Welcome to our 2020 50 Word Horror Story Halloween Contest! I’ll be honest, last years contest was a mess! We had all kinds of trouble. People played but didn’t supply their contact information. People didn’t want their personal information used. They didn’t even want their stories used. They didn’t want to get paid, they wanted to spread the money…on and on.
We have developed new rules this year to stop all this nonsense. We want to be clear who wins. We want it to be transparent and fair!
Please read our rules carefully!
Stories:
- Must be high quality horror stories
- Must be 50 words or under
- Must be a complete story
- Have to be in before our deadline.
- Deadline is October 27 2020 (EXTENDED BY 1 DAY)
- Enter as many stories as you like!
- Post your story in the comments below.
- Scariest Story Wins
We will announce the winners in a movie chat night, like every Halloween.
What you win:
- Your story will be placed on a tile and shared on our social networks
- You will get a winning announcement post with links to your books and/or website
- You will win $100 cash paid through paypal.
Contest requirements
- Winner must respond to our email within 2 days. If you do not it goes to the running up.
- Winner must agree to use his or her name on our site (it can be a pen name
We will announce the top 3 stories on October 29th (MOVED 1 DAY) at our movie night. If you want to know the winner, come to the movie night. We will repost the winner after the winner responds.
We want this to be fun. We have not run a contest in a year due to death threats from the last contest. Please be nice, play well together. Your stories and comments will be held for moderation, so please give it a little while for the story to post.
Post your stories below.
Get news, listings and contests winners fast by joining our mailing list. It really helps us if you sign up!
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Keys protruding through clenched fingers, steps brisk, feigning confidence, she walked to her car.
From his van, windows dark, lights off, engine cold, he watched. The leather of his gloves squeaked against the steering wheel as he squeezed, imagining her neck beneath his grasp.
She gasped, clutching her throat.
She hid in the stifling darkness.
She strained to listen beyond the pulsing of her blood at the back of her slim neck.
The weight of him registered as he creaked the floorboards. And when he hovered close, she inhaled the rot of centuries waiting to envelope her.
TATTOOS
“They are magnificent!” He said excitedly. His skin stained with the fresh ink. “Which is your favorite?” I-I don’t know, why?” “They’ll come alive.” He said with a diabolical grin. “What?” “Look, they’re moving.” His skin begins to bulge — screams permeate the air — the sound of tearing flesh; silence.
You’re okay,” I say, kneeling to stroking his hair and wiping the tears. He fell but there’s no damage to his knee. I kiss his forehead and he smiles. “I love you dada.” As he turns to go play, I notice some of the wires in his neck have come undone.
Clearance-shop window displays. Grotesque, blood-stained faces on dolls and masks. Boring.
I catch a reflection. Covid pounds. Sheesh.
At a cosmetics counter, I look in a mirror. WTF! Another bad-hair day. New wrinkles. More boiler-hen than chick or chook.
Then hands escape from the mirror to bitch-slap and choke me.
The news says women are disappearing. I encounter a woman in my yard, reaching out to me, silently. Her horror-stricken face falls, then her hands, arms, and the rest of her, disintegrating into a puddle on the ground. I hear footsteps behind me, then feel a hand on my shoulder.
Trick or Treat
I hate Halloween. I flee to my country house to avoid the trick-or-treat silliness. Yet, someone knocks at my door, wearing a witch costume, silent, grinning, with blackened teeth. I apologize, I have no candy. I reach out to give her an apple and my hand goes right through hers.
Though the doll was wooden, its glass eyes gave the effect of life behind them. The girl felt sad; it looked like its soul was trapped. So, she wished it life. She wished so hard that the next morning she awoke to see the doll dancing…except she was completely paralyzed.
Story title: GLASS EYES
BUDDING HORROR
“I noticed some strange new buds on that plant in the back yard,” Roberta gushed to her best friend, Gloria. “You gotta come over and look.” Gloria found her friend’s head, eyes bulging in terror, next to her limbs and empty dress, the red-stained pods above her, engorged and pulsing.
MINE FOREVER
“You’re mine,” she screamed, striking the fatal blow as he worked in the garage. They suspected a burglar and felt sorry for the grieving widow. Tending my garden I noticed a woman in white at the gate. I turned away, then heard, “He’s mine.” When I looked again, she’d vanished.
Old stairs like these will creak a lot. Tread carefully will you, son? Sleepers still have ears after all.
Down the hallway, doors opened and closed. They flapped like grotesque birds on their silent hinges. She was almost at the end. Brief glimpses of the inhabitants flashed as she ran by. The lights were starting to blink, then dim. The people looked wrong. A hand reached out. Too late.
“That’s a bunch of hogwash if I’ve ever heard any.” Cliff said.
He took off for the swimming hole, sweat dripping. Ma screamed after him. “Take this cotton with you!”
Reaching the bank, he stripped and dove in. She watched him sink. Her thin fingers found purchase on his lobes.
Bunker
They had taken concrete and stone and built their own special fortress. They’d buried it beneath a hill that was the last refuge of horrors too ancient to have even been forgotten. Madness misremembered as long lost gods.
It would have been a survivalist’s paradise. If they’d survived.
THE APPLE FALLS
He found his collection of dried, rusted-out instruments—each including a sharp edge stained with the remnants of blood. His father was a serial killer. He was overwhelmed with shock and pain. They never spent much time together, but if only he had told him he possessed the same urges…
THE PUPPET SHOW
12:01 a.m. The pain was addicting for some reason. You move the bloody fruit peeler towards your face. From the corner of the room, the man grinned sadistically and made a gesture of a slash towards his face.
Your blood and skin splatter the floor, following with hysterical giggles.
THE PUPPET SHOW
12:01 a.m. The pain was addicting for some reason. You move the bloody fruit peeler towards your face. From the corner of the room, the man grinned sadistically and made a gesture of a slash towards his face.
Your blood and skin splatter the floor, following with hysterical giggles.
Forty-one? No. Forty-two … Stop counting the shovels of dirt. It’s too late. He’s already padding down the soil. I’m sure he’s laying the sod on top of the grave right now. My air will be gone soon. If there’s a heaven Father, I beg you, take me now.
“Thirst Trap”
Sprawled on vermilion silk sheets, a nude man clutches the stem of a broken wineglass. His neck is perforated with deep puncture wounds in groups of two, tokens of affection from the ravenous beauty he met online.
“You should have swiped left,” she says, his blood dripping from her fangs.
“Heart Surgery”
Scorching white light shines down on blue masks and gloves streaked with red. Frozen limbs scream silently as surgeons tug and saw. Bone and skin flayed, her eyelashes flit with panic. No one notices. They think she’s asleep. But no. This pain and terror will forever haunt her dreams.
“SHOOT”
“Adjust for wind. Higher for the heart. Shoot!”
With a bang, the buck dropped. The brown boy smiled as white hands clapped his back, imparting subtle promises. They rushed towards his mark. Black pride vanished. Brown eyes blurred. Pink lips curled in synchronized delight. Not a buck. Not a buck.
“STUCK”
She awoke on a cliff, disoriented. Inky skies greeted her with angry clouds. The ocean waved from all sides. Where was she?
“Not even stranded on a deserted island?” A male voice crooned. Her blow sent him over the cliff’s edge. Untethered, his boat skittered away. Memories returned too late.
FLICKER
Waiting in the dark corner; I had to prove it. The oil lamp flickered, then it appeared. The ungodly shadow cast upon the wall moving closer. My body tightens, I refuse to breathe as it sniffs. It shows it’s teeth and sharp talons. My life flickered. The lamp died.
“Thankless”
Someone is not worthy.
I can never forgive them.
All others have my mercy.
Their failures are reversible.
They can redeem themselves.
This person is utterly worthless.
Death would suit them.
Then, they’d have value.
But our misery is shared.
I give myself no mercy.
I know don’t deserve it.
My frigid bedroom snatches me from a noisy nightmare.
Furnace busted again, I think, relieved.
“Testing, testing. Subject is Caucasian female, 25 to 30, 71 inches, 125 pounds. COD: gunshot wound to head. . . .”
I can’t move or scream over sounds of grinding metal and draining fluids.
Thanks for responses. Happy Halloween!!
Top notch scary images. I’m delightfully creeped out, Loretta..
Title added: Wakeup Call
(just learned titles are preferred)
CAT GOT YOUR TONGUE?
She’d bit hard, movements sleek and precise leaning into him. “Cat got your tongue?” She purred gleefully. His eyes shell shocked – blood ran down the corners of his mouth. She bucked and heaved spitting it out next to him then licks her paw, satisfied. She was no longer his wife.
50 WORDS, NO ESCAPE
I’ve read this 50 word horror story at least 99 times before! I wrote them all, each and every time he murdered me in a different way. He’s watching me right now. If I do live to tell, I’ll let you know how he did it. He’s here, no escape.
“HAUNTED”
“For the ghosts,” the porter said, offering a candle white.
Scraping sounds and raspy breath awoke me from my sleep that night.
I leapt and found the candle as gnarled hands did on my face alight.
Retreat it did, but reappeared behind me, then blew out the light.
You ran away with our wooden stakes in hand! How could we put an end to this horde of rotting corpses undead? Overwhelmed by grasping nails and snapping teeth, ripping, tearing off our skin. What vile decaying stench we smell within the darkness of our grave, we await your return.
The Light Before Darkness
A lone streetlight ahead adds a tincture
of hope as I limp towards it gasping through
dense and mystifying fog. Whoever slashed me
is watching. I sense it. My blood feels warm
as I hobble in cold-blooded fear. In the light
I may survive, but footsteps arrive, in the darkness.
ANGRY GIRLFRIEND
She’s still bitter about the incident, refusing to speak to me, unless those words were, “Just take me home.” I sigh and grant her wish. I drive her back, she says nothing. I tell her I’m sorry I did what I did as I place her back in her grave.
IT WAS IN HER SMILE
Her smile in the obituary photograph was what drew him to her. But as sad as her story read, her smile betrayed any sadness and he knew he had to own it. Digging up the coffin posed difficulties, but removing her head for his collection was always the easy part.
THE BORED ARCHAEOLOGIST
The face of the mummified corpse is hardened, twisted, but its eyelids are still gently shut, as if they could suddenly open anytime. The archaeologist fantasizes the horrific sight for his own entertainment, awakening, rising and wringing his neck. He imagines it all in his head until he blacks out.
SISTERS
“Mommy, Elizabeth told me she was my sissy,”
The child’s ghostly hands krept up the woman’s pale neck
“Mommy, Elizabeth said you killed her”
The child grinned
“Mommy, killing is bad”
Her rotting ringers crept into her mouth
The woman was frozen, thousands of hands reaching down her throat
Clad in black, backlit by the red safelights of the darkroom, he drew me inexorably forward. I fell into his strong arms as he pulled me close. I’d longed for this moment forever, but I was shocked at the frigid feel of his skin. His teeth morphed into fangs.
The Eyes Have It
Dressing up for Halloween was a regular thing for my best friend, Susie, and me. This year was no different as we dressed to try to out-do each other. When Susie knocked on my door to scare me I was all set to act bored, but her eyes were gone.
Kathryn’s ceiling fan fell on her in the middle of the night, breaking her right femur and left knee. She awoke hardly able to writhe with the pain, caterwauling in agony. She knew the cabin’s generator was dying and soon she would as well. Hopelessly sobbing, she began to crawl.
ALTERED
The ponding and scratching against glass
I face the window
Nothing
I halt at the mirror
She stares
She lifts her hand and scrapes the glass
I’m paralyzed
Her claws crack the glass
The cracks spiral
She shoots her hand out
Want to
Move
Breath
Glass shatters around me
Run
Woodland Diner
Her angelic image entered the worn path through a bush-lined gateway. A white dog beside her, his eyes burnt bright red to mahogany. Daily they were witnessed by disappearing hikers. A final breath released as the sinking sun swallowed them to be devoured within the woods.
She’d ignored the deep gashes on his back, choosing instead to give in to the intoxicating graze of kisses. He was a wolf that’s all.
Full moon night. She never returned.
A wolf that’s all.
“Nothing More”
You rejected your life. Your body and soul were left to decay.
You fell into the ether, reflected within it. Nothing held you back.
All you were was a traitor. The ether claimed what was left of you.
There was nothing left. Within it, you vanished, rejected by life itself.
The demons in my life
They hide in plain sight
May give you fright
The demons i see
will make you run
They scare others
But i wont be bothered
They smile, don’t be fooled
Your mind and heart is their food
I’ll face them myself
the way to hurt them is by hurting myself
I open the door. “Happy Halloween. Great costumes.”
A short Darth Vader runs past me, and I grin at the scary vampire standing there.
“Derrick’s father, I presume. Come in.”
As the giggling boys rush out the door, I yell at Derrick.
“Wait for your father.”
“He’s not my dad.”
DRAY
Dray crawled onto the porch where his mama sat, a bowl of peas in her lap. He tried to wake her up. He tumbled down the steps and fell next to his dog Sick’em. Mama hadn’t buried him after all. Dray liked the smell –like Sissy after she stopped breathing.
______________________
The room is dark but I feel it watching me. It is growing bolder, no longer hiding in my wardrobe or deep shadows.
“It’s not real,” I remind myself as I roll over, sinking into my pillows.
Then why does the bed creak as it settles in beside me?
Real.
I feel my face and it is not smiling like in the mirror. My fingers do not glide across those too sharp teeth that shine as if polished, my lips do not crack as the grin stretches wider.
False reflection.
In the glass more smiles appear.
She is not alone.
The blood dripped off my scythe into the freshly dug earth.
“It’s finished,” I whispered. “I eliminated the threats. It’s time to move on.”
Leaves swirled across my bloody shoes as the next command whispered on the wind.
At least my job was fun one month a year.
The Dog
We sent an agent to investigate a haunting. The first thing our paranormal investigator noticed in the house was the dog’s nails tapping on the kitchen floor in the other room.
She asked the homeowners how long the dog had been pacing for.
They replied they don’t have a dog.
HELPLESS
The man woke up and saw it on the ceiling above his head—six inches in length, eight long, grotesque legs, a body bloated with the guts of its victims. He tries to move, cannot. He sees the bitemark. All he can do is watch the spider lower itself down.
There’s a man behind me.he starts running towards me and I blackout as I hit the pavement. I hear saw around me and felt pain in my leg and hand. I wake up and see a guy cutting my leg off, the others were cooking my arm. I screamed.
self-harm
“join us” one says, tauntingly.
“never” i say, fighting my restraints.
“give up, they hate you” another says.
“I know, but I love them.” i tell them as i cut a long line in my wrist, freeing myself.
the demons want me, i give them a taste, but never me.
BLOOD
Blood spatter
Unimaginative pattern on the wall
Sanguineous and sticky
Rivulets leaving red trails down my face
Dripping onto the floor
A hand with an attached arm lays by the wall
My reflection is holding a carving knife
What has she done?
THE SKELETON’S SCOWL
It was nothing but an assembly of bones with two organic optical orbs embedded in the dark hollows of its eye sockets, staring him down as it maneuvered towards him. He was not sure which was more frightening: a walking skeleton or the familiar eyes of the man he killed.
Dog walking along a stream, my wire haired terrier kept tugging . I was trying to just keep moving, but every step I was being dragged back. I glanced behind me and there it was, a kind of serpent body splashing, with the head of a woman, snapping at my dog.
Halloween Feast
Black Cat
settles back,
dog has found a bone.
Up hop
table top,
suppertime at home.
Full Moon
very soon,
dinner will be done.
Good meat,
have a seat.
Enough for everyone.
Wicked Witch,
car in ditch.
A stranger at the door.
Ah, pets,
there’s seconds yet…
more meaty than before!
THE RESCUER
I could not swim. I flailed out of panic and felt myself lower deeper. Then an open palm came down to offer assistance. I grabbed it and right away he pulled me up. Thank goodness, I thought. Almost there, I saw he was clad in black, his face a skull.
THE NOTIFICATION
“Hello?”
“Is Mrs. Alice Jacobson there?”
“She’s out visiting her mother. Can I take a message?”
“May I ask who this is?”
“This is her husband, George.”
“…”
“Hello?”
“George Jacobsen of 392 Potter Street?”
“Yes?”
“This is Officer Reynolds, I called to inform your wife of your death.”
JUST A DROP WILL DO
Dear Faye,
If you get this, last night I went downstairs for some water; someone was in the rocking chair concealed by the darkness.
“Ed? Henry?” They shook their head; twice. I slowly backed into the study shutting the door. When I turned around, there they stood nodding and grinning.
PARASITE
You wake up to immense soreness around your body. You look at your naked body and see it. White larvae burrowing into your flesh. The parasites squirm and move painfully deeper, everywhere into you. Your scream is cut off, as you feel them crawling slowly into your mouth.
BURN BRIGHT
She was always cold. The warmth bled out of her body, unnoticed by the world.
“Focus it,” the monster whispered. “Like sunlight through a looking glass.”
She left behind blackened handprints on the wall. Scorched skin and burning buildings.
Finally, the monster held her in its flaming arms.
THE BOY AND HIS BUDDY, DRAGONMAN
Outside our old building was a statue that looked part man and part dragon. I called him Dragonman. I read to him every night. One day I found a story in a weird language as old as the building and read it to him. The next morning, he was gone.
LIMITED EDITION
Finally, he had the limited-edition vinyl and was excited to hear it. Only a hundred made! Right when the needle was placed, he couldn’t remember a thing. When he came to, the record was over and everything seemed fine until he saw he was holding a freshly severed head.
Title: They Just Dropped Like Flies
*
There goes Hazman (foggy mask, crinkly plastic suit) movin’ through the retirement home, misting the air with the hose that’s connected to the backpack labelled ‘disinfectant’. No one suspects the tube attached from mask to pack, Hazman’s corona-cough travelling onto high-touched surfaces as ‘disinfectant’. Exactly as planned. Goodnight, Grandma.
Mama
She passed, I should have cuffed her!
the fever…
she growls her bloodshot eyes crazed with hunger; I pray to never encounter.
a biter that’s what she is now!
she lunges … NO! she rips a bloody chunk from my arm I hold her plunging the knife into her skull … Darkness
FROM NEW JERSEY
There was a boy who got lost walking home late one night after a party. He saw a cemetery and decided to pass through. As he did, he saw a man. He asked him for directions and he replied, “Wouldn’t know; they just moved my grave here from New Jersey.”
SCAREDY CAT
Kuro crept through the shadows that were as obsidian as his own coat of fur, a bad feeling hanging over his head that there was a source of danger within the premises. He hopped on the table to get a better view, turned around and there was the deadly cucumber.
JESUS
Debra fought her screams; the mad man ran over her husband until there was only shredded skin. When he was gone, she crawled up the embankment collapsing from exhaustion. “Hid’in from Jesus?” He hovered, grinding his teeth. Eyes sprung wide, the meat hook ripped her flesh as he dragged her.
A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE
“Herb, how you want’a go – – ya know…die?” “Plan’in something?” He asked, guzzling down a piece of bloody beef. He begins to stutter, eyes bulging, reaching for his throat, “El-l-e” – She places the gun on the table, cuts herself a piece of beef and chews it daintily. “Yes?” She smiles.
HE KNOWS WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING
Winter air rushed in as the window slowly opened; then I felt his presence. He stood at my bedside, watching. My body quivered while he sniffed the air. Eyes shut, ‘Sleep, sleep, sleep,’ I repeated in my head. “Wide awake-” he said as his talons reached for the covers.
FAIREST OF ALL
“Mirror, Mirror…,” the mirror stood silent. “Why do you refuse to acknowledge me?” Madeline asked. Alas! It now spoke. “Come closer, look deeper – deeper.” It said smoothly – cunningly. Madeline cautiously moved in for a closer look. Then she sees it coming with a fury, “Fairest of all!” It shrieked,…Death!
TURN AROUND
by Helene Bowen
Many months of isolation,
solitude, relaxation.
Dying for a burger,
said
“See ya later.”
Walked myself to town,
Human eyes
masked a frown.
Down at Cafe Chilli,
everybody
snubbed me!
Better fix my hair.
Went to see a mirror.
But,
there
wasn’t
anyone there!
A BLOODLESS SCREAM
In the chill of a moonless night
two figures squeal with delight
as they hover over the bods
looking like gourds,
satisfying their hunger
as they plunder those poor souls.
Returning from
their graves in the earth
to learn of their new birth,
again and again.
Infinity.
STARGAZING
The young couple lied on the mountaintop, admiring the constellations while listening to the radio. Then they heard the weather report which said there was an overcast tonight. The confused couple looked at each other and looked back up. Groups of stars began moving, some blinking, breaking through the clouds.
*The young couple lain on the mountaintop
Apologies.
Hi Ben, I think you want the simple past tense here, which is “lay,” not present perfect “lain.” Good luck w/contest–Loretta
To Loretta,
For some reason it won’t allow me to reply to your comment so I’m replying to my own to tell you I appreciate you showing me that. And to think I call myself a “writer”, lol. Thank you and good luck to you, too. I’m enjoying your stories!
-Ben
It was only supposed to be a game. No one believed it was real. Had we known… it doesn’t matter now. The rest of us only need to make a few more hours. We can survive this game. I won’t let the Midnight Man take me like my brother.
The Impostor
Something was wrong. My wife seemed strange this morning. It’s like she isn’t herself anymore. I’m afraid something has taken over her body. But I knew this day would come. The same thing happened to my mother and father years ago. Those impostors didn’t survive my interrogation.
Halloween Looks Different This Year
I’m disappointed that Halloween will be so different this year. Will we really not see kids out trick or treating like normal? Such a shame. I love having the kids come to my door. But I loved snatching a straggler or two more!
You’re Not Alone
The lights cut out and the house was thrown into total darkness. Shelby shuddered. The breaker was somewhere downstairs. She loathed the idea of being alone in the dark. Her closet door creaked with a loud screech and she heard a voice whisper in her ear. “You’re not alone.”
Hello all,
I’m your friendly neighborhood admin dropping in to say hello. We are reading your stories, and it’s so exciting. Please note we tend to like stories with titles.
Also, we are taking submissions of stories, fiction and articles for Halloween and otherwise.
https://www.everywritersresource.com/write/
We Bought a House
In my bedroom, I hear the murderous scream of a woman, loud enough to wake the graves.
I imagine her blood; how did he kill her?
All over town, people call us- “The murder house.”
They say he killed his wife.
Moving in, dad only said the price was right.
NIGHTLIGHT
The boy woke up late at night in his dark bedroom, scared. He reached over to flip on the nightlight. It produced some illumination, relieving him. Then he saw across the room, in the pit of blackness, it reflected off a hundred pairs of beady little eyes staring at him.
The Perfect Woman
A near masterpiece he thought as he gazed up and down intently. The recherché chroma of blue-green eyes, endless legs, and smooth delicate hands matched so perfectly. He felt proud to witness such beauty spliced together so seamlessly. “Now for the hair,” he murmured, reaching for his blood-soaked ax.
THE TRUCKER
I slammed on the brakes and cut the engine. The world seemed to be frozen in silence as I stared out the windshield at the man in the middle of the road. He smiled as he held a bloody knife in one hand, and a severed head in the other.
FRESH MEAT
The woman scream in horror and pain as he legs were stuck. She tried to free herself, but the bonds around he wrists were too tight.
The masked man walked over, muttering to himself as he freed her legs. He started the meat grinder up again and sent her through.
“THERE ARE NO IMAGINARY FRIENDS”
My son talked about his imaginary friend, Kevin. I thought nothing of it until I heard two voices in his room late one night. I found my son leaning out the window – talking to a homeless drifter. The drifter grab him and took off.
I never saw my son again.
INFERNO
“It’s just a dream”, she told herself as she listened the the torturous screams coming from the blazing inferno all around her.
“It’s just a dream”… But as the flames engulfed her, and she began her own tumultuous scream, she realized that it was real, and she was in hell.
BLACK
Black was his entire world, everything was pitch black. He rolled around in the floor, his hands tied behind his back.
Using a nail he cut the ropes around his wrist, and his hands went towards his face. But it wasn’t a mask making everything dark.
His eyes were gone.
PIECES OF YOU
He sat there on the floor covered in blood. He sobbed, saying “I’m so sorry” and “it’s all my fault”, over and over again. The truth was, it was all his fault.
Curled up in the fetal position, he held on to the pieces of what remained of his daughter.
A NEW NORM
I sit by the window and look out at the deserted city streets that have been plagued by the deadly outbreak. I hear on the news it’s getting worse as the infection rate continues to skyrocket. You can easily catch it. I suddenly have a craving for some bloody meat.
Garden of Eatin’
A shadow crept over Edie’s perennial garden, interrupting her late-evening weed-and-feed.
“Sherry,” she mumbled, looking up, resenting another neighborly intrusion.
Instead, an emaciated red-eyed figure in tattered clothes swayed on bare, muddy feet. Edie recoiled from the boggy stench, screaming as it leaned in, mossy tongue flicking.
“E-e-e-at,” it gurgled.
#####
FIGHTING THE UNSEEN
The battle has raged for some time, but we are losing. You can’t fight what you can’t see. They enter through our pores undetected and greedily devour our bones. The person you talked to last night can be a deflated mass in the morning. They are ravenous. They are everywhere.
The Vampire of Ogrencisi
She held the hand of her newly born daughter and kissed her forehead goodbye. The Vampire of Ogrencisi would soon be here. The father of her child was Ogrencisi’s closest friend, who died in battle. There, she heard his footfalls on the corridors of the convent.
Unexpected Divorce
He gasped and flailed about the room clinching his neck, bloodshot eyes bulging. Her response was not what he would have expected in a desperate time like this. She calmly watched him struggle for help and offered no aid. Her reaction made him wish he was really choking to death.
Manic’s Best Friend
The heat intensified as he shoveled in the midday sun, sweating. Scoop after scoop landed on the partially visible, mangled corpse of his favorite dog Chester. The ting of the shovel followed by the landing dirt created a peaceful rhythm that helped take his mind off what he had done.
SNOWBLIND
He lost his white lab in the thick of a ferocious blizzard of all places to lose him in. Nevertheless, he marched through knee-deep piling snow to find him. He reached out to find a coat of white fur, but his dog was not humanoid and twelve feet tall.
Face
It was a face she saw in the stain of dewdrops in the bathroom wall. She complained about this to the administration of the apartment who explained it was just mildew. Upon moving, one sleepless night, she tried boxing the weak wall. A skull rolled out from the hole.
The Vampire of Ogrencisi
She held the hand of her newly born daughter and kissed her forehead goodbye. The Vampire of Ogrencisi would soon be here. The father of her child was Ogrencisi’s closest friend, who died in battle. There, she heard his footfalls on the corridors of the convent.
Kinji
Kinji bought the black trenchcoat at a second-hand shop. Immediately, his skin cleared up, he gained confidence and learned to dance and sing. He auditioned and became a K-Pop sensation. One performance, he danced and danced until he couldn’t stop, He had a heart attack and died on the spot.
Tree
A gambler was given a second chance by a witch in the woods to regain his soul only if he would stay and be her lover. He agreed but soon craved for the green tables again. He escaped but stood in the middle of the woods, as a tree.
ONE LAST LOOK
John visited their old house where he killed her before skipping town with the inheritance he just collected.
“Nothing personal, babe,” he said.
He turned around and right in his face was hers—gray, dirty skin and pale eyes that burned with rage.
“For me it is,” she growled.
Winged Woman
The lower half of her lover stood on the ground while the upper half, flew about with wings of a bat in search of human prey. Unhappy at what she had become, he poured salt unto the lower half so that she could not land and died in his arms.