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Discover weekly, the best short stories

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

150+ Thriller Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking for a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat and holding your breath? Don’t skip our collection of thriller short stories.

Thriller Short Stories – Page 10 of 10

Couples Therapy

Submitted to Contest #329

Student helper Gloria Mitchell was hungover on her first day at the Proaggression Tower, and the whole experience felt like a dream.The surprise party that her boyfriend and she had prepared for their friend Max's girlfriend in the latter couple’s apartment had left her with too much alcohol in her system and far too little sleep. The ibuprofen she had taken in the morning still hadn't kicked in, and her skull throbbed as she alighted the train.Like any psychology student, Gloria knew that the tower wouldn't be visible on the surface — it wa...

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After Midnight at Marty’s All-Night Diner

Submitted to Contest #330

The weird ones always come in after midnight.That’s what my boss told me on my first day at Marty’s All-Night Diner. And he was right. But weird doesn’t always mean bad. I’ve worked the dead eye shift here at the diner for about six months now and while we definitely have some real doozies come in overnight, I can honestly say that most are just plain folks trying to get by like the rest of us. Some work the late shifts; some just like to be out at night. Less people to deal with, one of my regulars once told me. But that’s not my experience...

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Before I Go

Submitted to Contest #329

I stood as motionless as I could and watched a hummingbird as it visited the feeder hanging from the eve of my apartment. As it went to move away, it hovered just outside the window for a second and stared in at me. I wondered if it saw me. Do hummingbirds have thoughts like we do? If so, what was going through that little mind as it peeked in at me through the pane of glass separating us?I turned away from the window and faced her. Her face was red and swollen from crying. She’d been at it all night.“I’m sorry,” I said. “This isn’t anything...

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The Living Come to Mourn

Submitted to Contest #329

The drive always felt longer than it should.Ben gripped the steering wheel tighter as he wound along the narrow forest road. A steady mist streaked across the windshield, and though the wipers kept it at bay, the night pressed in - thick, silent, expectant. The trees leaned close, closing off the night sky. The radio had lost its signal miles ago, so the only sound was the rhythmic thunk-thunk of rubber over asphalt and the faint hum of the engine.It had been twelve years.Twelve years since the accident.He wasn't the first to arrive this tim...

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3 AM

Submitted to Contest #329

I write at 3 AM because I have to. Not "have to" like a deadline. "Have to" like breathing. Like my fingers start twitching around 2:45. Like if I don't sit down and open the document, something inside me will claw its way out. George and Fred know. They're already on the desk when I come in, two black smudges in the blue light of the monitor. Waiting. They're always waiting. I've been writing the same story for eight months. A psychological thriller about a woman who can't tell if she's losing her mind or if her apartment is trying to kill ...

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Ghost

Submitted to Contest #329

GHOSTBeaDragonia The closing credits for “The Ring” scrolled across the screen. Flipping off the TV, he laid the remote down. “That’s enough of that scary stuff.” He chuckled, “Nothing better than a scary movie, though. He definitely loved horror films. October was his favorite month for watching movies. Slasher films, nightmare films, and even the oldies like Hitchcock graced the airwaves.He was just drifting off to sleep when he heard the white noise of the TV not being on the air like when he was a kid. Before, there were twenty-four-hou...

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Incuboo

Submitted to Contest #329

CW: Sexual violence, self harm, physical violence, abuse Lucky had always been the quiet girl in her little town. The one who walked with her head down, the one who sat in the back pew at church beside her mother Jane and her father Lemuel. The one who was taught—over and over again—that sex before marriage meant hell. Her parents didn’t just preach it; they breathed it. It was stitched into her childhood, whispered into her prayers, and wrapped tight around her mind like a chain. So Lucky grew up terrified of intimacy. A hand on her shoulde...

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Dead of Night Diggers

Submitted to Contest #329

“Are you sure this will work, Kyle?”“Yeah. Trust me it will. Remember last winter when I won the lottery?”“Yeah. That changed your entire life. Of course I remember.”“Well, how do think I did it. I went back in time and changed the numbers on the ticket I bought to the ones I knew would win.”“Really, it was that easy?”“Piece of cake. You’ll be bouncing that little kid on your knee in no time.““Yeah, I hope so,” Jimmy says as he hops off the bus, “I really messed up back then. I can’t mess this up again.”“Well, that’s why we’re here,” Kyle sa...

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Northern Lights Hospice

Submitted to Contest #329

My name—at least the one used by the few who still speak to me—is Fred. But my true name is Nikos.I am, by my best estimate, roughly 2,500 years old. I won’t subject you to an exhaustive chronicle of my existence. Immortality, as people imagine it, is far less glamorous when lived in real time. Suffice to say my story contains what you would expect: violence and beauty in equal measure, indulgence and restraint, long stretches of wandering, and brief, piercing intervals of love. I’ve stood in the courts of kings, in the mud of battlefields, ...

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Ghoul

Submitted to Contest #329

GhoulNoah Gibson The lonesome desert sat in a hushed daze, keeping secret over the atrocities of the day. The shadows crept along the smooth, tan sand as the sun hid along the horizon like a coward. The rotting stench of death invaded Jason Buck’s nostrils, uppercutting them and forcing a constant flaring motion. He paced back and forth on the border of the death pit. His eyes were drawn to the corpses. He didn’t want to look, but his brain pressured his eyes to do so. Look at what you’ve done. He adjusted his rifle in his hands, clicking ...

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'Till Death

Submitted to Contest #329

God, if you are real and help me get out of here alive, I swear I’ll stop watching those sexy clown videos when I’m supposed to be working. I sent my silent prayer to the sky and crossed myself for good measure. Then I hoisted myself up and over through the broken window of a mud room that was connected to the main living quarters of the cult I had narrowly escaped from a month earlier. Kim had already forged ahead after graciously breaking the window with a large rock and was crouched by the door of the mud room waiting for me. ...

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Tenebra

Submitted to Contest #329

“Do you think God hears our voices all the time? Or does he only listen when he wants?” Jamie asked her mother on the way home from school. They were driving on their typical route through a suburban neighborhood with moderately sized, brick homes and grass that was sometimes a little too long. During the afternoons, it was typically very lively in the blocks by the school, but Jamie’s mother, Joann, had to work late so the space between the car window and the outside world felt all the more separate.“Well, if by voices you mean the prayers ...

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He Took All But the Bones and the Bottle

Submitted to Contest #329

Rumors ate their way through a small town like cancer to a bone. They were dripping with curiosity and the enjoyment of troubles that were not ones own. It didn’t take long for her ears to pick up the whispers that followed at her back. As a child, Sybil had devoured those narratives, passing them from her mouth to another like a bird would feed its young. As a grown women, she found the taste of rumors sour. Still, if they wished to mutter into the sides of their hands about the mess she had become, Sybil could do very little. Dropping agai...

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Scratches

Submitted to Contest #329

CW: Mental health, Physical violence Nora spilled sugar again. A thin rattle of grains scattering across the table was the first thing she heard that morning—her hands trembling too much to control the spoon. Half a teaspoon. She never managed half a teaspoon anymore. She stared at the mess for a moment. Left it. No one else came here anymore. And she didn’t have the energy to pretend she lived a tidy, functioning life. Jeans, a loose black T‑shirt, sneakers. Hair yanked into a careless ponytail. No mirror, no bra—no point. Her mother used t...

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The Obsession/SEVER

Submitted to Contest #329

Aruthers note *Warning this story has themes relating to mental health, suicide and substances abuse. Please proceed with caution if you think it will harm your mental* The Obsession—It's nothing too grand. Just a headspace. My imagination. My bravado. My soul. My lifeline. But at the end of the day—it’s all a game, is it not?Sevren rein— “Sevren rein.” A voice comes over the comms in the building.A gentle tap hits my shoulder. Then a whisper hits my ear.“Sevren. someone is calling you.” The voice says.I turn my head to the direction of the...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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