Spooky Micro

The Prompt

Get ready for chills and thrills! For this spooky season challenge, we’re asking you to write a haunting story that begins with this eerie first sentence: 'There was only one rule: don’t open the door.'

What lies behind the door? Why must it stay closed? Whether your story explores supernatural forces, psychological terror, or something entirely unexpected, we want to see how you build suspense and create fear from that single, ominous rule.

Start with the provided sentence and let your imagination run wild like a banshee (within the 200-300 word count limitation!). We're ready for a scare—are you? 👻

In order for your submission to qualify, it must:

• Start with the first sentence: 'There was only one rule: don’t open the door.'
• Be between between 200-300 words, including the provided first sentence. This word count applies to the body text only.
• Be submitted to Horror community. Choosing a community is a final step in the submission process. Your microfiction may be rejected for word count requirements if it is submitted to any other community. Please note that it's perfectly fine if your Spooky Micro bends the confines of the horror genre.

The Prizes

• Grand Prize: $500
• Second Place: $200
• 15 Runners-Up: $15

Special shout-out to Call Me Les for inspiring this challenge idea in Share Your Ideas to Shape the Future of Vocal Challenges.

For your piece to be eligible, it should follow the rules above and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until 11:59 PM ET on October 23, 2024 will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.

The Spooky Micro Challenge is exclusive to Vocal+ members. To learn more and upgrade to Vocal+ visit https://vocal.media/vocal-plus.

To be eligible to win the grand prize, second place, or runners-up prizes, you must be over the age of 13 and residing in a country where Stripe is available at the time of entry. A complete list of countries where Stripe is available can be found here—winners will need to have a Stripe account created and connected in order to receive the prizes. For this reason, entrants located outside of any of these countries will not be eligible to win.

Any content that is determined to be generated by artificial intelligence will be disqualified and will not be eligible to place in any challenge. Read more on our stance here.