Start your story with an unusual sound being heard.

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 41 stories

“Bubbles and Wind Chimes” by Evelyn Griffith

Submitted to Contest #119

The sound was like far off wind chimes, but unnatural and unfamiliar. It was like someone had taken the time to make the individual chimes clink together in such a way that only sung minor keys. Something told her it was going to be more trouble than it was worth to figure out who, or what, was making it. Still, she forced herself to pick her feet up and place them in front of her.It was her duty.The hallway was barren. There were no people milling about in clothes that were much too tight and revealing, about to head to parties. There were ...

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“The Treadmill on the Beach ” by Chris Riffle

Submitted to Contest #119

Tom dreams. He won’t remember the first dream or the second one. The third may come through only in flashes. The fourth and fifth will meld themselves together to create something odd and mystifying. In this narrative nightmare of a dream Tom is running a marathon, right foot forward, left foot forward, sweat dripping, in need of a cup of water. Only he’s not running, is he? He’s lying on the beach, a woman and a child playing next to him in the sand. He’s reading a book of poems and stories by Edgar Allen Poe. A...

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“Spiders Creep” by Tanya Humphreys

Submitted to Contest #119

The girl on the deck in the floppy sun hat was afraid to open her eyes. She’d been awakened by a sound. One that had followed her from her nightmare. The noise was a clicking, skuttling sound, not unlike tap-dancing feet, but far more sinister. Breathe held, Weechoo Soo opened her eyes slowly while peaking from her splayed fingers…the enormous spiders were still there, only three feet closer than when she’d first seen them. They surrounded her on three sides, at her back was the glass patio door. ‘Oh, fuck me.’ Sh...

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“Clouds” by Austin Stevens

Submitted to Contest #119

Clouds By: Austin J. Stevens It was the third time this week that he heard the sound. The strange “whirring” noise woke him from sleep again and he was finally fed up with it. Jason Andrews, a slacking college student decided that this time, he wouldn’t wake his room mates. “They would just think I was crazy again.” He thought to himself as he threw back the sheets and sprung from his bed. Exiting the small room and heading down the hall he thought of all the possible explanations that had cr...

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“The Rich and the Dead” by Alex Eatmon

Submitted to Contest #119

There was a sound from the attic next door. It was an indescribably unusual sound. I stared at the neighbor’s door. I heard the sound again. It was a loud sound. So I tip-toed to the door, not fast, but steadily.AAAW, Bang, Bang, AAAW . . . aaaw . . . u. Then I heard no more noise.5 minutes later I see a big box of ice and a man walk out the house. He was wearing skinny jeans, Adidas socks, and an Adidas shirt. On top of that he had a coat, it was a fancy coat with gold stripes but rain proof. It was an old looking leather coat, with modern ...

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“SAVING A CHILD” by Micki Berthelot Morency

Submitted to Contest #119

SAVING A CHILD The sputtering sound intrudes into Marie’s semi-alertness, breaking the silence of the early morning. Soon it becomes a rattling cough, like a last breath choking on dust. This can’t be one of the children. Marie doesn’t have enough syrup to make this go away. She sits on the twin bed wedged between her makeshift desk and the mud wall and pulls the earplugs out. The noise shifts along with the gears. In her old life, this would be a car, but she hasn’t seen one in t...

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“foot steps...” by Robert Wilson

Submitted to Contest #119

Furtive eyes searched the entrance to the distant black alley. Sure of total solitude the dark figure darted across the street to the welcome maw of it’s shadows. Quietly the hunched form of a man moved deeper into the darkness. After a short while he slowed his pace and listened to te noises around him. A silence broken only by an occasional drip of water from some unseen pipe or the scurrying of the padded feet of one of the rats in the darkness. A noise he ...

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“THE NIGHT THAT” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #119

THE NIGHT THAT She was going up and down the track, waiting for the train, when she heard what more than a sound sounded rather as a cannon shot . A cannon shot being fired in a very high place, which was ( seemed to be) very above….of her head, aven far above the tracks, the trains, the station. As soon as she heard that rumble, loud but dull ( deaf), it was instinctive for Angie to look up, to look at the sky. Since that very powerful , and yet even dull...

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“A Far Distant Sound” by John Steckley

Submitted to Contest #119

It had moved mountains. That is what you could truly say about the earthquake that had caused the unclimbable ring of giants to shift the position that they had held for a few thousand years. As a geologist who had done work in the area when he had been a graduate student, Frank could not be more pleased by the acceptance of his research proposal to investigate the effects of the motion that had disturbed their long rest. What would make it especially interesting was that the mountain chain had been in a tight circle, now with...

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“Cacophony, New York City, Three AM” by Kieran Quinn

Submitted to Contest #119

The first time she heard the noise, it was 3:18 in the morning. She’d been awake, sweating under the too-warm duvet until around three, and had just sunk into the first few moments of heavy welcome sleep, when the sound came down from the ceiling and torpedoed the early stages of her REM cycle. Maureeeeeeen. A man’s voice, shaky and thin, yet piercingly loud.Maureeeeen! Maureeeeeeeen! Who the hell was Maureen? She’d met their upstairs neighbor, an older woman named Barbara with a severe silver bob and a hairless cat. Barbara s...

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“Rumble ” by Amanda White

Submitted to Contest #119

“What was that unusual sound,” I said as me and my best friend Chloe were walking down this ally way the same ally way we have been taking ever since we were kids. The trees sway back and forth and the dead leaves dropping to the ground as we step on them, they make a crunching noise than wind noises push our hair from side to side or back but the noise that I heard was not anything in nature even Chloe jumped, and it was hard to get her scared. “Maybe it was an animal Beth” I then stared at her “isn’t that what people say in horror films an...

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“A Paper Bag Full of CDs” by Mandi Elkins Hutchins

Submitted to Contest #119

skchrlskchrlskchrlskchrlskchrl … We don’t have a paper bag full of CDs…. skchrlskchrlskchrlskchrlskchrl … That was the sound I heard, though, from the tiny bathroom — arms overhead, curling iron in hair, Sunday morning light reflecting back at me from the small mirror. Even if we DID have a paper bag full of CDs (which we DO NOT) WHY would Michael be rifling through them at 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning. He’s sound asleep… skchrlskchrlskchrlskchrlskchrl skchrlskchrlskchrlskchrlskchrl skchrlskchrlskchrlskchrlskchrl ...

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“Fish and KIds ” by Karen Lethlean

Submitted to Contest #119

Fish and kids. A knife slid through flesh, pulling and tugging with a slight squeal. Mala laughs remembering how she showed summer visitors, throwing out a line, lazing over pier fences, how to gut fish. They might waste hours, throwing more than a dozen under-sized tiddlers back. If insufficient bait they’d try bits of green weed. Wouldn’t work. When a legal creature extricated themselves from the deep finally, waves of celebration spread among spectators and fishers. Only to describe such accidental engagements with timid hooks, fish com...

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“The Dancing Doves” by Mike North

Submitted to Contest #119

The dancing feet of the doves made an unusual and rather loud noise on the tin roof and any chance of sleep was out of the question. But it didn't really matter, because at seven-thirty the desert sun was already making its presence felt in the rapidly warming trailer and the idea of lying in bed was not a comfortable option. So the courting ritual of the white doves was tolerated.The metal bed frame gave out a weary sigh of relief as he slowly emerged from his disturbed night's sleep. His boxer shorts, strewn across the small space next to ...

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“An Amusing Story from a Funeral ” by Daylin Leach

Submitted to Contest #119

SSCHWOOOAAAAAHHEEEE!!! The Brutal, insistent, incomparable (and apparently unspellable) sound of amplification feedback. It is impossible to prepare oneself for it and equally impossible to hear it without wincing. It portends a more calming communication to follow, but is not itself calming in that it also foretells that whoever is trying to speak is going to continue wrestling with the microphone until they subdue it, which suggests the ominous promise of more unnatural shrieking. This is how the funeral began. With the all-too-ear...

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Start your story with an unusual sound being heard.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 41 stories

“Bubbles and Wind Chimes” by Evelyn Griffith

“The Treadmill on the Beach ” by Chris Riffle

“Spiders Creep” by Tanya Humphreys

“Clouds” by Austin Stevens

“The Rich and the Dead” by Alex Eatmon

“SAVING A CHILD” by Micki Berthelot Morency

“foot steps...” by Robert Wilson

“THE NIGHT THAT” by Mara Masolini

“A Far Distant Sound” by John Steckley

“Cacophony, New York City, Three AM” by Kieran Quinn

“Rumble ” by Amanda White

“A Paper Bag Full of CDs” by Mandi Elkins Hutchins

“Fish and KIds ” by Karen Lethlean

“The Dancing Doves” by Mike North

“An Amusing Story from a Funeral ” by Daylin Leach

🌟 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 🏆

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