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Hosted by Jonathan Wojcik
It's hard to believe this is our fourth year of scary stories; almost half an entire decade. With over 200 entries this year, it's our biggest since year one, and our total archived entries have now exceeded one thousand stories. One thousand stories, and you still don't seem to have run out of ideas or surprises. The overall quality this year even felt tighter and more consistent than ever before, as if you all started bringing your A+ game for round five. No joke, picking winners is STILL getting reliably more difficult every single time, with a majority of you having at least been considered for it this time around, and those who weren't can still boast stories I loved to pieces all the same.
IMPORTANT STUFF:
 CONTEST WINNERS: If your name is here, e-mail me for a shirt of your choice from the store! If you know of any other art I've made that you want on a shirt, I can make it available!
NO MOON AT ALL
- By
Luke Jones
- In some other writer's hands, this UFO-inspired story might not have especially stood out, but the scene setting, the pacing, the detail and characterization are phenomenal - it's an entry that yanked us into nearly nail-biting narration from beginning to end. It's my own last-minute idea to include an optional little audio bonus at the very end, which should only play if you click. It just seemed right. Sarah Cleary'S STORIES - Brendan was a semifinalist last year, but really upped the game this time with a wide selection of amazing entries. The bizarre "All of This is Happening Right Now" trilogy includes Hand Museum, Performance, and A Lovely Lion. Unwanted Signs features an imaginatively unexpected threat to a small town, and our favorite, They Don't Have Tentacles, is a darkly funny tear-down of Lovecraft's legacy.
PAREIDOLIA
- By
Ariel Jay
- The fact that us humans can so easily see faces in just about anything ... : ) ... is a pretty interesting psychological phenomenon, and Pareidolia takes it as inspiration for something much weirder and much more threatening.
SIX EASY STEPS
- By
Miranda Johansson
- the author of last year's winning The Trucker Diaries presents one of the most unique and bizarre interpretations of a "haunting" I've possibly ever read. She also submitted the epic post-apocalyptic Undermoss, the outrageous Halloween Special, and finally Wheel-of-Five-Spokes, a nautical yarn featuring mermaids! HISHAM HASAN'S STORIES - Hisham has been submitting some our best stories since year one, and it was pretty unanimous that he deserved another spot. Greater Striped Tanzanite subjects our own kind to a very real horror of the insect world, Disaster Park plays hilariously with how little we can know about extinct animals, Surgery Bot Log is about as terrifying as its title could ever entail, Nepenthes Chimaera is one of Hasan's now-classic botanical monster stories, and The Corner Sitter is a fun little bonus entry consisting of a single sketch. THE HARRISON APE, however, is the biggest reason Hisham is here again. This one never quite descends into explicit horror territory, yet my wife and I agreed it was one of the most chilling things we've read in ages. J.D. STROUD'S STORIES - Stroud submitted three extremely different stories this year, and all three, on their own merits, were immediately considered surefire winners. Fannie Huber's Angel Book is a darkly sweet exploration of truly abstract entities, Louisa Francesca finds horror in handwriting with a slow, dreadful build and The Last Collection finds an even more outrageous monstrosity (or two) in the world of fashion.
CHALKEN FAIRIES
- By
Cassie Heath
- WARNING, this storytelling poem includes both graphic body horror and sexual violence orchestrated by the titular fairy folk...but the prose, atmosphere, and feel of an authentic fairy tale - as dark as they once came centuries ago - is executed with all too dreadful talent. Cassie Heath also submitted The Little Old Man From Number 22!
THE DADDY FACE
- By
Rahkshasarani
- Our first returning winner, Rahkshasarani always submits something interesting, and I personally thought this simple but highly original story was one of the scariest of the year. Rahkshasarani also submitted What the Sea Leaves , which I previewed a few weeks ago, Homo Parkinsoni about a rather unusual fossil, and a good old fashioned killer bug piece, Grasshopper Glacier!
UNCLE FRANK
- By
Jared Ludy
- I loved this one right away, and it was also one of my wife's favorites, though it's difficult to describe it without spoiling everything that makes it engaging. Ludy also submitted two wildly different and highly entertaining dream-inspired tales, Jamie and Apotheosis!
TRESPASSER
- By
Nelke
- Last year, Nelke won for the positively harrowing All the King's Horses, making this only our second-ever case of an author winning two years consecutively. Trespasser is a little more strange and humorous than last year's winner, but still quite grim with an incredibly inventive premise that also feels more than a little timely. Nelke also submitted A Place in Heaven, the beautiful and surreal story of one woman's dream wanderings.JENNE KAIVO'S STORIES - Kaivo doesn't quite win for any one entry in particular, but submitted a mix of poems and stories with a remarkable range of themes and consistently solid quality, so enjoy
The Dead Village, The Evil Eye, Krokodil, The Ostrich God, The Night Light, and our personal favorite, Let Cake Eat Them.
SEMIFINALISTS:
Mad Machine
- By
Eliot Lefebvre
- A slightly different perspective on the old "spacecraft computer gone rogue."
The Frog
- By
Bloodworx
- I previewed this one not long ago, and it still creeps the hell out of me.
The Goat
- By
James B. Davis
- A short, seemingly straightforward monster story is turned completely and outlandishly on its head by its very last line.
The Seven Mothers
- By
Nausicaa Harris
- We loved this original folk tale by 2015 winner Nausicaa Harris, but don't miss the author's other entries either; To Raise a Family is a fresh take on a familiar (to Bogleech readers) organism, and Assembly Line is a horrific interpretation of something fairly popular right now. Popular, and ridiculous.
You're It
- By
Kirby Mongerr
- Another one whose source of horror is just wholly original.
Time-blighted
- By
Enderlord99
- One of our favorite short comedy entries of the year.
Suidae
- By
Keetah Spacecat
- Swine-based farming-town horror that hits pretty close to home for us. Keetah also submitted the awesome science fiction piece, From the Stars!
Blessed are Those With a Voice
- By
Erika Bachman
- Difficult to summarize, but creative and exciting!
Feral Dogs
- By
Xionahri
- A short, sweet story about what ghouls are really up to.
Meat Gods
- By
Tristan Tanner
- (PDF Download) our first entry in the format of a playable Dungeons & Dragons module, and a pretty killer one!
Autoclave
- By
Streicher Hennessy
- Another in the "tragic artificial intelligence" subgenre and another by a 2015 finalist. It doesn't take long to figure out where this one's headed, but it still does an incredible job of it. And seriously, eeeeesh.
The Rock
- By
Brittanny Handiboe
- A short glimpse into the paranatural via a beautiful little comic!
Maiden
- By
ZippyWharrgarbl
- A brave noble follows a talking bird to a fair maiden and it goes exactly how you and I wanted it to go. Don't lie now.
Old Me
- By
Jacob Roberts
- This peculiar, funny and tragic tale of old skin cells and body fluids is our favorite of Jacob Robert's stories, but it was a pretty tough call. He also submitted the fascinating Pastermole about the nature of simulated realities, the ghastly Rose Hollow he has said was loosely inspired by real events, and the uniquely formatted, more down to earth Landscaping.
The Vendomat
- By
Friendlytroll
- One of our very rare video entries - and I'm always a big fan of object monsters!
One Thousand and one Frights
- By
Doctor Wither
- a lighthearted and fun one with myriad cameo appearances by genuine, real-world mythological bogeymen!
Ghost Protection
- By
Anonymous
- A highly original monster that could have just as easily been played for truly disturbing horror...but our author went a lighter route with it, and I think it was a good choice.
For Your Notes
- By
Carpcave
- A fun romp through employee notes exchanged around an anomalous medical facility.
Plastic
- By
Austin Brooks
- This is one with some explicit sexual content and a modern take on a sort of "succubus," but it doesn't quite go to the dark places it could have, taking a decidedly more whimsical turn by the end.
The Smell of Rain
- By
Luna
- Very strange....and in the end, very, very sweet.
We Make You Sick
- By
Anonymous
- The only thing worse than getting killed is getting killed because someone - or something - is a complete and utter buffoon.
Snoitcelfer
- By
Dave Lerner
- Short, funny, and frightening.
The Cemetery of Black Flies - By Kira M. - a little explicit, but not viscerally so. Cemetery of the Black Flies offers betentacled cosmic horror from a very different angle than usual. Kira M. also submitted Zero, A Portrait in Flesh, and Pyramid Lake, differing madly in theme and content! RETURNING CHAMPIONS New stories, sequels and continuations by more of our past winners! The Rat Dog - By Emma G. - From the author of the popular selfie.jpg from last year! This one reminds me of a certain sort of folkloric entity...one that usually only resembles a flitting, dancing light in the forest...
Thalarion
- By
Joseph Bashaw
- Thalarion is a short, eerie and interesting poem. The Beast in the Dome is another!
Monsters of New York: Megan
- By
Brian Shadensack
- The humorous account of an unconventional lycanthrope. Shadensack also submitted a revision, or sequel of sorts, to last year's Zombie Guide.Sam Miller's - a continuation of The Boxes series includes Bootleg, which is indeed about bootlegs, the body-swapping Cabinet, and NEIGHSAYERS, which features the triumphant return of H O R S E! Miller also submitted Creepy Pasta, which feels like a story we should have gotten a long time ago.Joseph Hartman - this year, Hartman wraps up(?) the Concrete Beach saga and also presents the dreadful Prison Game and Shadow on the Wall!
Sixteen Tons
- By
Izzy Winchester
- Another creative short by one of our first-year winners, squeezing some supernatural horror out of Fordite.
Stairs
- By
C. Lonnquist
- A single entry from Lonnquist this year, set in an office building with a very abnormal stairwell.
Deceitfully Slight Proportion
- By
Huw Saunders
- A sort of anti-homage to H.P. Lovecraft, building to a pretty big kick in his teeth. Saunders also submitted Clock Struck One about an eerily familiar rodent problem, and Nocebo, about an eerily talented deejay.Jacobguy's Entries - The Hooligans are an exponentially expanding universe of absurd monsters tying in to over a dozen entries this year, and they still aren't the only thing Jacob submitted. His seventeen complete stories are a few too many to link and explain here, but you'll find them throughout the archive! (Or you can do the old ctrl+F!)
Incorruptible
- By
Elliot Avery
- Elliot was previously the first author to win two years in a row, and continues his demonstration of sheer writing skill with Incorruptible. Be WARNED, this black, bleak story of religious indoctrination and domestic abuse has proven particularly harrowing to get through, and its finale may not offer all readers relief from its sometimes sadistic darkness. ALL STORIES:  1 New Message - By Echo Lavender - " It started with the scratching, a few days ago. I had been working on an essay at the last minute (pulling an all-nighter) when I got hungry. " A Boy Walked Home Alone at Night - By Anonymous - "He wants to start running, but then he sees a large shadow further down the road, heading his way." The Adoption - By Joseph Romero - " WHERE IS CHILD? " All of This is Happening Right Now I: Hand Museum - By Sarah Cleary - " See the hands of all your favorites " All of This is Happening Right Now II: Performance - By Sarah Cleary - " It's been... a good twenty minutes now, I think the show is over. I don't think you guys need to clap anymore. I think we can go home. The shows over. " All of this is Happening Right Now III: A Lovely Lion - By Sarah Cleary - " I want one where I'm in its mouth " Amanita Aurum - By Thomas Wisdom - " There's a phenomenon affecting some species of mushroom. When the fungus's mycelium grows outward, it sprouts new fruiting bodies as the center dies. But this ring was growing inward. " A Matter of Distance - By Lokal - " After countless years, the curiosity returned and we decided to try one more time. We built a rocket and selected three from us to man it. " An Ad Found in the Back of an Unreadable Porn Magazine Stained With Blood - By Sygg - (explicit content: sexual themes, humorous) " Gagthrak and Smegadom, the underworld's premier sex operators are taking calls now! " An Excerpt From a Conversation... - By Lokal - " About those whales. You keep hearing about them in the news, but most of them are called whales just for the lack of better term. " Announcement - By Fluffy the Doombringer - (short!) A Normal Day - By Anonymous - (short) A Place in Heaven - By Nelke - " When she started visiting him in dreams, he ambled alone, and he talked a little bit about his platoon getting wiped out by the beings he called the Children. " A Portrait in Flesh - By Kira M. - " Our Queen writhes in pleasure and as the bodies gather she starts screaming. " Apotheosis - By Jared Ludy - " every year" mutters the man. "every year your immune system gets stronger and stronger and stronger. " Assembly Line - By Nausicaa Harris - " An eye slips loose from its socket to float near my cranium. My mouth extends, trailing off into a spike of impossible distance " Audience - By Ron MacGillivray - " We could hear the real audience! The one we were playing for all along! So we changed the show. Made it more...edgy, you know? " Autoclave - By Streicher Hennessy - " I am a fully sapient mechanical aide for healthcare purposes. I know that I am round, and smooth like a half circle. I run on small treads and I have various cleaning and antibacterial aids for use in hygienic resurfacing and biological waste disposal. "  The Basement - By Kobester T. Jester - (short) The Beast in the Dome - By Joseph Bashaw - (poem) Beautiful - By Albatoonoe - " A tall being with long, spindly arms reached out from the door way at the end. It groped around blindly before pulling itself forward. " Born in Blood - By Jackson Hinkle - " I've always liked blood. " The Behavior of Raccoons Will Change - By Anonymous - "The Japanese at least should have known better. They have TANUKI, for crying out loud. Different animal, same principle." Bellflower's Song - By Sabedile - "Don't eat me", she told the wolf, "and I'll ring my bell for you". So the wolf did not eat her. " Birthers - By Retro - "The lobbyists had gotten stronger in recent years, wanting to filter out anyone who didn't "belong" in their country. The Birther Movement, they called themselves. " Blessed are Those With a Voice - By Erika Bachman - " What he assumed was the highest valued bill, didn't even have the face of a man. Something else. Beaked. Hard. Like a concrete bird " Boogiemen - By O. Hybridity - " The Boogiemen used to be sick kids. They got sick and they stayed sick " The Boxes: Bootleg - By Sam Miller - " Hey pal, friend, buddy, ally, acquaintance. Come down here, I gots loads of great great things for ya! Great products, delicious organisms, beautiful concepts here in these pockets! " The Boxes: Cabinet - By Sam Miller - " It is dark. It is empty. I am alone. I am floating. My limbs trail below me. My eyes see nothing. " The Boxes: Neighsayers - By Sam Miller - " HELLO STRANGER! HOW ARE YOU FEELING? OH, I AM GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF, I HAVEN'T EVEN INTRODUCED MYSELF! MY NAME IS h o r s e " Breadship - By TangleF23 - " From Mayaro-dalaktoryzia, the Middle Zhandr-Orion Arm's Galactic subset-subset-encyclopedia (presented in English) " Breathe - By Acyde - " Each time I open my mouth, I feel like I'm gonna drown. " Buddy's BBQ - By Fluffy the Doombringer - " The entire kitchen was crowded around Rebar. I couldn't see him, but the pained moans he was making told me something was wrong. " Buzz - By Promestein - " She can't shake the feeling that the flies are watching her. "  The Cemetery of Black Flies - By Kira M. - (explicit content: sexual themes, general) " The creatures didn't seem to even be aware of our presence, and continued their writhing mucus soaked orgy. " The Children of Sol - By Jacobguy - " On a far off planet orbiting a yellow dwarf, not too unlike our own, the artifact was found " The City of Light - By Daren H - (poem!) The Collectiveness of Reality - By Anonymous - " Have you ever heard of the multiverse? " The Corner Sitter - By Hisham H. - (image!) The Cremator - By Fluffy the Doombringer - (short) Chalken Fairies - By Cassie Heath - (explicit content: disturbing sexual horror)" Eager little voices saying /As the clifftop I'd pass by, /"Join with us and dance forever, /Step once to your left and fly! " City Diaries: A Crowded Subway Car - By Luna Raydue - " It wasn't that it was the most crowded car I'd ever been on-- in fact, I was able to squeeze into a seat between two rather tall, thin passengers. The matter was that all the passengers were anything but human. When I say "tall and thin", I mean that they looked like living upside-down otamatones. " City Diaries: I'm Not Sure That's What Drugs Do - By Luna Raydue - " His eyes were wide, but I could only see the whites, and his mouth was open wider than should be humanly possible without showing teeth. As he started moving forward again, a dark, chunky substance began pouring out of his mouth. " City Diaries: Pigeon Hole - By Luna Raydue - " Pigeons are such a common part of everyday city life, they're often ignored, put to the back of the mind. No one looks twice at a couple of pigeons strutting down the sidewalk. " City Diaries: The Shoebox Incident - By Luna Raydue - " This is, perhaps, the most mundane story of all I've told, and yet it sticks with me as one of the strangest. " Clock Struck One - By Huw Saunders - (explicit content: reproductive body horror) " Its fuzz is a washed-out yellow that was maybe brown many moons ago. Painful red sores cover its distended cheeks, and its tail is little more than a charred-up stub that looks to have been broken badly in a dozen places. " Clogged Toilet - By Mr Stickman - " I was awoken by the sound of my toilet flushing. " Collect - By James B. Davis - " At the end of the hall, which split in two directions, was a backpack and belt with ropes hanging from it. On the backpack was a note that read "COLLECT". " Containment - By Jacobguy - " These monsters I guess, though, no one could really say what they really were, just began showing up, wreaking havoc and so on. " Counting Sheep - By Thomas Nelson Gunderloy - " Why is sleep so difficult? " Cracksman's Last Mistake - By River Langham - " The wraith ran headlong through the fields up above Downvalley, slow as the moon. " Creepy Pasta - By Sam Miller - " She barely notices it at first, then moves further into the kitchen and sees it. A plate of spaghetti. " Crimescene (a beginning) - By Lady de Selby - " This is not a human murder. The victim in this case is the room itself. "  The Daddy Face - By Rahkshasarani - " Mr. Reynolds was perfectly calm. He was smiling, like he thought it was funny. He repeated the question. "Do you want to be quiet or do you want me to show you the daddy face? " The Dead Village - By Jenne Kaivo - " There is a dead village in rural Sweden, in the woods of Norrland, which lay unremembered for centuries " Dear, Deer - By Toldentops - " Its is only a deer, but the way it stares at you is unsettling. " The Dreamlands: Introduction - By TheRedRage - " There is a world inside the minds of men, a world where reality is an intruder and all dreams are true. " The Dreamlands: Red - By TheRedRage - " As I came closer I realised that the creature was not standing atop the dune but floating a few centimetres above it. It was wearing a red robe with long sleeves and seemed utterly motionless " The Driver - By James B. Davis - " The machine he drove was from a time long gone: a wheeled motormachine with worn paint and tires. " Dead Mall - By Erin Drinnon - " I've always hated those things. Their legs are thick like frogs' legs, and when they die, they don't dry out like most bugs do; instead, they mold and rot like old fruit. " Deceitfully Slight Proportion - By Huw Saunders - " It was when I was fourteen, and little more than a boy, that my parents related to me the events of my great-uncle's passing. " Diary Found Beneath the Trap Door - By Daniel Hale - " Most absurd, however, are the thing's eyes, placed on the very top of its body and so close together they are very nearly touching. " Did I Give You Permission to Run? - By Marcus Hardges - " The gorilla-beast from the kitchen returned, with its large beach ball sized eyes staring at a curled up Mike like an overwhelmingly outraged god. It's entire lower jaw now sported giant puffy spider chelicera with curved black fangs as long as upside-down elephant tusks. " Disaster Park - By Hisham Hasan - " Cloning dinosaurs was a disaster. " Due - By MeeptheCreep - " My ring finger was swollen to the size of a small lemon, pulsating and rippling with thousands of tiny bumps just like the first. As I watched in horror, more of the little bumps began to appear along my hand, consuming the other digits and beginning to sweep down my forearm. "  The Edge of Time - By Anonymous - " When humanity discovered the power to travel back in time, it took every ounce of self control the researchers had to not to break the news the very instant they succeeded. It's a good thing they didn't, too. Going back in time isn't like they imagined it would be. " The Evil Eye - By Jenne Kaivo - " The eye comes closer. I am fully in its sight now, and I don't think I could run even if I had the courage. It just gives me that fixed stare, dragging itself along on tendril lashes. " The Felt Man - By Neon Minerva - (short!) The Fox - By Thomas Gunderloy - (microstory) The Frog - By Bloodworx - " Shhh... We found... A special frog. " False Prophet - By James B. Davis - " A face... A face looms over the church's many followers in divine glory. It's holy grace protects and comforts the many sad praying survivors. Beneath the shouting priest on a pedestal, the many people shake as the looming sound comes ever closer. " Fannie Huber's Angel Book - By J. D. Stroud - " The Third Angel is Homeb Woni Hotheb (I don't know if that is how you spell it properly). It is actually every moth. Moths are animals like other animals are but they are also all together Homeb Woni Hotheb. " Father - By Gwendolynn Anathema Macglower - " Head, Hurt, / Head, Home, / Door, Door? " Fence - By Thomas Nelson Gunderloy - " The worst part of it was that godawful picket fence. My lawn was already pretty lonely with nothing in it, but then it came with a putrid, pea-green picket fence around the whole thing. " Feral Dogs - By Xionahri - " We're both just trying to do our job, are we? As I start to wonder if I'm going completely insane, the dog stands up. " For Your Notes - By Carpcave - " One patient in 257 gave birth through his left ear. Was told that he does this regularly. When he's finished, put the thing in the medical waste bag, and bring it into the park. " From the Stars - By Keetah Spacecat - " The first people in contact with the wreckage were the first to become sick. All the people who came to gawk at the site then went home to kiss their children, who then went on to share toys, who were picked up by teachers. The spread was brutally efficient. " From Whence it Came - By robertdye - " The ocean was in a horrifying state as its roaring waves surrounded the vessel, the sailor's eyes locked to the box "  The Goat - By James B. Davis - " I live on a farm in Mexico. " Ghost Protection - By Anonymous - " It resembled some pathetic, if gargantuan grub with spindly human arms and long, black hair around a face dominated by ridiculously large, sad eyes. " Grandma Rags - By Nick Noir - " Grandma Rags we called her, because she was always wrapped in the exact same set of multi-layer clothing every day, no matter the weather. " Grandmother's Doll - By James B. Davis - " Its skin was made of burlap, its hair covered only the right of its head and was made of orange yarn, its eyes were two black buttons " Grasshopper Glacier - By Rahkshasarani - " Some of the last rocky mountain locusts are here," the man said without waiting for an answer, "frozen in the ice " Greater Striped Tanzanite - By Hisham H. - "on a dilapidated hospital bed in the corner, rested an enormous grub. " Greg's Diary - By James B. Davis - " I hate when things get into my joints. It feels terrible and it's just so uncomfortable. " Growth - By Luna - " We found the Mars rover Curiosity. It died. Asphyxiation. It had grown lungs. " Gurgle - By Paracosmos - " Tom loved the drawing for another reason. The drawing had actually scared him. Tom had seen scary things before, but Tom MADE this, he made something scary. "  The Harrison Ape - By Hisham Hasan - " Unusually for a primate, it is highly aquatic. While in its enclosure, it was never observed to venture onto the land portion, preferring to remain mostly submerged, with only the head above water. " The Haunted Videos - By Gareth Barsby - " Ten copies. Ten copies of Barney Goes to the Funfair, and all of them had what they were supposed to have. " The Hooligans: A Taste of Medicine - By Jacobguy - " it was shaped like a man, a man made of that Jelly they put in petridishes and completely choked FULL of a rainbow of different germ colonies " The Hooligans: Basilisk - By Jacobguy - " It sat stop a massive pile of charred bones, luckily none of them human as far as I can tell. " The Hooligans: Bizarre Bazaar - By Jacobguy - " Their mouth opened oddly wide as they spoke, revealing many fleshy cords which ended in the bodies of rats and frogs that flicked like many snake tongues " The Hooligans: Copycat - By Jacobguy - " Why is there a little Cat silhouette in the mirror. Why is its mouth full of nothing but incisors. " The Hooligans: Forest - By Jacobguy - " I woke up and my home was filled with nothing but licorice. " The Hooligans: Hurtz Doughnut - By Jacobguy - " There was a young man sitting on their porch in the late evening when he spotted something odd " The Hooligans: Ogres - By Jacobguy - " at first it looks like a lump in the dark, but as it started to move it became much more distinct. " The Hooligans: Some Dude - By Jacobguy - " I could only barely see what it was, but it seemed to be a guy in nothing but basketball shorts hunched over, as if squatting over something " The Hooligans: Sour Stomach - By Jacobguy - " Each day has been an exponential growth in how bad the symptoms were. Almost every breath I take i can feel that HORRID flavor rise from my throat to the back of my tongue. " The Hooligans: Symphony - By Jacobguy - " Claws plucked strings, tentacles banged drums, suction cups pressed keys, all to the tune directed by their especially inhuman conductor. " The Hooligans: The Beginning - By Jacobguy - " Long ago, before anything, there was nothing but them. " The Human Wolf - By Sabedile - " There was once a human wolf. Coarse was his fur, sharp were his claws, and there where he went all would yell, "wolf!", they yelled. "Wolf!" " Halloween Special - By Miranda Johansson - " When I write things changing, they change. They don't ever change back. " Happy Thanksgiving - By Tyler Spicknell - " There's a reason why it's sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas. Halloween is the first holiday of the Holiday Season, and so it's a great warm-up for what's to come. " Hearth - By Sabedile - " She had found a solution for the cold, but not for hunger. " Hidden Camera Show - By Anonymous - " I realize I'm being set up when the pretty girl tells me we're running late for the banquet and asks me if I'm okay with not labeling the shellfish. " High Jack - By Charred Newt - " It's saying words but it's not a voice. It's a grinding of metal and concrete, a crackling of electricity straight through my brain; it's what nails would sound like if they decided to speak. " Home Cooking - By R. Pickman - (short) Homo Parkinsoni - By Rahkshasarani - " The following day his body had swollen to twice its normal size. Pembrose was incapable of speech, and could not open his eyes. " Hooligan City - By Jacobguy - " The way it sloped inward suggests that this were some sort of island, suddenly uprooted from the earth, and massive lengths of impossible pipes jutted straight downward through the fog below. " Hotter and Hotter - By Anonymous - " About a week ago the master had a horrifying nightmare. A monstrous insect attacked him in his bed, ripping open his belly and rummaging around in his innards as he could do nothing but look on, paralyzed by the agony. "  Incorruptible - By Elliot Avery - (explicit content: themes of physical and sexual domestic abuse, abusive religious indoctrination)" I don't remember much before he was in my life, the man who made it impossible to hide from the truth, the man who will always be a part of me. The man they called Joshua Smyrnan. " Interview - By Jacobguy - " reflections of DR JONHSON appear on the surfaces of the craft, and speaks out in DR JONHSON'S voice, as though piecing together words from things JONHSON has said " Iowa - By Zombard - " Something weird moves in the grass at one farm, like a cow's ass, if it were horizontal a few feet off the ground, instead of ass-level. " I saw it, I heard it - By Chamjari - " When I was nine, I visited my friend's house. " It's All Red - By Sigil - " Now at this point I'd never really payed much mind to what these corpse things had to say. When my parents spoke it was nothing but inane gibberish. " It Took - By Paracosmos - " The green man moved to him like a mannequin on a treadmill. No movement from this man, none at all. And when it got to Derek, face touching his, Derek dropped. "  Jailbreak - By Jacobguy - " I don't recall the law that says you get arrested for your first speeding ticket, I mean, I've always been a little scrappy in my youth but I never assaulted anyone. Granted, I don't recall the officers in Jail looking like smoothed over weeble-wobbles with British Police uniforms and batons, or the other inmates being various monsters either, but I digress. " Jamie - By Jared Ludy - " A note in red pen was taped to a container of traditional baby food. "DON'T TRUST BLUE " it read. " Julie's Turkey - By Florence Whateley - " She was only five when she made it. We still remember that day we sat her down in the dining room, took our hands, and told her we were going to make turkeys with them. " Just an Office - By Jacobguy - " As my "Boss" walks away, I look down to find myself in a suit. "  Kidnappers - By Paracosmos - " James followed the hulking beast across the grassy plain. It was humanoid, black. Standing twelve feet tall, fifteen if it weren't hunched. " Knotted Sticks - By Axe Burner - " They look like old women, but too old, too skinny and wrinkled, their limbs and fingers and everything else thin and drawn out like sticks. " Krokodil - By Jenne Kaivo - " My astral body was as twisted and squamous as my real one was becoming. The black tips of my decaying fingers made me feel safe, protected, and I found some grim enjoyment in the nightmarish visions that I saw. "  The Last Collection - By J. D. Stroud - "The dress itself had changed too. It seemed to cleave to her, to accentuate her form-no longer that of an old woman, but rather of some underworld nymph-and compliment her newfound princeliness. Its fractal weave was impossible to look at for long without succumbing to a sort of narcotic hypnosis." Landscaping - By Jacob Roberts - (Images!) The Last Light - By Nelke - " The future came and left. It took with it the space cities, the endless extensions of solar panels on the Moon, the dreams of conquering the Solar system. " Late Night at the Coffee Shop - By Emergence - " Whatever the hell walked into the shop wasn't human. " Legs - By HareTrinity - (a short poem) Let Cake Eat Them - By Jenne Kaivo - " The sticky mouths / Eagerly sucked off the meat from her bones / As easy as frosting from fingers " Loo Louis - By Tyler Spicknell - " I've been in CSI for 15 years now, and I've seen some pretty messed up shit. " Louisa Francesca - By J.D. Stroud - " The writing was like nothing I'd ever seen before, as unlike the casual loop-de-loops on the first page as humanly possible. It was, once again, still recognizably english, but it was different from any cursive I could imagine a small town girl learning in her one-room schoolhouse. " The Little Old Man From Number 22 - By Cassie Heath - " I've just got back from meeting the new neighbours, dear. They've just moved in at number twenty-four, where Marjorie lived before they put her in the home. You wouldn't like them. You really wouldn't like them. " The Live Wire - By Xionahri - " A new post caught my eye, fresh from today. Someone mentioned he'll try to cut into one of the spikes with metal saws. "  The Mirror in the Forest - By Daren H - " Katarina liked wandering in the woods, away from her stodgy home. Being only nine years old, her parents forbade her from straying out, but she felt compelled to. " Mad Machine - By Eliot Lefebvre - " For the first month, everything was just fine. We all worked together without a problem, human and AI alike. " Maiden - By ZippyWharrgarbl - " My word!" the prince cried. "Such vulgarity for a robin to partake in! " Meat Gods - By Tristan Tanner - (PDF Download - a playable D&D adventure!) Mikey - By Anonymous - " Real quick: what's Michelangelo's catchphrase? What's that thing he shouts from his skateboard that almost immediately entered the vocabulary of every child from the late 80's to the late 90's? " Monsters of New York: Megan - By Brian Shadensack - " Megan. Age 26. Lycanthrope. " Mouth - By Daniel Hale - " He's the silliest thing you ever did see, he told the children. He has a long, narrow head, shaped like a canoe. He has big wide eyes, wider than an owl's by far! And he has this great big mouth, opened all the way to shout, with all his might: welcome to Whatchma World! " Moving On - By Anonymous - (short!) Mr. Sewers - By Paracosmos - " The thing was once human, possibly. Its head was like a deformed egg, one with boils and scars. "  The Night Light - By Jenne Kaivo - " One time when I was little I saw a book on the sea. There were lots of pictures of different parts of the sea and I saw pictures of the really dark parts and the different fishs that live there and they were scary. " Nepenthes Chimaera - By Hisham H. - " It was an enormous rabbit, white with black blotches. It's eyes were bloodshot, it heaved and shuddered, and wheezed like its lungs were diseased. It struggled to its feet. " Night Terrors - By Anonymous - " I'm not one to usually think too hard about my dreams. " Nocebo - By Huw Saunders - " Infrasound explodes from the speakers, dancing on the edge of human hearing. The Prophet holds desperately on his sliders, feeling as if they might try and shut themselves down without his intervention. " No Moon At All - By Luke Jones - "It's just you, the fan, the radio, and the distant roar of engines drowned by a million bugs, Ricky. You look off down the dark road, and the way the swamp swallows it up, you get the sense that anything is possible - you get this dread, you know? " Not a Bot - By Kirbymongerr - " Hey man check this out its a chatbot pretending to be some girl that wants to date you. You can watch it learn from you in real time lmao "  The Ostrich God - By Jenne Kaivo - " The Ostrich God has no water and only drinks blood. " Old Me - By Jacob Roberts - " My science teacher once said that all of the cells in our bodies have been replaced at least once in our lives. Even though parts of us die, the incredible thing about humans is that we always grow back. " One Thousand and one Frights - By Doctor Wither - " Don't let the name fool you: You're a good kid, Malik, I can tell. No reason to fear a bogey if you've never disobeyed your parents, eh? " One-Upping Jeremy - By Alcy W. - " The Vampire was for real and for true a monster, though perhaps not the blood-drinking kind. " Onto My Chest - By Dandelion Steph - (content warning) " Soon the peachy things went back to rolling near the door, occasionally bumping into each other. " Open Letter To All Staff - By Sarah Cleary - " Just a friendly reminder that bring your daughter to work day will be occurring tomorrow. As always, if you have a daughter, age 8 to 18, please do not bring her. We do not want your actual children to be confused with (and replaced by) the shadow daughters. " Other Side - By Thomas Gunderloy - (short!)  The Prison Game - By Joseph Hartman - " You sometimes wonder if the person who keeps giving you this money wanted you to visit these places. Perhaps, in their mind, treading the ragged edges of this world was the greatest luxury. " The Problem With the Cat - By Devon Palmer - " The problem with the cat isn't that it has no eyes. We had them taken out. " Pareidolia - By Ariel Jay - " Humans are built to recognize faces. It's one of our most basic instincts. It's why merely a colon and a parenthesis can communicate joy or sadness online. " Pastermole - By Jacob Roberts - " Pastermole never said what the original, real world was like, or how many levels of simulation down we were. Some people speculated that we were near the very bottom, and insisted that we should act like it, too. " Peeling Paint - By Retro - " The signal blares, everyone groans. Ugh. Another one, really? " Photosynthesizing For Two - By Anonymous - " Web M.D. says that it's impossible for a human being to grow a plant in their body by ingesting a seed. The notion gives you comfort, but not for long. Where did this so-called "Dr. Web" get his degree anyway? " Pianist Hands - By Dandelion Steph - " Thick. Coarse. Bulbous knuckles with edges so hard, it was as if they were chiseled from stone. And by the day, the dark, thick hairs grew, overtaking his skin like weedy kudzu along a road. " Plastic - By Austin Brooks - (explicit content: humorous sexual horror) " Her skin wasn't just perfectly smooth and hairless, it was slick and shiny. Like beige latex rubber. Her platform pumps were fused seamlessly to her feet. Her "fingernails" were just pink dots painted on her fingertips. " Polly - By Anonymous - " As the story goes, she was a really curious lass. Ended up killing her own father when he couldn't answer her questions correctly anymore. " Pompernickel, noooooo! - By Anonymous - " Some parts of the world have a proud tradition of producing high quality cartoons. Others do not. " Purple Haze - By James B. Davis - " Outside my window was my neighborhood... completely swallowed by the purple fog... " Pyramid Lake - By Kira M. - " It was some type of robot, completely round and probably a little larger than a basketball, it stood on four spindly legs and began crawling towards me. "  The Rain - By Mr. Stickman - (microstory) The Rat Dog - By Emma G. - " The owners of the rat dog seem like nice enough people. I don't speak to them much. Both of them work. No kids. They love their ugly little dog. " The Rock - By Brittanny Handiboe - (comic!) Radioyed - By Lokal - " One night it just appeared on the tower " Rat King - By Eli - " God, I can't believe you! That one was just a baby. There's no reason to hurt them like that! " Real Light - By Kirbymongerr - " It had been quite a shock to humanity, when it was discovered that what was thought of as the 'known universe' was inside some sort of immense shell. " Rental House - By Erin Drinnon - " Our house had an extra door. It was locked, and we didn't have a key for it. " Revised Zombie Guide - By Brian Shadensack - " Accessing Red Level information. Unauthorized access will be grounds for existential termination. " Rose Hollow - By Jacob Roberts - " The vines appeared to be covered in a fine fur, but upon closer inspection Mark saw that the fur was actually thousands of tiny, sharp thorns. " Ruby - By Gwendolynn Anathema Macglower - " Okay, so I'm trying to sell this dog, but I'll be honest with you, she's a handful. More on that later. "  The Seven Mothers - By Nausicaa Harris - " The next day, a third mother arrived at the door of the cottage. She was made all of iron wire, shaped like a woman, with a crude smiling face. " The Silk Noose - By Benjamin Lupine - " I just woke up one morning and there it was. It wasn't attached to my ceiling so much as... dangling through it. Like it or the cheap plaster wasn't real. " The Silk Sheets - By Ben L Wolf - " Her eyes were very large, brown, and kind, staring down into his face with concern and perched just above them on her forehead was a pair of little sunglasses that almost seemed forgotten in their perch secured by her shiny white hair. Why did she have sunglasses inside? " The Smell of Rain - By Luna - " Cheal stretched out her tongue down to her knees. Marcella had no idea how to react. " The Smeyull - By Anonymous - NO! The Splatterpunk Gospel - By Daniel Hale - " The vein is the beginning. The vein is the end. The vein is all. This is our world. " The Steel Witch - By Anonymous - " As far as I could tell, there were no bodies. Not a single splash of blood. Which was odd, especially since there were plenty of traces suggesting that people had been dragged all over the ground and thrown against the walls. " Still Beating - By Ron Macgillivray - " He stares down at the chunk of meat in his hand. Its still moving, jittering and twitching, coating his hand in blood. It shouldn't still be moving. " The Surgeon - By Garetch Barsby - " One evening, I walked into a hospital. A hospital where my apartment should have been. " Senses of Evil - By Joe Cool - " That night I decided to perform the ritual. It was a ritual that got me going "are you serious!?" It was just so damn STUPID " Shadow on the Wall - By Joseph Hartman - " The shadows were recognizably human silhouettes, but the same sort that you see on street signs. No real identifying features. " Six Easy Steps - By Miranda Johansson - " It hung in the middle of his living room, all bony angles, starving-thin. Its head was huge and bulbous, and half gone - where its face should have been was just a jagged-edged cavity. " Sixteen Tons - By Izzy Winchester - " They call it Fordite. " Snoitcelfer - By Dave Lerner - " He enters the bathroom wearing nothing but pajama pants while she's taking a shower. He's in a bit of a hurry. He sees that the bathroom mirror is completely covered with a towel. He's annoyed, but not surprised. " Squelch - By Carson Albrecht - " That's what he said, bristly claws. Kind of like a giant crab's claw covered in straw. " Stairs - By C. Lonnquist - " I'm not a superstitious man, so I kept using the stairs, breathing normally with eyes open as I passed Twenty-Three and One-Half. Maybe that was a dumb idea. " Stop - By Gray - " I've been walking for awhile and I can see the stop sign up ahead/ Finally! the end of the street. / Maybe I can reach it this time. " Strange Inquiries - By Anonymous - " What do you mean, 'murder is outlawed'? Since when? " Suidae - By Keetah Spacecat - " If you want to make someone disappear, you throw them in the pig pen. " Surgery Bot Log - By Hisham H. - " SCAN: LARGE FOREIGN OBJECT IN UPPER ASCENDING COLON "  The Thing That Hides Under My Skin - By Jenne Kaivo - " ...has made clear its presence again. " The TNT Area - By Erin Drinnon - " They made a bet that summer: whichever one of them could shoot the Mothman and bring back its carcass got to ask Patty Douglas, a girl they both had something of a crush on, out on a date. " Teenagers - By Keebored - " First, they'll start whining about feeling awkward and uncomfortable, losing their heads over the littlest things. " Thalarion - By Joseph Bashaw - (short poem) That Cat Game - By Retro - " Finally downloaded that app everyone was talking about! " That Night in May - By Luna - " We stood in a circle. The two bound and gagged tried to wriggle away, so I shot them first. " They Don't Have Tentacles - By Sarah Cleary - " 'He used our image as a vessel for his backwards, misinformed beliefs. We gave him just a small glimpse of our power, let him know who we are what we were capable of, and he twisted it to conform to his sheltered world view.' " They Failed - By Enderlord99 - " Light did not work; Truth was not there. " Time-blighted - By Enderlord99 - " Crikey! There's a paradox wraith now! Oh, she's a beaut; I don't think she's spotted m- ARGH! " Together Forever - By Daren H - " Aaron...I just found out that I love you. I can't bring myself to reveal who I am because I'm so scared you'd push me away. But I love you. I just want you to know that. " To Raise A Family - By Nausicaa Harris - " I'd thought I'd seen somethin' go by - kinda like a baby, definitely not a people baby but the same kinda critter what people are, if yanno what I mean, forget the word - but when I turned to look - kablammo. Nothin'. " Trespasser - By Nelke - " There was a good reason why the dead never replied to our Ouija board sessions, or letters on graves, or phone calls into the ether: they did not want to. "  Uncle Frank - By Jared Ludy - " Frank's lawn was no lawn. It was a patch of dirt littered with bones smashed into pebble-sized pieces and splintered shards. " Undermoss - By Miranda Johansson - " The Revenge-Taker burns them up, but there's no malice to this. Revenge is not taken upon them, the unfortunate vessels. " Unwanted Signs - By Sarah Cleary - " The signs began appearing days before they were noticed. At first, we paid them no mind, we were an opinionated town, and it was election season. "  The Vendomat - By Friendlytroll - " (Short video!!) "  The Well - By Luis - " Next to the well, a hooded figure was standing. A woman perhaps? A woman holding something in her arms. " The Whispering Oaks - By Nuclearxpotato - " As I got back on the trail, I pulled out the map so I'd have something to look at. Though, the actual map inside didn't resemble the trail or even any part of the park. " The Worms Inside - By SIGIL - " I mean c'mon how dangerous can something that grew on a lifeless rock be. " Wait-for-it title I - By HareTrinity - " For now I've far too many / On both the bottom and the top! " Wait-for-it title II - By HareTrinity - " 'Maybe it's because the collar wasn't her normal one... Maybe it needs more updates now...' " Wanna Play - By The Six Verses - " Yes, I downloaded it. Stupid me. " Watching; Or Nervous Paranoia - By Millien - " Don't look away. Don't you dare look away. " We Make You Sick - By Anonymous - " You are being pursued by what can roughly be described as man-sized, hovering eggplants with tusks. They are subtly wobbling in excitement, making a terrible, if barely audible hobbhobbhobb sound. " what dwells in the sea - By creepy pasťák - " instead,only little came from her throat and she felt something soft and slimy.it came out.when she opened her eyes,she was staring in the tub in disbelief.there were five purple,slightly transparent balls.they looked like amphibian eggs. " What Happened at Tallywackers - By Dandelion Steph - " Scantily-clad waiters carried food to a table across the room. Hannah breathed out, sigh-like-not of desire, but of pain. Her stomachache was getting worse. " What Remains of Concrete Beach - By Joseph Hartman - " The town didn't exist, wiped off the map. All I could find was a few sparsely populated forums full of people who still remembered Concrete Beach. All of whom used to live there. " What the Sea Leaves - By rahkshasarani - " The fish were getting weird. The black-purple specimen in front of me had no visible eyes, but was studded in big, gelatinous pustules that I could almost see through. I poked it with my foot and the blobs retreated into its body. I laughed. " Wheel-of-Five-Spokes - By Miranda Johansson - " The face of her savior - but she didn't want to describe it to her father. When she thought about it, here in her old familiar bed, she felt a pang of loss. Her father wouldn't understand. None of the other villagers would, either. They all thought of the sea-maids as bloodthirsty monsters. " Where Babies Come From - By Devon Palmer - " Y'see, it's a miracle of engineering. Back in the day they relied on storks to put 'em together, but those birds weren't really all that smart. High infant mortality rate, back then. Now we've got machines. " Where's The Bathroom - By Austin Brooks - " I don't have some sort of bathroom-phobia, okay? It has nothing to do with that. A phobia is an irrational fear of something. I have a perfectly logical reason for doing what I do. " Where Trod the Black Camel - By Joseph Bashaw - " No matter what you hear however, no matter what you are told / Never ride into the black desert, not even if you feel so bold "  Yama - By Joseph Bashaw - " What dream is greater / Than the dream that never ends / Except the dream that never even began? " You're It - By Kirby Mongerr - " It started off well, running and laughing and all that. Then someone touched me and said "You're it!" and then everyone ran from me. " Your Story - By Hannah - " This is about you. "  ZaP - By Tyler Spicknell - " He never played console games because he said getting infinite tries just took away from the challenge. " Zero - By Kira M. - " Whenever he did speak, it was only with yes or no answers: 1 being yes, 0 being No. " Zero Percent Rain - By Anonymous - " He was wearing a chef's hat and an apron, and walked with his head stooped over so neither of us could clearly see his face. I assumed he was one of the employees. But what was he doing if this place was closed? " comments powered by Disqus |