fiction
Horror fiction that delivers on its promise to scare, startle, frighten and unsettle. These stories are fake, but the shivers down your spine won't be.
Lead Investigator
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The candle was lit by author John Falcot, who had just recently come to stay in the remote cabin. John, a successful author of eight novels, was in the midst of writing his next work of fiction, but the process was going anything but smoothly. Sitting in his New York apartment last week, his head in his hands, John knew that he could not continue wasting eight hours a day wishing away his writer’s block. He had to actually do something about it.
By Kaitlyn Ayala4 years ago in Horror
Twisted
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Miraculously, I’d found the cracked votive candle in one of the few kitchen drawers that had not been ransacked over the years, a fading image of Mary etched into the glass. I vaguely recall an image of the candle amongst the other tattered stuffed animals and half-dead bouquets displayed outside the cabin six years ago in memory of my twin sister.
By Julia Polcyn4 years ago in Horror
Reflections
Last Laugh Reflection The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but a candle burned in the window one night. The girl spotted the dim light through the falling snow. Her airbag partially blocked her vision but she could make out the outline of a small wooden frame cabin. She shook her head as if to clear it and tried to exit the vehicle. Unfortunately, the car was half-buried in a snow ditch and the door was blocked. She slid to the passenger and with some effort, found her way out into the cold.
By Lynn Weeks Williams4 years ago in Horror
In the Depths of Darkness. Runner-Up in Campfire Ghost Story Challenge.
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. My brother, sister and I would often come to camp in these woods. We had our favourite clearing amongst the trees to pitch our tents, far enough from the beaten track to feel remote and removed from civilisation. It’d been our regular haunt every summer as kids, when our father used to take us up there on fishing trips.
By Bron James4 years ago in Horror
The Calling
“The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.” Jade stated. I watched her gaze sweep over our friends as we listened intently to her story. We all heard the cacophony of animal sounds: owls hooting, crickets chirping, frogs croaking, and the howling of wolves; this all coming from the forest surrounding our camping grounds.
By Alexa Leitkowski4 years ago in Horror
As Moths
The cabin in the woods has been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. As you approach, you hear a faint sound. Was it a sigh? Was it a satisfied hum? But where’s it coming from? Was it from you? Are you hearing things in your exhaustion? It’s said no one's lived here for over 50 years. You, tired from the hike, and having found nowhere else to rest, enter the cabin. You push open the door and assess. The place is small and only illuminated by the candle. There aren’t any light fixtures to be seen. Otherwise, it looks normal enough. A one room space with a small kitchen, a dusty and firm looking bed, a door that leads to a closet sized room, most likely a bathroom, a mounted shelf, and 2 end tables beside an inviting looking couch. You take a seat on the small sofa and fall asleep instantly. Suddenly you’re awake. Hours have passed. How many, you can’t be sure, but things feel different. You can feel there’s been a shift of some kind, though everything looks the same. What other shift could there have been other than the passage of time. Your body is still tired and your mind still foggy so why are you awake? You lie back and drift again when you feel eyes on you. You bolt upright and look around the small room. Did you just see a shadow scurry away? No, it must’ve been an illusion of the dancing candle light. Or your overly tired mind playing tricks on you. You take a breath and lie back again and then you feel something brush lightly against your leg. You instinctively reach your hand to the spot you felt the touch, thinking maybe it was a spider, or some other insect. Your hand comes back covered in something sticky and damp. You rub your thumb across your fingertips. The slick and viscous substance is warm. Did you squish something? You look closer at your hand. The substance is dark and far too plentiful to be from a bug. It smells metallic. Is this blood? Is it coming from you? You reach your other hand to the spot on your leg but it comes back clean. Holding your hands side by side, you see they’re both clean. ‘‘How? What’s going on? Am I losing it?’’ you think to yourself. You just need some rest. If you could just get a few hours of sleep, you can figure out how to get home. You need to get to sleep fast because every moment of daylight could be critical to getting you home. You close your eyes and start some 4-7-8 breathing. You feel your body relax as you envision leaves on tall tree branches against a bright blue sky, swaying to your breaths, as if you were the wind itself. That vision transforms into a picnic in a lush park with your favorite person. A wicker basket atop a red and white blanket, filled with all of your favorite snacks and drinks. You two lounging, laughing, chatting. The chatting, it’s growing louder. Would you call it chatting? It’s somewhere between chatting and chittering. An almost human sound, too quickly spoken to understand. The sound increases to a roar, surrounding you. It’s deafening. You’re awake suddenly but the sound is still there. Your heart rate accelerates. But then it’s gone. Everything is silent. Was the sound here or was it just the lingering strings of a vivid dream? You shake your head and shoulders loose, shake away those cobweb like memories. You walk over to the window where the candle sits and peek out. Maybe there’s an animal there causing a ruckus? This late, it's unlikely, but you check anyway. And as you thought, there’s no one there. Just you, the candle, the shadows, and the silence. You sit back on the couch and allow your body and mind to take comfort in the isolation. “If there’s no one around, there’s no danger” you tell yourself silently. Most of your mind accepts this, and agrees. But that small, primitive, animal part of you, the sensing part, the knowing part, gives a small protest. You feel a squeeze in your gut, an ever so slight tearing of your eyes. You swallow the feeling. That illogical child-brained feeling that says every pile of clothes on a chair in the dark is a boogie man waiting to devour you as soon as you let your guard down. You swallow it and lay your head against the plush pillows of the sofa. You close your eyes and try to sleep once again. You breathe, you envision, you count, but sleep doesn’t come. Why? What’s going on? You’ve never felt more exhausted in your life. You rack your brain for any sleep inducing tricks you may not have tried when all the shadows in the room pulse as one, and the sound of the crackling candle shakes you to your core. It’s then you realize it’s been absolutely silent. Pin drop silence since…since…since you woke up. Are you even awake? This unnatural silence in the middle of the woods…no rustling leaves…no crickets. You must still be dreaming. You have to be. That’s why you can’t fall back to sleep. You’re already asleep. Well…what do you do now?
By Pryia Blunt4 years ago in Horror
The Beast's Cabin
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. The beast was back. ⚘ The remote countryside of France was not Bren's first choice as a place to live, but given the state of the world, her student loans, and the semi-recent passing of her grandfather, she didn't see much of an option. On paper, it was a small parcel of land that had been owned by her great-grandparents. It seemed the house was far away from everything, the nearest town being a tiny village that, to her, still lurked in the stone age. Her skin itched thinking of the broken, dirty shack she was about to inherit. Just a few months, Bren. Just til the book gets picked up.
By Jenna Sedi4 years ago in Horror
Dark Verses
The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Thomas did not intend to be here. No one intends to be in the woods in the dark of night, alone, bleeding from their forehead, he thought to himself. Yet here he was, thoughts muddled from the blow received to his head, shaking from the autumn chill, and leaning his weight on an old tree, transfixed by this unusually placed source of human light. There was a woman he could see through the window…and he felt certain he knew her.
By Katie Sullivan4 years ago in Horror
The Campfire Story
“The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window.” The flashlight shone upwards under Mr. Henderson’s face as he said the words slowly, ominously, leaning into the drama of his story as the campfire crackled and snapped and sent wayward sparks upwards into the night air.
By Andrew Piazza4 years ago in Horror
