FPS: Haunted Echoes Challenge Winners

🎃 Happy Halloween and welcome back to our Fall Poetry Series!

For this round, we asked writers to distill fear or mystery into just three lines. No cheap jump scares or horror clichés, just the lingering unease that creeps in when the lights go out.

What came back was delightfully unsettling: haikus about laughter in the static, shadows that might not stay shadows, and love that turns sharp when the knife catches the moonlight. Turns out, 17 syllables is plenty of room to get under your skin.

As always with short-form poetry, we did a light check to confirm each creator is real and active on Vocal. Nothing too deep, just a quick review to make sure our Halloween chills were entirely human-made.

🏆 Winners

Dress by Obsidian Words

Every line fits too perfectly, like something trying to wear you back.

Unseen by Luna Jordan

Soft, unsettling horror dressed up as white noise.

Nightmare 32 by Amos Glade

That’s the kind of crunch that turns breakfast into a midnight horror flick!

pareidolic realities by Alexandria Stanwyck

Pure nightmare fuel for anyone with a coat rack.

Steam by Cathy holmes

Starts like a love poem, ends like a crime scene.

🎖️ Runners-up

• loom by Mackenzie Davis
• The Mirror by Theo James Taylor
• In Bed Together by Naomi Tyhurst
• Snuggle by Andrew C McDonald
• the abyss gazes back by Raistlin Allen
• Don't Look Beneath the Bed by Ella Bogdanova
• The Sleepless Midnight by Tim Carmichael
• Hunger Haiku by Halestorm
• My greatest fear by Tyler Brice
• Firelight by Silver Daux
• The Witness by Noelle Spaulding
• In the Corner by Steve Lance
• Little Moreton Hall by Pixel Floyd
• the babysitter waits up by Dane BH
• A New Moon Shore by Kyle William

🏅 Honorable Mentions

• Before Dawn by E. C. Mira
• Guillotine by Thomas Speer
• The Sea by ᔕᗩᗰ ᕼᗩᖇTY
• The bus by Ema Salvi
• Secrets of Dusk by Kat. S
• The Gardener by Kelli Sheckler-Amsden
• People of the Mist by Pamela Williams
• fun and games by Ashley Lima
• A Chilling Warning by Jaye Ruggiero-Cash
• And So it Grows by Dana Crandell

Check out the latest on Vocal Challenges.