This Halloween, we asked you to submit your creepiest, spookiest, most nightmare-inducingest two-sentence horror stories and you delivered a collection nothing short of terrifying. One thing’s for sure: Kids make great fodder for scary tales (and mirrors, too!).
We gathered our 11 favorites, which will be performed by Live Arts actors on our social media pages. (Follow us so you don’t miss it!)
FIRST PLACE
As I walked out of the empty theater that night, my phone buzzed with an unknown text: “So you like scary movies?” I glanced around into the darkness, heart racing, when the next message arrived: “You’re about to star in mine.”
By Eduarda Hackenhaar
RUNNERS UP
As she tucked her daughter into bed, she heard a whisper from the closet, “Mommy, there’s someone in my room.” Turning to reassure her, she froze—her daughter was still fast asleep, but the voice continued, “Mommy, I’m scared.”
By Lee Moore
Casper came running, tail wagging, something large and flesh-colored in his mouth. “Bad dog,” the woman scolded, “digging up Daddy’s hand so soon.”
By John Ruemmler
After the pilot came over the intercom to tell the packed plane that we were going to have sit on the tarmac for at least four hours, the man seated next to me turned and extended his hand. “Hello,” he said, “I’m Bob Good.”
By Michael Cordell
When she awoke she could not move nor raise her head, but felt something cold and hypodermic pierce her inner arm. Her mother’s voice, a whisper of warm breath against her ear, said, “It’s only because I love you.”
By Don O’Neal
Son, don’t pick your teeth at the table with that finger. You don’t know where your father found that body.
By Mark Lawton
I look in the mirror and smile. My reflection doesn’t return the grin.
By Lynne DeCora
Mommy, is that A.I.? MOMMY?!?
By Carolyn O’Neal
Oh God, we had to be home before dark but now we’re stuck in this snowbank, covered in shattered glass. I see my wife stuck in the passenger seat with blood dripping down her head; moonlight bleeding through the pines—and she looks delicious.
By Matthew Hepler
Her stomach twisted and her face grew pale as she watched her own reflection slowly back away from the full-length mirror, with a malicious grin. She was on the wrong side!
By Jasmine Williams
In the dead of night, waking from a deep Stage 3 sleep, I felt the cat moving on my bed, walk across my chest, scratch and sniff the covers, and finally snuggle at my side. Eyes popping open, terrified to move, I realized, “I don’t have a cat!”
By David Gladden