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“Write about a character who notices something others cannot — or refuse to — see.”

Posted in Horror on Sep 18, 2026

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✍️ 56 stories

The Empty Chair

Weekly Contest #373

I had finished with my last customer just as the streetlights came on. A young developer from Moscow who wore his beard square and severe, as if the lower part of his face had been designed by an architect. He drank two espressos, refused the vodka, and spent the entire shave explaining artificial intelligence to me. I let him. Young men need to explain the future to someone. Their fathers are tired of hearing it and their girlfriends already understand it better. Afterward, I showed him the model running on three monitors in the back room. ...

32 likes 7 comments 7
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Threads Of Life

Weekly Contest #373

A grimace, a raised eyebrow, an exaggerated smile — none of his gestures could convince him everything was all right. “What are you doing, may I ask?” “Elena, amore, do you find this normal?” “Normal? What, your show? Not at all.” She lowered her toothbrush and set it on the sink. “Mind if I brush my teeth before work?” she said, claiming her space back and cleaning toothpaste spots from the mirror. “I didn’t get much sleep,” he said. In the mirror, beside her, he found her worm, glowing pale green. He wasn't surprised anymore. It purs...

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The Girl Who Saw Too Much

Weekly Contest #373

The birthday cake sat on the rolling tray beside the hospital bed, its candles unlit because Krystal Jones could not bring herself to light them. Ten candles for a girl who had not opened her eyes in eight months. Outside the window, Morristown was waking up to another gray Tennessee morning, and inside room 214, Krystal held her daughter's hand the way she had every day since the accident, tracing small circles across the knuckles as if she could draw her back into her body. "She's going to come back to us," Demetrius said. He said it ever...

20 likes 15 comments 15
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The Lights

Weekly Contest #373

“I think they’re trying to talk to us, mom.” Kelly looked in the rearview mirror at her eleven-year-old boy. “I wonder if this has to do with spies?” she thought to herself. Lately, he had been diving deep into the world of undercover agents. She hadn’t been able to keep a bottle of lemon juice in the fridge with all the secret messages he’d been writing. At least it was better than his arachnid phase. Kelly still shuddered at the thought of the gargantuan spider she’d found in her favorite Christmas candy dish. “Oh ya? Who’s trying to tal...

14 likes 9 comments 9
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Ghouls Just want to Have Fun

Weekly Contest #373

(This story has a few horror/Halloween tropes including descriptions of a scary movie) Mary Ellen was thankful that the cable was working. She could watch the 7:30 horror movie in between answering the door for trick-or treaters. Norm and the kids had just left the house for trick-or-treating and were supposed to be home by 9:30. Mary Ellen had as much time as she wanted to savor her favorite holiday. She’d stayed up Friday night to finish all her grading so she and Norm help the kids with their costumes the next day. This year they were th...

13 likes 4 comments 4
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Foul Speech

Weekly Contest #373

The fate of humanity relies on me telling the truth. What a sorry fate for humanity, when I am a pathological liar. Lying is how I got my wife to marry me, how I lied about cheating on her, how I got my masters degree in engineering, and how I have so many friends. Simply put, lying is fun. I met my wife five years ago in college. She was in my art class. She was a shy sort, adorable as a button and easy to fool. She was wearing an oversized dress, no makeup, and heavy glasses. Few guys would have seen the beauty of her, but few guys could s...

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Strawberry Sam

Weekly Contest #373

Sensitive content: mature themes, mental health, and strong language. “I know what I saw, Hank,” I whisper as we stand by the kitchen sink. It’s been three days, no, four, since we got back from the hospital. I’m having trouble keeping track. It’s all been so hectic. It’s three in the morning and I’ve just finished feeding the baby. He drank greedily but squirmed the whole time, making it uncomfortable for both of us. My nipples are sore, my neck is tight, and I need to lie down—but first Hank is going to listen to me. “Cassy, please, let’s...

12 likes 1 comment 1
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Unstuck

Weekly Contest #373

Celeste was a disappointment. It was inevitable. There wasn't anything wrong with her, technically speaking. Nothing that made kids stare at her on the tram or prompted power walkers to cross into the bike lane. Nothing like that. There just wasn’t anything right with her. If anyone believed differently it would be a miracle, but miracles didn’t happen to Celeste. She was like a late night takeaway, she’d recently realised while digging for cabbage in her chow mein. Fine in theory. Passable in photographs. Made more attractive by the promis...

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Don’t Step on the Cracks

Weekly Contest #373

Looking back on it now I’ve realised that everything started earlier in the evening. I don’t know if it’s because I was older than my brothers, or maybe I was just more receptive or susceptible to that kind of thing, but the fear that struck me that night still strokes me now when I think about it. My brothers have vague memories of what happened. Some are funny. And I’ll laugh, tentatively, because the shadow still looms. I’m certain now that it started when my mum turned ever so slightly on the couch, her legs still crossed, and she fro...

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The Tidemark Creature

Weekly Contest #373

Brineford was the kind of coastal town where nothing ever changed except the tide schedule. The sea pressed against its eastern edge, while the other three sides were hemmed in by wilderness so thick it looked like the world had grown tired of expanding and simply stopped. Lenny Barrow lived in a small house perched on a dune overlooking the water. He was twelve, curious, and possessed a pair of eyes that behaved like independent creatures — always darting, scanning, catching details that others politely ignored. He noticed the crescent trac...

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Crazy

Weekly Contest #373

In a waiting room of beige and bleached yellow, where a straw-bladed ceiling fan stirred muggy air to little effect, Alfred Spectre leaned against the backrest of a plastic chair to subtly scratch at the itch of sweat trickling down his back and watched the red-headed man two chairs down get up and head to the back for the third time. Of course, the man had not actually gone in for his exam three times now, but the echo of his departure had lingered unexpectedly long. Absurdly long, if Alfred was being blunt; how strong really could the emot...

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Tethered

Weekly Contest #373

The chair’s wheel squeaks familiarly across the plastic floor mat and the seat releases a sigh as I lower myself into the old cushion and pull up to my keyboard. “Welcome back!” A usually serious voice calls excitedly from my doorframe. My boss. “We’ve missed you,” Johnathan opens. My hand presses into my chest involuntarily as a quick pang strikes. I play it off as a gesture of gratitude. “And I’ve missed you all.” Another twinge of pain, deeper. I suck in a sharp breath and try to release it slowly. “I’m happy to be back,” I say through th...

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In The Hole

Weekly Contest #373

“Yeah right, Imaginational! There are two dragons fighting in the hole!” “They are. I saw them!” “Tell us another one!” The army and police and museum experts had all lost interest in the dark sinkhole which had appeared so mysteriously. They had decided that the hole did not contain archaeological relics or unexploded armaments. It did not pose a threat to national security or signal the arrival of alien beings. They had packed up their cordons and their scientific investigation devices and gone home. But the band of UFO enthusiasts had not...

9 likes 6 comments 6
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Lila Lies

Weekly Contest #373

“The neighbor is a vampire.” I look up from my mashed potatoes at my daughter Lila, who is watching me from across the dinner table with her big blue eyes. It’s the week before Halloween. Cory, my husband, stabs a green bean with his fork and laughs. “I didn’t realize you even knew what vampires were.” She smiles smugly and rolls her eyes. “Of course I know what a vampire is, daddy.” Lila is four, and loves all things Halloween. I had spent nine months dreaming of princess parties and tiaras and all things pink and glittery, with very li...

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Monster Jam

Weekly Contest #373

"You’re out of time” Jason looked for the voice that had seemingly just called to him from across the street, instead only finding the funeral home’s chipped and faded sign dwarfed in front of the Orlando Citrus Bowl, the stadium hanging over the blue horizon like a storm cloud at the beach. He could already hear the monster trucks. Warmup revs ricocheting off the old concrete and shaking through chipped cement sidewalks. Nobody was there. He returned to the shadows hanging under the funeral home’s eaves, and his sweat cooled against his ski...

9 likes 2 comments 2
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