No Friday Five this week. Instead, and in honor of spooky season, here are six short and scary reads for Halloween.
1. “Vampires,” by Sarah Wolfe
A part of you relaxes. Ignore that whisper in your ear: you will bleed. Intrusive thoughts—a ride you didn’t buy a ticket for.
A macabre micro via Gotham Literature.
2. “Dolly Builds her Brother out of Butter in the Room her Mother Grew,” by T.J. Burgoyne
Butter does for flesh, but not bone. For that, she cuts hardwood from fallen oak, takes Father’s knives to carve ulna and radius, tibia and femur, scoops out hip sockets with the hook-blade and slots the bones together at tallow-greased joints. She scavenges the rest: the spine of a stag found rotting under stooped willows; the finger-bones of a thief; her mother’s skull, plucked from the pyre in the grazing field after Father was sure there was no flesh left to burn.
This story took second place in Fractured Lit‘s 2026 “Ghosts, Fables & Fairy Tales” competition.
3. “Gator Empire,” by Nadine Rodriguez
“Kelsey,” Angie calls out from the shore, and slowly, Kelsey turns to swim to her. When she’s near, she peeks her head out of the water, red hair flattened atop her skull. Angie stares as Kelsey’s clear, third eyelid blinks away to reveal moldy, amber eyes staring back at her through reptilian slits.
Good stuff from Be About It Press.
4.. “The Lantern,” by Jennifer Ostopovich
I felt as though a strange fever had overtaken me. I shivered, at once hot and cold, and drew the lantern nearer to my chest as though the small flame might warm me. Another wail resounded through the forest sending a tremor through me.
The man must have sensed my distress because he asked, “Is something the matter?”
“It’s the Bean Sídhe. It wishes to cross the threshold, to bathe me in the darkness. I must get to the sacred bonfire before my flame goes out.”
One of Apocalypse Confidential‘s featured Twelve Nights of Halloween stories.
5. “Fitting In,” by Verity Mason
Every October, the literary magazine Spillwords publishes haunting stories for its “13 Days of Halloween” feature. This one’s a story you might call gripping.
I kicked out frantically as another tendril wrapped around my ankle. Then another. They climbed my calf, sliding beneath my trousers. I grabbed hold of one and pulled. It was warm.
6. “Candy Bars With Razor Blades Inside Ranked By Johnson Street Address“
A throwback literary listicle, more humorous than horrific, from The Gorko Gazette.
There is no name on the mailbox, but I heard this guy takes big black trash bags out the back after midnight and once a lady that Jesse knows went into his house and never came out. He always leaves a bowl of M&Ms on a chair outside his front door that are gone in about 5 seconds and might as well be mustard gas for all we care.
Cover image via Pexels.
