scary stories

Three Scary Stories to Read Online

There is a lot of horror out there, to be sure. Movies, short films, novels, two-sentence horror stories, flash fiction, etc. I’ve realized that my favorite medium of horror on the printed pages is the short story. I absolutely loved Stephen King’s Nightshift anthology, and I am always on the lookout for those older, “classic” stories that were innovative for their time.

Thus, I have three scary stories for you that you can read online at your leisure. Shall we begin?

‘At the Mountains of Madness’ – H.P. Lovecraft – 1931

If you’re a fan of science fiction horror in the vein of The Thing from Another World, the Alien series and the Blog, etc, you will like where this story is coming from .

Briefly put, it’s the story of a group of explorers in the Antarctic, who discover the remains of a civilization that came from space, plus alien bodies. Now that you know what direction the story is going, go read it now. You won’t be sorry.

‘They Bite’ – Anthony Boucher – 1943

So you like weird westerns? Odd events in the wide expanse of the desert, where there is nothing but cacti and the sounds of your screams for miles? Then “They Bite” is for you. I first read this story in an Alfred Hitchcock magazine as a teenager. I will say, this story has stuck with me through the years, and even as I read it again, it’s still scary.

Such a simple premise: how greed and killing can lead to a very odd end.

Check it out here.

‘Patient Zero’ – Tananarive Due

I absolutely love stories like these. The premise is a little boy who is in the hospital. He’s also in isolation and those that deal with him have to wear what he calls “hot suits”. To say anymore would give the story away, so check it out here.

So there you are, three stories you can read online right now that are perfect for the spooky month of Halloween or anytime.

Enjoy!

Dahlia

Blogtoberfest – Scary Stories – Pet Sematary

Horror is different for everyone. I don’t think the “experts” can agree on what horror is and thus there are tons of movies and books that represent the horror

Cover of "Pet Sematary (Special Collector... — Cover via Amazon

genre, as it should be.

I also believe that horror is different depending on where you are in your life. What’s represents horror for a twenty-year-old might be old-hat to a forty year old. Books that resounded for me in my twenties are just “eh” now that I’m a lovely seasoned woman of a certain age.

But Stephen King’s Pet Semetary broke that mold. It’s just as frightening now as when I first read it many years ago.

Here’s the blurb

“Sometimes dead is better….”When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son — and now an idyllic home. As a family, they’ve got it all…right down to the friendly cat.

But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth — more terrifying than death itself…and hideously more powerful.

SPOILERS SPOILERS sort of SPOILERS sort of SPOILERS SPOILERS

My goodness, what a story. It runs the gamut from the “real-life” horror of the death of a child and the grief that follows, to the otherworldly horror that awaits when the family tries to alleviate the grief that follows the death of a family pet.

The first time I read the story the scene on the hill wasn’t so horrifying. You know why? Because I didn’t have children of my own. I think I was more touched by the death of the pet than I was by the other. However, when I read it now, that scene on the hill makes my gut twinge and jump. After reading it, I had to go “check on the children”. Having children of my own makes the following scenes more poignant and so much more touching.

Sympathy turning to empathy.

SPOILERS END (they were half-assed anyway)

My theory of horror if you’re “just watching” it makes it a lot less scary. “This could never happen to me because blah blah”. When an ordinary situation turns into a “horror” situation, something that could happen to anyone, something that is plausible (with a little “what if” thrown in) that’s when the true terror begins.

Pet Sematary is about grief, loss and at its core, the horror of not letting go and where it can get you.

Blogtoberfest – Urban Legends to Keep You Up at Night – Part 1

We all know ’em, don’t we? The friend of a friend of my cousin who….they all start out that way and always end badly for that sort-of person we kinda know. They even made a movie (or three) about it, then there was that television series that acted them out (badly) for you.

Let’s talk about a few of these, shall we? And remember to leave the light on….

The Clown Statue Murderer: An Urban Legend

The story of the clown statue murderer is an urban legend. It is not a true story but can spark fear in anyone who reads it. It has been passed around as a chain letter online since 2004.

Here is the story:

“A girl in her teens is babysitting for a family in Newport Beach, Ca. The family is wealthy and has a very large house – you know the sort, with a ridiculous amount of rooms. Anyways, the parents are going out for a late dinner/movie. The father tells the babysitter that once the children are in bed she should go into this specific room (he doesn’t really want her wandering around the house) and watch TV there.

The parents take off and soon she gets the kids into bed and goes to the room to watch TV. She tries watching TV, but she is disturbed by a clown statue in the corner of the room. She tries to ignore it for as long as possible, but it starts freaking her out so much that she can’t handle it.

She resorts to calling the father and asks, “Hey, the kids are in bed, but is it okay if I switch rooms? This clown statue is really creeping me out.”

The father says seriously, “Get the kids, go next door and call 911.”

She asks, “What’s going on?”

He responds, “Just go next door and once you call the police, call me back.”

She gets the kids, goes next door, and calls the police. When the police are on the way, she calls the father back and asks, “So, really, what’s going on?”

He responds, “We don’t HAVE a clown statue.” He then further explains that the children have been complaining about a clown watching them as they sleep. He and his wife had just blown it off, assuming that they were having nightmares.

The police arrive and apprehend the “clown,” who turns out to be a midget. A midget clown! I guess he was some homeless person dressed as a clown, who somehow got into the house and had been living there for several weeks. He would come into the kids’ rooms at nights and watch them while they slept. As the house was so large, he was able to avoid detection, surviving off their food, etc. He had been in the TV room right before the babysitter right came in there. When she entered he didn’t have enough time to hide, so he just froze in place and pretended to be a statue.

Yeah. As I said earlier on a discussion group, between IT and John Wayne Gacy, I don’t have any time for clowns.

And another to make your hair stand on end. This is an oldie but a still a goodie:

The Killer in the Backseat….

One night a woman went out for drinks with her girlfriends. She left the bar fairly late at night, got in her car and onto the deserted highway. After a few minutes she noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror, approaching at a pace just slightly quicker than hers. As the car pulled up behind her she glanced and saw the turn signal on — the car was going to pass — when suddenly it swerved back behind her, pulled up dangerously close to her tailgate and the brights flashed.

Now she was getting nervous. The lights dimmed for a moment and then the brights came back on and the car behind her surged forward. The frightened woman struggled to keep her eyes on the road and fought the urge to look at the car behind her. Finally, her exit approached but the car continued to follow, flashing the brights periodically.

Through every stoplight and turn, it followed her until she pulled into her driveway. She figured her only hope was to make a mad dash into the house and call the police. As she flew from the car, so did the driver of the car behind her — and he screamed, “Lock the door and call the police! Call 911!”

When the police arrived the horrible truth was finally revealed to the woman. The man in the car had been trying to save her. As he pulled up behind her and his headlights illuminated her car, he saw the silhouette of a man with a butcher knife rising up from the back seat to stab her, so he flashed his brights and the figure crouched back down.

The moral of the story: Always check the back seat!

Yes, they’re (mostly) not true, but don’t they give you a shiver?

Pleasant Dreams!

Dahlia

Blogtoberfest – Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

In another life, I was an elementary school teacher, which meant nearly every holiday was a par-tay. Valentine’s Day parties were the most stressful, because, as a teacher, you really had to sit on the “who likes whom” bit and keep it all nice and friendly. Christmas was nice, but the overabundance of cookies was a little much. The party that hit the perfect spot (besides the end of school party) was Halloween.

Between the Halloween-themed worksheets, coloring sheets, Halloween parade and Charlie Brown, the whole day was a whirlwind of costumes and candy. The best part for me, and I hope the class, was when I read from Scary Stories to Read in the Dark. First of all, take a look at this cover. It’s the stuff of nightmares, sorry. I’d keep the book face down on the desk if I had a softcover, and remove the dustjacket if I were using a hardcover that year.

Note. Yes, I do write about zombies, but only before 2 pm. I’ll tell you a little story – when I was editing Loving Among the Dead, my first zombie book, I stayed up late at night, making sure everything was super scary and ended up giving myself nightmares! So now, yeah, early afternoon is as far as I”ll go with working, watching or reading scary stuff!

Back to the the main story. There is a story in the book called “The Big Toe” and it ends with a jump scare. The story goes like this: A boy digs in the garden and finds a big toe. He takes it to his father and the father cuts the toe up into three pieces so the family can have something to eat. Later in the evening, a voice comes ’round saying “Who’s got my toooooooe? Who’s got my tooooooooe?”

I would walk around the classroom repeating Who’s got my toooooooe? in a spooky voice until I jumped at one child and yell: “YOU’VE GOT IT!” The resounding screams, well, now I know a little of how satisfied Alfred Hitchcock felt when audience screamed during the shower scene in Psycho.

So, pick up the book. There are three of them, but the first one has the best stories and weirdest drawings. Like this one:

scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-3 — She cut off her nose to….SPIDERFACE!!!

Pleasant dreams!