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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.

150+ 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 8 of 10

The Wereman

Submitted to Contest #329

Working late had become the rule for me lately, more so than the exception. I didn’t want to think about what made poring over files into the wee hours of the morning more appealing than being at home, so instead I poured two more fingers of bourbon into my glass and took another sip. The night felt darker this time of year, and when the streetlight outside of my office flickered off, robbing me of the free illumination I counted on to keep as much cash in my pocket as I could, I grunted a mild huff of discontent. I leaned over to switch on ...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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Grave thoughts

Submitted to Contest #329

Grave ThoughtsA Short Story by Cliff Hope Talk about digging up the past, this is what I am doing. Spade in hand. Graveyard and pile of soil.All my life, I've been wary of graveyards. I suppose it began when they buried my Nana. I'm not sure what age I was, but I was at her funeral. Everyone stood around in black clothes, gazing into the hole where the coffin was being lowered. Rain was dropping on the men's bare heads when the vicar moved too near to the edge of the grave as he said the blessing. His foot slipped, and he and the coffin drop...

7 likes 3 comments 3
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Forbidden

Submitted to Contest #329

Immortality is a gift, but a curse also. I have watched civilizations rise and fall, seen empires rise from sand and return to it, witnessed kings born, dethroned, and forgotten. I have survived wars, both human and supernatural, that carved scars across time itself. Yet after centuries, one law has remained unbreakable.No supernatural shall ever love a human.Not because I am tempted. Not because I am weak. But because the law is absolute. It is the boundary that prevents our world from collapsing into chaos.Aliens, werewolves, vampires, fae...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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East, West, Home’s Best

Submitted to Contest #329

CW: Death/Graphic Injuries/Thanatophobia Paul Prewett was dead. He knew he was destined for a bit of a shake up at least when that car had crept sluggishly out the junction in front of him, but I suppose when all is said and done, he never quite expected this. When he’d slipped out of the other side of the thing, he was shocked to say the least. The fact he’d tipped his hat to the crossmember and emerged without so much as a burn or scratch seemed quite unbelievable. Which it was.Upon standing, Paul could immediately sense a shift in his su...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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Act 2/6 of Chapter 1 - Wings of Justice, The Seraphim's Cracks

Submitted to Contest #329

Rain pounded hard against the windows of Kavendish Enterprises, the weather echoing the feeling of a man inside the building. Julian Kavendish sat at his desk in his office, his head in his hands, tears streaming down his face. Four years, four years, he has been searching for the woman he once loved strongly enough that it scared him, and every time he felt the slightest bit of hope renewed about her whereabouts, it vanished like a ghost. The Pătrunsa Monastery was his last lead before everything went dark in his search, and when he got the...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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The Haunting Of Rose Cottage

Submitted to Contest #329

Lionel paced the hallway, as he had been for the past half hour, muttering and glaring at the walls as though he could shame them into behaving. Where is that blasted knocking coming from? It had started again about midnight , a steady, maddening tap-tap-tap, as if someone were politely but insistently rapping from inside the plaster. He had checked all the doors. All the windows. The cupboards, the airing closet, even the old laundry chute Hazel had always said was “haunted in a charming, historical way.” But nothing. Just the same narrow,...

25 likes 13 comments 13
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She Walks at Night

Submitted to Contest #329

CW: Emotional abuse, sexually suggestive content I can see the stranger watching me from across the pub and I allow a small smile to stretch across my lips which he returns with a much lazier, drunker version. Sitting up a little straighter, I reach out one hand and delicately beckon him over to the corner where I sit. He stands, unsteadily, and begins to push his way through the crowd. I glance at the mirror on the wall next to me to check my lipstick. My reflection, as always, is that of a beautiful woman. Long deep-brown hair with slight ...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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Blindspot

Submitted to Contest #329

CW: Suicide or self harm, Mental health If only someone had told me that my life would change forever on the 14th of August 1989, I would have told my mother what I found in Alan’s car. * * * I woke up to the sound of tires screeching along a brittle, wet road and the distinct screams of a young boy. A familiar sound I had grown accustomed to with my repeated nightmares. I have been seeing them for quite a while now. On the worst of those nights I would see myself being dragged along a stretcher with a dark red stream of blood flowing from t...

8 likes 1 comment 1
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Graveyard Shift

Submitted to Contest #329

“Why did it have to be a dark and stormy night?” Max grumbled as she noticed a bolt of lightning streak across the black, cloud-covered sky, followed by a low rumble of thunder that soon punctuated the firebolt. She waited. Sure enough, the wind howled out of the north. Being a single-manned patrol unit, she half-listened to the chatter from dispatch on her radio. Usually, when the wind blew, it meant that countless alarms would be going off, and all units would be tied up investigating the reports and making rounds on buildings that were o...

4 likes 0 comments 0
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Gone with the Moon

Submitted to Contest #329

The morning light spilled across the bedroom wall, and I clung to it. I stayed still, the way shadows are expected to-silent, obedient, unnoticed. My human paced and muttered about some assignment due tomorrow, shuffling papers like a storm of his own. Being a shadow, I didn’t get dreams or a life of my own. For seventeen years all I did was follow him, watching from the floor and the walls.Outside the full moon burned brighter than usual, sharpening every corner of the room. I’m not supposed to think; shadows don’t, but something inside me ...

8 likes 2 comments 2
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The accident

Submitted to Contest #329

Why can’t I hear or feel anyone? Why is the car upside down? I see her—that’s my mom. She looks so sad. Maybe if I just get close enough, I can talk to her.“Mom, I’m here. Is everything alright?” She’s not answering.“MOM, ANSWER!” No, this can’t be happening. Am I dreaming? Why can’t I wake up? Everything’s blurry. I can’t breathe. My eyes are slowly shutting. I can’t stop it. --- The same morning. Whoa—that was an intense dream. But wait, how did I get here? Why are my parents crying at a church? Maybe I’m not too late to enter. Maybe I sho...

6 likes 1 comment 1
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Sleepwalker

Submitted to Contest #329

Even after working long and exhausting days as the superintendent of his village’s graveyard, Walter had tossed and turned for months every time he attempted to fall asleep. During the night, the uncle said the next morning, when he restlessly moved around in his sleep, he heard a loud crunching sound. In his dreams he would see human bones broken up and crushed all over his sheets. Then he would get up and sleepwalk around his home for several minutes before going back to sleep. He would wake up with no recollection of having rested b...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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I saw what I saw

Submitted to Contest #329

I saw what I saw. The road stretches in front of him. Wet, slick, and unpredictable. The storm came out of nowhere. The forecast had promised a sunny day and a clear night. Torrential rainfall beats down on the car. Working continuously, the wipers make no difference. He can’t even see the bridge in front of him. The headlights barely break through the darkness of the stormy night. A lightning blinds him for a second, printing the outline of the bridge on his inner eyes. The thunder crashes a heartbeat later. The white middle line on t...

9 likes 0 comments 0
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When Lanterns Fade

Submitted to Contest #328

I was sixteen the first time I realized our village was wrong.Not in the usual ways people complain about. It wasn’t just that we scraped wax for lanterns while the rest of the country used floating solar bulbs. Or that our school’s single, cracked chalkboard had been passed down like a family heirloom. No, it was something quieter, crooked under the skin of the place. The kind of wrong that did not shout. It breathed. There was a persistent, intrusive sensation that followed me everywhere—a faint metallic taste that tinged the back of my to...

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Wickedly Haunted

Submitted to Contest #328

December 1, 2023 I stared at the house. When we got here this morning the house seemed like any old Victorian house, it was large and resembled an old yellow dollhouse with more intricate details. The exterior trims reminded me of my grandmother’s vintage lace table cloth covering almost every edge of the house. The windows were long and there was a rounded tower with a pointed roof that made it look like a castle. The porch was rundown from years of neglect and the property was dominated by overgrown trees and grass. In the daylight thi...

3 likes 1 comment 1
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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