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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

8830+ Mystery Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. No need to go out hunting for clues — you’ve solved the puzzle of where to find the newest mystery short stories just by landing on this page.

Mystery Short Stories – Page 1 of 589

The Warning

Submitted to Contest #303

The first time Clara stepped into the house on Watergrove Road, she was confronted by an unfamiliar silence. Not the kind that you encounter at a new setting, welcoming you to explore it’s untold stories and untouched corners, but the kind of silence that listens… and speaks back.She had visited many homes before—places seeped with sorrow, where grief clung to the walls like cobwebs.But this house was different. The air here didn’t just sit heavy - it whispered.She clutched the client file tighter in her hand, her eyes scanning the familiar ...

9 likes 4 comments 4
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The Librarians

Submitted to Contest #302

The worst thing Octavia could have imagined spending her weekend doing had come true.It wasn't as if she were a party girl or anything. She didn't have a contact list full of other college students who thought whoever could throw a football the farthest or chug a beer the fastest were somehow the peak of the human species.That didn't mean she enjoyed spending the weekend; she could be out at the arcade or watching movies with the two best friends she did have, but she was forced to volunteer at the local library.Octavia sighed as she rifled ...

7 likes 6 comments 6
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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...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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The Legend Of The Lake

Submitted to Contest #302

Once, a cat with light paws and sharp senses ventured into the forest. Far past the horizon did he traverse. He traveled until he reached the lake, they say, but never came back. Perhaps he traveled to the starline. That was a myth. This wasn’t.***The scent drifted through the wind, both ancient and new. Myth lifted his whiskers, inhaling slowly, letting it weave through him. It carried the hush of forgotten stories, the whisper of something unspoken. He stepped forward, drawn by its quiet song—until his breath caught.Beneath its calm embrac...

11 likes 5 comments 5
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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...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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TALK ABOUT ME

Submitted to Contest #302

The yearlong lawsuit between Josie Jean and Lawny Day has been dropped, but questions are still rising. What began as a heated dispute between the two podcast moguls has simmered down into lukewarm, over steeped tea – bitter, musty and maybe, brewed on purpose. Let’s rewind. It all started on Episode 91 on the podcast TALK ABOUT ME, which aired on February 21, 2020. For the first time, the duo that has always given the impression that they are nothing short of best friends, gave us a glimpse at a crack in their relationship. A weak point....

12 likes 4 comments 4
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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...

18 likes 2 comments 2
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The Wayward Instruction

Submitted to Contest #302

In the labyrinthine corridors of the Nexus Corporation’s headquarters, where glass walls reflected ambition and secrets alike, a single email could alter destinies. It was 9:47 a.m. on a crisp October morning in 2032, and the air buzzed with the hum of servers and the click of keyboards. At the heart of this digital empire, in a cubicle barely large enough for her dreams, sat Priya Sharma, a junior data analyst with a knack for noticing patterns others missed.Priya’s inbox pinged. She glanced at the screen, expecting another routine report r...

5 likes 1 comment 1
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Hear Me If You Can

Submitted to Contest #302

The ringing would not stop, Commander James Turner could feel the blood oozing down his left ear to his neck, it was warm, like it was in the morning when he started this wretched tour, of course he was incognizant of this wretchedness then, he probably doesn’t know it now, all he can register is the incessant ringing, yet the bleeding is none of his concern at present: it’s the bloody ringing! He lifts up his hands and covers his ears in a futile attempt to block a phantom external source from transmitting the ringing to his ears, he crumbl...

5 likes 3 comments 3
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Thread

Submitted to Contest #302

Content Warning: Themes of trauma, surveillance, and emotional distress. No graphic content. We were thirty kilometres past the last gas station when the fog swallowed the road whole.It wasn’t snow yet, not quite. Just rain turning to sleet, slicking the highway and turning the world to static. My wipers squeaked like they’d given up trying. Streetlights blurred in the distance, and every sign looked like a warning written in another language.Beside me, Zayd pulled his hood down lower and yawned.“Why do all your genius plans end in hypothe...

9 likes 1 comment 1
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Return to Sender

Submitted to Contest #302

Eleanor’s mornings had followed the same rhythm for years. Tea. Crossword. Good morning talk shows. A glance at the clock around ten, when no one ever called. She wasn’t lonely (or so she told herself) just long-accustomed to silence.This morning was different.The envelope was an aged-white, slightly crumpled – folded in the middle – and dirtied by years of dust and pocket lint. The corners rolled inwards; the flap peeling from retired old glue. There was no name on the envelope, only an address and an old stamp.When Eleanor opened the door ...

7 likes 0 comments 0
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Secrets in the Wrong Hands - A Twist of Fate

Submitted to Contest #302

On a chilly Tuesday morning, November 14th, an unexpected event unfolded. A thick layer of mist obscured the upper floors of the skyscrapers, shrouding the city’s usually breathtaking panorama of steel and glass and giving the scene an almost ethereal quality. The streets, typically bustling with the vibrant energy of a metropolis, buzzed with the usual rush hour activity—honking taxis, rumbling buses, and the incessant chatter of commuters on their way to work. Amidst this urban symphony of noise and motion, a significant mistake—a series o...

8 likes 0 comments 0
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The Boy Who Heard Orchards Breathe

Submitted to Contest #302

There was an orchard on the edge of Briar Thornmere, so beauteous and so profuse that even strangers, drawn by rumor alone, stood in dumbfounded awe at its threshold. There was no threshold, the Boy Who Heard the Orchards Breathe reminded them, but they were too blind in its beauty to notice. They went as far as to say that the trees surrounding the Orchard bowed under the weight of fruit too sweet to belong to this world; its soil smelled of life so vigorous it seemed to press against the soles of the feet. And yet, the Boy Who Heard the Or...

18 likes 11 comments 11
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Body Without a Home

Submitted to Contest #302

The first time I saw her, Lejla sat on a bench before the gallery. It was a gray, overcast afternoon, and the sky seemed to press down on the city, suffocating it beneath a heavy, muted blanket. The wind whispered in sharp, erratic gusts, tugging at her dark hair, sending stray strands dancing across her face. Raindrops, a fine, almost invisible mist, clung to the air, yet they left a damp sheen on her coat.Beneath that black coat, her body was twisted, not just in posture but in something more profound, intangible, as if she were trying to ...

19 likes 15 comments 15
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I Don't Understand

Submitted to Contest #302

The man that has introduced himself as Gary smiles. The smile is warm and loving. It radiates a gentle heat. He is a sun. He brings life. There is calm here. She looks around her. Her eyes are searching. Searching for something that will allow her confusion and anxiety to abate. Trying to make sense of her surroundings. Trying to make sense of herself in the context of these surroundings.Thoughts assail her, as they do us all. But these thoughts are dark ruffians stalking a Victorian landscape in her mind. There is no safety in these interna...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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