7 Short Horror Fiction Stories I Read This Week
What I’m looking for in a horror story is the core emotion of fear
I’m fascinated by short fiction. I write it and I read it.
As well as reading longer-form fiction, I try to read at least one short story every day. I select out-of-the-way stories and authors I’ve never read and sometimes never heard of.
Sometimes I pick competition entries, often ones that didn’t win. Sometimes I find random personal websites where someone has published their own stories. Sometimes I seek out professionally published stories from hardcopy books or online magazines. Sometimes I look for really old stories that are out of copyright and available online.
Last Sunday was Halloween, so this week I read 7 short horror stories.
What I’m looking for when I read a horror story is the core emotion of fear.
I want to feel uneasy for most of the story. There needs to be some danger. I want to be able to empathise and relate to the characters and the situations they find themselves in.
There’s often not enough room in a short story to change a character. Sometimes a short story will be just a moment in time. But, the main characters still need some level of self-awareness or should come to some realisation during the story.
In written horror, I prefer psychological stories over slasher stories. While I will read slashers, I’d rather watch them in movie form, like the Final Destination series, than read them.
These are the stories I read this week and what I thought.
**Please be aware that I’m not here to criticise any writer. The fact that these writers have put themselves out there and made these stories available for me to read for free is amazing and I thank you.**
Sunday: Harrington’s Hearse
Harrington’s Hearse is a supernatural horror story by Lake Lopez.
What it’s about: An unnamed narrator keeps seeing a ‘ghost’ hearse before certain events happen in his life.
“Every other car on the street wore a layer of wet grime, but the hearse was pristine.”
The story dips into specific times in the narrator’s life. It starts when he first sees the hearse as a child, then he sees it again in adulthood, parenthood, and in old age.
While there wasn’t a feeling of fear for me as the reader, the narrator was fearful for his family. He was determined to protect them.
The story was a light, easy read. It’s interesting and fun enough if you can get past a few inconsistencies in the writing, such as dates, tense and spelling. There is also a point at which you realise who the narrator is talking to, which wasn’t clear at the start.
I enjoyed it and you might too if this is your type of story.
Monday: Car Keys
Car Keys is a supernatural horror story published on the scary for kids website.
What it’s about: Uh oh. The car gets damaged, and the father is leaving his young daughter by herself while he goes for help.
This is a horror story for kids. It’s a retelling of a classic urban legend.
“…she glanced in the rear-view mirror and saw a figure in the distance, walking towards the car.”
Obviously, I’m not the intended audience of this story. I can only just see the outline of my childhood in my rear-view mirror if I pull over, squint, and stare really hard.
If I wasn’t this old, I might have enjoyed this story. I suspect younger kids might enjoy it and find it scary. It’s just that I’ve read so many versions of this particular story over the years that I’m numb to it.
If you like this kind of cliché story or you’re a kid that hasn’t heard this story a million times in your life, all power to you. Go read it. You’ll probably like it.
Tuesday: Paranoia
Paranoia is an ambiguous psychological horror story by Shirley Jackson, published in 2013 in the New Yorker.
What it’s about: Mr Beresford is an ordinary man trying to get home early for his wife’s birthday when a strange man begins to make it difficult for him.
“A man in a light hat stopped next to Mr. Beresford on the sidewalk and for a minute, in the middle of the crowd, he stared at Mr. Beresford and Mr. Beresford stared at him as people sometimes do without caring particularly what they see.”
This is a perfectly executed piece of writing, showing how paranoia can gradually sneak up on you without you realising it.
Is this strange man following him? Is everyone in on it? Or is it all in his head? Like most of us, Mr Beresford looks for ways to avoid the situation rather than confront it.
This was the best story of the week for me. It kept me reading and wanting to know what was happening. While I wasn’t fearful, I felt the uneasiness and discomfort of the normally weak, unassuming Mr Beresford as people tried to stop him from doing what he wanted to do.
The ending was ambiguous, so you may not like it if you want all your endings to be clear and wrapped up. I like the way it ended.
Wednesday: The Woman in Green
The Woman in Green is a supernatural horror story by Cristina Fernandez-Cubas, translated by Kathryn Phillips-Miles & Simon Deefholts, and published on The Short Story Project website.
What’s it about: The unnamed narrator keeps seeing a woman dressed in green. The woman looks like a co-worker but can’t be. The narrator becomes obsessed with finding out who this woman is.
“A mixture of unease and conviction that made me rush out of a shoe shop and run down the street after a woman who I insisted on calling Dina. And the woman ignored me and walked on without paying any attention to me. Because it wasn’t Dina. Or at least, that’s what the real Dina Dachs says, sitting opposite me at her tidy desk…”
Another story with a paranoia theme, this time heightened by underlying guilt.
I felt the uneasiness of the narrator as she became more and more tired and more and more obsessed. She was trying to juggle her guilt about an affair, a new job in which she had to prove herself, and confusion about why she kept seeing this woman when no one else could see her.
I enjoyed this story and it kept me reading. The quality of the writing and the use of all the senses was enough to let me overlook the cliché ending.
Thursday: A Collapse of Horses
A Collapse of Horses is an ambiguous psychological horror story by Brian Evenson, published in The American Reader.
What it’s about: The narrator receives a head injury at work. He returns home and thinks his house and family are changing every morning but no one believes him.
“Just as she could not see that sometimes we had three children and sometimes four. No, she could only ever see three. Or perhaps four. To be honest, I don’t remember how many she saw.”
Another underlying theme of paranoia, this was my second favourite story of the week.
To the narrator, small things seem different every day but no one else notices. This brings that feeling of unease and discomfort, especially when no one believes him. He wonders if the problem is him or everyone else. Do we just adapt to what we see and believe it’s always been that way?
The concept of this story was what really interested me and kept me reading. I love the title and the reason for that title.
An ambiguous ending that doesn’t leave you wanting more tops this story off nicely. Definitely worth a read.
Friday: Shattered Glass
Shattered Glass is a supernatural horror story by Tracey Carvill, submitted to Reedsy as an entry into a prompt competition.
What it’s about: The story follows Julie as she and her partner visit a ‘haunted’ abandoned asylum.
“She wondered again why she had ever let Grant talk her into coming here. A ghost hunt in an abandoned asylum? Great.”
I don’t think this was a winner in the Reedsy competition but I enjoyed the imagery in this story and the writing style. The scary feels are there from the start even though it feels like it’s going to be a cliché haunted asylum story.
The story starts quite light and then gets darker as it continues. It’s not until you get to the end that you realise just how dark it’s become and you’ve forgotten just how light it started.
The twist was very nice and unexpected.
Saturday: A Fruitless Assignment
A Fruitless Assignment is a short supernatural horror story by Ambrose Bierce. It’s one of 18 short stories in the book Present at a Hanging and Other Ghost Stories.
What it’s about: An editor tells a reporter that he must spend the night in a haunted house.
“No one could say just where they appeared upon the open lawn on their way to the front door by which they entered, nor at exactly what point they vanished as they came out…”
Although written over a century ago, the writing style and language of this story make it very readable. The underlying theme of a haunted house brings a prickle of unease, especially when the reporter is alone in the house.
This is a very quick read. It isn’t scary but there’s no mucking about by this author; he gets in, he gets out. As did the narrator, and as did I.
TL;DR
This week’s short horror stories, in the order that I enjoyed them.
- Paranoia by Shirley Jackson
- A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson
- Shattered Glass by Tracey Carvill
- The Woman in Green by Cristina Fernandez-Cubas
- Harrington’s Hearse by Lake Lopez
- A Fruitless Assignment by Ambrose Bierce
- Car Keys by scary for kids
And one extra story if you’re interested. Here’s one of my own that I wrote for a Vocal Halloween challenge: Gravenwell Lake. I didn’t win but I enjoyed writing it.
