Horror
Eyes on the Ground
There was a woman that walked through town every Saturday morning. While she walked the rest of the town, stayed indoors. No one dared to open their shutters. Or peep through the peephole of their doors. If you were already outdoors while she was on her walk, you were encouraged to stare at the ground. Keep your eyes on the ground. Nowhere else but the ground.
By Raphael Fontenelle21 days ago in Fiction
You Must Join Me
They were all seated together in the drawing room. She had kept out of sight by staying behind the largest couch in the room. All of them had spoken about a monster that was lurking on the edge of town. Some form of beast that could take the form of anyone it had killed. This thing had hunted anything that dared to enter the forest for one reason or another.
By Raphael Fontenelle22 days ago in Fiction
There's A Vampire in Town
Vampires. They’re a super popular legend that everyone knows about. Being repelled by garlic, sunlight, and crosses. Depending on the lore they could also be killed by silver. Cannot be seen in mirrors. Nor can they come into someone else’s home without being invited first.
By Raphael Fontenelle22 days ago in Fiction
Pray You're Not Next
It happened once more. Another person was taken in broad daylight on my street with tons of people around. Forcibly taken. Yet no one did anything about it. Didn’t take one step towards it to stop them. Only a few people glanced in the direction of the commotion. Most people were keeping their attention elsewhere as the person was pulled into a large white van. With strange letters on the side that I couldn’t read.
By Raphael Fontenelle22 days ago in Fiction
The Screw again turns.
A gnarled tree stands sentinel in the foreground, its bark pierced by old, rusted screws - they are memories embedded in its flesh. From one twisted branch hangs a solitary lantern, casting a warm, flickering glow that barely touches the creeping shadows. In the distance, the haunted mansion looms, its windows dimly lit, surrounded by skeletal trees and swirling mist.
By Antoni De'Leon22 days ago in Fiction
The Passenger in the Backseat
Zain had always driven late at night. The silence of empty streets and the hum of the engine helped him think, helped him escape the weight of the day. He preferred these hours, when most people were asleep, when the city felt abandoned and his thoughts were uninterrupted. But one night, something changed. Something that would make him fear driving forever.
By Sudais Zakwan22 days ago in Fiction
The Last Light of Valenbruck A
In the northern valleys of Europe, where pine forests met gray mountains and rivers ran like silver threads through stone, there stood a quiet town called Valenbruck. For most of the year, clouds covered its sky like a heavy blanket. Sunlight visited rarely, and when it did, people paused in the streets just to feel its warmth. The townsfolk believed this was normal. It had always been this way, or so the elders said. But Elin Marceau was not like the others. She was nineteen, with dark hair tied in careless knots and a habit of staring at the sky as if it owed her an explanation. Elin worked in the town’s old lighthouse—a strange job, considering Valenbruck sat beside a river rather than the sea. Yet the tower had existed longer than memory, built on a cliff above the water, its lamp facing the mountains instead of the horizon. Every evening, Elin climbed its spiral stairs and lit the great lamp, even though no ships passed and no travelers came. “Why do we still light it?” she once asked her grandfather, Henrik, who had been the keeper before her. “Because the light reminds the valley that it still belongs to the world,” he replied. “And because one day, it may guide something home.” Elin never knew what he meant. A Letter from the Past One winter morning, while cleaning the lighthouse storage room, Elin found a wooden box buried under old maps and rusted tools. Inside lay a bundle of yellowed letters tied with blue thread. The handwriting was careful, elegant, and unfamiliar. They were written by a woman named Sofia Valenbruck, over a hundred years ago. Sofia described a different town—one full of summer festivals, bright skies, and music drifting from open windows. She wrote of a time when Valenbruck was known as “the town of light,” a place travelers visited just to see the sun rise between the twin mountains. But then the letters changed. Sofia wrote of fear. Of a night when the mountains trembled. Of a storm that swallowed the sky and never truly left. “We dimmed the great lamp to hide ourselves,” one letter read. “And in doing so, we lost the sun.” Elin felt her chest tighten. “What great lamp?” she whispered. She ran down the tower and showed the letters to Henrik. His face grew pale as he read. “So it’s time,” he said quietly. “Time for what?” “To tell you what we buried.” The Secret of the Lighthouse Henrik revealed what the town had forgotten: Valenbruck’s lighthouse was never meant for ships. It was built to reflect sunlight using a massive crystal lens hidden inside the mountain behind it. Long ago, the lamp did not burn with fire but with captured daylight, spreading warmth across the valley even in winter. But when a violent storm came generations earlier, the people believed the light had angered the mountains. In fear, they shut the system down and sealed the tunnel leading to the crystal lens. Over time, the story became myth, and the purpose of the lighthouse faded into ritual. “We chose darkness because it felt safer,” Henrik said. “And then we taught our children that darkness was normal.” Elin stared at the tower window, where thick clouds hung low over the river. “What if the sun is still there?” she asked. “What if we just stopped letting it in?” The Climb That night, Elin did something no one had done in decades. She took a lantern and entered the forbidden tunnel behind the lighthouse. The passage smelled of damp stone and forgotten years. Her footsteps echoed like a heartbeat in the dark. At the tunnel’s end stood a massive circular door carved with faded symbols of stars and waves. With effort, she turned the rusted wheel. The door groaned open. Inside, a giant crystal lens rested in silence, covered in dust but unbroken. It looked like frozen sunlight trapped in glass. Elin cleaned it with trembling hands. When her lantern touched its surface, the crystal caught the flame and scattered it into dozens of tiny sparks along the walls. Her breath caught. She climbed to the old control platform and pulled the final lever. Above her, gears shifted. Stone plates slid away from a hidden opening in the mountain ceiling. For the first time in generations, sunlight poured inside. The Return of Morning The light shot through the crystal lens and up into the lighthouse tower. The great lamp burst into brilliance—not yellow, but warm white, like the memory of summer. Outside, people stepped from their homes in confusion. Children pointed at the sky. Old men removed their hats. Women shielded their eyes and laughed. The clouds above Valenbruck thinned, slowly, as if pushed aside by an invisible hand. A beam of light crossed the valley, touching rooftops, trees, and river alike. For the first time in living memory, the town saw a true sunrise. Elin stood in the tower doorway, tears on her cheeks. Henrik joined her, his voice shaking. “Sofia would have been proud.” A New Story for an Old Town Valenbruck changed after that day. Not suddenly, but gently. Flowers began growing near windows. Travelers returned, curious about the “town that found its sun.” Children painted pictures of blue skies instead of gray ones. Music returned to the streets. And the lighthouse was no longer just a ritual. It became a promise. Every evening, Elin still lit the lamp. Not because she feared the dark—but because she understood what light meant. It meant memory. It meant courage. It meant choosing hope even when fear felt easier. And sometimes, when the clouds gathered thick again, the people of Valenbruck did not complain. They simply waited. Because now they knew: The sun had never abandoned them. They had only forgotten how to open the door. Moral of the Story Fear can make people hide from the world. Tradition can make them forget why they once believed in light. But all it takes is one person willing to climb into the dark and turn the key
By Iazaz hussain22 days ago in Fiction
The Passenger
The one unspoken rule: don't let the driver be held responsible for the crash. Shoved into a car with them as you are only allowed to have relationships if you stay in their car and never leave. The insult looming of having to become resilient when jumping out of the car to get through being independent and those copying you choose alone and brag about being able to choose it. It is a sick mockery that is allowed to go on. These people taking from you while not asking for it and you adapting way better than most while surviving. Now there is insult to injury of those pretending they don't have people or making alone time a "silly little fun thing" to be up to after they destroyed someone's life.
By Seashell Harpspring 23 days ago in Fiction
