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.

150+ 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 9 of 10

The Witch's Apprentice

Submitted to Contest #305

Guinevere was always good to me. To her customers, not so much. She played her cards well and tricked everyone who trusted her. She only helped those when it benefited her. She was relentless. She treated me like a house spider. Ignored me most of the time and threatened to kill me whenever she had the chance. I was fed enough, with a bed all to myself and a roof over my head. She gave me clothes and shoes with laces. I bathed often and she treated any illness or wound without hesitation. She took me in when I was nothing; sick and lost, too...

7 likes 9 comments 9
Read story

Lead And Lights

Submitted to Contest #305

At the intersection, I could go right and head home — but turning left would take me to salvation. Engine roared. Heart roared louder. Not a spat: vengence. Not a conversation: Freedom. Cade sped past red lights in his Mustang. Lights flickered like morse code to go back. Cade ignored their message. He was the message. Eyes darting between streets. Mind focus. Heart ready to give out. Not now. For too long, mobsters demanded cash for peace, but this was it. This ends now. Rain fell straight like nature begging to turn. But he couldn’t: he wo...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

[THE LAWYER, THE PSYCHIATRIST, AND THE POLICEMAN]

Submitted to Contest #305

5 pm. “Are you the one who asked to see me?” “I was just about to ask you the same question.” “My name is Sarah Vale. I’m supposed to be meeting someone here for a psychiatric evaluation. You?” “I’m Dennis Mather, a lawyer meeting someone to discuss legal matters.” “What legal matters?” she asked when a cop car pulled up with a sticker of Andre Paul.Whoop! Whoop! “Detective Stedman here. Which one of you guys am I supposed to be taking down to the jail?” Pause for a minute, that is not where the story begins!But what a strange story this on...

10 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Sound of Wakefulness

Submitted to Contest #305

By Ives PisgahTUESDAY, MAY 18:My name is Philip Tanner. I was one of the last stationed marines in Afghanistan. I never saw any action, and when I returned to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, I was uncontained. After my active duty contract in the marines, I joined the International League, volunteering in Ukraine. My mother had passed away when I was in high school; having no siblings, I never knew my father-other than he’d been MIA since I was in the womb. Tetherless, I was prime soldier material. My troubles with sounds developed after I r...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Beware of the Wolves

Submitted to Contest #305

A young girl sits in a meadow picking flowers and placing them in a wicker basket. She’s infatuated by the bright colors, the sunny yellow daffodils and violet daisies. The warmth of the sun seeps into the pores of her face, and warms her golden hair. She sits in the grass, fresh from endless months of summer rain, close to the line of trees leading into the forest. The flowers are the prettiest here, she thinks to herself contentedly. The grass is damp, staining her lilac dress with a faint green. She gently plucks a few daisies, some roy...

5 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

June 16th in the Franklin Mountains

Submitted to Contest #305

It took me a few seconds to realize that I was utterly and completely lost. The trail that I had taken to get up to the mountain seemed to have vanished into the Ocotillo and cactus, blown away like the sands. Everything was the same rocky, dry earth that I had scrapped and clawed against getting up here. The jagged red rocks were painted with stripes of crimson from my bleeding palms.This is fine, I thought to myself. I never had any intention of coming back down anyway.I looked ahead, and the view of rolling hills and mountains, endless in...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Gym

Submitted to Contest #305

It’s been an exceptionally long day. I look forward to nothing more than taking off my shoes and socks, giving my lionhead rabbit a vigorous petting and lying down on my semi-comfortable upholstered yellow couch with a double layer of throw pillows behind my head. I imagine feeling my rabbit’s fur under my thumb as a I stroke his forehead; from the rougher, bristly hairs above his nose up through the softer ones mid-forehead, and finally the dense, pillowy mat that sits on his crown—the start and finish of his mane. I relish in this simultan...

4 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Three sorrows in the rain

Submitted to Contest #305

I lied. I lied and thought I would have the strength to take it to the grave. I kept spiraling in memories of Annie and what happened to her. The Monday morning of May 6th. By 7:53 a.m., I was staring at the crowd which surrounded us and told, I would argue, the biggest lie of my life.A storm that night made me step out onto the balcony and greet my fears. The smell of wet earth and wood mixed with the sharpness of the wind instigated me. I sneezed when the wind slapped me in the face once again, as I was leaning over the balcony, making sur...

9 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

The Ant Farm

Submitted to Contest #305

Mary Anne lay in a corpse pose, her eyeballs flitting beneath her closed lids. She moaned, biting down on some spongy wads that crowded her mouth. A cold, bitter, liquid gushed forth and pooled in her throat. She swallowed and gagged, trying desperately to constrict her gullet and prevent the vile cocktail from resurfacing. Her eyes flew open, and she jolted upright, emitting a belch that left a metallic aftertaste. She spat out four, sopping-wet globs into the palm of her hand. Total darkness enveloped her. After throwing aside the saturate...

6 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Where The Reflection Takes Me

Submitted to Contest #305

It took a few seconds to realize I was utterly and completely lost. It took an hour to realize I was not alone. It took the last few moments to accept it, and only one of them to run.The woods were crowded. Not with people, but sounds. Me, myself, them, the lake, trees, creepers, truth, solitude, vacancy, displacement. There wasn't anywhere to go to, other than farther away, but I guess my head would have preferred I go there rather than anywhere else. So I flew.I knew I was escaping something. And I'm at the lake. Practically on the shoreli...

15 likes 10 comments 10
Read story

The Perfect Prey

Submitted to Contest #305

Angel stubbed out her last cigarette with a shaking hand and took a final sip of lukewarm coffee, leaving her last imprint of sinfully red lipstick #69 on the faded mug. She’d been tucked into a sticky olive-green booth in the back of this diner for hours.She’d didn’t even know what part of the city she was in tonight. Her thoughts continued to rotate and tangle like a distorted carousel.“Hey honey, are you sure you don’t want anything to eat? Kitchen closes soon.” The waitress’s wispy gray fly aways framed her wrinkled copper brown cheeks....

6 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Collateral

Submitted to Contest #304

Casey kicks the swivel. Activating the ship’s directional thrusters as he hits 1,114 km. His ship shudders beneath the G's pushing on the chassis. The mask attached to his helmet pumps a cocktail of O2 and other chemicals called mist, keeping him conscious. “Catching up to Raule in third place as he blazes into his second lap, Casey punches it, blasting into the tunnel at record speeds.” The announcer, Misha, cheers from the safety of his booth, clutching the mic like it’s the only thing keeping him grounded. “Leaving Raule in the dust, taki...

6 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Hidden

Submitted to Contest #305

At the intersection, I could go right and head home-- but turning left would take me right into the heart of downtown. It would be a dangerous play but with a potentially handsome payout: antibiotics, wound dressings, pain killers, and maybe even IV bags if I was lucky. High-risk, high-reward. Not the kind of thing I should be doing unless urgently necessary. Ever since the market crashed and the whole world went sideways it was always such a game of mental chess every time I left the compound. What do we absolutely need right now that we ca...

6 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

Fan Letter

Submitted to Contest #304

There was something about the way that she wrote that letter that made me stop in my tracks from the mailbox to my house. I was just about to pack it all in, to stop writing all together. The pain of never quite knowing what I’d have to do to write something to get noticed, to get published again, was eating away at me. Natalie. Her name is Natalie. How beautiful it is, the way it rolls off the tongue just so. She likes my work. Found it somewhere over across the pond, somewhere in America, a somewhere I know the exact address of because she...

7 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

I'm Not Afraid of Anyone I Write Into Existence

Submitted to Contest #304

Content Warning: This story contains strong language, graphic imagery related to death and decomposition, psychological tension, and themes of emotional and psychological manipulation. Reader discretion is advised. BAM, BAM, BAM!"Open up! I know you're in there!""What the heck?" I muttered, jerking my neck toward the sound.BANG! BANG! "Writer Girl, I said open the door!"My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I contemplated ignoring the knock and finishing my next book, All About Geoff, or stopping to answer the door.THUD… THUD, THUD! "Dang....

5 likes 5 comments 5
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.