Very simply, students wrote a scary fiction short story. Horror literature has as many types, sub-genres, and cross-genres as there are human fears. After all, fear is what defines horror. But what constitutes horror to one person may be a simple thriller to another.
Here are the top stories from this assignment. Please excuse formatting; the transferred documents do not necessarily reflect the final products.
Jesse smiles sweetly across the table. He had the courtesy to make a second cup of coffee for me amidst his early bird routine. He doesn’t understand how momentous an occasion it is for me to do so, especially when I don’t have class for another two hours, but I dragged myself out of bed for him. For a cup of coffee. I didn’t want him to think I was unappreciative of the gesture, so fuck it, I got up. He patiently brings his cup to his lips and urges me to do the same.
...It’s not bad. I’d prefer still being in bed, though.
“How is it?” he inquires. He seems strangely invested in my answer. I suppose he’s always been unreasonably kind to everyone, so I don’t dwell on it. He’s just a caring guy. In his soft greetings, his careful questions, his gentle expressions, he comes off like there isn’t a single person on the planet he’s too busy for.
“Good,” I try to say, but I can’t form the words. There’s an incredible burning sensation in my mouth. Jesse continues to stare at me with his tauntingly welcoming smile, patiently waiting for my answer. The burn turns into a ceaseless itch. I relentlessly claw at my face, but there’s no relief. The intense spasm of pain contorts my face and begs my lungs to scream, but I still can’t make any sounds. All I can do is let Jesse’s warm gaze pierce me, entirely unbothered, as the skin of my mouth boils from the inside out, drips of my face melting clean off like wax onto the floor. In my desperation, I fall from the chair to my knees to pitifully gather the puddle of my skin and blood in my hands—God knows what my plan is, to reattach it?—the revolting mix slipping through my trembling fingers.
My hands bloodied and wet, I try to fight back the tears welling in my eyes. The bottom half of my face is stripped entirely to bone. I look back up at Jesse, still cross-legged at the table, smiling as if nothing happened. He’s not even looking at me. It’s as if he’s a statue in place, destined to eternally stare with that cursed smile on his face. And to think, only moments ago I found that very smile put me at ease—I might say it was charming, even. But now, I too find myself frozen, fear rendering every nerve in my body useless. As if I’m being mocked and all this is some sort of twisted joke, the closing ceremony of a sinister, perverted play of anguish commences, and the spotlights dim until I collapse in complete darkness.
I wake up in a cold sweat.
My heart is pounding. I’m breathing in heaves. My hands are shaking. I need to calm down. I have to calm down. Calm down… Calm down... Calm down… CALM DOWN. CALM. DOWN.
What was it I was taught when it got like this…? Dammit...! I’ve been through this before; why can’t I think of it when I need it most? Think, man! Think!
Remember where you are.
That was the first step. Calm down… and remember where you are. Though it’s dark, my eyes scan the room. That’s my desk… my dresser… my bookshelf… This is my dorm. I’m in my bed, alright? I’m okay. Nothing can—nothing will hurt me here. Calm down.
When you’re an anxious mess like me, these are the things you remember. These are the things they teach you. Inhale for four seconds, hold it for seven, exhale for eight. Breathe in…. hold... breathe out… and repeat until you feel fine again.
It’s still dark outside my window. I let my back thud against my mattress and heavy-heartedly coerce myself back to sleep.
Jesse’s at the table this morning, and I find myself sitting across from him again. I avert my eyes. I don’t want to remember. I’m fine with acting like it never happened. He’s here; I’m there. I don’t have to look at him to know that. Unless, I guess, in the rare circumstance I’ve gone mad. In that instance, maybe he’s not even here. In that instance, I can sit by myself where nothing transpired and I can go about my day without having to—
“Is everything alright?” he asks.
“What? Sorry… What?” I stumble, snapping out of my head and back into my two feet.
“Uh… I asked if you were okay?” he repeats.
“Oh… yeah,” I offer. “Just… bad dream last night.”
“Oh?” Jesse says. “Want to… talk about it?”
He’s being gentle as ever, like he’s afraid I’d be offended were he to pry too much.
What am I supposed to say? Nothing, really, except you were there, being the perfect the-sun-shines-out-of-my-ass person you are, and—oh!—almost forgot about this tiny little detail: you tried to kill me with a smile on your face. Or, were you even trying to kill me? Were you trying to burn my nerves until they couldn’t feel anymore? Were you doing it for kicks, to let me live so I could see what you’d done?
“You know how dreams never really make sense when you explain them to someone?” I tell him.
“Yeah… I see. Well, in any case, I’m here for you.”
“I know. Of course you are. That’s your thing.”
Jesse snickers. “My thing? My life doesn’t revolve around you, you know.”
“Of course not! You, uh, you know what I mean, though, right? I just meant... It’s like… In a general sense, for people, you tend to…” I say, at a loss for an explanation.
He starts to laugh. “I’m joking! Don’t get yourself all worked up,” he says, patting his legs before getting up from the table. “You look really tired; no offence. Luckily for you, I made some coffee.”
“NO!” I say back. I didn’t mean to yell; it was almost instinctual. Jesse is a bit taken aback by my outburst, and honestly, I am, too. I cover my face in my hands and say, “I’m sorry, Jesse. I don’t know where that came from.”
“Are you sure you’re alright?” he asks.
My hands fall from my face. “Yeah,” I tell him. “Thank you for…”
I turn my head to look at Jesse by the counter, but he’s not there anymore. When I face forward in confusion, he’s sitting in front of me at the table again. I nearly fall back in my chair, but I catch myself.
“You’re really on edge today,” he says. “This will help. Promise.”
And just like before, he’s urging me to drink. But this isn’t a dream; this is the real world. And in the real world, Jesse wouldn’t try to kill me. He wouldn’t. Maybe I do need this.
I take a sip.
That’s all. I took a sip, and nothing’s happening to me. It’s overwhelmingly relieving, this moment. I think I needed it, to prove to myself I’m not crazy. I can sit in my own dorm and have a cup of coffee like a normal person. I can sit here, slowly but surely waking myself up, and have Jesse sit across from me without losing my mind. Right, Jesse?
I look at him. He looks frozen in place, smiling at me in the same way from my dream. My nightmare.
“...Jesse?” I ask. He doesn’t respond. I snap my fingers a few times. Nothing. I get up to shake him a bit, maybe bring him back to earth, but he slips from my grasp and shatters onto the floor like glass.
I stare at his remains in horror. The pieces are large and hollow, like I could piece him back together if I tried. Not knowing what to do, I collect shards in my hands, and I don’t know how, but they begin to cut through my skin. I thought I was being careful. I drop all the shards in a panic to wipe the blood off on my shirt, and the shards break into finer pieces on impact. The blood from my hands doesn’t wipe regardless of how many times I try, glass-like fragments sinking further into my skin with each attempt. Blood spills from the growing holes in my hands and overflows from my palms, but all I can think about is how I’m drowning Jesse in a pool of my own blood. This is the only thing to remember him by, and look at him now—I did this. I shattered him. I ruined him. I tainted the remnants of him.
Blood is pouring from every opening in my hands like a faucet, now. The walls seem to—no, definitely fucking are caving in on me. The red begins to pool, swiftly making its way past my knees and up my chest until I’m standing on the tips of my toes for breath. My body feels entirely drained, but the blood flows until even my head can’t reach for air anymore. I shut my eyes as tight as possible and let the room fill to the ceiling. Once it feels like my lungs have coughed to their capacity, I find myself opening my eyes.
I’m in my bed. I grudgingly remind myself that I’m fine, and count to fours, to sevens, to eights.
Jesse appears before me. “Are you alright?” he asks. I didn’t see him before, and I don’t know when he came in. My heart begins to race despite having just convinced it to settle. This is another dream, isn’t it? I’m not going to be its captor. Not again.
I fumble from under my bed until my fingers feel the cold of the metal, close my eyes, and swing the bat with full force. Jesse's skull cracks against the blow, and the sound fills my throat with bile. With my eyes still closed, I feel him collapse onto my bed, blood wetting the fabric of my sheets.
But that’s it. He’s gone. I can open my eyes. I can wake up now.
I smack myself, but the scenery never changes. I’m still in my dorm room. My hands begin to tremble beyond my control, and the window of my dorm beckons me. I can hear Jesse’s voice, too. He wants me to do this. He wants me to make up for this—and it’s so fitting for him, too, that he’d encourage me to fix my wrongs. He’s such a good person. Always will be.
I get up from my bed, undo the latch of the window, and make up for what I’ve done.
My grandmother lives in Scotland and I love to spend my summer there. She has a small, old-fashioned cottage. It sits upon a small hill with a large willow tree leaning slightly on the roof. Near her house is a forest; its trees block the sunlight coming through. Deep within the forest is a quiet pond. This pond is my favorite place to hang out and to fish, but my grandmother doesn’t like it when I go there. She always gives me the same story, “what if you drown or get hurt?”
Then again, I always tell her the same thing: “I won’t drown, Grandma.”
She speaks in a stern voice, “That pond is dangerous,'' she pauses.” A demon resides in those waters.”
“But I don’t believe in ghost stories or monsters; they’re for scaring children,” I say.
It’s morning and it’s already hot outside, the perfect time to fish in the shade. With my bucket, nets, and pole in hand, I race down to the pond. Running through the tall grass fields, I stop at the edge of the forest. The trees stretch into the sky, almost as if they are touching the clouds. A sense of worry comes to my mind. “Why should I be worried? It’s just a forest with trees and animals, no monsters,” I say to myself. I take a deep breath and walk into the forest.
Leaves rustled and floated as I walked toward them. The trees block out most of the sunlight, only leaving small patches here and there. It’s so dark; anyone can mistake the time being dusk. As I continued to walk through the forest, deeper and farther away from my grandmother’s house, I begin to notice the sunlight is fading even more and it’s quiet. There’s no wind, no birds, just dead silence. I feel worried and scared, even though there’s no reason to be. It’s almost as if my body and mind want me to leave. Ignoring my feelings, I carry on.
I finally get to the pond. Sunlight filters through the trees and sparkles on the water’s surface. I can hear birds’ songs drifting in the wind. This scenery makes me feel at peace. It’s weird how it’s calm here, and not too long ago, I was frightened. I guess my grandmother’s stories are getting to me.
I find a rock by the edge of the pond and sit on it, putting my bucket down with my nets to get my pole ready. I grab my bait and slip it onto the hook carefully without stabbing my fingers. I wipe the dirt onto my pants and cast the line out. The little splash it causes makes the water ripple. The birds are singing a calm song. It can make a stressed person relaxed.
After some time, there’s still no tugging at the end of my line. I reel up my line with a sigh. “I guess I’ll go back.” As I pack my things up, I hear a loud noise. The birds stop on cue. I look up startled only to see a beautiful white horse on the other side of the pond.
Its skin glows and sparkles in the sunlight. The horse has a long white mane and tail with a black marking on its nose. I stare at it, and it stares back. With a nod of its head, it lets out a soft neigh.
The beautiful horse looks like it’s calling to me. Getting off the rock and taking my shoes off, I take my first step into the cold water. I look down and I can’t see my feet. The water is a little hazy. I’m not a great swimmer and I have a fear of drowning, but I want to pet the horse, so I find the courage to wade further in.
Staring at it as I go further in, I feel drawn to the horse, almost as if it’s luring me in. When I stop, the water is up to my knees. The horse nods its head again with another neigh. This time it turns towards its back. Is it offering me a ride? This horse is friendly and I wonder whose it is. How did it get out? Why’d it come here? What is the coincidence it will come here? The horse walks forward and goes into the water. It stands in the middle of the pond and I’m not surprised it can touch the bottom. This horse is massive compared to me. I go further in; it’s up to my waist now.
I’m close to the middle of the pond. The horse stares at me with its gray eyes. They almost look patient and empty. Pushing my thoughts aside, I take another step. This step I take makes me sink and the water is below my chin. I barely stand on my tippy toes. How deep is the middle of the pond? I don’t realize there is a drop. I’m so close to the horse and I can’t give up now. I move closer to reach my hand out. I touch its silky white mane. It snorts and lowers its head. The horse looks over at its back. I smile, and suddenly my foot moves and I slip under. I open my eyes and see something strange. Where the white horse’s back legs should be, is replaced with a long fanning tail. Its skin is now a gray color. I’m frightened and I quickly try to resurface. When I reach the surface and let out a gasp, the horse is gone. Without hesitation, I swim to shore. Bringing my hands to my head, I’m confused. It felt like a dream...no a nightmare. Looking around, there’s no sign of the horse. I sprint away, leaving my fishing gear behind.
When I get back to my grandmother’s house, I tell her about the white horse. She tells me a story about a kelpie. A water demon who can turn into a white horse, a young man, or even a young woman. The white horse will offer anyone close by a ride and then drown them. No one ever finds any remains. I’m scared. I’ve never believed in ghost stories or legends. I think they’re all made up, but now, I’m not so sure. Later that night, after thinking it through, I muster up the courage to go back. This time I bring a lantern and my box knife. I have to go back and see if it really is there.
I arrive at the pond; it’s dark with only a little moonlight. I hear a flute playing and I follow the sound to a young man in a tree. He has a handsome face with blonde hair. He looks at me with a smile and continues to play. I smile back and the sound melts my worries away. I hear laughter and quickly turn around. There are three girls sitting on a rock near the middle of the pond. They look at me and one of them beckons me with her hand. They look like they’re having fun. At the same time, I hear the same neigh again.
On the other side is the white horse again. Standing in the moonlight, its skin glows and looks magical. I go in without hesitation, I don’t even take my shoes off this time. I wade into the water and swim across. I climb onto the shore with the horse. It kneels, offering me a ride again. I walk up to the tall horse and touch its mane. It’s soft and feels like water. Remembering I have the box cutter in my back pocket, I climb up onto the horse. Sitting on top of its back, it begins to trot in a circle. I hear the three girls laughing and the fiddler playing his flute. A smile grows on my face and I begin to laugh as well. Why didn’t I do this sooner? At the same time, I feel sick. There’s a deep ache in my stomach. What am I so afraid of? This feeling makes me want to get off of the horse and run far away from this place.
Then suddenly, everything stops, like there is some pause button. The fiddler stops playing his flute, the three girls stop laughing, and the horse stops trotting. I only hear a strange gurgle noise. I look down to see the white horse’s skin turning into a gray color. Its skin turns darker and darker until it’s an oily black color. Its beautiful, silky mane is now black with kelp weeds stuck in it. It’s drenched and a tangled mess. I try to lift my hand from its neck, but it doesn’t budge. My hand is glued onto its decaying flesh. It’s now a kelpie, no longer the beautiful white horse. The kelpie’s flesh is rotting and reveals bones. I notice the water is murky and thick. The trees look dead and it’s dark. I’m beyond terrified. Using my free hand, I try to pull my hand off again. The kelpie suddenly leaps into the water and dives under. I watch as its legs fuse into the long tail I saw before. I quickly grab my knife from my pocket and begin to cut away at its flesh. With the last cut, my hand is free. I then take my knife and stab it in its eye. It lets out a horrific, high-pitched screech.
I push myself away and I’m left alone in the dark, murky water. I see the kelpie in the darkness with its glowing red eye showing deep anger. It has long, sharp teeth and a wide grin. My lungs are screaming and I immediately swim up to the surface. When I break the surface, I gasp for air. Breathing heavily, I swim for the shore while my heart is racing and I’m terrified.
What feels like a lifetime of swimming, I finally scramble onto the shore. I’m breathing rapidly and I’m panicking. I’m too scared to move and I can see the faint outline of the kelpie in the water. Its only red eye staring back at me. I get up and run away, not looking back.
I don’t know how I escaped from it. I guess I’m lucky and I’m forever grateful. Thinking back to the moment when I was under the water, I thought I saw familiar shapes. The shapes of bones. The bones I saw weren’t animal bones,but instead human bones. I saw different sizes of skulls, indicating it could be of children or even adults. I have a feeling, a feeling of gratefulness. I hate to feel this way, but I’m glad it wasn’t my bones in the sand. I know I’ll never go back and I’ll never go into any water alone. This feeling will haunt me for the rest of my life and I know no one will believe what I saw. Those glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and rotting flesh are stuck in my brain. I saw a monster that day, not some bedtime story. I saw real monster with the desire to kill.
Hmm, I still have more homework than I wanted to do, but I can do that at home I thought to myself. My brain was ready to stop thinking about school and binge on YouTube videos, leisuring my time and enjoying a nice dinner my dad cooked. Alas, homework never seemed to end, so I couldn’t let my brain stop its gears now. It was a mild autumn evening with the sun snuggled in a thick veil of a starless black sky. I had to go home now that the library was closed, but the moment I finished packing my stuff was the moment I realized it: I forgot to move my car into the library’s parking lot.
Before school started, I parked it in the small hidden playground, or the “Recs” as everyone called it, which was hidden away around the corner of the fire station. I always kept a mental note to move it to the library’s parking lot every time I chose to leave my car at the park. I admit, I forgot to do so numerous times, but this was the first time I had to get it late at night. Out of pride, I didn’t want to call my parents for help just to get to my car, but out of fear, I didn’t want to walk at all. I was scared shitless of the dark. Even before I slept, I needed a bright enough light to feel safe. There was something about the dark that made my mind get poked and prodded by insanity and get the feeling of being watched. I hated it so much. I was a spineless child because of it.
No. You know what? Fuck it. I couldn’t let my over-imaginative brain get the best of me now. My mom had warned me of the troubles I’d faced if I forget: it was only fair I went through with the consequences. I needed to find courage and face my fears just for that night. I heaved my bag over my shoulder and headed out of the library.
There were two ways to get to the Recs: a wooded trail near the library and past the baseball fields or the paved road around the corner of the fire station. I decided the trail was quicker ー it was a straight shot through the woods and past the fields, but whatever gathered determination I had diminished in a second as I stood in front of the tall thickened trees, a border between me and the Recs. The feeling of danger crept behind me, the dangers of something in those woods. The spaces between those trees were filled with darkness and shadows that watched with hidden eyes, and the wind carried the slightest sounds that made my heart cower.
Something could be in those woods I thought in dread. A robber. A kidnapper. A rapist. I imagined myself fighting off any of those monsters with all my might as panic fueled my actions, but what if that failed? What if I didn’t make it because they bugged me with some chemical-doused cloth? What if they knocked me on the head and later I found myself in a closed space cornered and restrained, so helpless I feared for life or wished for death?
…No. At least by walking on the busy road, there would be people around passing by, and the road to the Recs was wide and spacious with distance between me and the woods. Ya, the main road it is then I thought. I turned around towards the opposite direction and headed down along Mammoth Road where I was surrounded by civilization: the high school, the cars, the fire station, the people and the lights. Because of them, I was in a bubble of security with the darkness on the outside of it, away from me. Sadly, this securing feeling was brief because as soon as I reached the turn to my right towards the Recs, my bubble popped.
This was no better than the woods. Well, in a way it was because it wasn’t enclosed by walls of trees. However, the darkness was out in the open to face me just as I was facing it. It even looked like a scene from some horror movie ー a single lone road in the dark with a single street light on my right and no one around, just me and my fear. Fucking great.
C’mon. Ya gotta do it. Just breathe, and don’t stop moving like Mom and Dad taught you I thought to myself, as an attempt to gather some courage. As additional comfort, I put on my music, placing one of the earbuds into one ear so my other ear would, hopefully, hear anything nearby. My target was the street light. I took a deep breath and began to walk.
The sound of cars began to fade the further I walked. I was tensing up, my heart already pumping so hard. I wasn’t even that far ahead, and I was already filled with dreadful fright. Fuck it. I didn’t care anymore. Fear had taken over, and I ran for my life.
I felt them. I felt them watching me as I got farther from the main road and deeper in the dark. I couldn’t see them, but I felt them. There were eyes everywhere, staring down at me, watching this fragile-minded creature run for her life as if there really was something about to catch her. I kept running until I arrived at the edge of the light where I slowed my pace to a walk. I could see the faint glow of another street light around the corner, but I wanted to savor my time under this light to allow myself to gather sanity. I scoffed at myself.
I really am a child, aren’t I I thought. There’s nothing there, not really. I shouldn’t be scared like this.
But I was. I couldn’t ignore my pounding heart that wanted to escape its cage surrounded by the taunting gloom. Already as I was walking out of the light’s boundaries, it crept up behind me again, this fear that weakened my legs and wanted to hold me close and break me down. Hyperventilating, as if my mind was already trying to race away from the monsters, I ran again.
The farther I got from the light, the more the darkness enclosed itself around me. It was playing again, playing with my mind. I thought I was seeing figures in the air this time, watching the little creature flee. My next target was the corner street light. I tried to keep my eyes fixated on it, but they wouldn’t leave the corner of my sight. It was only just the silhouettes of them in the air, but their eyes, it was their eyes that were piercing my mind to tempt me to stop and let the insanity take me. No, no, no. “Don’t stop breathing and keep moving,” I repeated to myself. It felt like forever before I reached the corner.
I stopped under the corner light once again to catch my breath. I was supposed to be collecting myself, but then I saw the Recs. It was clouded with absolute darkness that towered in the skies and lingered below in the grass like low fog on a cold morning. My breath was shortening, and I was no longer trembling from the cold, but rather it was from the cold inside me ー the cold feeling of being alone. Cold, vulnerable, and alone. I hated being alone. I wanted someone, anyone with me to make it all go away, but I had no choice right now. There was no one there to hug me or hold my hand. I couldn’t let myself be a child now. Those monsters weren’t real, so stop being afraid and run. Just. Run. So I did.
I sprinted harder than before with those creatures and their eyes and the darkness reaching out behind me. I ran faster, my lungs already burning as I sprinted through the parking lot. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Don’t stop. They were all in my head, so they couldn’t be real. But they were in the back of my mind where they were all too real. They were too close and in a place where I couldn’t ignore them, where I couldn’t escape them! Please, just a little longer. Please. Just please.
Finally. I reached for my keys in my pocket and unlocked the car. They were all around me, closing in the spaces. I was losing my sanity now, but I was almost out. C’mon, c’mon, c’mon. I was in.
I closed my eyes, trying to ease my breath and calm my mind, and there they were ー out in the open space of my mind in a glimpse of a second and then gone in another. I opened my eyes after several minutes. They were out there too but only their silhouettes, and like before, they were gone in a second. I started the car and drove away, my body was finally relaxing. I got away and survived. I survived the chilling fear that tried to hold me tight. I survived and kept sane as best as I could. I just wanted to go home where it was warm and safe. They were all in my mind, simple as that, so they couldn’t have hurt me no matter what they tried. But of course, she was still there. She was always there and would always be there, smiling at me and at the thought of knowing I wouldn’t be able to escape her and her eyes no matter what.