Don't Look Under the Bed: 5 Short Horror Stories That'll Haunt You

I have no better thing to love than horror stories. Adrenaline! The thrill of fear! If you know me then you would know how much I adore sharing spooky stories, particularly at a sleepover with my friends. What I loved the most were the short anthologies that I gathered online when I was a child, and I figured it would be fun to share these stories with the world. Up until now, whenever I retell these tales to individuals, they never fail to astonish me so, here are five of some of my most favored short frightening tales!

Who's in my bed?

A father had gone to say good night to his seven year old son, well knowing that if he didn't, his son would not be able to sleep. It was a nightly ritual between them. He entered the dark room where his son was under the blanket. At first glance, the father could feel that there was something unusual about his son tonight, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. He appeared the same but wore a grin from ear to ear.

"You alright, pal?" the father questioned.

The son nodded with the grin, then replied, "Daddy, look under my bed for monsters."

The father smiled somewhat before getting onto his knees to peek only to humor his son.

There, under the bed, white and shaking, was his son. His real son. He quietly uttered, "Daddy, there someone on my bed".

The Cabin

A solo hiker had decided to hike. Something which he was not used to. The whole day passed uneventfully. Bushes and trees covered everything about him. He enjoyed spending time outside amidst the mountains. Nothing was out of the ordinary to him, that is until he was returning back to his car. He believed that an eight hour hike was enough. The sky was already dark and he had to go back, fast. What was odd was how little he didn't know the path back. He began to panic.

Already night had fallen and all he had was a flashlight and no clue on how to get back. He knew it was already too late and too dangerous to keep walking in the dangerous forest. He began to worry that he would not get any shelter in the evening when almost luckily enough, he happened upon a rundown cabin.

Night had fallen, and seemed like no one had visited there in years, yet he knew that it was the only spot he could get any rest until daybreak, especially because his flashlight battery was diminishing. He knocked on the door a few times but nobody answered, so he opened the door himself where oddly enough, a single-bed perfectly fit in the middle where he waited.

He knew that if the owner came back he could defend himself, he was sure that the owner would not complain, or even probably be dead. So he went ahead and settled down in the bed.

As he tried to sleep, he couldn't help but see the series of paintings set around the room; portraits of strange looking individuals all staring at him, each with a smile that sent shivers down his spine. Shortly after his exhaustion from the hike had gotten the best of him and he was finally able to block out the faces.

The next day he woke up early and was surprised to see that there were no paintings all over the room, but windows…

The Red Wristband

A doctor was in a hospital, a hospital where the patients were color-coded. Green: alive. Red: dead.

One night, the doctor was asked to get some things from the hospital basement, so he headed down to the lift. The lift doors opened and a patient was sitting in there, getting on with it. It was fine for patients to be around the hospital so that they could stretch, particularly those who have been at the hospital for such a long time. The rule was to return to their rooms by ten.

The doctor smiled at the patient as he pressed the basement button. He observed that it was strange that the woman did not already have a button pressed. He wondered whether she was headed to the basement too.

The lift was then finally on the floor where the doors opened. In the distance a man was limping towards the elevator, and out of fear the doctor slammed the elevator button shut. It did so at last and the lift began moving upwards, the doctor's heart pounding.

"Why did you do that? He was trying to use the lift." The woman said, annoyed.

"Did you see his wrist?" The doctor asked, "It was red. He died last night. I would know since I operated on him."

She raised her wrist. He saw red. She smiled. "Like this one?"

White with RED

There is a man who recently rented an apartment and goes to the reception to pick up his keys. The receptionist gave him the key with a smile but warns him not to knock on the door with no number on his floor. He wondered but did not find it fit to ask, he was too busy with his new apartment to care. Upon unpacking he began to wonder. He questioned why the receptionist would notify him of such a thing, so he went out of his apartment to take a look at the door with no number.

He tried the door knob first but it was locked, so instead he crawled onto his knees and peeked through the keyhole. The apartment he was looking into was empty. His eyes raked across the entire space to rest upon a woman, with her back turned to a wall, sitting in the corner. He caught her white skin and dark shag of hair before he took a step back, feeling intrusive for trespassing upon someone's private space. He shrugged, figuring she must be someone who did not want to be disturbed.

The next day he became more curious about the woman and finally came back, directly going down onto his knees. He peered through the keyhole and saw all red. Red. He assumed that the pale lady must have seen him gazing the last time and covered something red over the hole.

He left the door alone and instead proceeded to the receptionist to interrogate her. The receptionist sighed and replied, "you peeped through the keyhole, didn't you?"

He admitted to it and thus she felt obligated to tell him about the story. She told him that a couple once lived in that apartment many years before, but the husband went mad and killed his wife. This couple, however, was not typical.

They were white-skinned, black-haired, and red-eyed.

A mother's summons

There was a daughter, who was in her room upstairs, doing her homework when suddenly her mother called out to her to come down for dinner. She jumped on her feet and was ready to go down the stairs, but before she took her first step, hands grasped her and pulled her into the laundry room next to the staircase.

She was scared before she realized it was her mother, her real mother, eyes bloodshot and teary. "Don't go downstairs honey, I heard it too."