Horror Stand Alone Stories

Scritch Scratch

By Lindsay Currie

Claire has absolutely no interest in the paranormal. She’s a scientist, which is why she can’t think of anything worse than having to help out her dad on one of his ghost-themed Chicago bus tours. She thinks she’s made it through when she sees a boy with a sad face and dark eyes at the back of the bus. There’s something off about his presence, especially because when she checks at the end of the tour…he’s gone.

Claire tries to brush it off, she must be imagining things, letting her dad’s ghost stories get the best of her. But then the scratching starts. Voices whisper to her in the dark. The number 396 appears everywhere she turns. And the boy with the dark eyes starts following her.

Claire is being haunted. The boy from the bus wants something...and Claire needs to find out what before it’s too late.

Fear Street: The Perfect Date

By R.L. Stine

Fear Street -- Where Your Worst Nightmares Live...

Brady Karlin is getting on with his life. The memory of his girlfriend--killed in a gruesome sledding accident last year--is beginning to fade. Now he's met Rosha Nelson, the girl of his dreams. And he's never been happier.

Until Brady starts to see a strange figure with a terribly scarred face following him everywhere. And horrible accidents start happening every time Rosha's around.

Has dating Rosha made Brady's dreams come true? Or brought his worst nightmares to life?

Malice

By Chris Wooding

Everyone's heard the rumours. Call Tall Jake and he'll take you to Malice, a world that exists inside a horrifying comic book. A place most kids never leave. Seth and Kady think it's all a silly myth.

But then their friend disappears, and suddenly the rumours don't seem so silly.

This is not a test

By Courtney Summers

It's the end of the world. Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won't stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn't sound so bad.

Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she's failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she's forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live.

But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group's fate is determined less and less by what's happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?

Frankenstein

By Mary Shelley

Frankenstein tells the story of committed science student Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with discovering the cause of generation and life and bestowing animation upon lifeless matter, Frankenstein assembles a human being from stolen body parts but; upon bringing it to life, he recoils in horror at the creature's hideousness.

Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein..

Saltwater Vampires

By Kirsty Eagar

Set in Australia

He looked to the sky, praying for rain, a downpour, some sign from the heavens that he should refuse the abomination contained in that flask. But all he saw was the bloated white face of the moon smiling down on him …

And the sky around it was cold and clear and black …

They made their circle of blood. And only the moon witnessed the slaughter that followed.

For Jamie Mackie, summer holidays in the coastal town of Rocky Head mean surfing, making money, and good times at the local music festival. But this year, vampires are on the festival’s line-up … fulfilling a pact made on the wreck of the Batavia, four hundred years ago. If their plans succeed, nobody in Rocky Head will survive to see out the new year.

The pure Heart

By Trudi Tweedle

When Iseabail is employed by a wealthy merchant to be his daughter's companion, her life changes forever.

Transported from her remote island home to the Scottish borderlands, Iseabail is unnerved both by her precocious young charge and the house's secrets: a hidden chapel, servants who speak in a foreign tongue, a mute stableboy.

And then the merchant returns with a mysterious cargo. Why has Iseabail really been summoned here? And will she ever make it back home?

My sister Rosa

By Justine Larbalestier

What if the most terrifying person you know is your ten-year-old sister?

Seventeen-year-old Aussie Che Taylor loves his younger sister, Rosa. But he's also certain that she's a psychopath--clinically, threateningly, dangerously. Recently Rosa has been making trouble, hurting things. Che is the only one who knows; he's the only one his sister trusts. Rosa is smart, talented, pretty, and very good at hiding what she is and the manipulation she's capable of.

Their parents, whose business takes the family from place to place, brush off the warning signs as Rosa's -acting out.- Now that they have moved again--from Bangkok to New York City--their new hometown provides far too many opportunities for Rosa to play her increasingly complex and disturbing games. Che's always been Rosa's rock, protecting her from the world. Now, the world might need protection from her

Black Cairn Point

by Claire McFall

Two survivors, one terrible truth. Heather agrees to a group camping holiday with Dougie and his friends because she's desperate to get closer to him. But when the two of them disturb a pagan burial site above the beach, she becomes certain that they have woken a malevolent spirit.

Something is alive out there in the pitch-black dark, and it is planning to wreak deadly revenge. One year later Heather knows that she was very lucky to escape Black Cairn Point but she is still waiting for Dougie to wake from his coma.

If he doesn't, how will she prove her sanity, and her innocence?

The Taking of Jake Livingston

by Ryan Douglass

Sixteen-year-old Jake Livingston sees dead people everywhere. But he can't decide what's worse: being a medium forced to watch the dead play out their last moments on a loop, or being at the mercy of racist teachers as one of the few Black students at St. Clair Prep. Both are a living nightmare he wishes he could wake up from.

But things at St. Clair start looking up with the arrival of another Black student - the handsome Allister - and for the first time, romance is on the horizon for Jake. Unfortunately, life as a medium is getting worse. Though most ghosts are harmless and Jake is always happy to help them move on to the next place, Sawyer Doon wants much more from Jake.

In life, Sawyer was a troubled teen who shot and killed six kids at a local high school before taking his own life. Now he's a powerful, vengeful ghost and he has plans for Jake. Suddenly, everything Jake knows about the dead world goes out the window as Sawyer begins to haunt him. High school soon becomes a different kind of survival game - one Jake is not sure he can win.

Small Spaces

by Katherine Arden

After eleven-year-old Ollie's school bus mysteriously breaks down on a field trip, she has to take a trip through scary woods, and must use all of her wits to survive.

She must stick to small spaces.

Harrow Lake

by Kat Ellis

Lola Nox is sent to live with her estranged maternal grandmother in the mining town where her horror movie director father's most iconic film was set, when paranormal incidents and whispers of a century-old monster make her question if she'll make it out alive.

Aisle Nine

by Ian X. Cho

Ever since the world filled with portals to hell and bloodthirsty demons started popping out on the reg, Jasper's life has gotten worse and worse. A teenage nobody with no friends or family, he is plagued by the life he can't remember and the person he's sure he's supposed to be. Jasper spends his days working as a checkout clerk at the Here for You discount mart, where a hell portal in aisle nine means danger every shift.

But at least here he can be near the girl he's crushing on Kyle Kuan, a junior member of the monster-fighting Vanguard, who seems to hate Jasper for reasons he can't remember or understand. But when Jasper and Kyle learn they both share a frightening vision of the impending apocalypse, they're forced to team up and uncover the uncomfortable truth about the hell portals and the demons that haunt the world.

Because the true monsters are not always what they seem, the past is not always what we wish, and like it or not, on Black Friday, all hell will break loose starting in aisle nine.

Archives of Despair

Ten Scary Stories to Keep You up at Night

by Caleb Finn

You have been given access to secret files buried deep within the archives. Disturbing stories never meant for the light of day. These stories share a common fate.

All the children are met with tragedy. A dark and chilling mystery awaits.

Find the answers, before he finds you.

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