Best Scary Short Stories to Tell in the Dark For when you need a quick burst of the Halloween spirit.

 La Llorona is a fixture of Mexican folklore. In this story, Silvia Moren0-Garcia—author of the horror novel Mexican Gothic—puts a modern twist on the age-old tale, by casting a homeless woman as the legendary La Llorona.

Adapted into a podcast in 2020, "The Left Right Game's" first incarnation was as a post on "No Sleep" subreddit, where users submit fictional stories often framed as urban legends. "The Left Right Game" quickly garnered a reputation as one of most elaborate, unexpected, and downright terrifying entries ever. It's about a supposedly harmless game, which can be played on any old suburban road.

If you're looking for a small story that packs a big scare, check out this imaginative riff of a fixture of the modern age: the cellphone. A girl buys a smartphone that happens to have pictures that foretell her own doom.

Joe Hill comes from horror pedigree: His father is the Stephen King. With this short story (and all of his novels), Hill shows his own distinct, but equally chilling, style. "Abraham's Boys" is about the sons of the Dutch vampire hunter, Professor Abraham Van Helsing—the sons have no idea who their father really was.

Snakes are easy. It’s people that I don’t know how to charm," the narrator of this sneaky and unexpected story says, at one point—before the plot gets extremely gnarly (trust us, it will). "All the Fabulous Beasts" uses tropes of horror and metamorphosis to discuss trauma rooted in reality.

Looking for a kid-friendly story to read around the campfire? We've got you covered with this charming short story about a house in Arkansas that's teeming with ghosts—but the friendly kind.

Dread. That's the word that best describes this early short story from the legendary Joyce Carol Oates. Connie is a teenage girl at odds with her family, so she turns to the world for companionship. What she finds may be even worse.

Carmilla is a vampire novel first published in 1872, predating Dracula by two decades. In 2019, the acclaimed author Carmen Maria Machado edited a new edition of Carmilla. While promoting the book, Machado had quite an...unexpected interview with Electric Literature. It's best not to give away any details from the interview. Just be sure to read until the end—because frankly, this deliciously creepy Q&A is better than any vampire movie.

FromThe Haunting of Hill House to We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson made a career out of forging terrifying, but thought-provoking, tales. "The Lottery" is her most famous short story and a staple in school curricula—for good reason. Read what happens when a community perpetuates a twisted tradition.

If it's a Neil Gaiman story, you know you're in for an enchanting, magical, and yes—slightly creepy ride. This short story, in particular, begins with an extremely evocative opening; the kind that teases a story you'll read in one sitting. Follow along as our unnamed protagonist searches through dark caves to find what he's looking for, and encounter what he isn't.

Kali Fajardo-Anstine's short story follows a 20-something-year-old woman living in a remote desert house with a mind of its own—literally. While there are horrors in this story, they're not supernatural but an all-too-common kind.

Rebecca author Daphne DuMaurier wrote "The Doll" when she was 20 years old. Then, it was lost for approximately 70 years, only resurfacing in 2010. The legend around "The Doll" is but an appetizer for the delightfully creepy story itself, which foreshadows DuMaurier's career as an author of unforgettable gothic fiction.

If you are looking for a great gothic story about vampirism, look no further than "The Lady of the House of Love." This short from renowned author Angela Carter follows a female vampire queen on her quest to find her next victim.