Congratulations to Frank Mashina for his Sept 30th entry. He has won the 100$ prize and the Every Writer 50 Word Horror Story Contest 2024! After much deliberation the 10 stories below are our top stories, and all will appear in our upcoming Double Horror Issue. If you are one of these winners, please contact us at everywriterx@gmail.com especially if you want your name (other than you’ve supplied below) and bio to appear in our print issue. Please do this by Monday 10/14/24. Our issue will go to publish this week!
Thank you all for being in our contest, and to everyone who posted a story. We loved them! They were amazing and so much fun to read. Thank you for making our Halloween! We hope you enjoy the stories below. They are the best of the best. Please know, we used a rubric to rate these and then picked the “best” but there were over 600 stories to pick from, and this was SO SO DIFFICULT. Ultimately it just came down to the stories that shook us the most! None of us wanted to read these stories in the dark.
We will contact our top winner for how to transfer payment.
1. Frank Mashina – September 30, 2024 at 2:05 am
In the dim light of her childhood attic, Mia found an old mirror. As she wiped the dust away, her reflection smiled back, even when she didn’t. The smile widened, revealing sharp teeth. Every night, Mia felt the cold breath of the creature on the other side, whispering her name.
2. Tressa – September 29, 2024 at 5:42 am
Sarah began to sob uncontrollably as she heard the voice of an older version of her missing daughter on the other end of the phone. How could someone she had killed fifteen years ago return so simply?
3. Dana – September 17, 2024 at 9:49 pm
Answer your calls.
Dammit, Kristen answer them.
ANSWER THE PHONE.
I love you baby!
All you have to do is open the door.
Come on, open the door!
Kristen. Come on.
KRISTEN
OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR KRISTEN
I LOVE YOU SO MUCH
I’LL NEVER LEAVE
WE WILL BE TOGETHER
FOREVER.
4. Altagracia Yesyurun – September 29, 2024 at 5:47 am
The old doll suddenly burst out laughing in the middle of the night. Her empty eyes stared at me intently. I tried to reach for the light switch, but her cold hands gripped my legs.
5. Nicholas – September 28, 2024 at 11:17 pm
Hey, you. Yes, you.
You don’t know it yet, but you’re already infected. Our experiment was airborne.
It begins with a small headache. You’ll probably think nothing of it. Maybe you’ll take an aspirin.
It won’t help.
The nightmares come next, then the uncontrollable rage.
I’m sorry. Please forgive me.
6. Aalok Rathod – September 29, 2024 at 7:17 am
He found the mask in his attic, worn and cracked. Curious, he put it on. Instantly, rage filled him. He grabbed a knife and couldn’t stop. His hands acted on their own, blood splattering. As the mask laughed, he realized—it wouldn’t come off.
7. Altagracia Yesyurun – September 29, 2024 at 6:12 am
My friends and I liked to explore the old graveyard behind the school. One night, while we were playing hide-and-seek, I saw a white figure standing among the graves. I was sure it was a pocong, but I was too scared to scream.
8. Drew Nowlin – September 5, 2024 at 5:20 pm
Acknowledge the full moon and beware. Ashley’s blood, no matter how cleverly masked, still beckoned the wolf. She’d barricaded doors and windows, but the vile, thirsty animal besotted her scent and destroyed its obstacles. The pale moon marked not only her death, but her heartless transition.
9. Diana – August 28, 2024 at 1:43 am
Her deceased father appeared. “Come to the light, it’s your time,” he said.
She followed him through a luminous tunnel. Once they emerged, the monster shed its disguise and began gutting her.
“Where’s my real father?” she gasped. The creature grinned, revealing her father’s face beneath.
“Right here, sweetie.”
10. Sugga Vanish – September 26, 2024 at 1:01 am
“Mom! He smells weird!”
“Be nice to your brother, Agnes”
“I liked Liam with blond curls. Why’d you give him up?”
“You meant Lucas, honey. He was alright, but… remember yesterday?”
Her nose crinkled, “Well, this one’s hard to swallow”
“Tastes good though,” her dad forked more onto his plate.
So happy these are so creepy and scary! If you didn’t win, there are many more chances to win coming soon. We are always running contests! We have 3 going at this time. Check our contests and more for information. We will be running more prize contests for the Holidays. Please look for them November 1st.
Celebrate or congratulate our winners in the comments below! Please be kind!
Also, if you want to know when the next contests and more are coming from our site, sign up for our mailing list! This helps us a lot!
Follow him on Twitter, and check out our Submissions page.
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Oh, and to clarify, yes, if you are one of these 10, you can certainly list Every Writer as a print publication credit in your bio.
Hi Richard, Do you have winners for the summer contests?
Yes, these went out through our mailing list I believe. Which contest were you interested in? We had a few summer contests. I’ll direct you to the winners or post them here.
Fun! I missed them. Where can I find the haiku and 6 word story?
Hi Richard,
I haven’t received any email either. Who are the winners of 6 word idyllic summer contest please?
Thank you!
Congratulations to all the winners! Hi Richard I haven’t received or seen anything on the recent summer six word contest either. (I’m sure I’m on mailing list) Perhaps you can list it on this site?
Always love your contests! 🙂
The full moon glares a spooky light. The thunder makes a loud boom. A little girl awakens in fear, a large dark figure appears in the corner of her eye. Quickly, she rubs her eyes in disbelief, and its gone. She tries to go back to sleep…
and gets decapitated.
Hello Richard,
I hope this message finds you well. I’m feeling quite anxious and desperate at this point, so I wanted to reach out. How long is it going to take for the prize money to reach me? I can’t help but wonder if I should just give up hope altogether. It’s been such a long wait, and the uncertainty is really starting to weigh on me. I feel like something might be off, and that thought is quite unsettling. I would really appreciate any updates you might have.
Thank you for your understanding.
Best regards,
Frank Mashina
Okay. I guess I have the answer.
it has been so nice knowing #EveryWriterMagazine.
We are just having issue transferring money into your country. We really only use paypal and it is not allowed in your country. I am still trying to get it approved, but options are limited. Really sorry, we are still looking at other options.
Hello Richard,
I have good news today. You can send the prize money through Remitly; it works in our country. I will email you my details. Please, I am on my knees. I really need the money.
Thank you.
The contest rules said the deadline to enter was Oct. 30th. But the winners were announced on… October 11th? It appears those who entered in October weren’t considered.
Hi Richard Love your contests. Where can we find results of 6-word summer contest? I never received an email.!
great post
Hello Richard,
I was asking, when should I expect the prize money to arrive. It has been months, thanks.
Hi Richard, this is T.S. Kincaid. Do you have a winner for the End of 2024 Horror Writing Contest? I am not sure if I was the only one who entered the contest or not because I have only seen my posts, Did you decide not to choose a winner for that contest? Also, I totally agree with you about AI. I can assure you I never use AI in any of my writings and was glad to see that you would not accept any AI and that we all stand on the merit of our own work. Please let me know about the End of 2024 Writing Contest. I have been anxiously waiting to see.
I see you have another contest for the 50 word stories. would I be allowed to resubmit the ones I have written or do you want all new ones?
Thanks for your time. T.