Start your story with the words “Everything was ready for the ritual.”

Posted in Horror on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 48 stories

“Séance~ A Halloween Short Story” by Eric Diaz

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual Tara: ~Te expectamus (We look for thee) ~per umbra, (through the shadow) Jack: ~prodire in lucem, (come forth to light) ~de patibulo, (from the gallow) Brad: ~munus nostrum, (receive our gift) ~vitae sequi, (of life to follow) Together: ~ad mortem et sanctificationem. (back to death and the hallow) Tara started her segment of the enchantment, then myself, then Brad and finally completing the final line of the incantation together as one. A silence fell over th...

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“The Curse Of Bloody Mary” by Catherine Clay

Submitted to Contest #117

“Everything was ready for the Ritual,” I told myself, “Everything was finally, ready for the Ritual,” I smiled, with a glimmer of hope. I had a strong feeling that, this will be the calm before the storm. I can no longer live along the side of these entities haunting my house. .I should feel safe in my own home. Instead I’m scared to come home, especially if I know I’ll be alone. I often see a dark mass hovering in the corner of the room, when I’m alone. Something has grabbed my shoulder a few sparatic times and I don’t want to know wh...

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“The Beholder” by Taylor Boes

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual.The sacrifice was to be held precisely at 12:01am. Duchess said we were to silently pray during the first heavenly minute of the new year so as to show gratitude to Our Savior before asking for more. “We are to be humbled by our allowance to live and breathe His life,” she said, “and once absolved we may beg Him for another year’s blessing.” I think she said that. In reality, she told the Countess and the Countess told the Baroness, who then told the Dames who told the Ladies who told me. But I imagine tha...

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“Heir of Rite” by Angela O'Donnell

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual. The pregnant moon hung high over the trees casting a white glow over her bare skin. She shivered as she listened to the whispers of the cool breeze, she could have sworn she heard voices among their limbs. But who else would be out here, who else besides her and her Priestess.No one knew where they were, or that they even had left the castle. And surely no one think to look for her here, in the middle of the woods. A woman of her station would never be found out of her bedchambers after dark, or so it sho...

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“Share the Pain” by Roland Hacker

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual. A bizarre flame illuminated the otherwise cold, dark space with an eerie cobalt glow. Runes of meaning unknown to me were scrawled neatly in a complete circle around the hearth. I placed the stag’s skull into the center of the frigid, blue blaze; the eyes smouldered to life with sinister radiance almost immediately, while recesses of the antlers darkened with ominous blight. No amount of preparation could keep the shiver from my spine as doubt and fear inevitably crept into my conscience; my self-loathi...

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“I am Jinxer” by Sam Borgui

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual tonight. I still have all day to get my plans executed. I spent my entire year preparing for this night, and I never really see the fruits of my work. I do it because I know my powers and what they do. What I learned can never be enough to prove my kind even exists. I have learned very early in my life that what I can do is weird, undebatable, and yet simply accepted by all to be normal. I am a powerful Jinxer, yes, a Jinxer, if I see something or I learn about something via any of my senses and I like it ...

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“The Ritual” by Diana Crispino

Submitted to Contest #117

Content Warning: Blood, Violence Everything was ready for the ritual. Every little corner of the old mansion was decorated to be perfectly macabre. Megan’s slender fingers held the crystal chalice with grace, the dark red wine inside catching the candlelight and giving her the feeling that she was drinking real blood. She found the thought amusing as she blew the ink dry on the contract before her. Not a second of preparation had gone to waste planning the evening's events. They had set the stage for the main event in...

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“Ritual of Bones” by Marie Martello

Submitted to Contest #117

TW:Gore Everything was ready for the ritual. The Bandruí held her lover's bones high above her head. The newly slaughtered lamb lay silent within the circle. Her arms and chest painted with its blood, thick and wet, staining the bleach white bones and the loam underfoot. She twisted her mouth around the words, ancient and old, gripping them with her tongue and releasing them with a hiss. She refused to fail again. She may never be able to bring her lover, Nero, back to the land of the living but she could make sure to rescue him from the ...

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“Dead Julie” by Amy Wright

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual. Pam had brought French bread for the offering; she said the yeast represented life. Julie-- dead Julie, not Julie M, who was very much alive-- dead Julie brought the stinking carcass of a roadkilled woodchuck. It was flattened in the middle where a tire had gotten it. This was meant to represent the finality of death. Except, of course, for Julie. Julie died on a balmy, sunshine filled May day as spring waned and summer lifted its wings. She fell off a cliff in South Africa, her blue eyes wide and...

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“Projectile Invocation” by Ginger Crook

Submitted to Contest #117

TW: Cults, implied violence, vomit Everything was ready for the ritual. Motya, sitting in the front row, began to feel nauseous. “Tonight,” Father whispered from in front of them, “reach into your own chest. Wrap your fingers around your heart and sense its true desire.” In protest, Motya’s heart beat faster still. She could almost taste blood in her mouth, stinging her gums and tongue with its flavor. “Remember, brothers, our desire must be Christ and Christ alone,” Father continued, rising in volume. “We are weak, so weak, and we n...

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“Party Time” by James Foreman

Submitted to Contest #117

Party Time Everything was ready for the ritual. The decorations are up. The cake is on display. The ice cream chills. The cool October air stopped neither his daughter’s mother from renting a bounce house for her daughter’s 5th birthday, nor the children from their outside fun. Their laughter is heard throughout the neighborhood and the bright yellow inflated top of the bounce house stood taller than the small two bedroom duplex that rested beside it. Liza looked outside the kitchen window while her daughter played with her neighborhood fri...

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“BEST HALLOWEEN EVER” by Janis Van Meter

Submitted to Contest #117

BEST HALLOWEEN EVERBy: Janis Van MeterEverything was ready for the ritual. I had just finished setting up the extreme Halloween party that my friends and I had been planning for weeks. I’m Bridgette Ryan, aka, Egghead or Egg for short. As my nick name implies, I’m an over achiever and will be graduating for college in three years instead of the normal four. My Major is English with a Minor in Historical Studies of Ireland. Ireland has been a passion of mine since I could talk. My grandparents are Irish immigrant...

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“GOING DOWN THE BLACK STEPS” by Mara Masolini

Submitted to Contest #117

GOING DOWN THE BLACK STEPS It was midnight . The last toll of the high bell tower arrived , even if as clouded by the fog(drowned in the fog) when Thaddeus announced to his guests that everything had been set up perfectly for the ritual to which all of them, as his precious friends, would have the very special honor of participating. Thaddeus wore a wide black cloak, long up to his feet, under which the red of his tunic and the yellow of his trousers stood out, when he, standing...

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“The Sacrifice on All Hallows' Eve” by Dani Martin

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual. My body was rigid with fear. Terrified of the unknown, terrified of what would happen after everything ended. The path below my feet was littered with fallen leaves and wayward branches. Each footstep was heavy with apprehension. Waves of nausea flooded over me. I instinctively groped the violet amulet that hung around my neck. The previous evening was full of foreboding – stifling and obtrusive. We felt it, sitting there in my grandmother’s kitchen; no denying the future was coming an...

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“The Summoning” by Katie Lukes

Submitted to Contest #117

Everything was ready for the ritual. My supplies were lined up in the sand like soldiers prepared for battle, and my hands shook with nervous anticipation. I was in way over my head, but I had to maintain my facade — to make them believe I was who (or what) I claimed to be. I knew she was watching, and if I let my guard down now, I’d be the laughing stock of the whole school. My entire reputation was in the balance this Halloween night.Here goes nothing, I thought, as I closed my eyes and turned my face upward toward the full moon…Before I r...

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Start your story with the words “Everything was ready for the ritual.”

Submissions are closed

✍️ 48 stories

“Séance~ A Halloween Short Story” by Eric Diaz

“The Curse Of Bloody Mary” by Catherine Clay

“The Beholder” by Taylor Boes

“Heir of Rite” by Angela O'Donnell

“Share the Pain” by Roland Hacker

“I am Jinxer” by Sam Borgui

“The Ritual” by Diana Crispino

“Ritual of Bones” by Marie Martello

“Dead Julie” by Amy Wright

“Projectile Invocation” by Ginger Crook

“Party Time” by James Foreman

“BEST HALLOWEEN EVER” by Janis Van Meter

“GOING DOWN THE BLACK STEPS” by Mara Masolini

“The Sacrifice on All Hallows' Eve” by Dani Martin

“The Summoning” by Katie Lukes

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a character who uses a night where everyone’s in costume as cover for something sinister.

Write about a missing person nobody seems to know or remember.

Set your story at the boundary between two realms.

Write about someone whose busiest night of the year is Halloween.

Contest #117

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

226

Contest entries

153

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: