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Read the best horror short stories for free on Reedsy Prompts. From ghost stories to grimdark; our collection of has it all. Choose now from 4980+ short scary stories and start reading online!
- Suspense
The Best Suspense Short Stories. Suspense is slightly...
- LGBTQ
Choose from the largest online collection of 1530+ stories...
- Thriller
Read the best thriller short stories for free on Reedsy...
- High School
Read the best high school short stories for free on Reedsy...
- Kids
The Best New Kids Short Stories. Children’s stories have...
- Indigenous
Read great short stories by Indigenous writers online....
- Someone Has Died
And he will tell that same story still, for many, many years...
- Lady of The Black Irons
It won't be a huge stretch of the imagination to see you've...
- Suspense
- “Patient Zero” by Tananarive Due. "Patient Zero" starts off innocently enough, with its narrator — a little boy — confined to his hospital room. Surely, a hospital is a place of healing, not a setting for a sinister story.
- “Click-clack the Rattlebag” by Neil Gaiman. You know that feeling you get when you walk up the stairs alone in an old, dark house? And you know that you shouldn't be afraid of the dark, but you can't help but feel like something is following in your footsteps, lurking just behind you?
- “The Spindly Man” by Stephen Graham Jones. In Stephen Graham Jones’ “The Spindly Man,” a book club’s discussion of a Stephen King story lures an uninvited guest with a bone to pick.
- “His Face All Red” by Emily Carroll. Emily Carroll is the reigning queen of creepy, interactive horror comics, and "His Face All Red" is one of her best.
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- Making Toast
- Pig Mask
- Last Day on Earth
- “I’m Still Here”
- Raising A Serial Killer
- They Knew
- Hello?
- “Would You Like to Come Live in My Basement?”
- Followed
- “Bark”
“Making toast late one night facing the kitchen bench eating for a good 5-10mins. Cleaned up and turned around and every single cupboard door and cutlery drawer were open. They were all closed when I went into the kitchen, and there was no way anyone could have snuck in and done it because I was home alone. I also didn’t hear them open in the time ...
“Our old house was on a corner, and in lieu of a backyard had a side yard, with a small deck that wrapped around the back. The dining room had patio doors that lead out to the back and we would have BBQs and such back there. When I was about 14, we only had one desktop computer and one laptop for the family. My brother and I would fight over the de...
“I worked from 2pm – 11pm at a gas station In one of the nicer cities around here and I had a gentlemen look me in the eyes and ask if I’m enjoying my last day on earth? Walked away before I could answer.” — atStevens98
“I came home pretty late one night and my roommates bedroom was shut and I assumed she was sleeping already but I saw something out of the corner of my eye in the kitchen, I said her name but she didn’t answer. I didn’t think anything of it so I walked into my room and before I turn the light on something whispered “I’m still here.” I turned on the...
“We (me, my wife and my 3 yo son) are sitting in the food court at Costco. There is another family with a ~4-5 yo girl sitting behind us. My son looks at me and says “Do you see that girl over there…..I’m going to teach her a lesson.” So I am taken aback for a second then I think he must intend to teach her numbers or some other normal thing you te...
“A family friend of mine used to work in private wealth management. One of her jobs was diversification of her clients assets on the stock market. Out of nowhere she gets a call from a representative of one of her very big private clients to sell all the stocks of a big airline and move the liquidity somewhere else. No buts, and if needed they coul...
“I went camping by myself in Maine, one night I woke up at like 3am. Not being able to fall asleep I just laid there listening to the woods. Then I heard a faint hello…. I was petrified. I felt so vulnerable in the tent. I never figured out what it was.” — bromandude69
“When I was 17 and worked in retail as a cashier, I had a very old couple come through my line buying a wok. The husband who was at least 85 started making conversation with me about the wok, and asked if I liked Chinese food. “Yeah, I like Chinese.” “Do you want to go out with me to get some Chinese?” He winks at me. “N-no sir.” “Oh. Well.” He loo...
“The summer after I graduated from high school, I left work early and went up to my parent’s cabin in northern Michigan. Spent that night at the beach watching the sunset. Once the sun went down and it became nearly pitch black (no light pollution) I got to my car and started driving down the highway (M22). After about 10 seconds of being at speed,...
“This actually happened fairly recently. I was home alone one day with my dog and 2 of my friend’s dogs. Out of nowhere, they all start barking and looking up towards our loft. As they’re quieting down, I hear someone in a mocking, calm tone say, “Bark.” They start going crazy again and I decide it’s time for a long evening walk.” — themanaroundher...
- Ray Bradbury, “The Veldt” (Saturday Evening Post, 1950) “George, I wish you’d look at the nursery.” “What’s wrong with it?” “I don’t know.” “Well, then.” “I just want you to look at it, is all, or call a psychologist in to look at it.”
- Tananarive Due, “The Wishing Pool” (Uncanny Magazine, 2021) Joy nearly got lost on the root-knotted red dirt path off of Highway 99, losing sight of the gaps between the live oaks and Spanish moss that fanned across her hood and windows like fingertips.
- Samanta Schweblin, tr. Megan McDowell, “Headlights” (2019) When she reaches the road, Felicity understands her fate. He has not waited for her, and, as if the past were a tangible thing, she thinks she can still see the weak reddish glow of the car’s taillights fading on the horizon.
- Joyce Carol Oates, “Zombie,” (The New Yorker, 1994) My name is Q.P., and I am twenty-nine years old, three months. I see my probation officer, Mr. T., Thursdays, 10 a.m., and my therapist, Dr. E., Mondays and Thursdays, 4:30 p.m.;
- "Lacrimosa," by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. La Llorona is a fixture of Mexican folklore. In this story, Silvia Moren0-Garcia—author of the horror novel Mexican Gothic—puts a modern twist on the age-old tale, by casting a homeless woman as the legendary La Llorona.
- "The Left Right Game" Adapted into a podcast in 2020, "The Left Right Game's" first incarnation was as a post on "No Sleep" subreddit, where users submit fictional stories often framed as urban legends.
- "Selfies," by Lavie Tidhar. If you're looking for a small story that packs a big scare, check out this imaginative riff of a fixture of the modern age: the cellphone.
- "Abraham's Boys," by Joe Hill. Joe Hill comes from horror pedigree: His father is the Stephen King. With this short story (and all of his novels), Hill shows his own distinct, but equally chilling, style.
Feb 24, 2016 · Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark, around a campfire, at sleepovers or read online. Alvin Schwartz put together a collection of spooky tales for kids based on ghost stories and urban legends.
Oct 31, 2018 · Want your scary stories and want them right now? For free? Problem solved: here are more than eight free scary short stories available online.
