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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

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

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 187 stories

“Microcosm” by Vincent Guillemin

Submitted to Contest #96

Sweat glistens on the man’s face as he walks past the green sign at the city limits. Resguardo is a one-street city in the middle of red dirt and strangely shaped rocks chiseling the horizons. The interstate running through it is bordered by a few shops, two-story buildings and a gas station with a waving steel cow boy seeing you to the city exit. On windy days, the smiling sign, riddled with bullet holes, creaks as non-stopping vehicle whooshes by its flimsy frame. From its vantage point, the cow boy cannot see the sunburnt and grimy f...

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“The Arrival” by Violetta Venezia

Submitted to Contest #96

"Close the windows. Quickly!" I quickly shut and locked the windows. My brother, Attia, pulled the blinds and locked the doors. My mother, Natiro, was running around the house gathering our very little valuables. We didn't have many things or much money. We lived in a small 2 bedroom crumbling cottage in the small village on Akinqe. Once a year, we had a special guest arriving in the village. We called this day The Arrival. I ran up the stairs and grabbed my little sister. Her name is Hednira and I had to grab her since she was only three ye...

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“Ophelia” by Elizabeth D

Submitted to Contest #96

Elena added the last book to the display window and allowed her attention to drift out the large glass panes. The sky sparkled a glorious gemlike blue. Her brows crinkled as she spotted an unfamiliar young girl walking down the street.“Do you recognize her?” Elena asked Frieda, the owner of Hamish’s Bookstore. Frieda’s gray hair was perched in a lopsided bun and a beige cardigan hung on her slim frame.Frieda shrugged. “I’ve never seen her.”They lived in a small town, the kind of place where everyone knew everybody. Elena watched the small gi...

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“Tall Dark Stranger on Pawley's Island” by Jean Davis

Submitted to Contest #96

The wind was blowing as I was bringing in my boat, and there I saw him. I know all the people on Pawley’s Island but never saw him before. He was tall dark and handsome. He was dressed in a long shirt with pants to match and had papers in his hand. I thought to myself, “Not Jehova’s Witnesses again.” One thing you can say about them is they are persistent. He started approaching me and asked me did I know Jesus. I told him that I went to the cute little Methodist Church across the bay. I told him that we have all kinds of programs, something...

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“The Mundane Boy” by Ananya Kabir

Submitted to Contest #96

The town was set on the gentle slope of a hill, facing the east. The nearest airport was five miles away, and so it was that he had to fly here on a carpet, trying hard not to pass out. Ian slowed when he saw the little speck of brown that indicated the town, and tilted his carpet. A strong gale told him that he had messed up something somewhere, so he straightened up, eyes stretched wide against the wind. He tried once more, and this time he darted down towards the sloping earth.  Benjamin was waiting for him at the landing post, tru...

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“Mysterious Stranger ” by CBB Jayda

Submitted to Contest #96

Trigger warning: Violence I live in a town where the old know the young. Where the kids make up stories of the old man with the creepy house. Where you can't even walk down the street without someone knowing you. Everyone knows you. So when someone new comes to town everybody knows. They were the talk of the town. People rarely come so when he came we knew something was up. This man stayed in our town for one month, and in that one month, he totally destroyed this town. We went from a self-contained, innocent, and happy small town ...

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“The Rightful King ” by Conner Bowen

Submitted to Contest #96

The boat slowly drifted into the port as a cold mist blew through the faces of everyone on board. The breeze shuffled everyone's well-kept hair and frivolous clothing. The mast rocked and creaked as the ship came to a forceful stop next to the wooden docks. Grabbing my one brown suitcase and nothing else, I took the first step onto the new land. My legs shook a bit as I had not yet rid myself of my sea legs but regardless the sight was tremendous. The city even in the day stood out against everything with its white marble, pillared buildings...

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“The Aparichithan” by Mohammed Sahir

Submitted to Contest #96

Padiyam was a dying town, with no more than its 1205 residents making their way through their depressing life. Electricity was cut off from the city supply for more than 29 years, it wasn't like they had a problem with that, the people of Padiyam weren't new to power outages for long periods of time. But this time it was permanent. They didn't blame the cities though, they knew cities like Tirur and Tanur had died long ago, no communication, no news, no transportation. They just learned to live without them. But a new aparichitha...

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“Fey and the Blood-Red Vials ” by Keisha Ishino

Submitted to Contest #96

January 12, sometime around 11:34 am A taxi -yellow with a monochrome checkered line plastered across the side of the thing- hunkered into a sudden halt when it reached the borderline that separated the outside world from Myrefall. It wasn't tangible, the border, but it existed. One step or leap across the borderline came with a shiver followed by the eruption of goosebumps; that was when you knew you were there. The tires of the taxi screeched a little as it crossed the invisible border and rolled into a halt. The townsfolk watched with the...

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“The Abbey Hall Visitor” by Ella Carter

Submitted to Contest #96

People call me nosy but I call myself, curious. And, like fuel to attend to my curiosity, the new visitor in town was my neighbour and every afternoon since his entry, my high tea is always crowded with dim and stupid ladies who constantly inquire about the activities of my neighbour. I am the only one who is close to his quarters because after the death of my husband, I moved myself to a quieter place, where there were no inhabitants except for flora and fauna. An inanimate thing in that part was another mansion, Abbey Hall, its pillars cov...

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“The Death-Dealer” by Mikaela Lewis

Submitted to Contest #96

The stranger seemed to float down the street. Broad shoulders and a tall physique gave him away as a man who was not born on this side of the continent. He was not from this town.His dark cloak billowed behind him like the night, sweeping its soiled hem along the ground.I watched him through the rain-spattered window, curiously, as did the other patrons in the tavern. When he crossed the street toward the pub, we collectively returned to our drinks or meals. A soft rustling of conversation struck up as the door slammed open in the wind, lett...

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“The Last Day Of Sunlight” by G S

Submitted to Contest #96

The sweet smell of the blossoming flowers fills the warm May breeze. Or at least that's what I heard.  Funny how less than a year ago, I had done the same thing every day of my life. I woke up in a small apartment, I went to a school that my mother could barely afford and I worked a job with a crappy boss. Seven months. That was the last time I saw the sun. That was the last time I saw another person; and here's how it happened. The small grey Volkswagen pulled into the parking lot of the cafe. In this town, there is only one cafe. One ...

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“The yellow overcoat” by Jenny Benfield

Submitted to Contest #96

If you looked at a map it would take you two hours to locate Scree. Small was not the word you use to describe the town, and neither was quaint. Perhaps desolate and lonely would be more fitting. Sat in the foothills of the Scottish Highlands, Scree was the home for a population of 2500. The High street ran from the bridge over the River Tee, directly north to the top of Scree Hill, where the local police station watched over the empty store fronts and abandoned cars. To the East of the High street, residential homes littered the edges ...

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“*Attack in the Mountains*” by Ghost - - Writer

Submitted to Contest #96

The gemstone in the sky shone a lovely milky white appearance. The wind howled as it traveled throughout the peaks. Everything stood calm. Below a leaning pine stood a treen cottage secluded behind the brambles. A family relaxed at the table. The eldest daughter, Serria, sat near the window. Rather than listening to the discussion of her family. She viewed the forest. Her family preferred to be solitary. Not be included in anything that went on in the community nearby. People knew they lived somewhere near here and didn't trust them since th...

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“Pearl fever” by Paolo Henriquez

Submitted to Contest #96

I do not carry a memory, lucid or truthful, of the moment I arrived at this place. Nor of the first time or the ones that came after. And if I had one, it would not be such a prodigious one. Perhaps it was forgetfulness, perhaps it was disinterest; but it slipped away never to return. Thus, the only remembrance that I embrace is a deceit. One that I repeat until it is left aside that, with fatuous mood, only I pretend to cram with grandiloquence this common infamy I am about to tell. It was long ago, in night tainted with dreams. On a shi...

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