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Here’s a fun little excercise in terror, pre-Halloween or otherwise. It would also make for an ingenious writing exercise. A Reddit user posed the question: What is the best horror story you can come up with in two sentences? And the response was phenomenal. Whether or not the contributors can claim authorship to these nightmarish tales remains to be known, but the two-sentence horror stories are spine-chilling, to say the least.
In past years we’ve posted articles with suggested horror readings to give you scares on Halloween night, but this is a much faster experience with the instant-gratification quality we’ve come to expect. The stories below have a little variety, but you’ll notice that many of them have to do with children and parents, and that more than a few of them have a certain Edgar Allan Poe feel to them.
Without further ado, let’s get to these two-sentence horror stories. Don’t forget to take part in the oral tradition and become a story teller this Halloween season.
No.1
I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I thought it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again.
No.2
The last thing I saw was my alarm clock flashing 12:07 before she pushed her long rotting nails through my chest, her other hand muffling my screams. I sat bolt upright, relieved it was only a dream, but as I saw my alarm clock read 12:06, I heard my closet door creak open.
No.3
Growing up with cats and dogs, I got used to the sounds of scratching at my door while I slept. Now that I live alone, it’s much more unsettling.
No.4
A girl heard her mom yell her name from downstairs, so she got up and started to head down. As she got to the stairs, her mom pulled her into her room and said, I heart that too.”
No.5
She asked why I was breathing so heavily. I wasn’t.
No.6
My wife woke me up last night to tell me there was an intruder in our house. She was murdered by an intruder two years ago.
No.7
I awoke to the sound of the baby monitor crackling with a voice comforting my firstborn child. As I adjusted to a new position, my arm brushed against my wife, sleeping next to me.
No.8
I always thought my cat had a staring problem – she always seemed fixated on my face. Until one day, when I realized that she was always looking just behind me.
No.9
There’s nothing like the laughter of a baby. Unless it’s 1 a.m. and you’re home alone.
No.10
I was having a pleasant dream when what sounded like hammering woke me. After that, I could barely hear the muffled sound of dirt covering the coffin over my own screams.
No.11
‘I can’t sleep,’ she whispered, crawling into bed with me. I woke up cold, clutching the dress she was buried in.
There are a lot more two-sentence horror stories for your terror after the jump…
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