First, I’ll point you to a few e-book sales going on till tomorrow:
The Gonzo Writing E-Book Bundle is five bucks off with coupon code NAPLOYONOMO. This is good until the end of tomorrow (10/31). Eight writing books for fifteen bucks.
Both The Blue Blazes and The Hellsblood Bride are 50% off right now if you use the coupon code: HALFANDHALF. This is also good until the end of tomorrow (10/31). In these books, there is a literal underworld beneath Manhattan, and the things that dwell there very much want to dwell out here, and will do whatever they can to make that happen.
If you want a mega-epic-holy-crap bundle of writing books, this next month’s Storybundle is live and is NaNoWriMo-flavored. It’s 13 books up front with another 12 books added if you meet the $25.00 threshold — remember, too, that some of your money given to Storybundle can be split to go to charity. This bundle doesn’t end tomorrow, to be clear — it goes on through November.
AND NOW ON WITH THE FLASH FICTION GOODNESS.
This challenge is simply, and goes till the end of tomorrow –11:59PM, 10/31.
I want you to tell a scary story in three sentences.
That’s it.
Keep it short — and keep it to three sentences.
You can write it right in the comments below.
GO FORTH AND BE SPOOKY
*demonic laugh*
*barfs up tarantulas*
Mozette says:
The sound of our baby woke me from a deep slumber.
‘It’s your turn, honey.’ her voice whispered in my ear.
But my wife and baby daughter had been gone for three years now; and I lived alone.
October 30, 2015 — 9:48 AM
yellehughes says:
Okay…now that’s creepy! Good one
October 30, 2015 — 2:21 PM
Mozette says:
😀 Thank you. It was late and I couldn’t think of anything more creepy than that. o.O
October 30, 2015 — 8:30 PM
David Lubar says:
My friend died last night. I just looked at our class photo. She’s crying.
October 30, 2015 — 9:48 AM
Sara Baptista says:
I loved this one 🙂
October 31, 2015 — 1:18 PM
Meghan says:
Her boss walked into her cube and loomed there, watching her. He cleared his throat and she turned with a startled noise, like a small woodland creature suddenly sighted by a predator.
“I need you to come to my office when you have a chance, we need to talk,” he said and her blood ran cold.
October 30, 2015 — 9:50 AM
strugglingwriter says:
President Trump. Vice President Carson. Zombie Apocalypse.
October 30, 2015 — 9:53 AM
kentuckygal50 says:
NOOOOO! Ok. That 3rd one wouldn’t be so bad. :p
October 30, 2015 — 10:09 AM
Ashlee says:
Haaa!!!!
October 30, 2015 — 10:15 AM
paigevest says:
This is utterly horrifying.
Though that last bit doesn’t sound too bad.
October 30, 2015 — 10:30 AM
strugglingwriter says:
Especially if those other 2 things happen, right? 🙂
October 30, 2015 — 10:31 AM
Melinda says:
He ran through the woods, trying to get away.
It was gaining on him.
No one heard him scream.Enter your comment here…
October 30, 2015 — 9:54 AM
deadorcs says:
Once we figured out how to live without bodies, we prepared for eternity. Unfortunately, eternity never considered the heat-death of the universe. We realized too late that we created our own hell of other people.
October 30, 2015 — 9:55 AM
jack lee taylor says:
Very cool!
October 30, 2015 — 10:38 AM
The Daily Assassin (@TDA_Rook) says:
They say you shouldn’t take your regrets with you to the grave. As I walked through the cornfields toward the old black oak, I found myself wishing I had more time, had been a better husband and father, done more with my life. And then I bowed my head to let them cut my throat and ensure the harvest would be bountiful, and our village would survive the troublesome times, as the laughing crows looked on.
October 30, 2015 — 9:57 AM
Susan K. Swords says:
Very nicely done! You packed a lot into three concise sentences. I’d read this book.
October 30, 2015 — 4:20 PM
glenavailable says:
Stone the crows!
October 30, 2015 — 5:25 PM
mitziflyte says:
At 2 am Jean walked into the bathroom, trying to wake up. She glanced at the window and saw a pale, wrinkled face staring back at her. Her apartment was on the 18th floor.
October 30, 2015 — 9:58 AM
glenavailable says:
Can I take it when she finally succumbs to her wrinkle-induced bout of depression and hurls herself off the balcony, she hasn’t had the foresight the night before she went to bed to strap a parachute to her back?
October 30, 2015 — 5:31 PM
Vikings vs. Unicorns (@solidjim) says:
Jason stared into the mirror, his head throbbing like a meth-addicted marching band playing The Macarena on pneumatic pogo sticks. He took a long, labored breath into his haggard lungs and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he gasped; the face staring back at him was not his own — and it was smiling.
October 30, 2015 — 10:00 AM
Carl says:
You had me at “meth-addicted marching band playing The Macarena on pneumatic pogo sticks.”
October 30, 2015 — 10:24 AM
glenavailable says:
Can we create a sub-category for best metaphor? ‘Meth’ is leading the pack at present.
October 30, 2015 — 5:34 PM
Stephen Rhodes (@Evazorek) says:
I woke up screaming and drenched in sweat for the fifth night in a row. It’s always the same horrible memory of coming home to find her pale, lifeless form sitting in a bath of crimson water. It was then I realised the bathroom light was on and I could hear her humming our favourite song.
October 30, 2015 — 10:01 AM
Christine says:
Ok that got me! Nice
October 30, 2015 — 10:20 AM
glenavailable says:
What’s the favourite song – “Ooops I did it again!”?
October 30, 2015 — 5:37 PM
Mozette says:
Loving this one… really loving this one. 😀
October 31, 2015 — 8:08 PM
Tsara Shelton says:
Thoughts of fear whispered in my skull as I stood alone in the empty old room breathing dust, struggling to control my emotions. I needed joy, I needed hope, I needed something to overwhelm and disappear the fear, anger and hopelessness that threatened to grow limbs; taunted and tormented by the words written on the wall. The think layer of silt and grime calling dark and theatrical attention to the message that disturbed it: This House Is Sentient And You Are Stuck Inside.
October 30, 2015 — 10:01 AM
Alice E Keyes says:
I bit down on my brother’s arm. The last human thoughts are the zombie apocalypse has happened. I am a Zombie.
October 30, 2015 — 10:02 AM
yellehughes says:
“Yelle.” Alone in a locked house, my whispered name rang out in the dead of night. I was too busy on social media to pay attention until I heard my name again, this time, right by my ear.
October 30, 2015 — 10:11 AM
Lesley Donaldson says:
#microfiction Freezing water burns, penetrating your sinuses. Hold still. Thrashing attracts sharks.
October 30, 2015 — 10:11 AM
Hannah says:
This is amazing
October 30, 2015 — 11:37 PM
Mike says:
I could hear her voice as she came down the hall, singing that stupid rhyme about the cow and the moon. Every time she comes, a child disappears, and the grownups just forget the kid ever existed. Her song stops as I hear the door to my room swing open.
October 30, 2015 — 10:11 AM
Justin Gustainis says:
It was almost midnight when the young couple walked through the cemetery, looking around apprehensively and starting at every small noise. “You idiots,” I thought, “there’s no reason to fear the dead — the dead can’t harm you.” I tested my knife’s edge against my thumb and waited for them to come closer.
October 30, 2015 — 10:15 AM
mannixk says:
Ooooo…
October 30, 2015 — 10:27 AM
todddillard says:
thumbs up
October 30, 2015 — 10:48 AM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
Oh, niiice!
November 2, 2015 — 2:07 AM
NDCortright says:
Mom and dad weren’t speaking around my sixth birthday party, so they each assumed the magician was hired by the other. The magician made my friend Sarah disappear and then himself. They never came back.
October 30, 2015 — 10:16 AM
Bibliobibuli @ The Book Tales says:
Oh wow, that was succinctly freaky.
October 30, 2015 — 10:32 AM
A. A. Woods says:
Ooh, this one gave me the creeps. Well done!
October 30, 2015 — 10:34 AM
A.R. Draeger says:
Yikes! *applauds*
October 30, 2015 — 10:37 AM
Shim Shimmy Woo says:
Egad, scary magicians! Finish this story!
October 30, 2015 — 12:24 PM
Pat says:
Well done.
October 31, 2015 — 11:44 PM
Suzanne Joshi says:
When she stepped across the door sill of the decaying gothic mansion, all sound stopped. She could see her breath, and her skin was clammy with a cold sweat. There ahead was a ghastly apparition gliding toward her, but she was frozen and couldn’t move a muscle.
October 30, 2015 — 10:18 AM
james orion says:
The last free boy on Earth lived by the railroad tracks in a hut of stone, mud, and twigs he’d constructed himself . Every day he’d listen to the train clack by once in the morning and once in the evening; desperately wishing he had the courage to jump aboard and escape his self-imposed isolation. The hollowed eyes staring out at him from behind iron cages, looking as if they’d give anything to trade places with him, kept the boy at his lonely home by the tracks.
October 30, 2015 — 10:19 AM
A. A. Woods says:
Oh man, I want to read more of this!
October 30, 2015 — 10:33 AM
mannixk says:
Very good!
October 30, 2015 — 10:38 AM
glenavailable says:
This, as they say, is the business!
October 30, 2015 — 5:44 PM
Gary Greengg1718 says:
He stood, frozen as the string of mist floated up from the kitchen drain. The mist continued to emerge, thicker and thicker, forming a cloud of its own. He noticed, within the cloud, a form stood, ten feet tall, and three blinking lights, where a head should have been.
October 30, 2015 — 10:19 AM
Ashlee says:
It was crawling on top of me now. I couldn’t move, but I could feel every horrible thing. Why didn’t I choose the other door?
October 30, 2015 — 10:23 AM
mannixk says:
Alicia cursed her landlord’s name, as she plunged the temperamental toilet for the fourth morning in a row. Beneath the murky water, she saw a flick of something black slither into the bowl, then back down the drain. “What the hell?” her last words, as she leaned in, then felt the thing wrap its fleshy tentacle around her neck and pull her into dark eternity.
October 30, 2015 — 10:24 AM
ryanjamesblack says:
creepy!
October 30, 2015 — 12:03 PM
yellehughes says:
This one gave me goose bumps.
October 30, 2015 — 2:25 PM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
Ewwww, yuck! Grossness made me shiver – good job!
November 2, 2015 — 2:09 AM
David Clarke says:
The boy stood at the edge of the road, the whine of cicadas drowning his thoughts, watching the warching the heat shimmer the trees into dreams, when he saw the dog. Heart racing as the wobbly silhouette turned toward him, he called out, “Here boy!” But as frothing, wild-eyed mass raced towards him, he realized his dream companion was a nightmare he couldn’t outrun.
October 30, 2015 — 10:26 AM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
“Watching the heat shimmer the trees into dreams” – what an amazing, beautiful image!
November 2, 2015 — 2:11 AM
jack lee taylor says:
I think of my family one last time as I kneel in front of the masked figure above me.
He yells at me, pointing the machine gun at my face, though I don’t understand his words.
In the final moment I have left, there are flashes of fire before my eyes, the inward cracking of my forehead, and then only unending darkness.
October 30, 2015 — 10:26 AM
Christine chrisman says:
The great overcoat rustles, dry wings in flight.
“Are you ready,” said the creature.
“Yes, said the child as she took its bony hand.
October 30, 2015 — 10:26 AM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
Beautiful!
November 2, 2015 — 2:12 AM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
You got me. I keep coming back to this! Don’t fear the Reaper…
November 2, 2015 — 2:15 AM
Ed says:
“AAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH,” the pumpkin screamed as the child joyfully scooped out the juicy flesh. Soon after, with the wicked toothy grin carved into place he sat back and looked at his work.
The mouth moved, as if testing itself, “Y’know kid hundreds of us go through this each year and one day we will scoop out your brains and carve up your face.”
October 30, 2015 — 10:27 AM
Ashlee says:
I like it, Ed
October 30, 2015 — 10:30 AM
grace says:
Nice!
October 30, 2015 — 11:46 AM
paigevest says:
Her hand shook as she help the stick beneath her stream of urine, though she didn’t care when some got on her hand.
She watched the little window with dread, remembering how he’d said he’d kill her if she got pregnant.
Her eyes filled with tears when the ghostly image of a plus sign began to appear just as she heard him approach the bathroom and bang on the door.
October 30, 2015 — 10:29 AM
Shim Shimmy Woo says:
Creepy! Well done
October 30, 2015 — 12:23 PM
miceala says:
Inky black was already creeping up her fingers from the nail beds. Her glass eyes clicked cold and mechanical in their sockets, but, choking on panic, she still couldn’t scream.
They hadn’t warned her that they were taking her mouth.
October 30, 2015 — 10:30 AM
A. A. Woods says:
The mute girl pressed her knees into her forehead, trying to ignore the dank smell and distant echoing drips in the deserted underground cave. Something tickled the inside of her nose and she sneezed.
“Bless you.”
October 30, 2015 — 10:37 AM
jack lee taylor says:
This is great! Want to know what happens next.
October 30, 2015 — 10:40 AM
strugglingwriter says:
Eek!
Properly spooky 🙂
October 30, 2015 — 10:42 AM
dorwinrin says:
I was driving when the familiar sound of a Twitter notification chimed from my phone. One chime, two chimes, an avalanche of chimes until I could turn the thing on to check whoever was so insistently mentioning me. My name was on the trending topics list again for the first time in years: “RIP @johndoewriter, who died on a fatal car crash this evening”.
October 30, 2015 — 10:43 AM
Shay says:
I loved this, so much! <3
Great job!
October 30, 2015 — 1:42 PM
dorwinrin says:
Thank you!
October 30, 2015 — 4:31 PM
todddillard says:
We prayed to the gods but they weren’t listening so we invented new ones, small ones, of smoke and clay.
For hours they danced, warred, fornicated, until they looked up at us, looked up and shook their tiny fists at our moon faces, then one by one lay down, withered, and died.
We had forgotten to make them mouths.
October 30, 2015 — 10:44 AM
Jeff Ford says:
I can hear them now, so I must cut this broadcast short. Stay sane for as long as you can. This is how the world ends, ladies and gents–not with a bang, but the collective moan of the undead.
October 30, 2015 — 10:53 AM
Sam says:
The cuffs tore into flesh as the bed frame lifted, one corner then its opposite, his spit barely making its mark on my clipboard as I hid behind the check marks and called loudly for help. Had other staff heard or had I made no sound? I wiped my brow of sweat, my hand covered in red.
October 30, 2015 — 11:01 AM
Ethan Asplin says:
They always told me the scariest things are the things you’re not told. But my darkest depths don’t compare to this.
A limb brushes my ear, a whisper aches at my neck, a breath courses over me; and the fear of the monster I am about to face cracks through my veins.
October 30, 2015 — 11:02 AM
canuckgirl1 says:
Although I live alone, I’ve crave to shout “Honey, I’m home”, and hear someone answer back. Tonight, I threw caution out of the window and shouted those three little words. From my living room I hear, I heard a woman’s voice say: “Hi honey, I made you supper!”
October 30, 2015 — 11:07 AM
glenavailable says:
Alternate line for the voice – ” You’d better sit down. We need to talk.”
October 30, 2015 — 5:55 PM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
I WANT TO READ THIS BOOK! This was awesome!
November 2, 2015 — 2:17 AM
Amber Fallon says:
“Mommy, can I go outside?” Billy tugged his mom’s apron, looking up expectantly.
“Of course you can…” she started to say, then caught herself as she glanced outside to see Billy swinging on the swing set.
October 30, 2015 — 11:14 AM
John Wyatt says:
I laughed at the sheer joy of the moment. We held hands and I promised I’d never let her go. She begged and begged but I never did.
October 30, 2015 — 11:15 AM
grace says:
I like this very much.
October 30, 2015 — 11:50 AM
Larry H. Pena says:
Oh god. So good.
November 2, 2015 — 4:55 PM
mannixk says:
This one gives me some good heeby jeebies!
October 30, 2015 — 11:18 AM
Doug Daniel says:
The shadows grow in the corners. The door slams as Lisa escapes the house. I will hold off the darkness as long as I can.
October 30, 2015 — 11:18 AM
peri.fae says:
April 2nd, 1900: The plague has reached San Francisco, and newspapers are cautioning family members to sleep in separate rooms with the doors locked. My youngest, Anna, screamed for half the night when we bolted her in the sitting room.
The only agony greater than having to bury your favorite child, is having to bury her twice.
October 30, 2015 — 11:23 AM
Ed says:
I do like this, its a nice twist.
October 30, 2015 — 11:29 AM
warjnaVarina Suellen Plonski says:
Nicely done. Not only fear, but pain…
November 2, 2015 — 2:19 AM
peri.fae says:
Thank you both! 🙂
November 2, 2015 — 8:55 AM
Ashlee Jade says:
The city was beautiful, shining in faceted shards beneath the undulating silver-streaked blackness above. Through the clouds of bubbles he saw long, dark, supple figures approaching, and crouched further behind the coral coated rock. The edge of his flipper clipped something long, dark and supple and, before he could move away, quick supple hands had wrapped around his ankle and sharp shining jaws had snapped his air-tube and, all at once, he was gone.
October 30, 2015 — 11:26 AM
edelspot says:
I was having that dream where I was falling again. The wind rioted through my hair and chilled my skin as I plummeted toward the rock hard asphalt. And then I remembered I wasn’t dreaming.
October 30, 2015 — 11:34 AM
Tiggs says:
“Y’see,” said Lazlo, as he honed the carving knife, “God created this entire damn Universe for a bunch of Locusts who live at its centre. You and I? We ain’t nothing but food; a Happy Meal of helpless monkeys on a drive-through ball of mud, advertised by that golden globe we circle around — and tonight, I’m gonna eat like God’s chosen.”
October 30, 2015 — 11:55 AM
chrisdubecki says:
For sale: one expired infant. Requires no care or feeding. Constant screams will keep you up at night.
October 30, 2015 — 11:57 AM
Sara Baptista says:
hum… creepy enough!
October 31, 2015 — 1:19 PM
ryanjamesblack says:
She told herself she wouldn’t let it happen again.
She would fight the urge, lock herself away, kill herself if need be.
And then the Moon came out.
October 30, 2015 — 12:00 PM
Terri Lynn Coop says:
Tongues wagged as the May-December newlyweds left the church.
“I bet that old fool can’t wait to get started on the honeymoon”
Truer words were never spoken because the town’s taxidermist had finally found the perfect trophy wife.
October 30, 2015 — 12:06 PM
glenavailable says:
Norman Bates lives again!
October 30, 2015 — 6:00 PM
David Baur says:
Annika knew that in the future her duties would be informed by experience and practice in a way that would make them more science and less art. But for now, for this one, it was a labor of love. The first death would always be the one that was uniquely hers.
October 30, 2015 — 12:07 PM
zane says:
I fell asleep. I woke up and walked away. I watched across the room as my body fidgeted and woke up.
October 30, 2015 — 12:18 PM
Lonnie James says:
When I saw her a single word bounced around my head, spinning, giving off sparks like a fourth of July spectacular, making my hair stand on end with excitement. When I invited her to dinner at my modest home, the word wafted to me, hypnotized me with its truth, satiated my appetite with its reality–succulent!
October 30, 2015 — 12:22 PM
Ruth Dupré says:
Please, mommy, don’t put me in the box, please. I’ll be good, I promise, I won’t ever go looking in the closet again, I won’t. Please, please, I don’t want to be with Uncle Tobey, please, he smells…
October 30, 2015 — 12:26 PM
Sara Baptista says:
okay! this one woke my interest
October 31, 2015 — 1:20 PM