Horror Writing Competitions Novels & Stories

In the quiet of the forest, the darkest fears are born. The people of Dunballan, harbour a dark secret. A secret more terrible than the Beast that stalks the dense forests of Dunballan. A secret that holds David McCavendish, last in a long line of Lairds, in its unbreakable grip. It’s down to Sally, David’s lover, to free David from the sinister clutches of the Beast. But, with the whole town against her, she must ally herself with an ancient woodland force and trace Dunballan’s secret back to its bitter origins. Those origins lie within the McCavendish family history, and a blasphemous heresy that stretches back to the beginning of time. Some truths are too terrible to face, and the darkest of these lie waiting for Sally, in the Quiet Places. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

After I got pulled into the horror game, my nearsightedness made everything blurry. I ended up treating the creepy girl in the blood-stained dress like my own daughter, the final boss like my husband, and the old creepy ghosts like my loving parents. The first time I met the boss, I grabbed his abs and said, “Nice body. Shame you’re kind of short.” He actually laughed in anger, picked up the severed head in his hand, put it back on his neck, and ground out, “I’m six-foot-one. Still think I’m short now?”

I transmigrated into a dating-sim otome game where I was supposed to romance a soft, fragile male lead. I had finally pushed him onto the bed and was just about to make my move when the long-missing system finally popped back online. [Host, I sent you to the wrong game. This is a horror game.] [The man you’re bullying right now is the horror game final boss.] I lifted my head and met a pair of blood-red eyes staring straight at me. My smile froze. “Um… you look a little tired. Maybe we should… continue this another day?” He smiled back, calm and terrifying. “I’m not tired. Go on.”

My computer suddenly froze. The next second, my sister, Josie Bennett, appeared on the screen, covered in blood. Her face was white with terror as she screamed, “Nina, help me!” I looked at the pack of entities behind her, and my heart lurched. How had she gotten into a horror game? And an S-rank instance, no less. I had no time to think. I teleported in immediately. The moment I arrived, I saw a girl stomping on Josie, yanking her hair as she looked down at her with smug contempt. “You little brat. Still trying to call for help? Do you even know whose turf this is? Once you cross me, nobody can save you.” The players beside her quickly chimed in. “Exactly. Winnie is the woman of the top guy in this game. If you want to make it out alive, you’d better learn your place.” I stopped in my tracks, stunned. The top guy’s woman? Wasn’t I the final boss of this horror game?

The novel that revolutionized psychological horror literature and redefined fear itself. Welcome to the house that never sleeps... because it's busy haunting its inhabitants. This towering building hides in the heart of a quiet Egyptian city, its heart throbbing with crime, madness, and screams that no one hears... except the walls. In this place, everything begins with a single crime... Nasser, the father, a man in his fifties, suffocated by the shadows of his past, his mind collapsing behind a locked door. In a moment of madness, he slaughtered his wife, Nour, with his own hands, opening a dark gateway that changed everything. His son, Malek, the young man who tried to forget... found himself falling into an abyss with no bottom. Voices haunt him... hallucinations suffocate him... and memories bleed every night. And in this house, Malek begins his journey toward the abyss... Is he a victim? Or a killer in the making? As for Sophia, the silent sister… she sinks into a hysteria no one understands, This isn't a haunted house. This is a conscious house… harboring hatred… and growing with blood. Nightmares - Hysteria - Jinn Intervention - Victims Turned Killers A terrifying collapse of the human mind when besieged by fear. Crimes intertwined with supernatural forces, logic crumbling, and a terrifying reality slowly taking shape. Detectives driven mad - a super-intelligent killer Characters so vivid you'll feel their breath beside you. A heart-wrenching climax that makes the last page an unforgettable stab. If you think you've read horror literature before If you think you know something about ghosts… then what is the truth about jinn? Do you believe in them? If you think you can sleep after midnight... You're mistaken. Because this house doesn't haunt its victims it creates them.

On the day of my wedding, I immediately recognized that the masked man before me, Wyatt Sterling, was an impostor. I said nothing. I smiled and went through with the ceremony. This was because, in my previous life, I had exposed the fake groom publicly, forcing Wyatt to return and marry me against his will. That very night, his childhood sweetheart and cousin swallowed gold and took her own life. When Wyatt heard the news, he showed no grief. He cursed her for dying. After our marriage, he treated me with devotion, or so it seemed. I poured money from my family into the failing Sterling family, helping him rise bit by bit. However, on the day I was seven months pregnant, he personally had me dragged to the top of Astraeus Tower, the tallest building in the capital. There was no warmth left in his gaze. "If you hadn't forced me to come back to that wedding, Becky wouldn't have died. "Anna, why should you get to live in peace and happiness? I want you to feel the same despair she felt when she died." Then he pushed me. From that towering height, I fell. My body shattered on impact. Two lives were lost. When I opened my eyes again, I was back there on my wedding day. This time, I pretended not to know and married the impostor. I wanted to see, without the Larson family's wealth behind him, how he planned to save a house already on the brink of collapse.

I forgot to bring a No. 2 pencil, so I filled out my SAT exam with a red pen. The proctor warned me it would count as cheating, and I just shrugged and told him it didn't matter. Tyson Jenkins, the school heartthrob who ranked near the bottom of the class, suddenly got anxious. In my last life, we went back to school to pick up our acceptance letters. I already had a guaranteed spot at Kingsford University. And yet, I was the only one who didn't receive a letter. Tyson had used a system to swap our exam scores. Because my score showed up as zero, Kingsford University revoked my guaranteed admission. I demanded a review of the scoring, but Tyson, who had suddenly become the top scorer out of nowhere, sneered at me. "Kieran, couldn't cheat your way through the exam this time, huh? Everyone knows you only got that guaranteed spot by cheating. You've got some nerve playing the victim!" I went to our homeroom teacher to clear my name. I never expected her to cry on camera and say, "I tried to talk Kieran out of it in private. It's not fair to the other students if he does something like that, but he used his family's influence to pressure me into staying out of it." Overnight, I was at the center of a storm. Before I could even explain, a group of fanatics dragged me up to the roof and shoved me off. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day before the exam.

My fiancé, Conrad Reese, fell in love with his secretary, Kelly Dunn, and insisted on breaking off our engagement. I tried to reason with him. "She doesn't have any power behind her; she can't help you become the heir to the Reeses' fortune. You'd be better off keeping her as your mistress." Kelly, feeling insulted, threw herself off a building in front of everyone. Five years later, after he became the heir, the first thing he did was divorce me, destroying my family in the process. "This is what you owe Kelly," he said. I woke up again, and it was my 22nd birthday. Conrad's grandfather asked me what my wish was. "I hope Conrad and Ms. Dunn… will live happily ever after." I bowed slightly and said, "Please, Mr. Jonathan. I hope you'll let me end my engagement with Conrad."

Anastasia Kain and I were childhood sweethearts, but we resented each other for a lifetime. She blamed me for making decisions without her consent. I had awakened her memories and driven her first love to jump off a building. I blamed her for breaking her promise. She once swore she would love me forever, yet after losing her memory, she fell for someone else. We were married, but we lived like strangers who happened to share a roof. However, when I was diagnosed with ALS and the whole city urged her to divorce me, Anastasia carried me on her back and climbed 3,000 steps to reach a cathedral, praying day and night just for me to live a little longer. When the end finally came, she stayed beside my hospital bed all night, her forehead pressed gently against my cheek. In a trembling whisper, she said, "Mason, I've done everything I could for you in this life. If there's a next one, please don't make me remember again. Let me be with him." Tears slipped from the corners of my eyes. Only then did I realize I should never have chained her to me with the love we shared in our youth. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I first found Anastasia. This time, I chose to let her memories stay buried so that the girl I loved could run freely toward the man she had always wanted.

Someone posted a love confession to me on the college's confession wall. But then my roommate's boyfriend left a comment claiming I had slept with every guy on campus. I was furious and ready to call the police. My roommate begged me to forgive her boyfriend, promising she'd make him apologize publicly on the confession wall. But before that apology ever came, an adult video started circulating in the student group chats. Everyone was saying I was the girl in the video. The college summoned me for a meeting and suggested I take a leave of absence. When I went home, my parents refused to acknowledge me as their daughter. I lost everything. Depression consumed me, and with the endless rumors, I finally gave in to despair and ended my life. When I opened my eyes again, it was the day my name first appeared on the confession wall.