Horror Writing Prompts

The water sparkled in the moonlight as the duck graced its surface, transitioning from sky to water with one, elegant motion. Gary watched from the shore, trembling. He’d seen that duck before, in other waters. How was it that it was here again, now, at this time? He shook his head and took a deep breath, turning away from the lake.

A noise drew him back again. The duck had quacked, and Gary saw...

It all started with the old cars hidden in the woods. Mangled automotive machinery lay strewn amongst the trees, their once shiny surfaces now bare metal stained rust red.

A pile of scraps was all anyone ever thought of it. It lay undisturbed, stowed out of sight in the woods on the outskirts of town. Sometimes a weekend handyman playing at mechanic will go digging around for a salvageable spare ...

The girl walks, quickly, hugging the small bouquet of roses tightly to her chest. Her hand wraps around the stem of one and a sudden pain flows through her body. She attempts to brush back her brown messy hair but only smears blood across her worried frantic face.

Her quick steps are the only noise filling the Red Forest, but somehow they only make the space feel more empty. She knows not of the ...

It’s the middle of November and I'm trudging through three feet of snow because, much to my dismay, bodies don't just bury themselves.

It's why I'm a seasonal serial killer.

So is my friend--a serial killer, that is to say. Not seasonal. Definitely not seasonal. Because while I'm haunting homesteads and butchering blocks in the idyllic eighty-degree Springfield summer, Jack is an emotional, imp...

The wind blows my hair. I’m standing on the edge again, my torn, off-white dress billowing out around me. A tunnel of blinding, bright light shines before me, beckoning me like a lullaby, and I swear I would cry if I still could. Legs straining, teeth clenched, I try to fight the heavy gusts, to reach out and touch that sweet sunlight, behind which I know paradise waits.

I am so close. I can ...

If you are to read this poem, know this.

The words I’m about to write are intended to slay your bliss.

I hope you’re sitting uncomfortably.

I hope you can’t reach that itch.

Your skin is beginning to prickle, whilst you’re reading this.

Your scalp is screaming “dig your nails into me?”

Picture images of lice, mice, and fleas.

In the corner of your eye, just out of reach, in the contours of ...

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...