Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog

Menu

✕
CONNECT
Editing Design Marketing Publicity Ghostwriting Websites
BLOG
Success Stories
APPS
TOOLS
Book Promotion Sites Book Review Blogs Booktube Channel Guide Book Title Generator Character Name Generator Independent Publishers Literary Agents Literary Magazines Pen Name Generator Plot Generator Publishers Directory Short Story Ideas Writing Contests Writing Exercises Writing Scholarships
ABOUT
About Reedsy Terms Privacy

CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write about a mysterious figure in one’s neighborhood.

Posted in Horror on Oct 26, 2022

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 205 stories

“Doomed” by Abbey Long

Submitted to Contest #102

         “And that’s when I told him that he was a good-for-nothing boy who wouldn’t ever amount to anything, and I dumped him five seconds later.” Lili Pesco admits to her best friend, Sarah Musgrave, as they munch their way through everything in sight. Sarah’s eyes are wide, staring up at Lili’s in awe, as she finishes her story.            “Wow,” Sarah breathes. “I wish I had your confidence; I could never have done that.”   &nb...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Man In The Rain” by Akshay Rajmohan

Submitted to Contest #102

"Mom! Why did you have to drag me to this backwater place? I wanna go to a college in a city, not some town on the border of the country," Jane cried out in indignation as she carried her stuff inside her new house, which looked quite cozy and small compared to her old house. Still, she was unhappy with her new place since there were no places of entertainment or malls where she could enjoy on her own. "Jane, be mature. You are already eighteen years old. So, as a young lady, you should learn to adapt to situations like these. It's also ...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Sisters Over the Hedge” by Phillip Marvin

Submitted to Contest #102

Over the mile-deep hedges with their squared sides, under the sun as orange as the same-named fruits in our Caribbean market, behind the never-divided white shades, lived two girls from another world, or at least in my young mind, I behaved as if they were. We grew under that rich island sun. The almost oppressive heat with sea salt so thick on warm winds you tasted hints of it with each long breath, though it never did more than tell you it was there in whispers and touches. Most days in those bright rays, my brother and I walked in knee-hi...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Shift/Change” by Alisa Burdick

Submitted to Contest #102

-Trigger warning: VIOLENCE- "It's been a year since Gen died, Low. Why are you here tonight? I'd thought you would have called in sick." "Gen wouldn't have wanted me to shirk my responsibility, Abs." I worked at the Moonlight Diner in Crystal Springs. Third shift in this small town never ceased to amaze me. Five bars and this place was the only dive open after bar close. I hated the drunk grabby guys who came in every night. Geneva, my older sister, would always be here with me. She died last year. Cancer sucks. I remember one night she talk...

0 comments 0
Read story

“On the corner of Heather and Larkspur Ave” by __Achor __

Submitted to Contest #102

I twisted my head upward, looking at the stars stuck in the sky. It was an eerie evening, one you could picture being in some horror movie with screaming and chainsaws and shit. Only a few street lamps were lit, and everyone I knew was either blacked out in their beds, or the same in someone else’s. Not worrying about nothing, well, nothing other than the job they all forget they had. Most people, don’t typically like the night. As a group, people have always skipped right over it, like a rock over a pond. I’ve wondered why for so long. But ...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Where did Mr. Crestwell Come From ” by George Georgerfrost@gmail.com

Submitted to Contest #102

Where did Owen Crestwell come from?  Besides being an enigma, he was a complete recluse who lived in the old Tanner house where there was a horrible murder twenty years before I was born.  We were standing in the gymnasium waiting for Mr. Penrod to show up to begin PE class at Hester Hayden Middle School.  Huddled together we were discussing his sudden appearance in Willett Grove, Kansas.   My name is Horace Butler and I’ve lived in this one-horse town my entire life.  Up until now, this was the dullest place o...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Plastic Field” by Robert Ribbern

Submitted to Contest #102

Nights have been hard for me as of late. As my eyes closed, a few moments later it’ll buckle right on up, wide awake, such is a curse of growing older. I have been living in this town ever since I can remember, too long some might say. The longer you stay in a place, they said, the more you’ll get used to it, understand it. But I reckon, stay too long and the less and less you understand. I remember the summer of ‘45, back when the town was less crowded, back when I could make sense of everything and all. Used to love running around by the c...

2 comments 2
Read story

“The Neighbor” by M H Tucker

Submitted to Contest #102

Tyrone Hayes was a man that most of the people in our neighborhood didn’t see. It wasn’t because he refused to leave the house, the man practically lived outside, he just never got noticed. In the same way that you pass the tree on the corner while you’re walking your dog, you would pass Mister Hayes. He was quiet about your passing, maybe rustling a newspaper or snipping at a bush with a pair of shears, and that was what made him so invisible. The man in the powder blue house simply… was. Once in a while you would find a car in his drivew...

0 comments 0
Read story

“An Echo of a Man” by Kazumi Namikaze

Submitted to Contest #102

Daddy said he came when the earth was barren in winter and left only when he determined that Spring had come in his own world. Mr. Helman was a strange man for the simple folks of Brook's Creek. He was often seen peeping out his window into the small park filled with children who squeals seemed to always call him like a siren. He placed a tension among the community, one so thick even the black smith's prime axe couldn't cut through. He never really got along with his neighbors, Daddy said it was because they could sense the aura he gave o...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Sam Nichols' Gift” by Ryan Middleton

Submitted to Contest #102

As a kid, I never thought we were poor; we just didn’t have much. I was usually happy with my few possessions anyways. I enhanced the rest with my imagination. THAT was my greatest and most favorite possession, as it filled my free time with much entertainment. I would ride my imaginary red tricycle up and down the road, and meet my imaginary animal friends. Some were ugly and some were cute, but they all liked me.For my first few years of existence, I could not understand why my human friends were not satisfied with anything they had. They ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Gossip Train” by Samantha Daleo

Submitted to Contest #102

Olivia sat, barely awake, watching her cartoons. It was early and she was nervous about starting the seventh grade. Her childhood cartoons were making her giggle, as always, and the banana pancakes her mom made felt like a familiar warm hug. She was almost feeling brave enough to conquer her fears until her mom, yapping away on the phone, turned the volume down on the TV, because she couldn’t hear her gossip well enough. Now Olivia was left alone with her own thoughts, and all of her fears of her first day came rushing back. What if she di...

1 comment 1
Read story

“Two Stories Down” by Elizabeth Maxson

Submitted to Contest #102

“Boo Radley?”“Too isolated.”“Norman Bates?”“Too crazy.”“Miss Haversham?”“Too vengeful.”“Faulkner’s Emily?”“Wasn’t she a necrophiliac?”“Depends on your reading of the last scene in the attic.”“Then no.”“Gollum…the Grinch…Yoda…Willy Wonka?” My frustrations were starting to sarcastically seep into my responses. I had been thinking for about twenty minutes, but I couldn’t come up with a comparison to help Mira help identify the mysterious recluse who had moved in to the apartment below hers.”“Dina.” Mira’s agitation was palpable. She first ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Witch” by Penny Polendina

Submitted to Contest #102

     Bathed in light, glory, and glamor, the residents of Beacon Street were all extremely gifted and special in their own ways.      There were twenty-four houses in total on Beacon Street. Despite having similar layouts, each and every one of the houses were decorated and customized uniquely to their owner’s delight. Some had stainless white brick walls, while others were painted neon pinks and greens and even rainbow.       The wide pallet of colors on the...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The House on the Corner” by Barbara Burgess

Submitted to Contest #102

The house on the corner was not always bright buttercup yellow. Once there were just plain red bricks. Then someone put up cladding and sprayed it grey.During the time I lived on the street, the occupier of the house on the corner, a tall slim man in his early forties, began to cover the outside walls with bright buttercup yellow paint.I say began, because the tall slim man took some time, and bits right at the top in the eves were left grey. The tall, slim man had a long ladder and reached out with the paintbrush as far as he could manage. ...

0 comments 0
Read story

“No One Wants To Go New Jersey” by Judge Santiago Burdon

Submitted to Contest #102

No One Wants To Go To New Jersey It was an unusually warm day for October in Boston. The leaves on the Oak, the Elm, the Maple,  as well as all the others, had   already changed  color, signaling the end of summer. The pleasant weather made it difficult to believe Autumn had already arrived. It was an early Sunday afternoon as  Father Murphy having  just finished Mass was on the church steps bidding a good day to members of the congregation as they exited.  Suddenly, Sean McLaughlin came running up the steps i...

7 comments 7
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Start your story with a metaphor about human nature.

Fiction – 109 stories

Frame your story as an adult recalling the events of their childhood.

Adults – 244 stories

Write about a character with an unassailable moral compass.

Character – 34 stories

Write a story about someone losing faith in an institution.

Angst – 120 stories

Contest #102

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: To Kill a Mockingbird

$50

Prize money

712

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jul 16, 2021 EST

Won by Shane Ransom 🏆

Title: Favorites

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

NEW VIDEO COURSE 🎉

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

Explore more writing prompt ideas:

Adults Writing Prompts ⭢

Adventure Writing Prompts ⭢

Angst Writing Prompts ⭢

Character Writing Prompts ⭢

Christmas Writing Prompts ⭢

Dark Writing Prompts ⭢

Dialogue Writing Prompts ⭢

Dramatic Writing Prompts ⭢

Dystopian Writing Prompts ⭢

Fall Writing Prompts ⭢

Fantasy Writing Prompts ⭢

Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Fluff Writing Prompts ⭢

Funny Writing Prompts ⭢

Halloween Writing Prompts ⭢

High School Writing Prompts ⭢

Historical Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Holiday Writing Prompts ⭢

Horror Writing Prompts ⭢

Kids Writing Prompts ⭢

Middle School Writing Prompts ⭢

Mystery Writing Prompts ⭢

Narrative Writing Prompts ⭢

Nonfiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Novel Writing Prompts ⭢

Poetry Writing Prompts ⭢

Romance Writing Prompts ⭢

Sad Writing Prompts ⭢

Science Fiction Writing Prompts ⭢

Short Story Writing Prompts ⭢

Spring Writing Prompts ⭢

Summer Writing Prompts ⭢

Teens Writing Prompts ⭢

Thanksgiving Writing Prompts ⭢

Thriller and Suspense Writing Prompts ⭢

Valentine's Day Writing Prompts ⭢

Vampire Writing Prompts ⭢

Winter Writing Prompts ⭢