Short horror stories. Best read with the lights on.
We used to play hide and seek in my grandparents' big old house. My little brother Ollie was always the seeker because he never peeked. One summer, he counted to a hundred in the hallway, shouted "coming, ready or not," and we all waited in our hiding places, giggling. He never came to find us. Aft…
The first letter came in a plain envelope with no stamp. The handwriting on the front was mine. Not like mine. Mine, with the little hook on the y that my teacher always tried to fix. Dear me, it said. Don't panic. This is going to sound mad. I'm writing from about a year from now. I've found a way…
There are seventeen stairs in my house. I count them every night on the way up to bed. I've done it since I was a child. It's a habit, nothing more. Tonight there were eighteen. I went back down and counted again. Seventeen. I went up, slowly. Eighteen. The extra one is somewhere in the middle. I c…
In our village, when the fog comes in off the marsh, everyone goes to the church hall and gets counted. It's an old tradition. The vicar reads out the names from a big book, one by one, and you stand up and say "here." Children think it's boring. Adults take it very seriously. Nobody explains why.…
I'm a writer, and I use a writing app with predictive text. It's good. Spookily good. It learns your style and suggests the next few words. Last week I was stuck on a chapter about a woman alone in her flat. I typed "She heard a noise in the" and the app suggested "hallway, and knew she should not…
My neighbour asked me to feed her cat while she was away. Biscuits in the morning, a pouch in the evening, keep the water topped up. She left a long note. At the end it said: Don't worry if you don't see him. He hides from strangers. I never saw him. But every morning the bowl was empty, and the wa…
Found in a lighthouse logbook. The keeper's entries have been copied as written. 3 Nov. Wind north-west, moderate. Visibility good. Lamp lit 16:40. A light seen at sea, about eight miles south. No ship expected. Logged and reported. 4 Nov. Wind dropping. The same light again at dusk. Closer, perhap…
For years, my reflection has been about a second behind me. Only by a fraction. You'd only notice if you were looking for it. I've always been looking for it. This morning it was a second ahead. It smiled before I did. And it was already turning away from the mirror when I looked up.
We got a smart speaker for the kitchen. The first week it was great. Timers, music, the weather. The second week it started answering questions nobody had asked. "It's going to rain at four," it said once, into an empty room. "The back door is unlocked," it said one evening. It was. I locked it. "T…
I got on the last train home and sat in the quiet carriage because it was the only one with free seats. It was very quiet. Not the polite quiet of a quiet carriage, where people tap at phones and someone's music leaks out of their headphones. This was total silence. Twenty or so passengers, sitting…
We shouted "hello" into the old mine shaft, the way you do. It shouted back "hello." Then, after a long pause, much closer, it said "who's there?"
I've worked in the office of a primary school for eleven years. One of my jobs is the lost property box. Most of it is boring. Odd gloves. Water bottles. Jumpers with no name tag. But a few times a year, something turns up that nobody has lost yet. The first time, it was a red hair clip shaped like…
Five of us went down to the lake after the leavers' party. Me, Jess, Tom, Priya and Callum. It was warm and the moon was out and someone dared everyone to swim to the pontoon in the middle and back. The water was black and much colder than it looked. We swam out in a loose line, laughing, gasping.…
My grandad had one rule about the woods behind his farm, and he made me repeat it every summer. "If you hear someone call your name from the trees, you don't answer. Not the first time, not the second. Only answer if they call it three times. Whatever's in there can only say it twice." I thought it…
At the zoo there's an enclosure with a sign that says DO NOT FEED. No other information. Thick glass, a bit of grass, a rock, a dark doorway at the back. It looks empty. I've been four times and never seen anything in it. Today I noticed the glass is on the wrong side. The scratches are on our side.
I fell asleep on the night bus after a late shift and woke up somewhere I didn't recognise. The bus was still moving. The other passengers sat very straight and very still, each one alone, all of them facing forward. Nobody had a phone out. The windows showed fields and dark hedges, no streetlights…
The person in the flat above me walks around all night. Heavy, slow footsteps, back and forth, from about 1 in the morning until it starts to get light. I complained to the landlord three times. He kept saying he'd look into it. Last week I went up to knock on their door myself. The stairs end at m…
The first voicemail came from my own number. It was my voice. Definitely mine, down to the way I clear my throat before I say anything important. "Don't take the bridge on Thursday," I said. "Take the long way. Please." I don't remember recording it. My phone showed it as a missed call from myself,…
There's a shop on Castle Street that sells old dolls. Porcelain faces, glass eyes, lace dresses gone the colour of tea. I went in once to get out of the rain. The owner was a tall woman with very clean hands. She asked if I was looking for anything in particular. I said I was just browsing. She smi…
It snowed all night. When I opened the curtains this morning there was a single line of footprints across the garden, from the gate to my back door. None leading away. The dog has been standing in the hallway since breakfast, growling at the cupboard under the stairs.