Menu

More apps built by Reedsy

reedsymarketplace

Assemble a team of professionals

reedsystudio

The writing app for authors

reedsylearning

Writing courses, events and memberships

reedsydiscovery

Get your book reviewed

reedsyprompts

Weekly writing prompts and contests

Menu

Prompts

Contests

Stories

Blog

Featured stories

Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of mystery short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

Mystery Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. No need to go out hunting for clues — you’ve solved the puzzle of where to find the newest mystery short stories just by landing on this page.

Mystery Short Stories – Page 2

The Interview

Weekly Contest #363

8 am on the nose. I walked into the office coffee in hand. My feet stepping confidently through the office doors. I greet our receptionist, Stacy. I almost had her she was too good a girl. We had flirted for months before she suddenly got engaged to some loser she met on hinge. She was still hot and every once in a while, I would see her flash her doe eyes at me and smile in my direction. I raised my cup at the security guard Charlie. He was an ex-felon who was built like a tank. “Hey Charlie, Catch the game this weekend.” “You know I did ...

3 likes

Read story

The Call of the Sea

Scott Speck

Weekly Contest #363

The Call of the Sea I stood at the rail, amazed to be alone on the promenade deck. Only yesterday, we had lined this rail, two deep, as friends and family stood on the docks and waved their farewells. Today, most passengers were seasick below deck. Beyond our storm-tossed ship, the sea was a sharply peaked range of rolling gray hills and valleys – immense wave crests capped with foam that the wind sliced free, then shaped into clouds of mist that stung my skin with cold. While my face grew numb, the hooded mackintosh and waterproof trousers ...

16 likes

Read story

THE LAST FERRY

Marilyn Q

Weekly Contest #363

For forty-three years, no soul had dared cross Blackwater Bay.That truth struck Thomas Reed like an ice shard against his ribs. He nearly dropped his coffee when a string of glowing lights drifted into view.At first, he told himself it was a fishing skiff battling the squall. Winter winds played cruel tricks here—turning distant buoys into towering lighthouses, abandoned cabins into phantom ships. He wiped the frost from the lantern window with his sleeve, clearing the glass. Far beyond, the lights held fast.Not one.Not two.A full procession...

11 likes

Read story

Yearning

Nana Lemon

Weekly Contest #363

Grey.My feet curl in the wet sand while my gaze grazes the waves in front of me. Just like the sea the sky is grey. Darker though. Clouds are hanging dangerously low. They look heavy. Ready to burst. At the horizon the dark grey melts into the muddy grey.Infinite ocean or infinite sky?My trousers are folded just below my knees. The waves lick my lower calves. In response I lick my lips. Once. Twice. The salty taste is familiar. The taste of seaweed and mud stirs a memory. I close my eyes and concentrate.Darkness.I open my eyes. My heart is p...

9 likes

Read story

A Glistening Invitation

Joy Rebers

Weekly Contest #363

There was something magical about the glimmer of light reflecting on the water, sunlight mirrored back up towards the sky, dancing and blinking in the early morning light. I watched as the water rushed back and forth over the sand, scraping over rocks that had been worn smooth over the years. I knew better than to venture closer now, not sure I would still dare. But I could still feel the coolness of the water lapping at my shins, could imagine how it felt to float, feeling weightless while drifting on the waves. It was like a craving, a pul...

1 like

Read story

OOPS!! It's Magic!

Weekly Contest #363

Marcus Romainne is standing in the snow, looking around at a completely smooth, snow-covered field. He looked around, literally all the way around, and was dumbfounded. "Is that water?" he said, as he stood there, he sees police cars, or more realistically, he hears police cars, and they are getting closer. Realization and feeling are starting to set in; it is cold. He looks down and sees he is up to his ankles in snow. He also notices that he is nude. Not even underwear. The temperature is starting to take its toll on his body, and he begin...

7 likes

Read story

Groom of the Yuki-Onna

Derrick M Domican

Weekly Contest #363

"Wake up, Kenji. If you sleep, she’ll die."The words reached me through the wolf-like howls of the wind and the hammering of hailstones on my sanctuary, startling me alert in the numbing cold.I lurched back against the blocks of the igloo, cracked freezing eyelids apart.“Wh-what..?”I spoke, and the winds whistling into the igloo through its narrow opening took the word to feed the blizzard outside.My chin had dropped onto my ice-dusted parka for just a moment, but in that moment it felt like an eternity had passed. In that moment, Aiko Takah...

36 likes

Read story

Fire Rain

Nana Lemon

Weekly Contest #363

A faint rumbling echoed in the castle’s corridor. The earthen keg hit the floor. Shards flew in all directions. Melissa stared at the mess on the floor. Just for a moment she followed the red liquid spreading over the tiles, like long spindly fingers grabbing everything in their way. Trying to reach her as well. Then she saw her distorted reflection. She flinched.“What was that?”The shout made the girl set into motion. She crouched quickly. Pain travelled up her knees. With shaking fingers she collected the smaller shards, placing them in th...

9 likes

Read story

The Last Light in Brinehaven

Eliza Stroud

Weekly Contest #363

June 4thI woke up just before dawn to silence. The buoy had stopped ringing. It’s funny, the things you grow accustomed to. Fifty-three years in Brinehaven and I don’t suppose I'd ever truly heard that old bell until it wasn’t there. Every morning, every night, if the waves were rolling, the bell was tolling. But this morning was different. I heard no bell. And, for that matter, no waves either. I thought perhaps the storm had whisked the buoy away, or maybe it had deafened me to any sound at all. It had raged most of the night, harder than ...

7 likes

Read story

When Ash Walked In

Weekly Contest #363

The weather warning called it an electrical anomaly. The words “relentless” and “massive” appeared across every screen, describing the storm approaching the small coastal town of Gray Harbor. But no one paid much attention. Storms came and went along the coast. The waves crashed, the winds howled, and eventually, the sun always returned. For everyone else, it was just another storm. Except for Ella Reyes. Standing inside the Gray Harbor Weather Station, Ella stared at the darkening horizon as a familiar ache settled in her chest. The ...

3 likes

Read story

One Stormy Night

Elizabeth Jurado

Weekly Contest #363

Zoe struggled to keep her head above water; the weather was brutal, and lightning flashed with a fury all around her. The small dinghy was a ball of flames. The water was cold. The dock was not too far; she could make it. The lights on the posts blinked on and off. Just a little further. Her wet coat weighed her down and made it hard to swim. She made it to the dock and grabbed a rope hanging there. She wrapped it around her wrists and pulled herself to the drop ladder. Rain pelted her face; she could barely see. It took all the strength she...

3 likes

Read story

Don't Leave Me

M C Menicou

Weekly Contest #363

The house waited for her.It crouched at the end of the lane like something half‑asleep, its windows filmed with dust, its gutters sagging under years of neglect. The sky above it was swollen and dark, the colour of a healing bruise. Storm warnings crackled through the car radio as she stepped out, the wind lifting her hair like a hand she didn’t want touching her. She paused beside the gate, fingers curled around the rusted latch, and listened to the distant rumble of thunder rolling across the fields. It sounded like something waking up.She...

2 likes

Read story

The Tree

Weekly Contest #363

I peered at the old flowering crabapple tree that stood in front of my house’s sizeable picture window. Something about it looked different. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Did it lose a limb overnight? No branches lay on the kelly green grass below it. Did the bark change color? Maybe the sun was hitting it in a different way this morning. I shrugged it off and carried on with my morning routine. I threw a load of laundry in the washer, readied the coffee pot, and ran downstairs to change out of my shorts and tank top pajama combo and into ...

2 likes

Read story

Moonlight Fight

Weekly Contest #363

Walking down a back alley to avoid the crowds of people, Lucas stares at the soggy ground bathed in moonlight. He stops walking when he sees a shadow appear at his feet. Zade is standing a few feet in front of him with anger drawn on his face. “Z… I've been looking for you guys. I got lost in the crowds and you weren't at the meet up spot.” Lucas says his voice shaking like the trees “LOST?” Zade yelled not hiding his anger“Yeah … the crowds…” Lucas starts “You didn't get lost!” Zade cuts Lucas off “you sold us out to the guard!” Zade takes ...

1 like

Read story

Time After Time

Weekly Contest #362

“I want to mingle with the popolo grasso and dine with Dante at the Palazzo Vecchio,” Regina said. “I want the real thing.”On our Teams call, her reel played: Regina with an Aperol above the Arno; Regina combing her fingers through lemon blossoms; Regina at the Medicean Bar, all gild and fresco. Tuscany fit her like a costume she wore perfectly. There she was walking the gardens of olives and cypress with her hands at her sides feeling the petals of row after row of plants.“Did you hear me, dolcezza? I want the real thing.”“I curate time,” I...

35 likes

Read story

‹ Prev Next ›