Horror Writing Prompts

Jordan had always hated the flickering streetlight outside their house. It buzzed like a dying insect, and its erratic blinking cast unsettling shadows in their living room. Night after night, the light would stutter, as though it were gasping for attention, and night after night, Jordan cursed it under their breath.

One particularly sleepless evening, armed with a mug of cooling coffee and too m...

I squirm in my maroon gown, scratchy and too tight in all the wrong places.

Something is wrong.

I know it.

I just can’t place my finger on it.

I try to catch my sisters eye from across the expansive table. Around piles upon piles of rich pastries and piping hot tea.

It’s no use.

Her eyes crinkle with laughter behind her feathery scarlet hair.

She is completely at ease.

Not a care in the wo...

“Everything I do… I do it for YOU!”

“Please, Adrian… Please, just- just put the knife down!”

Every time she took a step back, he took one step forward.

“But I love you, Cammy… I love you, why won’t you believe me?” His tone was calm, but his eyes were crazy, and the sweat that had been gathering at his hairline was beginning to slowly trickle down his face.

It was getting dark outside, but the...

No grave can hold my body down; I'll crawl home to her.

Her dark beauty renders the lifeless living and relentless in their worship with a warm kiss to their cheek, a whisper to their ear, and a breath to their lips. 'Twas my fate to her.

The earth was freshly turned my barrow over when she glided in through the churchyard, her draping muslin and vines befalling grave between grave. Her hands ...

My eyes slowly fluttered awake and I looked up at the wood ceiling. Wait. I jolted up in my bed and froze. How could I have fallen asleep?! I stayed a statue, waiting for the thunderous march of armed footsteps, for the sirens, the shouting, the gunshots, the explosions of bombs, the smell of smoke and fear and blood. I strained my ears, but surprisingly heard…birds chirping. I couldn’t help but w...

I tested the waters with smaller shadows,

So I could see how they looked in the light.

But once other people were aware of them,

It tainted their perception of me.

The darkness was all they could see.

So I hid the rest.

The much deeper, darker, dirty little secrets,

Confined to the shadows once more.

And I put on a face of bravery and joy when I was around other people,

While all my tormentations...

I lay on the table. Anguish, it is all I have ever known. My eyes fixate at the creature in the mirror.

Its body is pale, sutured and stitched together like a torn apart doll from childhood. I remember those days, childhood. I remember the ponds in Říčany, wading in the water.

Its arms are no longer flesh, its mechanical and eldritch limbs reach for things that arent there. I remember climbing...

The day of my 13th kill, a special number for obvious reasons. Years ago, I couldn’t have fathomed that I would be amongst the likes of the famed Zodiac killer for my cryptic messages. Walking the streets like BTK, unknown and not cared about. The old bookstore was my dominion. I didn’t even know the owner and he saw me as just another patron, but after each kill I came here and placed a new journ...

“True love is dead”

“Agreed. So why do you stay with her still?”

“The curse. That is why I called you”

“I’m quite out of practice you know”

“I’m willing to try anything”

“It can’t be that bad, surely. You’ve lasted seven years”

“Because I had no other choice. Another seven and I may not survive”

“Help me understand. Is she a vengeful woman? Does she treat you with cruelty?”

“Well…no. She h...

The final embers of the setting sun took cover behind dense clouds, dispelling a grey veil across the horizon, erasing any remnants of colour and warmth. Waves lapped voraciously at a modest, wooden vessel as though the navy depths were famished. And although the hours progressed, her hunger never ceased. Each swell ascended, leaping into the airs embrace, then proceeded to crash back into abyss, ...

The sirens.

They’re calling to me.

I reach for my noise cancelling headphones, but it’s already too late. My body responds to the sirens’ alluring melody as it slowly makes its way towards it.

I beg my legs to turn around and walk the other direction, but they refuse to listen. I inch closer towards the shore, the salty aroma becoming more potent in my nostrils. It’s as if my mind and body are ...

Shadows spilled over serpentine vines, whilst an ivory veil of fog whirled between twisted trunks. The cold snapped and the air whispered a thousand forbidden secrets to whoever was willing to listen. For a young, practicing Wiccan, it was the perfect night.

The air, in some mystical way, filled her with the strength of a thousand storms and she began to feel energy surge through her from the ea...