My crack at two-sentence horror stories

Google for “two sentence horror stories” and you will find some great examples, primarily this creepy-as-all-hell Reddit thread. The idea is as follows: in just two sentences, present a self-contained story that is creepy, disturbing, or downright freaky.

Being a big fan of horror, I was inspired to write my own.

“I’m in here!” I said in reply to the knock on the toilet door. It was only when the doorknob started turning that I remembered I was home alone.

Sitting up late at night at my computer, I felt suddenly paranoid, like there was someone behind me. I started to turn and look, but they whispered, “Don’t.”

“Is there a problem, officer?” I ask as I roll down the window. He rests his hand on the windowsill, and I see the blood crusted around his fingernails.

My wife screamed as the rotting, dead thing reached for her throat. I desperately wished I could save her, but those cold, dead hands were mine.

I already felt like a fool locking my keys in the car, but then I noticed the handbrake. Ever so slowly, the car was beginning to roll, down the hill, toward the playground crowded with children.

My first solo flight was going well as I climbed to ten thousand feet, but I was concerned that the fuel gauge hadn’t moved. I tapped it, and the needle unstuck, flicking straight to empty.

It was a relief to know that the mission was almost over, and she pressed the button to fire the retro thrusters and decelerate for landing. Nothing happened.

I hate the way the guy who used to bully me in high school keeps hanging around outside my house. It wouldn’t be quite so bad if I hadn’t attended his funeral last year.

I stared out the window, feeling puzzled, wondering why the moon looked so strange. That was when it blinked.

There was nothing obviously wrong with the photos: an empty old church, a deserted ballroom. How strange that they had been crowded with people when the wedding photos were taken.

“I am going to diet,” I typed into an email to my mother, then paused to take a sip of my tea. I heard the clack of a key being pressed, and looked back to see that the T had been deleted.

“Those pills you gave me didn’t make my imaginary friend go away, doctor. He’s standing behind you right now, and he says he has the right to defend himself.”

She wished she could go inside the church and join her family, but instead she just peered through the stained glass window. Despite the warped glass, she could just make out her own face in the open casket.

I was almost asleep when I heard a man’s soft voice, barely more than a whisper, say, “No, it’s not time yet!” I opened my eyes a crack and saw my three year old daughter, knife in hand, tip-toeing out of my bedroom.

“You weren’t supposed to see that,” said her kindergarten teacher, as she locked the door to her office. The girl jumped in fright, then looked back to the corpse stuffed into the cupboard, the one that looked just like her teacher.

“Darling, why did you leave me?” I cried as I knelt on my wife’s grave. “I didn’t,” she whispered into my ear.

“Your mother needs her rest now,” said the nurse as she ushered my family out of the room and closed the door. “Sleep now,” she whispered with a smile, and turned off the life support.

Ahead of her, she heard whispers, and a soft voice said, “Shh, she’s coming!” She stopped, frozen with fear, with her hand resting on the door leading into the morgue.

These two-sentence horror stories are pretty creepy, right? You’d be even more frightened if you could see what was reading them over your shoulder.

That’s all for now!