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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 331 of 437

Midnight Monster

Submitted to Contest #97

The night was at the prime of its age, dark and deep. Outside, a single lamp shone with weak golden light, highlighting thick raindrops as they plummeted down. The wind sang its sorrows and the storm howled its wordless rage. Brenna’s parents were sound asleep in the next room, but she herself was agitated by the rumbling thunder and occasional flash of fierce lightning. She drew her knees to her chest and wrapped the blanket around herself. It gave her a small sense of security. She stared into the pouring rain outside as it hurled itself...

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Maxine Inoza's Vacation

Submitted to Contest #97

Maxine Inoza hated drops. This lieutenant, and what was left of her platoon, was dropping onto Enoch’s 9th. She hated these four-man capsules, most of all. The Corps had already phased these out in favor of the much more reliable single-man units. Sadly, the Widow’s Peak, this derelict ship transporting them, only had these shitty four-man pieces of crap.The ship wouldn’t even be in standard orbit when dropping them. It would be doing a ‘run and gun’ drop. The Widow’s Peak would only be slowing down as much as it had to. It was in a hur...

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HEX

Submitted to Contest #97

Emily Buggs awoke suddenly around 2 a.m. She wanted the feel of fresh air on her skin because she was drenched in sweat and spittle, and her satin nightie clung to her petite body. Her home, an ancient structure purchased at a 40% discount by her husband two years ago, was a brick structure that was either too hot or too cold. She rose slowly from her king-sized bed, her sheets rumpled, and put on her best pair of flip flops. She opened her window, which faced a small bush behind their fence, and felt compelled to eat. She had formed a bad h...

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24 Oak Drive

Submitted to Contest #97

Kids will kids. That’s the saying, isn’t it? Cassie gulped hard, swallowing the burning anger that had been rising from the pit of her stomach. Turning the baseball over in her hand, she walked over to inspect the damage. Glass crunched under her well-worn espadrilles. The warm summer air was being forcefully sucked into the room through the hole now adorning the bottom corner of her privacy-tinted picture window. The forced air caused the sheers to do a small dance, and she longed to feel that breeze on her face. Carefully, she si...

14 likes 1 comment 1
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Hell Nights

Submitted to Contest #97

Recommended reading: “Grimoire Aisle 4” Scarlet light poured across the dancing bodies, mine included. The odor of sweat and alcohol was both suffocating and intoxicating, filling me up, driving me to dance harder. Through the fog I felt a stranger’s breath tickle the back of my neck. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw large hands hovering above my hips, just waiting for my go-ahead to grab me, pull me in close. Real close. The music poured through every cell of my brain, driving me over the edge. I was too far gone to care. I reached back, ...

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Snakes and a Blue Dress

Submitted to Contest #97

Trigger Warning: Smoking, Violence, Some Cursing, Mythical Creatures, Noirdefenestrate - to throw someone out of a window (Definitions from Oxford Languages)The darkness gets into everything here on the south side. Smoke from my cancer-stick winds its way up into my nose and I stifle the urge to sneeze, admiring my own reflection. A thirty-two year old with clean-cut hair left over from the Marine Corps, same place I got the habit, stares back at me. I’m going to pay some day for those cancer-sticks, but in the world in which I live, dying o...

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Coup d'état

Submitted to Contest #97

It’s late. Or early, depending on whether you’ve slept or not. Zander feels like he hasn’t slept at all. Of course, that’s an exaggeration. He’s slept at least 7 hours, fell into REM multiple times, and now lies in bed semi-conscious.His alarm will go off soon and he’ll have to get to work.This could be the start to a long day.But his stomach churns. He wants to pass out, but he had a dream about a donut mansion and now his mind runs in circles imagining creeping down to the kitchen to get a taste. A taste of those moist, sugary, cream-fille...

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Sometime you see Them

Submitted to Contest #97

The moonlight outside the window filtered through empty tree branches into his yard, and Joe watched carefully as if the occasional snowflakes that were falling were of cosmic importance. Maybe they were… after this evening’s events, for all he knew, they may be. He held the bottle of Woodford Reserve, the best whiskey he had ever heard tried, like it also offered answers to the crumbling paradigm of his worldview. Not prone to drinking, the few sips he had taken had just melted the lines enough to make it possible to contemplate the strange...

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Outside My Window: Last Chance

Submitted to Contest #97

Steve Johnson was looking outside his window. There was no joy left inside of him anymore. It had only been seven hours since his son’s funeral. It was the middle of the night, and Steve did not like the dark, for he did not like not being able to see. The funeral had seemed so unreal, yet it had also seemed empty. Steve felt empty. He felt like everything had been taken from him. Nether his voice nor his brain seemed to want to work. He went into his room and sat down at his computer. He found an old game he used to play and started to down...

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Don't Look Back

Submitted to Contest #97

Don’t look. Nothing else was written on the note Jesse found taped to the shuttered window in his attic. The window itself was hidden behind a series of crooked planks that had been nailed to the wall with the carpentry skill of a toddler. The note was a mess of scribbles so chaotic, that it took a solid ten minutes before Jesse could decipher the cryptic warning. It is a warning, isn’t it? He took a step back from the window. The wood panels on the floor creaked as if they were confirming his suspicions with a language of their own. Je...

15 likes 6 comments 6
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Gimme Three Steps

Submitted to Contest #97

A cold breeze cut through Tracy’s pajamas. Her body trembled. Her shallow breaths formed tiny white puffs that were snatched away by the wind. It was past midnight. A faint siren wailed in the distance, but the city street, eight stories below, was empty and silent. Tracy pressed her back to the frigid bricks behind her and looked back at the window she had crawled through. The ledge Tracy was standing on was less than ten inches deep and ended a few feet to her left. The next ledge, at her parent’s window, was at least six feet beyond that....

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The Figure

Submitted to Contest #97

My body shuddered as I looked out my window into the dark abyss of night. My eyes struggled in vain, scouring the street, searching, hoping. Praying the words sent to me weren't true. I see you...   Do you see me? I held my phone up to my face again, trying to steady my already shaking hands. Maybe it was a prank, or maybe the person who sent it had the wrong number. At least, that's what I told myself. At least, that's what I so desperately wanted to believe. Ever since I moved into this house strange events have happened to me...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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MY_story ( story with an unexpected knock on a window)_Susnata Biswas

Submitted to Contest #97

I lay in my bed of my mess, restless and alone, put myself in the pull of depression on a dark and silent night. I toss and turn in my bed, trying to find a comfortable spot, but I feel uneasy. Something about tonight just did not feel right. I have the feeling that everything is chasing me. I toss and turn until I finally find a comfortable position. I close my eyes, but it does not make a difference, it is too dark in my room to see a thing anyways. I guess it takes time for my eyes to adjust to darkness. I lay there, silent on a dark and ...

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Knock Knock Knock

Submitted to Contest #97

Knock Knock Knock There were two things that were unexpected concerning the knock at the window. The first was that it was the middle of the night, the dim light from her alarm clock confirming that it was 2:17am. In fact, the knock had woken her up - loud and demanding with three sharp raps against the glass. The beginnings of dread began to pool in her stomach as she pulled her bedsheets up a little closer to her face. Three more knocks. She jumped before going as still as she could. The other unexpected part of this knock was that...

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Best Friends Forever

Submitted to Contest #97

Trigger warning: physical violence “This view is really breathtaking.” Nancy spoke from beside her.  Rain pelted the large window, but it didn’t obscure the wide view. The wet, rainy, New York before them stood tall, dark buildings stretching up to the gray clouds. Kyra nodded, “Yes, it is.”  Kyra took her eyes off of the window for the first time that night, choosing instead to turn back to her best friend.  The shadow of the rain reflected over Nancy’s perfectly peachy skin. It cast dark spots over her face, like polka dots....

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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