Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

6210+ Thriller Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking for a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat and holding your breath? Don’t skip our collection of thriller short stories.

Thriller Short Stories – Page 371 of 415

A lot of pain

Submitted to Contest #57

Trigger warning: suicide   Susmita Shah is a Brahman Hindu lady. Her family members are acute in their religious beliefs. She is reading Humanity in a college. Today is her first day in her college. To everyone this day comes with new experiences but to Susmita it comes with not only experiences but also emotions. This emotion is captured between two people. In word which is called love. They fall in love at their first sight. But their love is different from others. Susmita loved a Muslim person named Abdullah. They loved each other bu...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

broken heart

Submitted to Contest #57

It was a cold night in the town of Lawrenceville but underneath the Hazel curse of the dark, the doors Creek in the alleys were empty darkness spread of murder. The best type of murder storybook kind where everything was laid out perfectly. blood ran through the town's cracks and rivers running towards it Ring the bell rang in Lauren James emerged she was as beautiful as she was strange. The classroom was empty except for her, her best friend Nancy was normally there but today she was strangely absent and Lauren walkthrough The Halls Alone...

8 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

A BLANK CANVAS

Submitted to Contest #57

Today was mom’s day. I stared in fascination at her hair. Where there had only been streaks before; her head was now a mass of orange mane. They curled beautifully around her sharp jawline, making the orange tinge on her cheeks more prominent. Dad walked in, stopping right behind her. He curled a strand of her hair around his index finger. “Looks beautiful, honey. Are the kids getting theirs done too?” She looked unsurely at me. What did she think I would do? Dye my hair white because they named me Whit? It was bad enough I didn’t fit, but...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

An Anniversary To Remember

Submitted to Contest #57

The darkness envelops quiet Reeding Street and with it the small dining room where I've been slaving away for the last three hours. The pasta al fresco will go cold so I'm placing it carefully in the oven -along with the garlicky asparagus and pesto. I've called Natalie's mother to make sure Ava's arrived safely, even though I know I shouldn't do that. I don't really need the soccer mom breakfast club judgement right now, but it's hard to trust that your kid's safe when you're new to the neighbourhood. The move has been so hard on Ava that...

6 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Voices

Submitted to Contest #57

Light the damned thing! Why can't you just do as you're told? A breeze met with the streams of perspiration descending Ed's lower back and he shivered--as did the trees at the forest's fringe. He looked back at the house worn by time and circumstance. It creaked. It groaned. It sounded uncomfortable and not without good reason. The house's bleached wood stood out against the verdant hills behind; it looked to Ed like a skull atop a green velvet plinth. The landscape was a perverse museum and the home Ed had been born in--grew up in--was ...

31 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Cam Patterson

Submitted to Contest #57

Cam I can’t believe how no one is being supportive of my decisions. No one appreciates my own thoughts. I’ve worked so hard rewriting this will, and nobody is pleased with it. I know 21 is a young age to start writing your will, but I can feel it happening. I can feel my soul slowly breaking apart with this world. Or maybe it's just all of the seizures I’ve been having.  The tonic- clonic seizures have been happening to me since I was 8 years old. It wasn’t that bad at first. I just kept peeing on my bed, my clothes, our dinner chair....

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

In on a Little Secret

Submitted to Contest #57

Born as the youngest of two sisters in an ordinary family,"MOM HANNA IS BUGGING ME!!!" "YOU HIT ME FIRST!" "Girls can you be quiet for one minute? I'm trying to work here! Show some respect" I had an okay childhood with nothing particular to comment on. My grades in middle school were okay. "Hanna you got first place again!"I'm not to bad looking and I have an easy-going personality so I always have lots of friends around me. The state test is known for it's difficulty but even I passed it on my first try. I felt so nervous when walking arou...

11 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

To Decide

Submitted to Contest #57

My heart thumped heavily with anxiety, as I waited and listened. Rolling for the umpteenth time on my bed, I glanced at the time in the alarm device; 2:17 am. If I hadn't known my father well, I'd have thought him completely rid of sleep. But I knew more, all the same. Daybreak, mom wakes me up to clear off the flask of cold coffee with the mugs.. But that has been the everyday routine, even before dad took on this one project. The Ultimate Project, he had called it. One that could change our family's status forever. Though the machine had b...

9 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Saving the Children

Submitted to Contest #57

Bob sighed, knowing what was to come, partially dreading it while another part of him relished in the global pettifogging.  As the curtain spilled aside, Bob presented himself to the audience from stage left, never right (it was in his contract), and awoke to the applause from the audience. Scanning the crowd through the eye watering bright lights, Bob noticed fewer people than last time, which was fewer than the time before. Didn’t matter, if they knew the full story this crowd wouldn’t even be here, and an entirely different group wo...

7 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Other Sky – Our Shallow Grave

Submitted to Contest #57

“The water level rises every day, brother. The border between us and them is now too close to the mainland.” Gabriel’s unspoken uneasiness hung in the air between them.The sky was painted gold, chasing the wending darkness of night. The brink of darkness held at bay by splashes of pink and purple. Soft amber light dipped into the folds of turquoise brocade and painted silk, the sea spilling out into the blistering white sand.Alexander toed the water’s edge watching as the Ocean masked and peeled away at the sand. The silver lining. The edge ...

40 likes 28 comments 28
Read story

Breaking the legacy

Submitted to Contest #57

 A drop of ink can make a million think, but for me, a cooking challenge was worth my thought. Garet is the name my mother gave me, which if turned way round meant Great. Am the only boy among my five other siblings. Born from a family of soldiers, it was imminent when I would graduate; I had to join the defense forces; I with no objection to it until a certain Friday.That day was rather odd to me than other days. I walked down to the grocery to pick up lettuce leaves to prepare a hamburger, which was a challenge I took from the tv. Aft...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Ocean eyes

. .

Submitted to Contest #57

Starla- What seemed to me like a sudden thump,entered my spine like a hole inside a heartAghastI felt awoken by a surpriseColour pouring down, Limbs full of painA canvas that only held the darkness of blood.Sweet noises evoked.Yet only danger hid within,‘Death is like the coal that fire leaves behind’. Like I had always told myself.‘Time passes like a horse’s gallop.Their hooves hitting the ground like waves overlapping sand. The waves like a bride’s dress as she dances in the moonlight.’Whispered a voice from behind. I was in...

96 likes 185 comments 185
Read story

The Last Will and Testament of Edgar William Sollow

Submitted to Contest #57

Last Will and Testament of Edgar William Sollow  Dear Fredrick,  Here is the order in which I am designating my affairs and inheritance to you and your sister.  To Katerina Belle Sollow, my beloved and good-willed daughter: All property in my name. Horses and all of their care. Life insurance of $2,000. Family jewelry and gold: Katerina To Frederick William Sollow : All photographs and letters from family of those I have slaughtered in your name, and this last testament of my own honor and justification.  I...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Is this what I've become?

Submitted to Contest #57

"You're kidding." He said, looking to the little girl in front of him. "Who do I look like?" "You look like a guy I'm learning about in history, his name was Cleo Thompson." She smiled as she ate on the candy in her hand. He had never seen that brand before, whenever she closed her mouth a light went off inside a second after. Cleo didn't have enough time to ask, maybe later. "And what did he do?" His eyebrows were drawn tight with concern. What had he done to warrant being taught to children? His insides bunched up as his mind started...

16 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Scarlet-Stained Secrets

Submitted to Contest #57

Fox News Washington, September 1st, 1994: The Scarlet Bay Prison in Spirit Falls is a prison, torture chamber, and a place it takes a miracle to get out of. This is the place where serial killers ruled the roost and screams of raw terror could be heard at all hours of the day from below. The place where your status depended on how many you’d wounded, how much blood you’d spilled. Purely the sight of the magnificent building can make you turn and run the other direction. This isn’t just a run-down prison. It’s a fairytale, a horror scene, and...

32 likes 45 comments 45
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.