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DIRECTORY
29 Best Dark Short Story Ideas
Showing 29 short story ideas curated by Reedsy.
Only one swordsman emerges alive from a bloody battle. And without a single wound. How does he explain his survival?
You wake up trapped in a strange castle with no memory of how you got there and there's something lurking in the shadows as you explore the halls.
Write a story about a ghost hunter who doesn't believe in ghosts -- until he gets stuck in a haunted mansion overnight.
Stuff has been mysteriously disappearing from your home for weeks, but you live alone.
Write about a power hungry wizard summoning an eldritch creature from a blood-stained spellbook.
You're digging in your garden when you unearth something that makes you stagger from shock.
Write a dark story in which everything that someone Tweets comes true.
The monster from your nightmare is standing next to you when you wake up.
Write a story in which it becomes night forever. The sun has gone.
I thought he seemed a perfectly normal human being, until he started speaking.
You find a note in your locker: "Save yourself while you still can."
Set your story at a graveyard overnight.
The pumpkin flickered while you carved it… but there was no candle in it.
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