This month, we asked you to scare us silly with your spookiest horror stories. Here’s the catch: They had to be just two sentences long. Below, we’ve printed the 10 most frightful submissions, which will be performed by the actors at Live Arts. (Look out for the video later this month on our social media.) Read on—if you dare.
First place: Robert tenderly kissed the palm of Jennifer’s small, delicate hand. Then he turned to hang it on his Christmas tree with the others. Judith Dianne Anderson
As satisfying as it was to push him drunk and dazed off the cliff,
she found even greater delight when she climbed down to look at his corpse. Who knew that carrion beetles could be so tasty? Anne Olsson Loebs
When he first awoke to complete darkness and utter silence, and was unable to move any part of his body in any direction, he thought maybe he was dead. Then, as he felt hundreds of tiny little insect feet crawling all over his body and into his ears and eyes and nose, biting and stinging as they ran into his mouth and down his throat when he screamed, he wished he was. Mark Ehlers
Desperately this deformed, unsightly creature stares back at me, armed with eyes that have seen 1,000 lost worlds and shrieking silent howls that carry enough horror to crush any mortal soul, casting its agony upon those who dare see or hear it. I hate my mirror. Michael Urpi
The dinner was a cheery one, with all the guests smiling brightly.
But the only noise was that of the host’s scraping steak knife, stained a deep maroon, and the buzz of flies circling the guest’s forgotten faces. Rose O’Shea
She holds her husband’s hand every night while watching the local news. He’s been dead for 10 years, but she doesn’t mind his boney grip between her fingers. Kathleen Richard
I started picking up speed through a haunted corn maze on Halloween when a man started chasing me. Then I thought to myself, fake chainsaws don’t usually have the chains on them. Chloe Root
It’s so good to have a mask mandate on campus. My peers would finally assume that everyone has a mouth. Hans Bai
My ex mistress keeps visiting me throughout the day, and I don’t want my wife to find out about her. Maybe I shouldn’t have buried her in the backyard. Brenna Kidd-Bania
The eerie quiet of midnight coated the Downtown Mall, except for a plump rat that nibbled gleefully on a half-eaten Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. Suddenly, a crescendoing shriek pierced the silence, and the feasting rat jerked his gaze upward to see a ghost rising above the rubble of the Landmark Hotel and chanting: “Build me, build me.” Matt Deegan