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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.

6200+ 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 409 of 414

One Wish

Submitted to Contest #13

Her heart began to race, her hands began to sweat. The world felt as if it was shrinking beneath her feet and above her head. She quickly turned and ran home out of embarrassment as fast as she could. She whipped the front door open, rushed inside, ran up to her room and slammed her bedroom door so it would shake the entire house. As she sat down to read a book she heard faint footsteps walking up the stairs as each step creaked and dust flew out into the open air. There was a quiet knock and the door opened slowly.  “Blair” said her mo...

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Killer Day

Submitted to Contest #13

As I left my house this morning, I felt oddly invigorated, like nothing could stand in my way. I bounced down the stairs and headed up the street to catch the bus. My morning routine was right on schedule. Until this very moment that will change my existence forever.I get to the bus stop and look around at the other patrons waiting to board the bus. No one is returning my gaze, but that’s hardly unusual so early in the morning. As I step towards the bus door, a lady in a black leather jacket steps directly in front of me. Before I can say mo...

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The Wreck

Submitted to Contest #13

“Oh. Hi. Is Vince here?” I peer around the gray haired woman, searching the house for my best friend and neighbor of twelve years.“Vince?” She looks at me with pity in her eyes. “Oh, Honey, I think you need to come in for a few minutes.”“Okay...” I step through the door with a bit of reluctance. I don’t know who this woman is, or what she’s doing at Vince’s place. Maybe he invited her to dinner too.“Come on in to the kitchen, Jeff.”I stop, a chill running up my back. “How do you know my name?”“Don’t you remember me?”I look over the woman car...

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A Rude Awakening

Submitted to Contest #13

It was just like any other Saturday. I woke up without my alarm pestering me, which was always a lovely feeling. I got up but didn’t bother to get dressed since I had slept in my regular clothes. I had been so exhausted from work last night that I came in and immediately went upstairs and collapsed on my bed. I fell asleep within minutes, and I didn’t even have a chance to think about whether I should change out of my work uniform. I wondered if I would look weird going out in my uniform but I smiled at myself. My mum always told me not to c...

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Ten O'Clock

Submitted to Contest #13

The clock struck ten times, each ring seeming louder than the last, and the whole house reverberated with its tolling.  Beth looked up from her book in surprise, as though it didn’t do this every day at exactly ten o’clock. Glancing back down at the words in her book, she realized she hadn’t moved the page in quite some time.  In fact, she couldn’t remember the last thing she had read. Perhaps she had fallen asleep. The teapot sat cooling on the stove, leftover from when she had last fired it up.  Though she suspected it was ...

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BECOMING NELL

Submitted to Contest #13

The message was strange by any definition of the word.RUN!A text that sent Mary Smithson out of her 469 Pellan Cul- de-sac home to check on her closest friend, who also happened to be her childhood neighbour. She matched across the small street and knocked on the silver door. She waited a little bit longer than usual before she heard footsteps hurrying to the door. She had mentally prepared a reprimand for Dylon Mathers for trying his usual attempts at Halloween pranks, but she was a little worried with the urgency of the text.She had alread...

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To Say "I Love You" One More Time

Submitted to Contest #13

Cold. Dark. Silence.These were my first senses. Slowly I regained consciousness; my fingers twitching, my legs bending. I could hear my heartbeat in my head. My eyes fluttered open and suddenly all I could see was white. I soon adjusted to the bright sunlight, and, looking up at the blue sky above me, from where this assault was coming from, I began to become aware of my surroundings. The sunlight streaming from above flooded down through the clearing in the trees and washed around me, setting everything alight in one continuous blaze. The d...

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Behind the Pine Door

Submitted to Contest #13

BEHIND THE PINE DOORI’d always liked Virginia – Ginny, as she preferred to be called. We weren’t the sort of neighbours who were constantly in and out of each others’ houses. We needed our own space and respected each others’ privacy. But she was a comfortable and considerate neighbour, and I liked to think she thought the same about me. I knew she thought my garden was messy, and I wasn’t too keen on her excess of decking, but it never turned into an issue. At Christmas she had a beautifully decorated real tree and ...

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Just Paranoia

Submitted to Contest #13

I walked down the abandoned street. The trees stood like skeletal sentries all around, their fallen leaves whispering and ruffling in the winds that seemed to chill me to my bones. The last light was falling away, leaving me alone at the mercy of the silver veiled moon that sneered at me from above, casting shadows of ghosts in the corners of my eyes.I walked on, wrapping my arms tightly around myself, trying to still the tremors that had less to do with the cold, and more to do with my overactive imagination. I saw a shadow in a path of rus...

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Welcome Home

Submitted to Contest #13

Sasha Ayala watched out the window of the taxi as it drove slowly through Hemmings Street, looking for the familiar Sugar Maple that stood in the yard of the duplex she and her best friend Miri owned.  It had been a little over a year since she had last visited. Six years since she had lived there.“I’m finally home.”  She breathed as the taxi stopped in front of her house.Sasha checked the time on her phone as she slung her backpack over her shoulder, and jogged to the door.  “3:27... I wonder if Miri is waiting up for me.”S...

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Spirit Too Alive

Submitted to Contest #13

The smell of fresh cookies wafts around my one story house, making the place seem warm and comforting. The timer on the over goes off and I pull my thick blond hair back into a ponytail, stepping around my sleeping dog as I rush to turn the heat down before the neighbor's Halloween cookies get a little crispier than needed. I slide my hands into oven mitts and open the stainless steel door, heat fogging my glasses up. I set the pan on a rack to cool and rub my lenses clean on the fabric of my Harvard hoodie. Quickly, I ice the fresh cookies ...

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The Encounter

Submitted to Contest #13

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The Mulaney Paradox

Submitted to Contest #13

On a cold, rainy morning there are a few places no one wants to be -- the DMV, an outdoor wedding, and above all else: work. Personally, I’d rather be enduring the festivities of some chick’s, “big day”, or trapped in line behind the counter waiting to pay a ticket I definitely deserve than spend another day wrapping a tie around my neck and faking smiles from behind a desk. But, alas, here I sit. Seconds passing by like hours and coffee table conversations sounding like Freddy Krueger using his chalkboard scratching post. Today, I was ...

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300 Seconds

Submitted to Contest #13

Jared glanced at his watch and smiled to himself. He knew that it was pointless to time the bell hop, but old habits and all that. Considering this quirk was all that was left of his once debilitating OCD, Jared embraced it. Keeping track of those seconds kept him from needing to count stairs, kept him from having to go down to the first step again if he missed one or lost count, kept him from tapping the railing five times if there was an odd number of stairs, kept the compulsion to look at the ceiling every fourth step he took at bay.“Welc...

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'The Stabbing', by Kaleb Bennett (Though of in B/W)

Submitted to Contest #13

“This is…”        K    R    S    S    Pro-duc-tion Radio    ANNOUNCER: From your local broadcast radio, KRRS Radio presents…’The Stabbing!’    Cold spews of trumpet, and the slow burn violins introduce the theme    ANNOUNCER: Directed and written by Harrison Plainview, produced by KRSS Radio. Now, please welcome...Harrison    HARRISON: There is a chill calm outside the homes of many. Still air ...

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