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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.

6170+ 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 4 of 412

A Tale of Twisted Minds and Warped Realities

Submitted to Contest #296

If I hadn’t killed her, maybe I’d still be alive too. Not brain dead. Not fighting the thoughts that trap me in an insane asylum with no hope of escape but death itself. It’s like hell, but a whole lot worse. The fire is hotter. The pain is deeper. The chains are tighter. It’s worse when hell is in your mind. Tormenting. Whispering all the possibilities you could’ve taken and should’ve taken. Haunting you with the memories of failure upon failure upon failure and the life you could’ve been living. It’s worse when hell relentlessly targets th...

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Carts

Submitted to Contest #296

The storm breaks. Day dawns. Visibility returns. I find myself secured to the prisoner before me, nestled up inside them, so close. Last night no other companion was pushed into me, but that is not the blessing it might seem. It means I am exposed. Vulnerable at the back of the line. Available to be taken by the first.Unsafe. Unprotected. Pristine.Pristine?Could that be what they think of me? The other Rollers. I have no way of communicating with my fellow slaves so I don’t know what they call me in their thoughts. Like they don’t know what ...

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Wrong Thing, Right Reason

Submitted to Contest #296

Approximately 20 minutes later, Wallace Eckart and Christina Macallen arrive at his modest-looking house on the other corner of Savannah Street. He opens the door for Christina, letting her out, then they hold hands as they make their way to the front door. He opens the door for her again, and Christina is in awe of how beautiful the house looks on the inside: the living room is large enough to fit three large couches and a 50-something-inch TV screen. The kitchen’s windows overlook the street’s proximity to the water and additional summer t...

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to save a life.

Submitted to Contest #296

The door slammed open, shattering the apothecary’s peaceful silence. It swung wildly on its hinges, groaning in protest. Nephele straightened from hunching over a table of half prepared herbs she had been busy packing away, her plague doctor mask snapping towards the sudden sound.Two men stumbled in. One was barely standing, deathly pale, with dark blood oozing from a gash in his side. His head sagged, barely conscious as he leaned heavily against his companion, who was trembling with panic and near despair. The first man’s leg hung limp beh...

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To hunt a monster

Submitted to Contest #296

Overhead, a bird squawked. Beneath, the cold, snowy ground pressed against the still form of a man. Lying motionless between the two, a sniper lay as still as a statue, his hands wrapped around a long rifle. The air was peaceful and quiet — almost too quiet. For two days, he had lain there, barely moving, waiting. Waiting for his moment. And then, at last, the reason for his vigil stepped into view. His target looked to be in his mid-twenties. It was strange — almost surreal — how many lives this one man had shattered. The sniper adjusted ...

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Unconditional

Submitted to Contest #296

She looked through the iron gate and up the drive leading up to the house. A physical reminder of being forever barred from returning to a happier time. The gate, once a showpiece, now had rust snaking along its edges and was tangled with thick vines. Beyond the gate the drive leading to the house had almost entirely vanished beneath the wild growth and weeds that broke through the cracks of the stone, nature always claiming its own. The trees pressed in with their untrimmed branches swallowing the view of the house beyond. It was hidden no...

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The Moscow Gamble

Submitted to Contest #296

"A man who counts only his losses has already lost everything worth counting." — O.B. Moscow, winter 1928. Four months had passed since Odessa's salt-tinged air had filled Ostap Bender's lungs. Now, the biting cold of Russia's capital snapped at his heels as he hurried down Tverskaya Street, collar pulled high against the wind. The Ottoman gold from the warehouse heist was long gone—some to Nadia, some to his crew, and the rest had slipped through his fingers like water, spent on train tickets, bribes, and enough vodka to briefly warm the ho...

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Pseudoasis

Submitted to Contest #296

Trigger Warning: This story contains themes of dystopian control, psychological distress, violence, and references to asphyxiation/injury. Reader discretion is advised. At a young age, Jael knew he wanted to feel free, regardless of the laws legislated to keep individuals like him locked away from the pristine, picturesque world they displayed in a hypnotizing ad within every available media source. If only there were a way to break free of this monotonous system of bureaucracy. There had to be someone else out there in the Haze who was al...

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Baby

Submitted to Contest #296

Warning: Contains themes of maternal psychosis, infanticide, and suicidal ideation.I knew that I couldn’t keep her. She was just too precious to belong to someone like me. From the moment I laid eyes on her, I was completely and utterly in love. She was so little, so pure, so much a Miracle far too beautiful for this cruel world in which the rest of us are dreading to exist. She was in every sense of the word, perfect. And a tainted individual which is the thing that is me certainly had zero business attempting to shelter this small being fr...

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What's one more lie

Submitted to Contest #296

Terry took a bucket of cold water and threw it into the face of an unconscious man as he yelled, “rise and shine, sleeping beauty!” The man’s eyes almost jumped out of his head. Moving his hands to wipe his face, he suddenly realize his wrist were zip-tied to a ring on top of an old, rusty metal table. As his brown eyes began to focus, he noticed he was in a dungeon type room with no windows. Maybe a basement. Hard for him to tell. Then he looked up at the fluorescent lights covered in cobwebs. His eyes were sore like he hadn’t op...

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Dead Weight

Submitted to Contest #296

She woke up in a fog from a hospital bed, the sunlight shining from the window causing her to squint. Her breath came in short bursts, the cool sheets giving her chills. A wrinkly old man wearing a cap in a well-pressed suit watched her. “Anne, you’re awake.” This man didn’t look familiar “Why am I here?” He stood near her bed. “You were in an accident and have been in a coma for two years.” Anne flinched. “What? I don’t remember anything about an accident. Who are you and where is my family?” He cracked his knuckles that unnerved her. “All ...

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Aunt Mabel

Submitted to Contest #296

Content Warning: This story contains themes of violence, mental illness, and disturbing imagery. It includes descriptions of physical harm, hallucinations, and psychological distress that may be upsetting to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.STATE OF PENNSYLVANIACASE NO: 2025-CR-0412IN THE MATTER OF:MABEL GATESEVIDENCE DOCUMENT: HANDWRITTEN STATEMENT OF MARLEY PALMER, AGE 32I killed Aunt Mabel. Bashed her head in with a frying pan. Blood everywhere. It got in my hair, on my shirt, even on my damn shoes. I just sat there on that ugly...

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The Whispering Mind

Submitted to Contest #296

A deafening explosion, fire consuming everything, and people screaming, scattering like ants— Nathan's stomach lurched, and he barely reached the toilet before his dinner reintroduced itself in violent heaves. His forehead pressed against the cool porcelain, grounding him for a moment. The images were still there, burned into his mind like an old film reel set to an endless loop. He squeezed his eyes shut, but it was useless. He had seen the future again. Shakily, he reached for one of the water bottles he kept in his bathroom closet, knowin...

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Sinless Warriors

Submitted to Contest #296

Amelia“They were two dangerous people,” I had been told constantly, every time my parents’ death came up. And they said it as if I wasn’t their firstborn, as if I couldn’t have broken their noses right in front of the judge and those worthless lawyers. I still couldn’t understand what force kept me motionless in that chair; maybe it was just the awareness that sooner or later, I would have the killer in my hands, and then prison would be my paradise, compared to the hell I had been living since they were no longer around.I had looked each of...

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The Flip

Submitted to Contest #296

*This story contains light violence, profanity, and animal rescue descriptions.* “Come on. Flip the coin.” I looked at Ken like he had six heads. Did he want me to flip the coin for such an important decision? “Jess, we don’t have all day. Flip the damn coin.” The agitation in his voice was getting worse. If I didn’t do something soon, I knew what would happen. And I wasn’t in the mood for it today. I looked at the coin in his outstretched hand. He had fished it out of his pocket, and bits of lint rested on the cracked, dirty skin of h...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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