Welcome to our 2019 $500 Halloween Horror 50 Word Story Contest. Yes, that’s right. It’s already here. Every year we run our contests, and those of you who have been frequent readers, this is what you’ve been waiting for.
First we will be doing a print issue! We will be doing 2 print issues, and we will pick entries from this contest to be in our issue. If you had a 50 word story designated to be in our print issue, from a past contest, please contact us.
Second, we will be giving out a $500 reward for the best 50 word horror story. This is not easy for us. Every Writer is not doing as well as it did in the past, but we want your stories. I believe writers should get paid for their work. I wish we could pay all of our writers, but it’s just impossible. So $500 for 50 words, I think is a unique and valuable statement to our readers. Ten dollars a word is what all writers really deserve.
So here are the rules:
• Story must be scary
• Story must be 50 words
• Story must be original and your own
• Story may not be published elsewhere
• Story must have a title (does NOT count in word count)
• Deadline is October 25, 2019
• Enter as many times as you want
• Story must be written in the comments below!
• Be nice or be disqualified
I love these stories. This is one of favorite traditions of Every Writer. I look forward to this every year, and this year I have extended the time we are going to spend with the contest.
The winners will:
• Be announced on October 31, 2019
• Will get $500
• Will be published in our digital and print issue.
• Will get an author page on our site
There is no entry fee for this contest. It would help us out greatly if you would donate 1$ or more, if you can, to help out the site. We would really appreciate it. A donation will not be considered in the deciding this contest.
If you want to keep up with me on Twitter, please follow me at @everywriter, I follow back all writers.
Good luck, and let the writing begin.
HERE IS THE WINNER
I have picked 4 stories. They all have times and days on them. If the winner does not respond by Friday 11/22/19 the money will go to the next story on the list. Here are the top 4 stories in order. ONLY OUR 1st PLACE WINNER gets the $500. Also, so this insanity never happens again, the winner will be invited back next year to be one of the judges.
WINNER 1st Place:
Kit Steward 10/13/19 5:20 pm
THE MIDNIGHT INCUBATOR
She heard mushy sounds for days and suffered from unbearable itchiness.
A doctor’s visit revealed earwig pupae nesting in her ear canal, it was flushed out.
Later, weary from stress, she crawled into bed.
That night while she slept, the creature returned.
And finding the eggs missing, it laid more.
2nd Place:
Elizabeth Lee 09/24/19 4:36 pm
Secondhand Doll
She didn’t want a secondhand doll so she flung it across the room. Porcelain cracked against the wall. Her mom made her glue the pieces back together. A thin shard sliced her hand, baptizing the doll in her hateful blood. The secondhand doll decided she didn’t want an ungrateful child.
3rd Place:
Alexander Daley Escobedo 10/25/19 3:38pm
Heirloom
We Buried my brother today. Suicide. He thought something evil was haunting him. He’d been medicated, institutionalized, shocked and secluded. He found his own way out. I wish I could tell him I’m sorry. Or had listened more closely. Because, when I got home, it was on my couch. Laughing.
4th place:
JB 10/25/19 8:12pm
TITLE: RESEVOIR
We should have known something was wrong when we first tasted the water. It was a little brown, but no more than usual in this apartment complex.
We kept drinking it until it turned black.
When they opened the water tank, they found the bloated, rotting corpse of my neighbor.
We usually always contact the winners first, but after all the trouble, we are opening up the process. I am again, very sorry for how late this is. I did not expect 4000 stories. Next year I will be ready.
Lisa Wishard says
Bubbles
It began with a single, silly bubble of indigestion, dismissed as an incompatible ingredient. Later, it became a symphony, guts writhing, but still humorous. “Feeling effervescent, are we?” they’d laughed. When the tsunami started, no one was laughing her body wresting forth torrents of bloody bones and hair.
Nikki Friedman says
Prometheus
Every day, the raven comes. Every day, we watch, we wait. A portent, perhaps. A sign of misfortune. We wait.
There’s nothing.
Every day, the raven comes And still we wait. We don’t know what we are waiting for. The waiting is the worst part.
Every day the raven comes.
Em Jenner says
THE FISHERMAN
Walking home from catching catfish, I saw something shiny in the sky.
It was just out of reach, so I jumped higher. Then it speared me through my cheek, see?
Yanked up and flung into space where I couldn’t breathe, then blammo I was here again. I’d been thrown back!
Em Jenner says
HOMEMADE PASTA SAUCE
There’s a ringing in dead man’s ear. He taps his earbud.
“Hello, yes? No, Don’t worry! We’re processing your order right now.”
The maggots squirm as they suck up and squeeze out the putrid flesh in his chest cavity. He gives the mess a stir.
Nikki Friedman says
For Children Only
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
Where did he go? What has he learned? What does he have to teach us now? Who is he now? Who is he now?
Who
is
he
now?
The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
But something lives in his skin.
Em Jenner says
THE PRODIGAL SON
Ice-cold psychic fingers close around the stranger’s heart. His eyes glaze over.
Drool oozes from the old hag’s lips as she plays with the life in her hands. Then she she stops short.
Despite the pain, he laughs. “You never thought they’d retain and raise your abortions, did you Mother?”
CJ Baker says
Top-Hat-Man
The top-hat-man visits me in my dreams. Mommy says that dreams aren’t real and that he can’t hurt me.
“Come on Billy, give me your hand,” Says the top-hat-man.
I reach out slowly and gasp at his ice-cold fingertips. He grins like the Cheshire cat. I can’t wake up!
Nikki Friedman says
The Great Gothic Poets
To imitate those before us we loaf about, claiming choleric and taking laudanum to soothe the aches of our genius.
Like Mary Shelley, we have sex on our mothers’ graves.
We spread syphilitic fever as did Byron, as did Wilde.
But the ghosts that haunt our minds never go away.
Nikki Friedman says
The Dentist
I brush and I brush and I brush and I floss.
I go to the dentist.
But it’s not enough.
My teeth must be shiny, my teeth must be sharp. My teeth must be something to fear in the dark.
My shiny teeth, my shiny teeth,
My shiny
Shiny
Teeth
Em Jenner says
URBAN EXPLORATION: THE POINT OF NO RETURN
“They live down here in the slimy sewers.”
I knocked my dying flashlight for one last splash of illumination, quickly scanned the writhing shadows in he maze of tight tunnels we’d just crawled through. Cold and lost. There was no doubt their wheezing was getting louder, closer.
“Live on what?”
Angie Wiley says
I wiped tears from my face, just accept it, no matter how much grief…
She was gone, no ritual could bring her back.
Facing the mirror, eyes dark and swollen, I sniffled before blowing out the candles.
My reflection didn’t follow, the fire flickering on the otherside of the mirror.
Angie Wiley says
An ancient tomb, deep and buried into the earth. I’d be famous for sure, the first to conquer such peril.
The my flashlight flickered, smashing it against the side wall, it went out. Left in the dark, I cursed before hitting it again.
It didn’t work, light flickers beside me anyway. But, wasn’t I alone…
Annie Pichardo says
Fangs In Deep
Shrieking in pain I felt the vampire fangs sinking deeper and deeper. I struggled to loosen my shaking hands but Ted shoved them against the wall. I could feel my blood tickle down my chest. “You are forever mine” I will forever be scarred by vampire fangs.
Em Jenner says
NYPD BLUE INK
Detective Sipowicz scratches his balding head. “A tattooed heart?”
The New York coroner shrugs. She thought she’d seen it all before.
“What can I say, Andy? It’s not just his heart, but all his organs were inked when I opened him up – and it was done before he died.”
Andrei Drooz says
DEMENTIA
I looked in on Pop-pop around three-thirty. Cufflinks shimmered in frosty moonlight as he buttoned his peacoat, adjusted his fedora.
I followed him to our front door, but this time I didn’t hold the lock. He looked so happy to be returning to his long-dead mother, and I let him go.
Annie Pichardo says
Two Victims
A hand cracked up from the earth. My father. A murder. Paralyzed, my father’s grave crumpled. He killed my mother. Now he’ll kill me too. Screaming I saw his face that had peeling flesh coming off. “Johnny Johnny here comes Daddy!” Grabbing my foot I joined his grave.
Benjamin Peck says
THE PUMPKIN SONG
“Jack-o-Lantern! Jack-o-Lantern!” The children sang, carving in eyes and a wicked smile. “See this smile, hear us singing! Jack-o-Lantern! Jack-o-Lantern!”
“Please,” the man whined between agonizing screams, “please let me go.”
“Shhhh,” one child said, poking his cheek with a carving knife. “He can’t hear us, if you’re so loud!”
Sylvia Anne Telfer says
Cut to the Quick
His pregnant ex-girlfriend swung one of the dangling Halloween apples straight towards his mouth. Silly bitch had believed his every word. He took an enormous bite. He saw her smile just as blinding pain filled his mouth. A blood pool was forming on the carpet. His tongue plopped into it.
Gerri Zimmerman says
The Black Cat
The black cat arched his back and hissed. The tiny mouse stopped in its tracks. The cat leaped and swallowed the mouse in one gulp.
The cat heard the mouse’s bones break as digestion began. He grinned and wiped his mouth with his paw. One mouse down. More to come.
Sylvia Anne Telfer says
Bairn Breac – Fruit Bread
Granny Kelly had baked Sahmain fruit bread, and set plates to welcome their dead ancestors returning home this night. They tittered as they munched.
‘They aren’t coming, and so we join them. I popped hemlock into the bread. Hemlock’s in the same family as parsnip, fennel and carrot,’ granny said.
paul says
Great-aunt Ginny had eighteen cats and used the persuasion of free room-and-board to make her great-nephew Jim take care of them.
Jim hated cats, but he loved his neighbor Debbie who complained she didn’t have nice things in life.
That winter Jim gave her a fur coat. Ginny was lonely.
Sylvia Anne Telfer says
Bones
The Halloween bonfire was crackling, shooting sparks into darkness. The stick she had shoved into it to retrieve her roasting potato was dragging out a small skeleton. Her blood turned icy as she saw her terrier’s collar around it. From the shadows, a disembodied snarl said, ‘It’s a bone fire’.
F. J. Kun says
Side Gig, circa 2009
I’d never be a grave-digger, thought he, as he dug up the grave. Straining under each spadeful, aching deep in the lats.
But you’d be shocked at what the Med Schools pay, no questions asked.
I’m no Burke & Hare; I’m a Realtor, for crissakes.
It’s just this goddamn economy.
Jack Caster Payne says
Sugar
It takes one word. He commands you to stay as he would his dog. You obey out of fear of the Doberman’s massive jaws near your throat. His victims never know just how simple the kill is. It takes one word and the beast will go for your jugular…Sugar.
F J Kun says
Interview with Robert Kessler, Former Chief Profiler: FBI
“Who was the worst?” the reporter began.
Kessler stared outside. Dirty March snow.
“Don’t know his name. Someone saw this guy in a Halloween parade in Gainesville – no costume besides a red-stained T-shirt. Found his ‘tableaus’ later.”
“But…why not Bundy or Green River, the infamous…?”
“Never caught,” said Kessler, quiet-like.
Jack Caster Payne says
In the Doorway
My dog sleeps in the doorway, my protector. In the middle of the night she licks my toes to wake me up. Not now, I’m trying to sleep. Again she licks, now more vicious. I feel teeth press against my toes. I look to the doorway. My dog is mutilated.
F. J. Kun says
Thursday Morning, 3:30am
Suddenly awake. Bedroom black and still, like a cistern. Furniture dimly visible, familiar groupings. What woke you? You reach for your phone on the nightstand; fingers search and scuttle, crab-like. The feel of smooth bare wood where it should be, when the phone is placed squarely into your half-open palm.
Meagan H. says
A Dream?
No Escape. The mattress under my head was too warm. It feels like a great weight is on my chest, crushing my sternum. Hot, unseen hands press my forearms. I tried to breathe, but I couldn’t get any air. Turning my head, I saw gleaming teeth in a desiccated mouth.
Jack Caster Payne says
Beyond the Door
I work in a secret government facility in the desert. One day I witnessed bodies being taken through a door marked ‘executive personnel only’. I saw an opportunity so I blackmailed an official to let me inside or I’d tell. It was only desert, mangled bodies, and pulsating living sand.
F. J. Kun says
Frankenstein: A Fan’s Notes
I was obsessed, perhaps mad. I burgled the Med School. Cut. Sewed. For Alpine lightning, I substituted AC current. Triumph! Then regret.
My creation lacked the ambition required to terrorize villages, and instead spent Its time glued to my Ipad while occasionally sampling the Meow Mix in “Mr Floofer’s” bowl.
Jack Caster Payne says
Mowing Rocks
Cut the grass or I’ll beat you. Dad threatened this before and followed through. He beat me for mowing rocks, same as now. It shoots out and hits a crow who falls to the sidewalk dead. Dad rushes out to beat me, trips on the crow, and falls down dead.
Meagan H. says
Hunger
It was so cold. The snow pinched my feet as I walked and the wind blows harder. I was so very hungry. A cry for help rang through the wood. I ran toward them. “I’m coming!” I cry. I reach them, but things go very wrong. I’m not hungry anymore.
Ashaunti Coggins says
Escaping Death
Midnight. A trucker, forcefully touches the hitchhiker.
She gut punches him.
Nervously runs into woods.
Hungry coyote closely engages.
She jumps in nearby river.
A cult rescues her, slits her wrist for human sacrifice.
Hiding in cave, afraid, cold, bloody.
A black widow lands on her neck ending her existence.
Gregory Clouse says
Rise
The hole in the woods is deep. Stars align above it. The canopy parts – sheltering limbs cracking in the dark – to allow swells of stellar wind and loosed photons access to the earthly grave of the ancients. Time to rise. Time again to shake awake this sleeping world.
Nissa Velez says
DARKEST DESIRES
Inside I’m screaming as the cold chill consumes me, like the devil’s serpent wrapping around my neck preventing me from breathing. The hands scratch my body, as the flesh tears open. I can’t help myself. I dip my fingers into my blood, taking a taste. I’m in his control now.
Nissa Velez says
Whispers
“Go ahead. Do it. I dare you.” The whispers echo throughout the room, but there is no one to be found. She’s alone. But when she stares into the mirror, she sees them telling her to do it. She can’t take it anymore. Clutching her head, she takes the gun…BANG!
Mackenzie says
Boob Tube
Static fills the TV screen. I press on the remote.
Nothing.
The picture clears, my heart constricts. All I see is the back of my head. Heavy breathing the only sound. My brain circles with the picture:
My pale face reflected on the screen,
a shadowed man looming over me.
Kit Steward says
PLEASE SHEAR THE ROAD
Another mangled bicyclist lay lifeless.
The satisfied entity withdrew to the roadside car, its front bumper mired in red gore.
Leathery hands cranked an ignition, sparking an engine to combustion.
The demon’s machine rocketed across darkened roadways nightly like a cruise missile seeking soft targets for some unholy flesh quota.
Paul Kimpel says
“A Warm Winter Coat”
Great-aunt Ginny had eighteen cats and used the persuasion of free room-and-board to make her great-nephew Jim take care of them.
Jim hated cats, but he loved his neighbor Debbie who complained she didn’t have nice things in life.
That winter Jim gave her a fur coat. Ginny was lonely.
Jack says
Inheritance
The woman told her boyfriend that all she had ever wanted was to be the head of her fathers law firm.
The boyfriend promised her if she worked hard then she would be rewarded.
On her birthday he gave to her all she ever wanted; the head of her father.
Jack says
Divorce
I woke up to see a man stood in the corner of my room. I was relieved when I released it was just my father.
I turned on a light, I wish I never did. His eye bloodshot with madness, his teeth and hands stained of blood. He smiled.
Sumit Basak says
Seen
“Alright Megan, you can do it. It’s just a bunch of old men with derogatory opinions. Everyday life right!” The pep talk was working wonders for her confidence. The glow from the light reflected divinely on her face, a stark contrast to the dark bathroom. “You got this, girl.” She said, moments before fainting. “What the hell? Get up!” Called her reflection.
Jack says
Lost time
I spent all night talking to my mom, I hadn’t seen her in so long. I felt terrible for leaving her alone with my father for all those years. It was nice to hear her laugh again. Until I remembered she died.
Jule says
Sweet dreams.
I stare in the darkness as my bedroom door opens – slowly. I freeze.
Fear fills my body. I stop breathing. I can’t look. I won’t look!
I hear a faceless whisper in the dark: “Sweet dreams.” Something grabs my feet. I scream. I knew, I’ll never wake up again.
Jule says
Lullaby
“Sssh, sweetie, it’s okay”, the mother whispers. The baby cries. The mother hums a lullaby. “Just sleep now, my baby girl.”
Gently but firmly the mother pushes the pillow down on the crying baby. Until there’s only one sound left: the mother’s humming of a lullaby.
Sumit Basak says
FOOD
2am in the morning is pretty late for dinner, but I sure was hungry. My options were limited and my hunger was growing. Patience wasn’t exactly my virtue and break-in food was a dangerous idea in today’s age. Nevertheless, gnawing on Pete’s bones after getting fired today? Priceless!
Ellis Aurien says
The Late Shift
I got off late from work tonight and was more exhausted than usual. By the time I pulled into my driveway, the only thought in my mind was my comfy bed.
As I approached the door, I noticed two sets of sharp yellow eyes in the window, and felt comfort in knowing my cats were there to greet me in the final moments between exhaustion and sleep… until I remembered that I only had one cat, and that his eyes were much smaller than the ones staring at me.
Sam De Yarman says
Them
His ears still rang with screams. He tried to save her, but they were too much for him. There were too many for him to fight. And now, as he looked at her lifeless eyes, steel blade pressed against his neck, he knew his fate was the same as hers.
Sumit Basak says
DO YOU HEAR IT?
Faint at first, but getting louder by the second, it killed their passionate kiss. “You hearing it?” She questioned. “Wha-” he broke out of it, looking at her.
“This song!”
“The radio’s off, babe.”
“You don’t hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“Jeepers Creepers! It played during my brother’s funeral…”
Kathy Slater Neilsen says
A Dark and Lonely Street
I hear footsteps behind me but see nothing. I hurry but those footsteps match my own. When I pass under a streetlamp my shadow is cast ahead, then another appears. I look over my shoulder, nothing but darkness. The footsteps and shadow remain. I scream when that shadow overtakes mine.
Sam De Yarman says
Stains
Her red-rimmed eyes confirm what I already know, but the stains confuse me. On her sweater, her jeans. In her hair, on her hands, across her face. The deep redness smeared all over.
There are some large, black bags zipped tightly shut. And I realize:
She is covered in blood.
Sumit Basak says
DADDY, SMILE!
“Daddy smile! Or it’s gonna eat you!”
Sam laughed at his sweet 5yr old. Kids, I tell you. They ruin the fun!
Gemma’s been following me around ever since I showed up here. At first, I found it cute, but now it’s just… It’s too much! How did she even figure out that I can’t eat a happy victim?! Annoying little rascal.
Sumit Basak says
I SPY
They giggled under the bed covers.
“My turn.” Nat took a quick look around the dark room. “I spy a little round toy, maybe brown, maybe green.”
“Is it my frog?” Jess giggled. “Try again.”
“Okay.” Nat looked around, and froze. “I uh- I spy two… Red eyes by the-“
Sumit Basak says
R.I.H
The graveyard was perfect for smoking up at. People steered clear from it, but not Sabrina. She’d usually smoke up with her friends, but this time she brought along one made of real flesh and blood.
“Oh look! R.I.H? That’s a funny typo.”
Sabrina just rolled her eyes, “That’s Jason’s grave…”
Em Jenner says
HER FINAL TEST
He felt bad about giving in to his dead wife’s twin sister, but she was so horny.
Riding him, she pinned him down as the fire sparked, as it spread upstairs, as the smoke engulfed them.
He couldn’t see her until it was too late – and then she wasn’t there.
priya says
Cruality of a woman A real ghost woman who killed her husband and married another person. But it was not the end of her cruality. It was just the begning. Next year she killed her daughter by adding chemical in food. Every year she did the same and killed six people in her own family for their property. She also decided to kill her two son’s but luckily she could’nt do that. A real living devil in the form of a woman she is.
Kit Steward says
THE CONJURING
“Something came through the darkness, something evil, with the hollowness of death. ‘Twas nothing tangible, merely an oppressive mood that tickles souls from the periphery.
With naive hopes of hastening the phantom’s manifestation, the following sacrifices were necessary: the seclusion of myself, barring all sanity, and never-ending scribbles of words.”
Harold C. Holt says
Scarecrow Apocalypse
They’re fast, limber, resilient, stealthy, menacing… They are legion. Their pitchforks stab and disembowel. Get close and they vomit straw down your throat.
Someone yells, “They’re just straw! Burn ’em!”
Several try. Scarecrows’ eyes glow. The torches flare up, engulfing those holding them.
They’re pyrokinetics. The scarecrows can control fire.
Em Jenner says
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
Dan stole apples from any orchard, his version of ‘equal opportunity’. He sold them opposite the farmer’s market from an unmarked van.
This haul was different though. He knew as soon he bit into the last one and wiped blood from his eyes, that he wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Lydia Pedersen says
Balcony
The scene behind me is ugly. Six bloody bodies lying on the floor, dying the carpet crimson. In front of me the sun sets the sky ablaze in blood and flames. That’s not the end for me. I tighten the noose, and jump. The view from my balcony is lovely.
Sadie Gibson says
NONNIE STITCHES
Nonnie Stitches gave a toothless smile as her cauldron grew hot over the fire. The stew bubbled and filled the cabin with green smoke. Something bobbed in the stew. Nonnie Stiches dipped her gnarled hands in and tossed the child’s nose into her mouth.
“Trick or treat, indeed,” she cackled.
Harold C. Holt says
BIT PARTS
“Can I eat part of you before we make love? Just a pinch of flesh from an ear lobe, a big toe, a thumb. You won’t miss it. It will mostly grow back.”
I said no.
He cried and got dressed, covering the tiny scabs and nicks marking his body.
Kit Steward says
THE REFLECTION AT MIRROR LAKE
The three pals were at the local cliff, taking turns diving into the lake below.
Vince swam the murky depths with eyes open, never wanting to miss a thing.
Spying something distant, he rose for air and plunged again.
Encountering a sunken corpse, the shocked boy took his last gasp.
Nicole Chaise says
“CIRCUS MUSIC”
Circus music starts
My father guards
Circus music plays
My mother afraid
Father’s body suddenly flayed
And mother’s blood sprayed
Circus music louder
The clown appears
Circus music closer
Coming, it leers
Circus music quiet
The clown is missing
Circus music silent
No more fearing
Behind me,
Circus music plays.
Em Jenner says
FOREVER LEATHER
Kate always coveted her sister’s leather jacket, but her sister never took it off. Ever.
Even after the bike crash it was impossible to remove. Kate had tried.
When finally the funeral home released it to her, she put it on and gasped at the inner teeth piercing her skin.
Kit Steward says
THE GRUESOME ATELIER
“Oh…the things these hands created,” the Sculptor mused. “If walls could speak…”
In one sense they did, news articles and drawings were plastered everywhere.
Output had been less than in his heyday, but new found inspiration flourished.
Retrieving a secreted tool, he immediately set to work slitting his bunk-mates throat.
Em Jenner says
THE SUB-CONTRACTOR’S SUB CONTRACTOR
Eyes set in yellow jello, teeth like broken beer bottles, his breath stank of week old whisky vomit and there were stains on stains around his pants’ broken zipper.
“Babysitter. $5 an hour the ad said.”
“Great!” said the real teenage babysitter. “She’s all yours. I’ll be back around ten.”
Kelsey Morgan says
The Text
Sarah had spent all night with Kayla. At almost midnight, she got a text.
“Sorry I had to bail,” wrote Kayla.
Sarah didn’t turn around. She didn’t have to. She heard the widening jaws cracking behind her, breath of the creature on her neck.
Em Jenner says
BROTHERS IN ARM
RHHUUMMM! Chuck whooped and revved the motorbike with one hand, pulling his brother’s pony tail towards the screaming chain with the other.
The bike stand wobbled and Brad wrenched himself free.
“Get off me you psycho!” he yelled, but stopped in the spray of arterial spurt from Chuck’s mid forearm.
Curtis Norris says
What the Left Hand is Doing
“Ha! The wine was poisoned, dear brother. I got you!”
“You foolish devil! You’ll pay for this!”
His mouth foams as he raises the revolver. Convulsions challenge his aim. Bang! A lucky shot between his brother’s eyes.
The body and both heads are discovered by the maid in the morning.
Curtis Norris says
A SLICE OF LIFE
“What’s for dinner?”
“Don’t be cute.”
“Sorry, but why the straps?”
“The screams are the spice, n’est-ce pas?”
“You said you would kill me first! I want the pills!”
“I bet you do.”
“Really! I’ve changed my mind! Let me go!”
“Be still, now… I’m about to carve!”
Kit Steward says
THE BLACK-EYED SHEEP OF THE FAMILY
Giuseppe was never good in wood-shop.
Bandaged fingers pulled back an eyelid and fished around for a lost splinter.
It was deep.
He probed with his pinky, gently trying to locate it.
SMACK
Gepetto slapped his back. “I’m not gonna lie. Brother, you ain’t cut out for this.”
Brandon Pack says
THE LAST REQUEST
Mindless undead masses crossed the dying yellow field, leaving blood and filth in their wake. I struggled relentlessly at the ropes that tied me to the ancient oak. My friend, peering down from a high branch, bit into an apple.
“Why?” I asked.
“I want you to eat me alive.”
Curtis Norris says
FUN WITH DICK AND JANE
Here comes Dick! Here comes Jane!
Where is Spot? Oh, there he is!
See Spot hang. Hang, Spot, hang!
See Spot drip. Drip, Spot, drip!
Hear Dick laugh. Hear Jane chuckle.
Holy Christ, Dick! What the hell, Jane?
What have you done?
Here come Dick and Jane.
Run, you, run!
Kit Steward says
THE PLATTSBURGH ABLUTION
A gray blanket cloaked western Lake Champlain.
Its arrival was heralded by ghastly shrills, that echoed all night long.
When the mist evaporated the air was fouled, the Army Base derelict and nothing crept again.
Local whispers are still overheard, about that night and the eerie fog that could return.
Peter Jin says
The Roundabout
Running, pointless fleeing. Pain in my thighs, sweat on my back, and blisters on my feet. Corpse, bones, and blood, all from the same person, me. Whose pursuing? The darkness, the madness, or the roundaboutness? Never turns back, not even dare to look. An eternal nightmare echoes again and again.
Brandon Pack says
THE SILVER KISS
In the shadows I laid, my life spilling out of me like a faucet. The bullet hit me from behind. Three men with badges approached me from the trees. The full moon taunted me through black branches. I shivered, naked, in the cold: the sickness cured by a silver kiss.
Brandon Pack says
OGRE BREAKFAST
Otto sat shirtless on the stool. His toothless mother pushed, poked and pinched the tennis ball mound on his shoulder. What looked like butterscotch pudding (but smelled like rot) squirted out of the wound in three places. She carefully scooped up every drop and spread it on an English muffin.
Brandon Pack says
CANDY
Candy for breakfast! Candy for lunch! Candy for dinner! I love eating Candy on Halloween, but I hope they never find her in the freezer.
Brandon Pack says
WHERE STORIES GO TO DIE
The schleppers shared their pithy prose, but it was little more than delightful conversation fodder over Old-Fashions and caviar while nearby frantic feminine fingers dictated for the big wig dunderheads and the narcissistic thespian man children of Tinseltown’s elite.
Vic Ortiz says
A DELICACY
—
The chef lost his Michelin stars.
Humiliated, he took a sabbatical, a boat to the coast.
Seaside villages, markets, fish.
He joined the fishermen, on the rusty boat out to sea. Out to see.
They pulled ‘em in, the wiggling, screaming load.
They let the chef slit the mermaid’s throats.
Kelsey Morgan says
The Watcher
The cold shine of an eye gleamed through the crack in the ceiling. Heavy breathing seeped in through the walls. Evelyn, alone in her bed, was aware she was being watched, and found herself paralyzed.
The apartment above hers was vacant
Brendan Murphy says
Jack-O-’Lanterns.
Wild flickering, vibrant orange set against deepest blackness. Writhing, alone and surrounded. Cackling faces, carved ornately. Maniacal, wanting, sad, angry and menacing, unchanging malice blends with forever flaring hatred, like the flicker of candles under wet autumnal skies.
Surround by darkness and maniacal apparitions. I scream but make no sound. Alone.
Cana Shafer says
IT’S NOT OVER YET
Savagely murdered, a most heinous crime is what people are saying. The casket remained closed. The body was mutilated beyond recognition, face clawed to shreds, eyes gashed out. I watched from the church loft as my family struggled with their final goodbyes. If they don’t find my killer, I will!
Irene Daro says
SELFIE
She is so happy lying on her new bed, inside of her new dormitory. The church’s bell begins clanging, but she grabs her phone and begins taking several selfies. When she looks at it, she sees herself lying inside the coffin and the door creaks while it opens slowly.
Kelel Jimenez says
Atonement
You wake up in a dimly lit room and realize you’re unable to move. In the distance you hear a voice mutter the words, “you must atone for your sins” as the figure walks towards a wooden lever. He snickered as he releases a large metallic blade above your neck.
Irene Daro says
ANCESTRAL HOME
Lyca knocked on the bedroom’s door of her childhood friend to keep her company for a night after the aunt left her a voice message. She entered inside after she heard her saying ‘come in’. From the window, she saw her friend outside leaving and the room was empty.
CyNai Jaynes says
Smile
Pink Pageants and barbie dolls were never my thing but they sure did make my Mama proud. Before her death, Mama always told me, “A bright smile will hide dead eyes.” and she is not wrong.
I can’t tell which shines brighter on my shelf, her smile or my trophy.
CyNai Jaynes says
This is also me!
CyNai Jaynes says
STARS
Sundays I would visit my mother in the catacombs. I would bend my knees and pray for hours until the moon replaced the sun and the stars replaced the clouds. Once again I ended my prayer in darkness and looked through the skylight.
Only tonight did the stars blink back.
CyNai Jaynes says
This is me!
CyNai Jaynes says
DOLLS
Plastic children dressed in frills and bows, each in their own spot among the crowded workbench. Their waxy skin scratched and melted from hot tools. Nonetheless, they remained quiet and lifeless.
Perhaps it was the hole in their faces that kept them silent…
Or the woman with the plastic smile.
CyNai Jaynes says
I wrote this but I didn’t have an account yet! I do now 🙂
Will says
Little Girl
Ashley frowned as her tiny hands squeezed around the soft fur, the squirrel slowly going limp. She wanted to try a cat, but she couldn’t catch them. She quickly smiled though when she remembered that her dad promised to bring her home a whole person to play with this time!
CHRISTOPHER KEMP says
The Reckoning
A note says she’s gone. She took the kids with her. And all your friends. And your family too. As you look up you see your house on fire. A sign in the front yard says, “You will never see them again.” Flames engulf you. Death has come. Judgment Day.
Rich Dutton says
Aunt Jeanne
She loses her husband and son in the Civil War.
She is bitter and not interested in the new Halloween pranks of tipping over outhouses and unhinging picket fences and takes out her frustrations on the youth.
It took 98 years to put her in the ground – now 98 cents brings her back.
Rich Dutton says
The Voice
A young teenage girl can her a voice from a grave in a local cemetery. She becomes close to the voice and relies on the elder woman’s advice and keeps the relationship a secret. Then one day the voice request that the young girl gets revenge get her murder.
Nikki Friedman says
The vastness of space
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.
Little star who shines so bright?
Breaking through the dark of night?
Maybe you’re a guide, maybe a friend.
But maybe you’re a lantern to guide us to the end.
Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.
Nikki Friedman says
Fae Modernica
Then: “If you meet a strange traveler, count their fingers, for they may be fae.”
The fae trick you into sharing your secrets.
Now: “To distinguish a real face from a computer generated one, count the teeth.”
The computers trick you into sharing your secrets.
We still are not safe.
Okenwa Precious says
SHADOW
I stood, scared, and stared at the wall. Light was streaming into the room, directly at me but my shadow wasn’t behind or before me, it was writing on the wall!
When I took a picture it wasn’t there but when I take a selfie, it is right behind me!
Zion Ferrell says
Till Death Do Us Never Part
Every night she slept by her husband’s side.
There has never been a day that she’s left.
Every night she wept, but he didn’t seem to care.
He showed no sight of emotion.
He didn’t move an inch.
Lying in peace away from his resting place
Six feet deep above.
Gali Savuskan says
Wendigo
Drops of water could be heard falling from the distant stalactites, as rhythmic as my erratic breathing. My torch, which cast shadows on the cavern’s damp walls, quickly illuminated something it never should have.
A breath, a glance, a gleaming smile decorated with daggers – and then the world went black.
Komala Ponniah says
The Curse
“WARNING! DO NOT ENTER”, the old wooden sign read, swinging gently in the wind.
Humbug! I’ve been here many times before. Nothing bad ever happened. I turn thirty today and I feel great.
“RIP”, the sign flashed! I realize too late… no one in my family had lived beyond thirty.
Komala Ponniah says
Revenge
It watches me every day with its yellow eyes. Perched on the same oak branch outside my window. Nostrils glinting in the sun, forked tongue slithering in and out of a dark cave. I hadn’t noticed the smile till today. I must run! It’s my mother-in-law back from the beyond!!
Tamara Reid says
The Fittest
Frozen. Dark. Silent.
I’m curled, fetal, but not from the snow. Fear riddles my body. I can smell death. It paces around me. Bits of flesh from the pilot rotting in its fangs. His screams, they lasted so long.
I tell myself, I’m a survivor. But I know… I’m next.
Annie Pichardo says
Double Revenge
I study my hands. My fingers are swollen with blue and purple bruises starting to form. A burning pain tickles my skin. I had my revenge. The boy slumped with a knife impaled in his head. Blade in my chest, he got his revenge back. Clutching, death comes over me.
Annie Pichardo says
Two Friends
God said to treat your neighbors nicely. I was doing that, but no one understood. Sitting on the seesaw, I studied my friend. No eyes. No nose. Nothing. You help people in need. He only had white structures connected together. Poor thing didn’t move at all. I was helping right?