scary stories

The Signalman

October 10, 2018 By Charles Dickens in Old Stories Tags: scary stories, ghosts, Charles Dickens, trains, horror

Halloa! Below there!” When he heard a voice thus calling to him, he was standing at the door of his box, with a flag in his hand, furled round its short pole. One would have thought, considering the nature of the ground, that he could not have doubted from what quarter the voice came; but instead of looking up to where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about, and looked down the Line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for [Read More]

The Flayed Hand

October 9, 2018 By Guy De Maupassant in Old Stories Tags: horror, scary stories, Guy de Maupassant, old stories, ghosts

One evening about eight months ago I met with some college comrades at the lodgings of our friend Louis R. We drank punch and smoked, talked of literature and art, and made jokes like any other company of young men. Suddenly the door flew open, and one who had been my friend since boyhood burst in like a hurricane. Guy De Maupassant was a master of the short story whose subjects were usually taken from everyday life. This one is taken from everyday life and death. The copy here is from Twenty-Five Ghost Stories (Edited by W. Bob Holland), which is [Read More]

The Monkey’s Paw

October 8, 2018 By W.W. Jacobs in Old Stories Tags: W.W. Jacobs, fate, wishes, short fiction, horror, scary stories

I Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of Laburnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. Father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire. This is perhaps W.W. Jacobs most famous scary story — but can you remember how it works out? The English civil servant wrote plenty of short stories and a couple of novels, too, many [Read More]

The Occupant of the Room

October 5, 2018 By Algernon Blackwood in Old Stories Tags: Algernon Blackwood, weird stories, old story, horror, scary stories, fiction, short fiction

He arrived late at night by the yellow diligence, stiff and cramped after the toilsome ascent of three slow hours. The village, a single mass of shadow, was already asleep. Only in front of the little hotel was there noise and light and bustle—for a moment. The horses, with tired, slouching gait, crossed the road and disappeared into the stable of their own accord, their harness trailing in the dust; and the lumbering diligence stood for the night where they had dragged it—the body of a great yellow-sided beetle with broken legs. Algernon Blackwood was an English novelist and a prolific [Read More]