Horror
Dead Still
A very late entry for L. C. Schafers Spooktacular Dollar challenge! Silence had been Ellen Campbells friend for as long as she could remember, and because most of the people she dealt with on a daily basis were dead she got plenty of it. Running a mortuary was no-ones idea of glamour, but someone had to do it; her mother had always said if there was something to be done it was better to get it over with than put it off... That, she told herself, was what she was doing as she undertook a stock check while studiously ignoring the body in bay four. She was not putting off dealing with bay four, she was making sure she had everything she needed to get the job done.
By S. A. Crawford3 months ago in Fiction
“When the City Slept for 48 Hours”
When the City Slept for 48 Hours by[Ali Rehman] It started at exactly 2:17 a.m. Maya was awake — not because she wanted to be, but because insomnia had become her shadow. She was making tea in her tiny apartment kitchen when the world simply… stopped.
By Ali Rehman3 months ago in Fiction
Some Things Should Not Be Seen
Laura put her eye to the keyhole. The room was dimly lit with only a small lamp. She could not make anything out. She was sure this was where the wailing had come from. She heard the floorboards creaking as someone walked across the room. A shadow passed the keyhole. She pulled her eye away.
By Calvin London3 months ago in Fiction
Black Cats. Top Story - October 2025.
He hated walking past the vacant lot. He walked to work every evening - he worked the night shift - and the lot was in between his apartment and his new job. He couldn’t avoid it without going a long ways out of his way, but he hated walking past it. It wasn’t the lot, so much. It was the cats.
By Laura DePace3 months ago in Fiction
Experiences May Differ
Just one look. Wouldn't hurt, would it? That's what they all say. That's what they never stop saying. Don't look through the keyhole. Don't tempt fate, don't push for the unseen to be seen. Don't strike up a parley with the unknown beyond the liminality of your doorway/doorframe. Still, what would the harm be in looking through the keyhole or the peephole? The peephole was designed by Abe Nichols and Joseph Spector, who patented their specific version of a concept that had existed for many centuries, and it became known as the optical door peephole or wide-angle door viewer.
By Paul Stewart3 months ago in Fiction
A Message Written in Moon Dust
Dr. Aris Thorne was a geologist, a woman of rock and reason. The first human mission to the lunar farside was her life's work. As her lander settled into the dust of the Mendeleev Basin, a place of eternal Earth-shadow, her heart beat with a purely scientific thrill. She was here to read the moon's oldest stories, written in stone.
By Habibullah3 months ago in Fiction
Letters From The Room That Doesn't Exist. AI-Generated.
Aarav had always been fascinated by old buildings, especially the abandoned Willowcrest Manor — a weather-beaten mansion at the edge of town, wrapped in vines like nature was trying to bury it. Locals said it was cursed, swallowed by time and sorrow.
By shakir hamid3 months ago in Fiction
I Wish for Fish. Runner-Up in Through the Keyhole Challenge.
Gently rolling in his blankets was an umber ambush, a stalking blot of venom on the night sky, thick in the tryst of the hunt. Or, so he thought of himself. No, his sanguine dream of dense jungle and damp mist hiding all but his bright yellow eyes was canned within the confines of a rocking metal tub. “A cat on the sea, who ever heard of such a thing”? The sleek feline mused to himself, lazily trailing a paw over the edge of his soft cloth perch, dangling from the dark ceiling in the corner of a warm room. He peeked though the keyhole to the small cupboard he was curled in
By Thomas Speer3 months ago in Fiction
The Plague Ghosts of Doctor Thomas Johnson
Prologue: With These Word I Do Recount It was the year of our Lord 1665, during the reign of King Charles II that the Plague once more descended upon London and was 2 months into the pestilence and the death toll was only rising higher. Most of the Doctors and Surgeons had fled the city and word was spreading that the King was soon to follow. Only the dead, the dying and the rats would soon remain. Most viewed the plague as a punishment from God, holy retribution in the form of diseased rodents that bite and scratch their poison into human flesh. To the body snatchers and many of the unethical brand of doctors, this was a reward from God, a chance to further the understanding of anatomy, to cut apart and defile the flesh that house our souls.
By Scott Grim3 months ago in Fiction
