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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.

6540+ 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 322 of 437

Revenge of the ducks

Submitted to Contest #100

I sit there, switching my attention between her plate of food and the rubber duck placed right next to my glass of water. My stomach lurches as she cuts the duck meat, spears it quickly with a fork, then lifts the piece beyond my view.  “Why aren't you eating?” She asks nonchalantly. I look up for a moment and she has just stuffed yet another piece of duck meat into her mouth, like we never watched the movie. My stomach lurches once again. I look down at my untouched plate of food, chicken.  Picking up the fork, I make a feeble...

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Whatever happened to Aunt Ada

Submitted to Contest #100

July 2019 ‘So you had just started telling me Stan, whatever happened to Aunt Ada? She seemed so fit for 93.’ ‘She was. Good strong bones with plenty of meat still on them. You know how old people often get really skinny. Lose all muscle tone. But not Ada. She went to Pilates twice a week, right up until she was almost ninety. And she played tennis at Wimbledon when she was in her twenties. Hockey too. Taught PE at the local convent school. Received an MBE for services to sport after she retired.’ ‘Wow, she sounds like a remarkable lady,’ Je...

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Good Eatin'

Submitted to Contest #100

At first, the smells had churned her stomach. Knees to her chest, back to the alley wall, Gigi Lamar kept the pressure on the wound. Out of sight from those in the street, she had this little section all to herself. Almost surreal, after the carnage she’d seen, the horrors she’d endured. Her home turned into a battleground, from which she’d fled. But this little spot of an alley, tucked away in the corner of the city? Safe. Even if for a short while. If only they wandered down here, they’d find her weak and vulnerable. She wouldn’t be able...

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Dinner with Mom and Dad

Submitted to Contest #100

The boards squeaked under the weight of his father staggering up the front porch steps. Jordan ran, his six-year-old legs ungracefully bringing him down the hallway to the kitchen. He jumped in his chair, almost bowling over in it as the door unlocked, the screen slamming home like a coffin closing. Jordan kept his head down, the thump-thump of his father's footfalls getting louder, the uneven steps a subtle warning to him. Dad had been drinking. Those dragging feet and his hating violence had scared Jordan's mom so much she had left. Jordan...

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Surprise

Submitted to Contest #100

“Do you really think you could be happy with me?” I gently put my utensils down, plastic fork on the left, plastic knife on the right, just how he likes it.  “I mean here, forever, just you and me.”  I struggle swallow today’s slop and say,  “Of course Ian, forever and ever just you and me.”  He seems pleased with my response.  He removes my plate from the concrete floor at which we had been sitting.  “I’m so glad you’re feeling better! I’ll be right back with your meds.” I hear him climb the stairs and loc...

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Never Again

Submitted to Contest #100

I lived my life pretty simple. I had a routine, I woke up to a tidy room, fixed me coffee, ate me some breakfast, brushed my teeth got changed and left for school. I lived by myself in a small apartment on the top floor where I could watch the sunset over the ocean, I had the best view. My neighbors who I became friends with we’re not loud or disruptive. I lived in the perfect spot, went to the perfect school, I got the perfect and right amount of friends so where I’m not to crowded but I can invite them all over to my house. It was perfect....

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Days

Submitted to Contest #100

The food ran out three days ago.Matt paced back and forth, rock and sand digging into the crevises on his feet, the sharp pain a constant reminder that there is no end to suffering. Wallowing in darkness, the slightest hint of light shining through the crack in the ceiling of the cave, a taunting mouth just out of reach.“They must be looking for us!” Anabelle cried, gripping her knees as she curled up against the wall of cold rock. “It’s been weeks, they have to be looking for us. A whole army of people could be looking for us!”“They aren’t ...

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Influential People: The Browning of the Brand

Submitted to Contest #100

On a rainy day in the big apple, 4 influencers have come together for the cultural experience of a lifetime. A swanky dinner -- hosted by millionaire chef and Tiktok content curator Adams Miles -- in a stylish SoHo apartment. Olives from the hills of Italy, a ham specially sourced by pig farmers in Africa; this dinner had all you needed to take your culinary exploits to the next level. Now, with an eagerly awaiting Instagram audience and branded products to shill, the Influencers converged, looking for a good meal and an even better uptick i...

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a nice warm meal

Submitted to Contest #100

My grandmother always told me to stay out of the woods in the fall months. Those old wives tales about children wandering into the shadows of the trees to be taken away. I used to heed those warnings when I was younger. We like to pretend children are young and foolish to obey the warnings of the elderly, but there is some part deep inside us that still fears those tales are true. It’s only our arrogance, unearned by time, that forces us onwards.It was a particularly nice autumn afternoon. I had come up from the city to stay at my grandmothe...

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Where We Landed

Submitted to Contest #99

Ian Wilkerson was transfixed.  The vibrant purple blended together gorgeously with the orange that reminded him of the creamsicles that he used to have as a child, in the sky.  The gentle ebb and flow of the crystal-clear tide lapped at his lower half as he sat in the damp sand.  It was like a scene out of a movie, even worthy of being a prospective traveler’s wallpaper, he thought.  It should’ve been perfect. The prospective traveler would sleep easy at night, thinking that this scene before Ian’s eyes was a paradise; n...

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Freedom by Sunrise

Submitted to Contest #99

  He died before the sun rose while I slept.  The exhaustion had finally won. It had been tugging at my consciousness since I dragged him in through the door. I fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, held in its embrace until the first tendrils of morning light worked their way into the room, draping themselves across the foot of the bed.  I stirred, my limbs still heavy as I watched the light inch across the white blanket I had tucked around him in an attempt to make him comfortable. It felt like every other morning, except it...

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It's Done

Submitted to Contest #99

I paused. I breathed. My heart’s beat scattered to the corners of my chest, putting pressure on my lungs as they attempted to let the air rush back in. Until I felt them expand once again, I was oblivious that they had ceased functioning at all.  Bloodied hands clasped my torn knees as my ragged hair swept the floor. It had started the night wound tight at the top of my head, but at some point, I vaguely remembered someone grabbing me by my ponytail and pulling it loose from its restraints.  That person had ended with a knife...

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The Sunbeam Apocalypse

Submitted to Contest #99

Alicia faced the mirror, staring with squinted eyes. For a few moments, she stood still, her hands hanging at her sides, her fingers wriggling nervously. Buying time for herself, she pulled her hair out from it’s constraints very slowly, and fluffed it. A crease in her hair just above her ears spoke of the long night in a cheaply-done bun. But, while she fixed her hair, throwing this lock that way and tucking and untucking strands behind her ears, she paid much closer attention to her reflection, looking and looking as if to get an answer wr...

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The Way She Swam

Submitted to Contest #99

I set in my deerstand--- over looking the lake behind the house--- watching the eastern sky for the coming sunrise, it was the start of the longest day of the year: a day that to most never seems to end, it will be a few hours still until I climb down stepping out into the sunshine. Every year, on the anniversary of the day I first saw her, I would go early to the banks and wait for her to appear in the morning halo;drinking coffee with Irish cream added while reminiscing on an event that happened many summers ago.****The lake was her h...

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Shadybrooke Landing

Submitted to Contest #99

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. A road trip was meant to be fun. An adventure with great friends, delicious food, and marvelous sights. It wasn’t supposed to involve blood, guns, and a seedy hotel. We were supposed to laugh, not fight for our lives. It wasn’t supposed to come to this, me in the middle of the night with my knees soaking up blood on the pavement, tears flowing down my cheeks. 40 hours earlier. We had been friends since we were thirteen. We had been the three new kids in seventh grade and had formed an instant bond which ...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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