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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.

6600+ 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 311 of 440

Beach Party

Submitted to Contest #104

“Are you coming tonight?” Kristi asks me. She is sitting on my bed with one leg folded up under her and the other one hanging over the edge of my bed, swinging back and forth.“Probably not,” I reply.“Come on, Megan! It’s the Fourth of July! We’re going to have a bonfire on the beach and watch the fireworks.”“Mom and I watch the fireworks every year from our porch.” They shoot them off from the sports complex near downtown, so you have a good view of them just about anywhere you happen to be in the town.“But it’s a beach party. You don’t want...

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Don't rest in peace

Submitted to Contest #104

Late night on a Saturday, huddled in blankets, lights out. A warm cup of coffee on the table, the television blasting. It rains outside, the soothing click clack click clack of the raindrops hitting the skylight soothes me. My phone rings, disrupting my peace. "Heyyyyy," Jayla says, slurring her words. "I'm not coming." "Hahahahahaha- hey! Mark! Come say hi to Cassidy!" "Jay, no. Don't you dare bring Mark into this!" "Hey sister," Mark says, also slurring his words. "Don't come home too late," I say, rolling my eyes and flicking through chan...

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ABYSS'S PARADE

Submitted to Contest #104

I regained consciousness in a coffin of cedar, the timeless scentbarely becalming my horrendous sense of claustrophobia. And then, rage; for it was apparent that some doctor had a crude sense of jest. Perhaps it was on purpose that I was entombed whilst living, yet I was not an ill mannered fellow and had few antagonists. These thoughts however, were beyond pointless. Moving my arms and legs, I ascertained that nothing was permanently damaged, though there was a feeling of-well from what I've only studied (until now, that is)-the feeling of ...

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A Dead Man Walking

Submitted to Contest #103

Despite many things changing in the past two years, one thing always remained the same; Liam’s breakfast. Tina’s Toast & Treats was his wife’s favorite place to eat.  Tina’s was a quaint little diner that Tina also ran a bakery out of.  This made it perfect for any time of day.  When Liam finally got the balls to ask Gina out on a date, he picked a random place in town to get some breakfast.  It just so happened that he picked right.  Gina would tease him that he must’ve been a stalker to know that was her favor...

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Astor House

Submitted to Contest #103

The walls have eyes.Planks of uneven pine wood line the halls of this old house, and even through my half-lidded, obscured night vision, I can tell that these faces I see in the knots of the walls are anything but welcoming. I roll onto my stomach and cough thickly, wincing as I keep my gaze on the eyes. They smile, they leer, because they know that between the cracks and ridges, my blood paints the empty room. And they also know, in some twisted way, that I will realize this in about another thirty seconds.I wake as I always do – to my...

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The Nightmare Convergence

Submitted to Contest #103

TW: violence Nathan Davis stood alone at the corner of Acorn and Lake streets looking up at the building that loomed over the block around it. The house had a light grey brick exterior with a wide bay window that overlooked the street, a two-car garage, fronted with an immaculately cut lawn, and a flower garden that could have been on the front of a home and garden magazine. It looked identical to the dozens of other McMansions that Nathan had passed on his ride through the windy streets, but a darkness seemed to hover over this particular h...

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The Curious Case of Eliza MacDougall

Shortlisted for Contest #103 ⭐️

Eliza MacDougall is hearing voices.She tells her father, over breakfast one morning. “There’s an invisible woman talking at me.” “To, you, dear,” her father corrects absently, as he butters her toast, “talking to,” and they speak no more of it.She tries to tell her mother the same, peeking her head around the doorway of her study, where her mother sits on the rug covered floor, surrounded by textbooks. Her mother does not turn her head and simply shooes her away with her notetaking hand.She does scribble a reminder, somewhere in the mar...

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I'm Coming For You!

Submitted to Contest #103

Hands in pain and sweat, covered in faded black from hours of writing. Eyes spasming, dreary, and light-red, stomach-churning saying, “Please feed me.” Body sniff and trapped by the design of the chair. Face filled with sebum and drops of tears poured on the scrap sheets of paper. Storms beating against the house, the wind pushing and pursing for some kind of damage to be seen on the house. Showers scattered, heavy and cold from the base of the clouds. War in the skies between the moon and the storm clouds. The moon fighting to have a chance...

15 likes 7 comments 7
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The Introverted Magician

Submitted to Contest #104

Rain droplets covered his bedroom window; some rolled down the glass quickly, while some didn't move at all. Sinclair viewed the distorted world beyond those tiny beads of water and wondered how people could be so stupid not to see his deceptions and to thereby not witness the true evil that lurked inside of his soul. The Eisenhauer silver dollar rolled over his knuckles quickly and effortlessly; around and around it went, under his hand and over his hand. Sinclair grinned. He had perfected it so well that he did it without even thinking. He...

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What's Wrong with my Wife?

Submitted to Contest #103

It’s midnight in Mexico and I can’t be sure, but I think my wife just tried to kill me. We’ve been married only three days and I haven’t figured out her quirks yet. Still, I am very much afraid of my wife. Her name is Abigail. It was very recently that I realized her name is terrifying and I hate it. We met in school while I was studying painting and she was finishing medical school. Abigail specialized in neurology and my work consisted of paintings of old people eating various pastas. She pioneered a new procedure for removing brain tumor...

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"3 A.M."

Submitted to Contest #104

"I'm never going out with you again" Sara said. 'You really scared the shit out of me'. Danny didnt apologize, he never did though. Danny was prone to this type of shit. Haunted locations, graveyards, the typical stuff "thrill seekers" get into. Sara was the opposite however, she liked to stay home and get her scares through the t.v., 23 years old and this was her first time doing anything like this. Danny was the exception, his presence had an odd almost intoxicating draw, and aside from tonight, Danny was very sensitive to Sara's "introv...

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"Strong. Wild. True"

Submitted to Contest #103

"This is Commander Callistro of the Delta station... Come in, COMMS do you read me? COMMS? Hello? I've been abandoned by those around me. I'm on... Fuck, I don't know. Some random Planet. Somewhere in the cosmos. I-I don't even remember how we got here. It was some sort of crash? I just lost control?" Callistro whispers into the transmitter, her grip squeezes the transmitter that is held close to her shaking breath. She feels like someone is watching her very closely. "COMMS?" She tries again but to no avail, a bead of sweat starts to roll d...

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The Red Balloon

P M

Submitted to Contest #103

It was a cold, windy night with no moon. The wind sounded like the murmurs of a thousand spirits trying to tell me of their pain at once. As I walked to the end of the lane, where I lived, I noticed the streetlamp outside my house had stopped working. The darkness there was frightening. It was so dark that no colour could describe it. It felt wrong there, something otherworldly, something darker than the darkest black. Suddenly, an owl hooted from the top of my roof and I almost screamed. I chided myself for being so jumpy and tried to ignor...

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The Newest Addition to the Family

Submitted to Contest #103

              William held the old photo tightly with his trembling hand, unable to let go of his grip, and unable to look away, not even his eyes managing to veer in a new direction. His brain had completely frozen on him in that moment, offering nothing in the way of answers as to what he was looking at in front of him. There was nothing he could think to do that would alleviate his current discomfort, not even leaving the eerie attic space would offer a reprieve from hi...

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Mora

Submitted to Contest #103

No, god not again. My eyes snap open, interrupting once again my not so peaceful sleep. I know what is happening, it has happened countless times before, this one is no different. I am laying in my bed, my back is touching the soft mattress underneath me while my face can only look towards the white ceiling above me. My body is perfectly straight, like a yardstick, and I know for a fact that I didn’t sleep like that last night. I also know that it is pointless to try to move my body, but I try anyway. It stays utterly still, like a sculp...

56 likes 14 comments 14
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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