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*
Adam Hughes says:
You work your whole life to become an astronaut, and you’re picked to be on the first manned flight to Mars. As you prepare to land on the surface, your two fellow pioneers shed their flight suits to reveal themselves as hideous monsters, and one tells the other how happy he is that they are finally able to go home.
October 30, 2015 — 12:53 PM
Sara Baptista says:
ah! How ironic!
October 31, 2015 — 1:21 PM
ryanjamesblack says:
The exterminator froze in the crawlspace. An animal balloon, dripping with greasepaint and something much darker floated out of the darkness on a breathy chuckle. He had enough insecticide for the cockroaches, but what was he supposed to do about the clown?
October 30, 2015 — 1:06 PM
Shay says:
*shivers*
Very creepy, but well written! (:
October 30, 2015 — 1:43 PM
glenavailable says:
Muhahahaha! Two thumbs up!
October 30, 2015 — 5:02 PM
Richard Patton says:
She cried out again in a waning voice, yearning for any answer.
“Who are you?”
Silence scraped her bare skin.
October 30, 2015 — 1:13 PM
L.C. Rooney says:
Fabulous! Shiver-inducing! 🙂
October 30, 2015 — 3:34 PM
Richard Patton says:
Thank you!
October 30, 2015 — 10:14 PM
Anna says:
Beautiful and creepy. Loved this one!
October 31, 2015 — 6:33 AM
Richard Patton says:
Thank you so much!
October 31, 2015 — 1:06 PM
A. R. Stone says:
My dead body, pinned under the car, died quickly. A sense of peace and tranquility washed over me as I drifted over the scene. The gates of Hell tore the street open and sucked me in; no word exists to describe that which shattered my momentary serenity.
October 30, 2015 — 1:14 PM
L.C. Rooney says:
The smell of burnt flesh – her flesh – hung in the air, no breeze between the buildings to sweep it away. To the uninitiated, the charred log before him was, perhaps, an abandoned bonfire, the only thing out of sync the single, slightly singed, red shoe at the far end. How she did love her shoes; he smiled at the memory.
October 30, 2015 — 1:25 PM
glenavailable says:
Evil poetry indeed!
October 30, 2015 — 5:04 PM
Shay says:
Kelly glanced toward the scarlet liquid that stained her ivory gown. The foreign doctor collected a scalpel, just past her restraints, applying pressure onto her chest. Her haunting scream echoed down the hospital wing as he carved a second symbol of death.
October 30, 2015 — 1:40 PM
musehick says:
The small bones were sharp and brittle under his feet as he approached the sound of the crying baby. He looked up and flashed upon the face of a child killer. He thought he had smashed all the mirrors in the house.
October 30, 2015 — 1:44 PM
Aimee Ogden says:
DAMN. That’s quite a punch!
October 30, 2015 — 3:29 PM
glenavailable says:
Smoke ‘n mirrors never sounded so good!
October 30, 2015 — 5:06 PM
vivek says:
Thats
October 31, 2015 — 8:46 AM
vivek says:
really good….
October 31, 2015 — 8:47 AM
Paul Magnan says:
Crimson bled from the sky, filtering through the ridiculously tangled mass of hair on the President’s head. He smirked as nuclear Armageddon claimed the world.
“You’re all fired!”
October 30, 2015 — 2:10 PM
bertie says:
Love it.
October 30, 2015 — 6:44 PM
glenavailable says:
This one comes up Trumps!
October 30, 2015 — 8:52 PM
Kayleigh says:
It’s my first time home alone, and nothing can scare me. The refrigerator rumbles and rasps, the house creaks, so I turn on all the lights– just to be safe. So why…why is there still a shadow in the corner?
October 30, 2015 — 2:31 PM
bertie says:
I like this as a stand alone, but it could also be a great intro for a full length story.
October 30, 2015 — 6:42 PM
kathleea says:
This morning I buried my sister underneath her favorite oak tree. At midnight the sounds of scratching and digging wakes me from a sound sleep. I buried my sister alive.
October 30, 2015 — 2:32 PM
jim says:
Melinda scurried to the front door, eager to stop the ceaseless pounding and scraping that had begun moments earlier. As she flung the door open, she staggered backward, stunned by the nightmare before her: Her son, the pride and joy of her life, leered at her as blood dripped from a gaping wound in his chest onto a Donald Trump campaign pin. Her son had become a zombie–and a Donald Trump supporter.
October 30, 2015 — 2:37 PM
Tabitha Beck says:
Once up on a time, he killed me. It wasn’t enough for him. He keeps bringing me back to do it again.
October 30, 2015 — 2:41 PM
warjna says:
Oh, I LIKE that!
October 31, 2015 — 6:37 AM
Lost Carlson (@LostCarlson) says:
From the first soft pop of the smallest digit then quickly another and on to the larger connecting ones to the greatest bulk which bogged it down a bit but quickly started up again fraught with an unwetted appetite, the mechanism churned and belched leaving a red halo of heady perfume misting above its yaw. it was the Crush and the monster would gorge non-stop for forty days and forty nights to which other ingredients such as soothers and antibiotics would be added to the paste; within hours the devouts would pat by hand into tiny cakes and set aside for the annual holiday. I’d been extremely careful, but the monster had sent a vicious projectile and dislodged one of my contacts feigning cataract blindness exposing infidel blue.
October 30, 2015 — 2:52 PM
otterpoet says:
I gaze into the mirror each day, marveling at the face looking back. And wondering where I got it. Maybe that’s a question best left unanswered.
October 30, 2015 — 2:55 PM
Izaak Diggs says:
I lay in the dentist chair dreading what was about to come. A man in a mask walked in. With a cold laugh, he pulled down the mask and I realized it was Dick Cheney.
October 30, 2015 — 3:03 PM
coolerbs says:
I look at his pale flesh, pulled taut under nail. Feel his hurried breath. He said he wanted date night to be special, and I love how salty his intestines taste.
October 30, 2015 — 3:04 PM
Aimee Ogden says:
The ghost burns as it slides down Nora’s throat, churns in her stomach, sends gray little fingers scurrying up her throat to lift her chin and turn her head to the reflection in the window. “Yes,” croons Nora’s mouth, “this face will do,” but Nora’s fingers, still loyal, have closed on the hilt of her favorite kitchen knife. The flesh slides off her face, and though her mouth is screaming, Nora feels nothing but the burning deep down in her belly.
October 30, 2015 — 3:29 PM
L.C. Rooney says:
That is just masterful.
October 30, 2015 — 3:37 PM
bertie says:
Agreed.
October 30, 2015 — 6:45 PM
dcxli says:
I audibly said “holy shit” when I read this. Great job!
October 31, 2015 — 11:55 AM
Jackie says:
Jane is irritated when the coughing starts up again, just as she is backing her car out of the driveway. She parks her car and lets herself cough, spit, and choke until out into her hand pops a chunk of her lung, covered in a bloody, mucus-and-saliva mess. Impatient, she shoves it back in and digs around for the towel she keeps in the glove compartment, only noticing after the taste of it has settled that the lung… wasn’t hers.
October 30, 2015 — 3:40 PM
glenavailable says:
Standing in waiste deep, gushing water under the bridge, Missy and Crystal dared not move as they listened to the sound of the heavy wheels of a laden wagon rumbling right over the wooden planks above their heads followed by more horses – all moving at a frightened pace. Amidst squalls of rain they watched from their concealed position as murder and mayhem were metted out in the forest across the way.
October 30, 2015 — 4:16 PM
Curtis Dibrell Jr. says:
Good job man. That was excellent.
October 30, 2015 — 6:46 PM
T. Lloyd Reilly says:
I sit on the park bench and look about to find him. There he is, my son and heart, talking to that guy with the long hair and gloves with the fingers cut out. The guy looks at me smiling a gap toothed smile while he grabs my son and heart by his throat…and pulls out a large ugly knife.
October 30, 2015 — 4:55 PM
brandonearlbristow says:
“You my son, will work for the DMV… forever.”
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
October 30, 2015 — 5:15 PM
glenavailable says:
Let me guess – DMV is Donut Mall Van?
October 30, 2015 — 6:05 PM
Laura Wilson-Anderson says:
Department of Motor Vehicles would be MUCH more scary than donuts.
October 31, 2015 — 4:20 PM
glenavailable says:
Captain Pedantic would offer that scariness, like all things, is largely in the eye of the beholder. To a heart surgeon, fried donuts might be seen as blood-curdling evil incarnate. Down here in Australia, we call the act of car hoons spinning their tyres causing their hot rods to go round and round – ‘doing donuts’. Thus the Butterfly Effect and it’s ‘all things are connected’ mantra decrees that it may not be such a jump between the Department of Motor Vechicles and donuts after all.
October 31, 2015 — 4:45 PM
Curtis Dibrell Jr. says:
If they didn’t move maybe it would go away. If they breathed softly, maybe it wouldn’t enter the room, and open the closet door.. If their phone hadn’t gone off,maybe it wouldn’t be staring at them with its yellow,beady eyes.
October 30, 2015 — 5:44 PM
glenavailable says:
One from the “What if.. ” canon obviously. A bit of schoolyard wisdom – beady eyes will win a staring contest everytime!
October 30, 2015 — 9:00 PM
Curtis Dibrell Jr. says:
What did you think of it man?
October 30, 2015 — 9:13 PM
misskatyaharris says:
Chitinous legs scuttled over her. Scratching, scratching. Working their way beneath her skin.
October 30, 2015 — 6:17 PM
David Marks says:
Ah! Thanks for the new word!
November 1, 2015 — 11:03 AM
Jacqui says:
I wake in darkness, gasping for air and breathing in dust and splinters. My arms are pinned to my side by wood and nails, and I realize I’m in a box. Something warm slides across my legs.
October 30, 2015 — 7:30 PM
Carey Burns says:
The sweet rot of autumn leaves mingled with smoke, stinging my eyes as I struggled to open them. Flames kissed my limbs and the wails of the paid mourners drowned out the crackle and pop of the tinder. My screams too fell on their dead ears.
October 30, 2015 — 7:37 PM
RWSanchez3 says:
As we sat around the smoldering fire, I considered telling a ghost story for old tumes sake. Everytime we had gathered at a camp fire, one of us had taken on the helm of storyteller for the night. But somehow, with three of us missing and one of us dead, it just didnt seem appropriate.
October 30, 2015 — 7:38 PM
Rick Sherman says:
“Captain Clark welcomes you aboard”, he always said. That was before the knives and the drills and the pain. If I still had eyelids I’d squeeze them shut.
October 30, 2015 — 8:36 PM
dcxli says:
My torch lays just out of my reach, inches from a pool of ebon pitch. I am unable to move as a tongue of flickering flame lashes out and ignites the black liquid. I lay immobile, my body broken, as the fire spreads; it begins to lap at my broken legs, and a scream tears itself from my throat.
October 30, 2015 — 11:11 PM
Jessica Fontaine Jones says:
The fire barely singed my back, but the soft moan behind me rakes my ears, steals my breath, and knocks me to my knees. The child in my arms cries out as we fall, blood dripping like lava from her pink dinosaur t-shirt. I hold her tightly and say, “Hang on. We’re almost there,” then struggle back to my feet, choke back tears, and turn my back on the sister I cannot save.
October 30, 2015 — 11:47 PM
AG Elmore says:
“Immortality,” the whisper teased Mariam as her knife carved another’s flesh. “Beauty,” the reverent tone guided her grasping hands. “Power,” the voice sang as she sank her teeth into the still beating heart of her daughter
October 31, 2015 — 1:05 AM
Y. C. Harrison says:
He peers at the screen attached to the electron microscope and there it is: twenty nanometres of RNA enclosed in a capsid that’s killed twenty million people and counting. His research assistant leans over his shoulder and asks if he’s any closer to knowing what it is. He nods and answers , “It’s the end.”
October 31, 2015 — 1:11 AM
glenavailable says:
Those nifty electron microscopes sure have their uses.
October 31, 2015 — 3:25 AM
Laura Wilson-Anderson says:
I like this one!
October 31, 2015 — 4:22 PM
Kerry Benton says:
Lucy sits at the table, picturing her tormentors, letting the pain and rage wash over her, again, but for the last time.
She picks up the gun.
The places where her arms used to be tingle with power and anticipation.
October 31, 2015 — 1:47 AM
fantasycamel says:
Awesome.
October 31, 2015 — 7:16 PM
asheley says:
I love this one!
October 31, 2015 — 9:33 PM
Russell says:
Calvin regained consciousness staggering along the highway with the drifting snow as remnants of his clothing smoked in the frigid night air. Shrieks of creatures, fleeing the pit of a glowing crater, threatened to purge his bowels if not his sanity. Calvin prayed for deliverance swifter than those that tracked his blood on the pristine snow.
October 31, 2015 — 3:19 AM
Natalie says:
“Slumber parties rock”, thought Mary, watching her friends giggling and horsing around. The slasher movies had been a big hit, though Janet had freaked out, what with all the news about the serial killer loose in the city. She headed downstairs to get more nibbles but before she reached the kitchen the lights went out and then the screaming started.
October 31, 2015 — 4:03 AM
Anna says:
The creature is here; I can smell its fetid stench, rotting meat and engine oil, hear the whisper of its claws on the plascrete. I slam the dermspray into my thigh, and poison burns through my veins like ice. Time for your last meal, you bastard.
October 31, 2015 — 6:14 AM
warjna says:
Oh, my, yes! I’d buy that book!
October 31, 2015 — 6:43 AM
Anna says:
Beautiful and creepy. I loved this one!
October 31, 2015 — 6:30 AM
Anna says:
Sorry, this one was meant for Richard Patton!
October 31, 2015 — 6:34 AM
Anna says:
Lol:)
October 31, 2015 — 6:37 AM
warjna says:
After last year’s events, she’d thought she was ready for anything. So when the creatures came this time, they tried to prove her wrong. After all, no-one really believed that the rumors about her were true…
I wrote that one, then felt it was more a blurb for a story rather than the story itself. So I tried it again. Here’s #2:
When they cut the cadaver open in the lecture hall, things did not go quite as planned. The creatures that crawled out were quite unexpected.
They were fast, too–and their teeth were sharp as glass.
October 31, 2015 — 6:52 AM
Sarah Epstein says:
She slipped and stumbled through the deserted lobby, listening for footsteps and praying she’d outrun him.
She hurtled into a waiting elevator, jabbing buttons non-stop until the doors closed, only then letting herself sob with relief.
“Basement, please,” he said from behind her.
October 31, 2015 — 7:42 AM
glenavailable says:
” 5th floor – sporting and white goods; 3rd floor – habadashery; 1st floor – linen & apparel;
Basement – anguish, torment and everlasting hell-fire.”
November 1, 2015 — 3:32 PM
Sarah Epstein says:
Nothing good ever happens in a basement. 😉
November 1, 2015 — 5:18 PM
garyswiff says:
I woke up regretting my decision not to go to ER after the chemical explosion at the lab last night. My face was on fire, the flesh on my cheeks felt raw and unhinged. I resisted the urge to scratch; I instead walked over to my makeup mirror to find overgrown teeth sticking out of my face at varied angles.
October 31, 2015 — 8:18 AM
Kristin Mireles (@kristinmireles) says:
Suddenly, she didn’t feel very well. As the room began to spin and she fell to the garage floor, she looked up to see an overturned bottle of pesticide on the shelf above where she set her coffee. Her cat, Percival, sat on the other end of the shelf, smirking as he watched her flail in desperation.
October 31, 2015 — 9:08 AM
glenavailable says:
Exactly the reason I’m a dog person not a cat person.
October 31, 2015 — 3:40 PM
entrebat says:
Applying the makeup isn’t the hard part, it’s disguising the chaotic mess behind it. Children are so intuitive. That’s what makes them so tender and juicy.
October 31, 2015 — 9:10 AM
fantasycamel says:
Now that is messed up. Like a creepy dead baby joke.
October 31, 2015 — 7:10 PM
Gail Hamilton @ghamilton9 says:
A hundred years I’ve lived under this bed, my diet exclusively children’s toes. Finally got caught and they’re giving the bed to the old folks’ home. Helloooo scrumptious second childhoods!
October 31, 2015 — 9:29 AM
Kristi S. Simpson says:
Slack jawed, he stared at his wife, heart racing and hands trembling. His life as he knew it was over if he’d heard her correctly, and for a moment he tried to think of ways to talk her out of this horror or at least convince her she was mistaken. After several minutes of silence he finally looked her in the eye, saw it was true they were having twins, so he did what any reasonable person would do, he fainted.
October 31, 2015 — 10:34 AM
Laura Wilson-Anderson says:
HA! I love this one.
October 31, 2015 — 4:24 PM
Gail Hamilton @ghamilton9 says:
A hundred years I’ve lived under this bed, my diet exclusively children’s toes. Finally got caught spitting toenails and they’re giving the bed to the old folks’ home. Helloooo scrumptious second childhoods!
October 31, 2015 — 11:48 AM
Grace Zimmerman says:
Aha! Even after the nasty divorce whereby the judge how really wanted my body, awarded all of the Master’s millions to me, he sends me this large vial of my favorite scent. As I dab it on my body, I fall forward gasping for air as my entire body is enveloped with gigantic snakes sucking my life’s blood, Too late I truly realize he is much more than the Master Wizard of Mesmerism!
October 31, 2015 — 11:49 AM
dcxli says:
Patrick Rothfuss leaned in close.
He smiled evilly.
“There is no book three.”
October 31, 2015 — 11:57 AM
Miri says:
GO TO YOUR ROOM.
October 31, 2015 — 2:05 PM
Kristi S. Simpson says:
That will definitely give me nightmares!
October 31, 2015 — 5:17 PM
cchrisman says:
NOOOOOOO
October 31, 2015 — 11:54 PM