This one. Short. Sharp. Creepy. Will stay with me for the rest of the night.

Not sure if I’m submitting too late, but I just stumbled upon this contest, and I have a story to share that has stayed with me since childhood.

I did as well! The description of the plastic carpet runners was perfection, and the sound of the picture frames being lifted up and set down again, one by one, was eerie.

What’s unnecessary is for you to be so rude. You aren’t being asked to critique a novel. This isn’t even a yelp review. I’m sorry for whatever shittiness currently exists in your own world, but spreading it around never  helps.

I disagree! I loved the buildup that the details created.

When I was 10 years old in the 1990's in the Central Valley, California, I had already become the procrastinator I am today. I was up late working on a major term paper for our 4th grade class. It was never normal for me to stay up past midnight on a school night (or ever, really), but the research report was due the…

Two short stories - both told to me by the folks it happened to in NYC, and for some reason I found super creepy.

1 - My friend “Mickey” had some time to kill one afternoon so he went into a well known midtown Irish pub for a pint of Guinness (or 2 or 3). As he is leaving the bar, he notices a disheveled older guy…

[I heard this story multiple times, directly from the source--I don’t even remember everything about it, but the part I do remains one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever heard, and I will still think of it from time to time and get a little freaked out]

If this seems familiar, I submitted too late in the past and got stuck in the greys.

The summer before Covid I was part of a field research project that required us to camp in a quiet California state park. Our campsite was about two hundred yards from the toilets, and the women would wait for daylight to run to the loos or go in pairs after dark.

In 1996, when I was 13, I went to my cousin Sarah’s house in a North London suburb called Kingsbury. We were both only children and have overbearing, insane mothers who would never let us out by ourselves, so when we got together would become hyper, boisterous, pests. While we would have every detail of our life…

I’ve worked in student affairs for about seven years now, living on campus for four and a half of those years. I’ve worked at some of the largest universities in the US, and in some of the smallest. My creepiest tale comes from grad school. People frequently whispered about ghosts—we were close to several…

A few nights ago I was snuggled into bed with my little one. I wrote about her last year, and our night doulas. She’s getting big now, but still just a toddler. Still nursing in the odd hours of fitful nights, with stuffies lined along her bed against the window. I fed and cuddled and giggled with her softly as she…

Roommates Unwanted
I moved to New Orleans over 15 years ago for grad school and like many before me immediately fell in love with the food, culture, and people. It is a very intoxicating and romantic place. The historical homes with their antique fixtures and furniture make it to easy to imagine people from a different…

When I was 20 I moved into a house that all of us living there simply called “The Flat” and all I know is that there was something wrong with it.

“Transmissions from Beyond”

My bf and I live in a warehouse that stretches from a busy street to a back alley. We love to be outside but lack a backyard, so we spent a lot of time in the alley, which was cozy despite being open to public traffic. Two lots across the alley are undeveloped and overgrown with tropical vegetation and large oak…

About two years ago, my husband and I bought an old Victorian home that is approximately 130 years old in the Victorian district of Savannah, GA. We’ve had a handful of questionable moments in the house, but the most notable is the time when both of us were putting our then three-year-old to bed. She loves it when we…

When I was 19 and trying to make some money for college, I worked part-time as a personal assistant for an interior designer whose office was located in an old Victorian style house in the downtown district of my hometown.

I don’t know exactly how I came to submitting anything for this contest, but my daughter is a huge fan and reads every year, and I’ve developed an unfortunate habit of going down Internet rabbit holes since I retired.