Write a story about a monster trying to become more human. Or about a human trying to become more monstrous.

Posted in Thriller and Suspense on Sep 8, 2023

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✍️ 63 stories

“Vanish” by AnneMarie Miles

I tried to be gentle. I tried to come to you slowly, revealing myself in fragments under the growing dimness of dusk. I stepped ever so carefully into the downward cast of the yellow streetlamp’s sepia light, sending forth first a finger, then, a tentative but eager-to-caress hand. I moved so gently, so slowly that I felt the cloak of darkness removed from my face inch by inch, nose first, before there was no more hiding. I did this for you, as not to startle you, didn’t you see?I even smiled, those sparks of kindness yo...

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“Doctor D. and Mr. Hyde” by Mike Panasitti

You stood me up. Or at least Freud would’ve said you stood me up. Me, a former client forking over a check in the high triple digits every week hoping that I’d hear a different existential interpretation than my own, expecting that somehow your take on things would open my eyes to something new, like some kind of salubrious psilocybin trip. I decided to terminate therapy because you disclosed something you perhaps shouldn’t have. “I took ayahuasca in the Peruvian jungle, four years ago,” you confes...

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“Ginger Monsters” by Chris Campbell

The sound of plates smashing, furniture being upturned, and guttural, echoing roars, finally subsided as an uneasy peace drifted through the Skarion household, replacing the previous turmoil. It was a case of the calm coming after the storm. Standing around the dishevelled dining table in the storm’s wake, was Roger Skarion, his wife Barbara, Roger’s mother, Emily, and a very uncomfortable-looking seven-feet tall male creature of seemingly unknown origin, covered from head to toe in shaggy, matted ginger fur....

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“Modern Day Monsters” by Mary Bendickson

Modern Day Monsters How to build a modern day monster inspired by Mary Shelley: Believe misused power could destroy society. Believe in the Gods, here is a chain of them: Zeus: God of Sky, Weather and Fate. Call on him if questioning destiny. Aphrodite: Goddess of Love, Passion and Beauty. She will find love for the loveless. Poseidon: God of River, Seas and Earthquakes....

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“Elderakin” by Anthony Carello

Walking through the desolate landscape of Ruitina, Kurt Westin glanced over to his partner on this mission. His name was Alex, and he was a young cadet, freshly out of school. Kurt felt terrible for him for being sent on this mission, knowing that the kid did not know what was happening. The two arrived on this planet a few hours ago to investigate a report of strange sightings on and around Ruitina. Officially, this planet inhabited no form of life, but Kurt knew that was far from the truth. This planet used to be a lush para...

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“Like People” by Tori Lewis

I have watched him for many days now. From the edge of the woods, I watch him still, hidden from view by the shade of the trees. I have seen people come and go, arriving in their–what is that word I mean?--automobiles. There have been many people in his house. They come with…plates piled high with their food–cooked and bubbling. With wet faces, they tell him they are sorry for his loss. They call it a ...

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“The Grotesque” by Jonathan Page

My scaly flesh is hard as stone. A natural armor. I have always had a tough exterior. But I fear I have reached the point where I will petrify completely and be arrested in an eternal prison of stone if I do not cast off my armor before it is too late. I feel my soul, like a firefly trapped in a jar, buzzing about, and smashing against my concrete ribs—encased in a dark stone prison. I feel my essence suffocating and gasping as I become solid.Evil words echo from the flying buttresses and stained...

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“A Monster Of Apathy” by Sol Caine

I am a monster of apathy. A creature of habit and a purveyor of fantasy. A born dreamer, I forged my own way of the maverick. Unconventional. Thinking outside of the box. Without siblings, without a father, and without proper guidance, I have waded through the shallow waters of life, creating my own path and re-writing life’s logic to fit my own. An outcast from the normal practices of family life, I have always struggled to understand what normal is. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I don’t care about t...

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“Monster with Two Faces ” by Danie Nikole

T/W: Mentions of childhood sexual abuse, disordered eating, and addiction. Please read at your own discretion.I am not a monster.She tries to persuade me every time I see her. The problem is, she doesn’t know me like I know me. She doesn’t know I have two faces. One, an angelic face acceptable to society. It’s the one I show her and everyone else. The other face, is an unsettling one, with the coolness of its dead grey eyes, and the chill of its lifeless skin. I keep it locked inside the ...

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“How to Kill a Mockingbird” by Jimmy Creole

A narrow lake glints like a knife in the distance, wedged into dark, snow-dusted mountaintops flashed through with sheer rock faces. The road and its gravel shoulders snake upward, looping lazily through cloistered huddles of squat buildings, the town trickling down from the mountain like a little stream. Mabel stands before an old barn at its base, breathing into her scarf and braced against the bitter mountain air, ri...

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“Choose Life” by Jed Cope

The sun abandons a city brim full of life. This overcrowded and noisy place buzzes with an electric vitality that heats the pavement beneath my feet and shines bright lights through my eyes and into my brain. There was a time when this cocoon of hyperactivity enlivened me. But tonight I am tired. Tired of this life. My bones ache and once again I am sinking below the surface of humanity, my breath caught inside my chest,...

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“Hematites ” by Aly Magpie

Theodore blinked. "Up there?!" he craned his neck till it popped. "What are we, goats?! I'm not crawling there!" "You are," said Grigori, eyes on the steep slopes, clad in snow from the foot to the spear-like cusps, "have you dragged yourself here for nothing? Care to tell His Majesty you rode all the way to the Nebesk Pass to take a nice look at the scenery and bid it farewell?" "Care to tell His Ma...

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“devour” by Masha Kurbatova

The bar’s called The Bar, since local lawyers come a lot. Dim lights, wooden walls, a taxidermied longhorn’s head reaching bug-eyed from the door: this place tries for retro, but is much too polished. I perch on a barstool. My feet dangle a foot from the floor. My dress -- brown and boxy with bitty flowers -- is for babydolls. I feel like something small, sweet, and barely-baked: a blob of ...

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“Chance Meeting” by Paul McDermott

Chance Meeting A pair of tiny, gold-flecked orbs stared at him. The pupils narrowed, vertical feral slits unlike any Ryan had ever seen. He sensed alarm, even panic, and realised these emotions were not his own. They belonged to … whoever was watching. They resolved as the features of a perfect, delicate face: one which had no page or chapter in an...

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“To be human” by Eddie McKenzie

There was something so terribly, wonderfully different about them all, and he knew that he was not like them. He knew this in the same sort of way that one knew that the sun would rise the next day or that the worms would pick a skeleton clean, and so he did not question why it was that they were all so very different from him. The answer was perfectly simple after all, he was a monster and they were not. They were not born with the same sort of darkness to them that he was, the same desire to claw and tear and destroy until there was not...

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Write a story about a monster trying to become more human. Or about a human trying to become more monstrous.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 63 stories

“Vanish” by AnneMarie Miles

“Doctor D. and Mr. Hyde” by Mike Panasitti

“Ginger Monsters” by Chris Campbell

“Modern Day Monsters” by Mary Bendickson

“Elderakin” by Anthony Carello

“Like People” by Tori Lewis

“The Grotesque” by Jonathan Page

“A Monster Of Apathy” by Sol Caine

“Monster with Two Faces ” by Danie Nikole

“How to Kill a Mockingbird” by Jimmy Creole

“Choose Life” by Jed Cope

“Hematites ” by Aly Magpie

“devour” by Masha Kurbatova

“Chance Meeting” by Paul McDermott

“To be human” by Eddie McKenzie

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about someone trying to resist their darker impulses. Whether they succeed or fail is up to you.

Set your story in a haunted house.

You confront the monster you’ve spent many long years hunting. Except they’re not exactly what you thought they’d be…

Write a story about someone making a deal with the devil.

Contest #215

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

407

Contest entries

141

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Tired of MS Word?

Explore more writing prompt ideas: