Spine-Chilling Short Stories to Keep You Up All Night

Warning — my six fiction finds may evoke a frisson of fear

Nov 02, 2024

I asked ChatGPT “why do humans enjoy scary stories?” and got this answer:

Humans enjoy scary stories because they provide a safe way to explore fear and other intense emotions, allowing us to experience the thrill and adrenaline rush of danger without actual risk.

Taking breaks from my writing, I have read some excellent fiction posts. Fiction tends to be ‘sent to its room’ on Medium; not properly feted and shared. But fortunately, I am familiar with a community of excellent writers and publications so I know where to track it down and reverse that trend.

I’ve compiled this post to help you discover goose-bump-inducing fiction: A story you may previously have overlooked, or a writer with whom you are unfamiliar.

To quote ChatGPT a second time:

Scary stories satisfy a deep-rooted human desire to flirt with fear in a safe, controlled way. They let us test our limits and explore life’s darker sides while providing the comfort of being able to walk away when it’s over.

Halloween / Samhain

Halloween stemmed from the more ancient festival of Samhain, which occurs in autumn. At this time, the days grow shorter, colder, and darker. Deciduous trees shed their leaves, and nature appears to “die” before winter, lending the season its association with death and decay.

This symbolism heightens the atmosphere for ghost stories, encouraging tales with supernatural elements, and settings that are dark and mysterious, or filled with decay.

Samhain — a time when was believed that the boundary separating the living and the spirit world was thin. In sharing stories of ghosts and spirits, primitive people hoped, to honor the dead, and to appease malevolent entities attempting to cross the boundary. It’s a tradition we still uphold, despite much of the meaning having been lost or commercialized.

The season brings forth excellent supernatural tales, so pull up a chair and indulge in hand-picked thrills, chills, and nightmarish scenarios. Gather round my Darklings, for some excellent horror shorts.