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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of horror short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

6580+ Horror Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. From hauntings and murderers to terrifying creatures from the deep, our collection of horror stories will have you breaking out in cold sweats. Take a look… if you dare.

Horror Short Stories – Page 3 of 439

A Miner Misstep

Submitted to Contest #303

The winter sun didn’t last long in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but that didn’t stop dare devils and adventure seekers from venturing into the vast wilderness in search of the next adrenaline rush. For WeTuber sensation Deddy Kiss, this was the ultimate high-stakes video opportunity. He screeched into the desolate, ramshackle motel on the brink of Copperhead Point, deep in the rugged heart of copper country, a place teetering on the edge of oblivion. He had poured over dusty old books and scoured obscure internet forums for months, pieci...

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Blank

Submitted to Contest #303

Contains Sensitive Content: Mentions and brief descriptions of Death"Forgiveness." They'd told her."Finding peace-""Moving forwards-"Distant murmurs about pulling through, grieving, surviving.Her fingers tighten on the black, cracked leather of the steering wheel. Knuckles white and strained.Her mind, carefully blank.A car whizzes by, a glint of morning sunlight flashing. She jumps, only slightly."-need to start moving forwa-"Her hands tighten once more then release. Reaching up with a slow, practiced calm, she flips down the sun visor. Nest...

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Someone's Monster

Submitted to Contest #302

Malachi faced a brick wall of the dead end alley and whimpered. Not the quiet escape he’d hoped for. As deadends went, it’s graffiti was a poetic, stuffed between a large vein riddled penis and an oblong feminine face with razor teeth in red, green, and white. The REAL thinking begins here This is the End. There are many like it, but this one is mine. We are entwined in a pathless dance. Who plays the tune? Who leads? Behind him approached the stranger who’d hounded his steps for blocks. “Would you look at that?” the man said, chain wrapped...

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The Testament

Submitted to Contest #303

The Testament The stars shone overhead as they always did in Palerow. Eternal night blanketed the land, and beneath its vast canopy, a small convoy of covered wagons—along with the weary horses that drew them—sat in a circle around a roaring fire.Such a thing was a luxury in the Wastes. Light drew attention from the strange creatures that roamed the land, and only the strong could wield it.So the Bonfire burned: either a bluff or a testament.Either way, life revolved around it.It revolved around the fire—and a young man with a guitar on hi...

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Eye-kea

Submitted to Contest #302

Emily’s house was shrouded by an eternal shadow. Early in the morning, when the sun peeked its golden rays over the horizon, it was there, a looming figure that blocked the light from gracing her large bedroom window. All the way through to when the sun slowly blinked into darkness on the other side of the house, it stood tall behind it, daring the sun to touch the house, to warm the carpet, but it never did. It was the Ikea across the street. Emily didn’t mind it. The sun’s rays were so feeble in winder they hardly warmed her skin and in su...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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A Quatrain from Hammadi

Submitted to Contest #302

I drift, many a time I drift, always, more usually, maybe, towards a, well the, thing I had in mind at the time when my search began. It is at times, many sometimes, though, when my drifting dimples along near an actual thing; not my direct end, the thing I had begun my search for, but that thing where the smack of the earth greets the cusp of downed heaven; but it is very brief, and I am only drifting besides, I have not even shaved my aim down to the thing I was searching for. Though I suppose it was only a word I wanted the meaning of. “T...

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Carol

Submitted to Contest #302

Carol Tuesday, November 26 Carol walked through the cupboard door. She looked at a therapist, shuffling papers in her office. Then she said, “Jane Sloan. Therapist for the last thirty years. Never married. No children. Kimberly is her sister, two years younger..” Carol looked for the sunlight to sleep in. She curled up onto the heated carpet. “It’s almost 3 and it’s…” Carol yawned. “Tuesday…Time for the Magical Martin minutes.” Jane ignored the narration from Carol. Then she heard the purring. Dr. Sloan looked at the clock. It was, in fact...

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Kingdom of things forgotten

Submitted to Contest #303

The kingdom of things forgottenSophie snatched the key to the portal, her jaw set. “Come on,” she urged her sisters, “you’re really going to let fear win?” They shook their heads, backing away like she’d just suggested jumping into a pit of snakes. “Suit yourselves,” she muttered, rolling her eyes.The portal wasn’t like the others, this one was a black spinning wheel etched with strange symbols, framed by twisted black branches. It pulsed with a cold, eerie light, like a mirror reflecting nothing but darkness. Without hesitation, Sophie step...

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The Infinite Library of Phaleron

Submitted to Contest #302

“I don't understand,” Jonathan whispered as he stared at his hands, his hands that had once been pristine and whole and full of bone and blood and skin, his hands that were now rapidly turning to paper and mulch in a facsimile of human form. “I did everything right, I checked the time.” He looked up at me with full horror, his eyes already losing their watery texture and turning to black pools of ink, “I checked the time,” he screamed through his paper throat, shredding it and sending letters dancing into the air. The noises that ripped and...

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The Interpreters Room

Submitted to Contest #302

I took a deep breath and stepped into the lobby of Reeview, a government facility sat at the centre of the city, it was a place so sterile it felt like a hospital rather than a modern office building. The air smelled faintly like a fruity air freshener mixed with old cigarette smoke. There were no windows except for the main entrance door. No furniture or decoration at all, just a low small reception desk and constant hum from overhead lights. I tried to steady my breathing before continuing on. This wasn’t like any assignment I’d taken befo...

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The Light in the Darkness: Tales from the Darkest Desert

Submitted to Contest #302

“Sometimes God sends angels down to earth to enact his will. They come disguised as regular folk like you and me, but they have been touched by His divine grace. These earth angels are meant to be our souls guiding light towards salvation while in this mortal coil. While mere strangers to us, earth angels wage a secret war between Heaven and Hell. Fer ya see, the Devil also sends his demons to tempt us. They come to us as false earth angles to make each of you stray from the Lord’s plan and give into sin. It is up to y’all to stand firm agai...

10 likes 5 comments 5
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Some Memories Remember Back

Submitted to Contest #303

Claire Monroe ran the audit loop for the third time before she let herself admit something felt wrong.The report should have been routine. A flagged Tier 3 anomaly: “Minor Emotional Inconsistency.” A child in a kitchen, aged six. Drops a toy drone, begins to cry. The system intervenes. A comfort burst deploys. The sadness resolves into curiosity. Thread concluded. Resolved.But something kept her watching.It wasn’t the child.It was the background.On the third pass, she paused the stream mid-frame and leaned forward.There - etched into the cor...

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Beneath the Stillness

Submitted to Contest #302

Jonah checked the clock. Just past 1:48 a.m.The store buzzed with the soft whine of flickering fluorescent lights. Cold, flat light spilled across shiny linoleum floors. Everything looked too neat, too scrubbed down—rows of snacks and drinks lining up like little soldiers. Jonah tugged his Astros cap lower and tried to shake off the tired feeling crawling over his skin.Outside, the fog pressed against the windows like it wanted in. Streetlights flickered through the mist, barely alive. The city looked abandoned. As if it had finally given up...

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THE BAD SAMARITAN

Submitted to Contest #302

It can be cold in London; damned cold. On such a night as this, fifty years ago, I was in the Limehouse district, down by the river, heavy fog wreathing everything in vagueness, mingling with the foul smoke of coal fires drifting past to make a choking, almost unbreathable atmosphere. I had my scarf wrapped around my face but it had little effect. I began to cough. I needed to get away from this poverty-stricken area of the City. I tried to find a hansom cab, but none were likely to come into this area. Haggard prostitutes lined the damp str...

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Caught Dead Stop

Submitted to Contest #302

- Contains mild surreal horror elementsWatching the weather out of a screen is one thing, but being caught in the midst of a thunderstorm is a whole different situation.That’s not even the main cause for concern, no, it’s the act of being caught in a thunderstorm while standing on the side of a highway all because of a flat tire in one of the most populated cities in America.I run my fingers down my wet face.Gazing upon a disappointing tire, I grit my teeth.I don’t even have a second tire. Most of my tools are back home in New Jersey; this w...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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