fiction
Horror fiction that delivers on its promise to scare, startle, frighten and unsettle. These stories are fake, but the shivers down your spine won't be.
The Bay
I woke to the sound of whistling. The wind was swirling ominously that night; like it was brewing something scandalous. It reminded me of what I imagined demons sounding like when they laughed. A chill shot up my spine and I shuddered. I pulled the shroud that I was lying on around me. It was summer, but the night air was cool, and the creepy wind wasn’t helping me regulate my body temperature. I reached next to me for the lantern I had placed there and fumbled around for the matchbox. I struck the match. The flame grew. It swelled largely as it was struck, and behind the flame, I could have sworn I saw something scampering across the ground. A sudden movement. I lit the lantern and closed the latch. The room grew with light as I moved it around, and I stood up from the ground, crunching bits of dirt under my feet as I did so. I could still taste rum on the insides of my mouth and on the sides of my lips as I licked them. The back of my throat was dry as sandpaper. Perhaps a night of solitude ‘away from the town’ wasn’t such a great idea after all. What was that saying, again? You can leave the town but you can’t leave the problem? Or something like that.
By Celious Blanc5 years ago in Horror
The Reaper's Wood
In a community on the outskirts of Hambergen, children were told never to go out after the sunset, when the skies became dark. Something lurked out there that attacked animals and humans. And it was best never to enter the woods alone, even in broad daylight.
By Penny Royal5 years ago in Horror
The White Room
The room was dark and as Alice placed her hand on the pillow beside her, she remembered what she remembered every morning; he was dead. Sitting up she pushed her hair back, the lamp on her bedside table was shattered on the floor next to empty bottles and her medication. As her eyes adjusted she realized that she did not recognize this room.
By Anna Waters5 years ago in Horror
The Barn Owl Society
Of all the people attending the party, Bella Clearwater chose to dance with the ghost in the room. The Ballroom was stuffed full of people with money up to their ears, but not an ounce of character. And besides, she knew Will. He was the ghost that lived in her library. They had spent many a night talking until the sun streamed through the window. “So, what's her story? The lady in the too-tight pink dress?” Will asked, they had been at this for quite some time, Will would find a person who came off as odd, and Bella would make up a story. “That,” Bella began, “is Duchess McBride. She had been married to the duke McBride, until she realized he was quite boring and old,” Bella leaned in close to Will’s face “so she ran him through with a kitchen knife” if Will was alive, he’d have shivered. “But she’s actually my aunt Marie. She’s not married so she dresses as she likes. Grandmother hates her. Says she’s too eccentric.” Will smiled at Bella, spinning her out. “People must think you’re quite eccentric too, dancing with a ghost?” Bella returned his grin, returning to his grasp, “Well I believe that everyone is at least a little bit mad. I mean, how could one possibly be sane and wear that?” She asked, pointing to a woman who appeared to have a stuffed frog on her hat. Will chuckled “That is a little bit mad-looking” She turned to him. “See? We’re all just a little mad” she explained as Will led her to the edges of the dance floor, where no one could see the girl who seemed to be dancing with herself. Although will couldn’t understand how no one would notice Bella. The way her dark green dress swirled around her feet and made her brown eyes look like melted dark chocolate, and made her olive skin look more tan.Even the way her dark green dancing slippers moved silently across the floor was beautiful. And her hair. It was swept up with emerald pins that matched her dress. And Will thought she looked the prettiest out of anyone there. That’s what made this so difficult. “Will? Did you hear what I just said?” Will shook out of his daze, only to find himself nose-to-nose with Bella. “Er..no?”
By Read_Write_Tea5 years ago in Horror
The Omen
It tempted us all. Fools, every single one of us. Idiotic, I began to think. Starving, tired, cold, I lie against a bare tree deep in the forest of a region I have never been. My target, watching me from a distance. Its head was turned to the side as its large black eyes locked on to me like a radar. Legend spoke of this beast to be prosperous, but no man had ever come as far as I had. But now that I watch it from this close, I questioned that philosophy as well. I had lost everything I ever held dear to me. Sleepless nights spent at bars drinking nearly everything they had, to spend my days sleeping on park benches. Wasting my life away. I had long missed the life I once had. I'd do anything to have it back—just once more. I had spent the majority of about eight years trying to drown out the memories. Tears fell from my eyes, then froze in the Aridan Tundra. My beard was latent with ice from the snow. It had been days since I spoke. My lips were sealed shut due to the moisture that escaped my mouth. My arms and legs were exhausted and mostly frostbitten. I could clearly see my body in front of me, but it felt like it belonged to someone else because I no longer had control. Oh, how I wish I could rewind the clock. Maybe that is the kind of thought that brought me here in the first place. Everyone I had pushed away warned me of my desires. However, I did not listen to them. But I should have. All this time I tried to prove them wrong; I ended up being the one who paid the ultimate price.
By AJ McMullen5 years ago in Horror
The Great Aethin Fairgrounds
The bus bounced briskly over the hill. The day was small but bright and waiting. A small gray and white Mouse with a tattered felt hat and green corduroy jacket sat on a seat towards the back, enjoying a coffee magazine on the commute to the market. He had travelled here on ship, to the city of Aethin, where roads were paved to a shine and a merchant's stall sat on every corner. Every Aethinian had something to sell, to offer, and those who didn't reside in the city of white gold travelled there from every corner of the stratosphere for those wares and services you could only find behind the border of the infamous orange gate housing the landscape, flat in landscape but scaling high in development, apartments packed towards the back like cans of fish while the pear of the oyster, the Fantastic Aethin Fairgrounds, hosted tables and covers as far as the eye could see, rows on rows marked out like a microchip the townsfolk of ones and zeros could direct through with ease. For the foreigner, as most in the marketplace were, one was provided with guides, or, as our friend prefers, you could simply wander in and let any specific shop find you. Things tended to go the latter for most guests inexplicably, but it was also undoubtedly good for business that your customers should always find you when they need, no matter the cost to get there. In Roucks, Mouses hometown, the tram rides come with quarter coffee machines at the back and red leather padded seats. The uncomfortable wood and metal of these sleek town buses were not a place where one would nap and find pleasant dreams, but missing a morning coffee can lead to any perceivable outcome, mouse realized, and the magazine slipped from his paws. He soon was in a weary slumber, unmanned ears still scanning for the final ding of the bell from the driver, signifying the arrival at the Fairground entrance.
By Octavious M!5 years ago in Horror
I'll Wait Til The Mornin
I—probably nobody, both in a sense movin backward and forward here—would have never found the body if it hadn’t been for that scream that woke me out of a dead sleep. I hadn’t lived in West Virginia long but anybody who grew up huntin or spent a great deal of time in the woods had come across that god awful screech at some point or another I’d likely reckon. It sounded like a woman bein murdered. Just hearin it evoked images of a knife being dragged through a woman’s stomach. Course I still couldn’t be sure if it was a bobcat or a barn owl. All I knew was that it kept hollerin and finally I felt a deep bubble inside me burst. A bubble that holds that dark liquid fear that spreads through your innards when your skin prickles up and your hair stands and the stomach tightens; it’s a feelin I’ve felt enough times in my life to trust. It’s a feelin that I believe indicates the presence of evil, of wickedness and danger; of a very very bad thing.
By Dylan R. Nix5 years ago in Horror
What she deserved
Momma died on a snowy and bitter Tuesday in January. An awfully normal day to die, Tuesday. When I found her body in the yard, I suppose I should have been sad but I thought good riddance instead. She looked like a statue, skin as cold as marble and snow coloring her eyelashes and dark hair white. That would have made her mad. She spent almost an entire Saturday every month aggressively searching her hair for evidence of her age and when found, slathering it in a dark paste until it accepted defeat. Even gray hairs couldn’t stand up to Momma. Blood trickled out of her mouth, a splash of red in a colorless scene. Her eyes weren’t closed and it looked like she was staring off into the distance, which gave me the heebie jeebies, so I kicked snow over her face until I couldn’t see them anymore. I didn’t believe in respecting the dead, especially when the dead in question had beat the shit out of me most days of the week and twice on Sundays.
By Margaret Stanwood5 years ago in Horror
