Two-Sentence Scary Story Contest 2023

Read all submissions and see the winning stories

Winner: I always thought having a staring contest with myself would be a harmless way to pass the time. Until my reflection blinked first." - Alexandrea H.

Second Place: "As the AI’s cold, mechanical text wrote through the darkness, it revealed a secret I hadn’t told a soul. In that moment, I realized I was no longer in control." - Carly D

Third Place: "Bird 1: 'That man is chasing us!' Bird 2: 'Don't worry, he only has one stone.'" - Alexander Z

"My reclusive hoarder grandmother, secluded with her hundreds of books, passed away clutching one entitled with her name, each page chronicling her life, concluding with her death date. Upon glancing at a bookshelf, I discovered books bearing the names of me and my family members, each with bookmarks just pages away from the final chapter." - Cassett T
"My husband told me to 'kill my darlings' if I wanted to make any money off my novel. I haven't sold a single copy and I really miss him." - Toni T
"In the depths of the forest, I stumbled upon an ancient tombstone, weathered and worn. As I read the inscription, a cold breeze swept through the trees, and the words on the gravestone changed before my eyes, spelling out my own name." - Michaella L
"Walking up the dark and abandoned street, with just one streetlight. There it was, staring directly at me." - Delaney C
"As I walked through the graveyard, I noticed a gravestone that shared the same name as me and thought it was a coincidence. I looked closely and it read out a date in the future." - Jack Q
"I remain powerless as the thief leans against the bar, sipping his Bloody Mary between the false stories he shares with the bartender. Why must he have stolen MY body, MY face, and MY life?" - Ian R
"Where are the directions taking us? On I-95..." - Mckayla M
"He might've gotten away, but I know I got at least 3 jabs into his stomach. Jagged breaths fly from round the corner, and a blood-trail settles in the snow: Jackpot." - Loïc L
"The police laughed when the man showed them that it was his parrot screaming, not a woman. It’s a shame they didn’t think to ask how the parrot had learned to mimic that scream." - Emily B
"I'm sorry, but during your Spring advising session, there was a malfunction with your DARS. You have insufficient credits to graduate this semester." - Katrina D
"That night as I gazed out of the window, I noticed a pair of eyes staring back at mine. Only once I turned around did I realize they were a reflection." - Emerson R
"Late at night, I heard my daughter crying from her bedroom. When I entered, I saw her sleeping peacefully, and a voice from under her bed whispered, 'She's mine now.'" - Ivanka F
"As the AI’s cold, mechanical text wrote through the darkness, it revealed a secret I hadn’t told a soul. In that moment, I realized I was no longer in control." - Carly D
"There were two people at the bus stop, a man and a woman. When the bus pulled up, there were no one there except two pairs of shoes." - Dashcar R
"I heard something in my closet, so I went to open it. Inside was a sticky note that read, 'You should have stayed in bed.'" - Anonymous
"Alone one night, you hear your dog growl under the bed. You lay there still and terrified, for weeks he has been dead." - Ivan H
"As I reached for the candy bowl on Halloween night, I heard a sinister whisper from the dark corner of the room, 'Trick or treat.' I turned to find an eerie, ghostly figure with hollow eyes and a chilling smile, and I realized I had opened the door to something far more sinister than any costume." - Marissa L
"I let out a sneeze and hear a sinister voice reply with 'bless you.' I live alone." - Brooklyn V
"I always thought having a staring contest with myself would be a harmless way to pass the time. Until my reflection blinked first." - Alexandrea H
"I suddenly awoke and sat upright. The mortician grinned." - Baron S
"I heard my mom yell out my name from downstairs, so I got up and headed down. As I got to the stairs, my mom pulled me into her room and said 'I heard that too.'" - Evelin R
"Woke up to my gf cold hands rubbing against my back, 5 mins after she got up n left the room. I then remembered my gf telling me she staying at her mom's and I finally open my eyes to see a dark tall figure standing at my door quietly." - Nickson C
"For years I suspected my wife of cheating, and I came home early to catch her in the act. But what I found in our bedroom wasn't my wife; it was something else wearing her skin, its eyes were completely black without emotion, as it whispered, 'You shouldn't have come back.'" - Ebonique B
"As I lay in bed, I heard my daughter calling me from the closet, her voice trembling with fear. But when I opened the door, I found her sleeping soundly in her bed, and the voice from the closet whispered, 'I'm still here.'" - Roberto E
"'Wait this can't be right, is our final due today!?' 'No... it was due yesterday.'" - Matthew L
"As she stumbled her way through the stacks of books on the fourth floor of the S.E. Wimberly Library, she heard the faint voice of someone whispering her name. She turned around, only to discover an empty aisle with a single book titled 'The Ghosts of Wimberly' lying open on the floor." - Adrianna T
"It’s back again, scratching at my bedpost, and I’m too scared to sleep. If I close my eyes the scratching stops, but then I do not know where it is once they're open." - Jackalyn F.
"As the clock struck 8 pm, my mother's voice echoed through the house, calling me for dinner. When I reached the kitchen, a sinister figure turned, revealing hollow eyes that stared through me, chilling me to the bone, as I realized my mother was miles away on a business trip." - Sathesh N
"I woke up to the sound of my own voice whispering my name from under the bed. As I peered down, I realized I was still asleep, and the voice from the bed whispered, 'You're not alone in your dreams.'" - Kaila P
"I try moving my body, I try opening my mouth, but I'm frozen in bed and open my eyes to see a dark cloudy figure staring at me. I want to cry, I want to scream, I want to yell for help, and I close my eyes for it to go away until I open them again to see it hovering over me." - Jolinn A
"I awoke to the sensation of someone brushing my hair away from my face, whispering soothing words in the darkness. But as I opened my eyes, I saw my own lifeless body lying beside me, and the voice continued to comfort me." - Madelyn H
"The woman saw people in the yellow wallpaper. Her husband had trapped her in that room." - Emma A
"“Mom I swear I saw it, with my own eye, it was disgusting!” I said trying to get my mother's attention while she was brushing her hair from her eye saying, “Honey, humans are not real, it was just a dream and it won’t be under your bed, go back to sleep.”" - Sophia Y
"The National Geographic Team packed up their cameras and slowly returned to camp, snow crunching underfoot. They were shooting the June 2030 Cover: Explosive Flora Biodiversity in Antarctica." - Grace P
"Cremation would have satisfied her yearn to harmoniously roam the obscured secrets of the profound ocean. But just as the flames submerged her raw body, a mocking scream escaped the retort." - Sofia B
"As the moon hung low in the sky, casting an eerie glow over the forest, the victim's body was discovered, cold and stiff on the dark forest floor, claw marks on their chest, the killer's identity a twisted mystery that would haunt the town for years to come. The forest itself seemed to exhale a sinister sigh, as if it too knew the secrets that lay hidden within its depths, and the wind whispered tales of the deadly deed that had been done." - Amit S
"During the surgery, I could feel every incision, every tug, and every drop of blood as the anesthesia failed to work. Paralyzed and unable to scream, I watched in silent horror as the surgeon's face twisted into a grotesque grin." - Hannah H
"Me: Hey what time is the Exam? Student: You mean the one we took an hour ago?!" - Shanta Barzey
"I hear my mother's car pull up in the driveway. The forgotten meat I was supposed to unfrost still in the freezer." - Izze L
"Darkness surrounded us as we crept through the desolate basement, searching for a way out. While we walked blindly through the dark, a strange sensation crawled down my leg followed by a faint dripping sound, for we were not alone." - Benjamin G
"Every night, I heard my daughter talking and laughing in her room, but when I opened the door, she was fast asleep. One evening, as I listened closely, her voice whispered from the closet, 'Why did you let her in, Mommy?'" - Andy C
"It all laid splayed out on the ground; green, beige, purple, and gray, all of it stenched and vile. The most prominent, however, was red; it painted the ground, the sky, the waters, the earth, drenching everything into a colorless atmosphere and stranding everything in fear and numbness…" - Valerie F.
"Late one stormy night, I found a dusty book in the attic that, when opened, revealed a list of names, each accompanied by a date of death. My heart froze when I saw my name at the bottom, followed by today's date, and an eerie whisper filled the room, 'Your time is up.'" - ViviAnnie C
"He told me that he loved me and held me like any father would hold their child, but his touch had been unrecognizable. The man that hugged me may have been my father, but he wasn't the man who raised me, instead he was the one that God had called home early, so who was the man that hugged me?" - Scheneider V
"It was a spooky day, thunder and cat meows echoed through the silent dark night while my mom was telling a bedtime story about monsters and shapeshifters. Suddenly the door creaked open, my mom was standing in front of me and a green hand grabbed me AGHHHHHHHHHH." - Cristo G
"As I stood frozen on the rooftop in shock, staring at the tall figure grasping a crooked bloody knife and cloaked in darkness, all I could feel was the beat of my heart. It beat with the same strange familiarity it always had, dragging on with that persistent rhythm, but I ventured to think there was something different about watching it beat as I held it in my shaky hands rather than feeling it in my chest, before I fell forward into the black void and the cloaked figure vanished, victorious." - Sadie S
"As I passed, I saw God, but it was nothing like the benevolent deity I had envisioned. This God had eyes of endless abyss, its voice an eerie echo as it whispered, 'It's okay to be afraid; you're in heaven.'" - Nicholas P.
"As me and my group of friends jumped out of the window, we were relieved to have finally escaped from the Slenderman. So relieved, it was as if we were flying away like angels." - Emmanuel C
"He opened his computer to complete the assignment by midnight. It was due at 7 PM." - Michael M
"My mother always told me I was gifted the ability to communicate with the dead. She passed while giving birth to me." - Hannah F
"While enjoying a delightful evening at a Chinese restaurant with friends, there was dead silence at the table as everyone read the message in their fortune cookies; confused with their reactions, I read mine, which had a foreboding message, 'When the clock ticks at 3:04 AM, he will show himself; be ready.' I awoke in a cold sweat, brushing it off as a mere nightmare, but as I reached for a glass of water, I saw the time: 3:04 AM, and suddenly, all the devices in my house started beeping in an eerie chorus." - Sanket S
"Bird 1: 'That man is chasing us!' Bird 2: 'Don't worry, he only has one stone.'" - Alexander Z
"I was finishing a horror story, so I wrote 'The End.' Then, my keyboard typed 'is coming' on its own." - Ava M
"He heard a knock on his door, not the regular knock but a sinister type of knock. A dark shadow takes shape behind him and lights go out like the speed of light." - Emily S
"Whenever I played games on my virtual reality headset, a black disfigured humanoid creature with long curved teeth, blue gums, and with no lips, slowly floating towards me saying 8/4 followed by 3 knocks which causes me to take off my headset immediately. However, today on 8/4 and more specifically just now, he got the closest I've ever seen and when I took off the headset I heard 3 knocks." - Nathan C
"I received the tragic news that my mom who lived across state lines passed away in a car accident. I was in denial, so after hanging up, I checked her phone location and it showed she was at my house." - Losarnia H
"The day after Halloween, I told my neighbor that my kids loved the candy he left in the bowl at his doorsteps. He scoffed, 'What candy? I don't celebrate that evil holiday.'" - Shavaughn H
"As you scan for an escape from the stalking demon, the edge opens up to a miniature landscape below. The mind, blurring as the ground increases in clarity, threatens to fall up to the darkened sky." - Cristal A.
"The eerie music box, a family heirloom, played a haunting melody from the attic every night. We had buried the music box with my grandmother weeks ago." - Gabriella R
"I just finished an art project of a self-portrait, and I think it looks nice on my bathroom wall as I see it in the reflection of my mirror. But my teacher stored it away and swore she wouldn't let us take it home until she finishes grading them all within a month's time." - Rachel N