melissa's Dream” by Milton Cust

Submitted to Contest #119

MELISSA’S DREAM By Milton Cust Whisper, whisper, whisper, rustle, rustle, rustle. 13-year-old Melissa Harding was woken from her sound sleep by noises in her bedroom. At first, she just lay in her bed and tried to peer through the darkness of her room but when she saw no one and heard nothing she thought she was just imagining things and rolled over to go back to sleep. She was just drifting off when she heard something that made her come instantly awake. Her eyes flew open, and she propped herself up in bed. Whisper, whisp...

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“Dead Ringer” by Jude S. Walko

Submitted to Contest #119

Content warning: Mention of violence.It was just after two in the early morning hours of upcountry Esan Thailand. It was well known that Thais in this part of the country were early risers, especially those with the extra burden of being self-sustained farmers just to survive. Neung was no exception, but even he was usually asleep at these hours. A muffled and incessant pinging pierced the night air and had aroused him from a deep and peaceful slumber.Like all good Thais he had already done his nightly rituals before bed including evening pr...

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“Designated Mourner: The Team's Back Together” by Charlene 🧙‍♀️✨ Boyce

Submitted to Contest #119

It was a sound a bit like a plastic spatula scraping the sky, if the sky were filled with tinfoil seagulls who did not particularly want to be scraped, Jonathan had just gotten used to the stillness of the planet, but the biweekly delivery sound was impossible to develop immunity to. It lasted three minutes and 42 seconds precisely and then a parcel appeared in the air about waist height and plopped onto the sand. This box was larger than usual, and he struggled to cart it up the path to the cottage. After tripping over several pre...

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“Bone China” by Elizabeth Fenley

Submitted to Contest #119

The keening of the Banshee woke Niamh up for the third night in a row. She was the only one in the family who could hear it. Being a Sensitive usually runs in families, but it seemed she was an anomaly. She spent her days closely watching the faces of those around her to see who was the next to die. Were the charcoal circles etched under her mother’s faded green eyes simply fatigue? Was the set of her father’s prominent jaw typical stubbornness, or masculine masking of pain he felt was weakness, determined not to reveal? Surely her little si...

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“Unknown” by Michaela Askew

Submitted to Contest #119

Sirens sounded in the air halting the town in their tracks. The clouds in the sky rolled sheltering everyone from the sun. Panic didn’t set in right away but the continuous noise made everyone scared and wondering what to do next. What followed was chaos. 3 months Later. The street was blanketed by the midnight sky making it hard to see more than 6 feet in front of you. The petite young females eyes frantically moved side to side trying to sweep the space in front of her constantly watching for any movement. The sirens sounded agai...

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Start your story with an unusual sound being heard.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 41 stories

“The Intruder (Warning: Some parts contain graphic content).” by Greg Gillis

“I Know What I Heard” by Story Time

“Fear” by Zea MindWerl

“Eulogy for a Cracked Shell” by Sydney Atkin

“The Masters of Lamaze” by Gene Strother

“The Walls” by Emerson St.Laurent

“The Night the Whispers Started” by Sophie Smith

“The Search” by Dakota Nugent

“A GHOULISH Encounter” by Ebony Brinson

“Boarder” by William Richards

“Melissa's Dream” by Milton Cust

“Dead Ringer” by Jude S. Walko

“Designated Mourner: The Team's Back Together” by Charlene 🧙‍♀️✨ Boyce

“Bone China” by Elizabeth Fenley

“Unknown” by Michaela Askew

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a character saying “Listen, …”

Write a story inspired by a piece of music (without using any lyrics).

Write a story that involves eavesdropping.

Set your story in a silent house by the sea.

Contest #119

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

232

Contest entries

160

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: