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There’s an urban legend saying that the famous “For sale, baby shoes, never worn” story by Ernest Hemingway came from a $10 bet. Supposedly, he made it during lunch with other writers to prove he could create a scary story in just six words. After penning the famous line on a napkin, he passed it around the table and pocketed his winnings.

At least, that’s the popular version. Whether true or not, the average person is no Hemingway, so we need a few more words to scribble a captivating horror story. And a subreddit called r/TwoSentenceHorror seems to have found the perfect limit. Two-sentence horror stories. 

It’s still short, so readers get through the spooky stories really fast, yet it’s vague enough to give the writers space to work with. It turns out that quite a few Internet users have dark thoughts and the ability to express them. That or Stephen King made a lot of Reddit accounts.

And since we’ve mentioned Stephen King, the master of creepy stories believes there are three types of terror:

  • The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it’s when the lights go out or something green and slimy splatters against your arm.
  • The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it’s when the lights go out, and something with claws grabs you by the arm. 
  • The Terror: the worst one, when you come home and notice everything you own has been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there.
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RELATED: 112 Stephen King Quotes On Everything That’s Life

According to novelist R.L. Stine, an author has to get inside their narrator’s head to be effective in all of these real horror fields. If we’re seeing through the eyes of a character in a scary situation, we start to feel like we are in a scary situation. 

“There’s no formula, I think you have to create a very close point of view. You have to be in the eyes of the narrator. Everything that happens, all the smells, all the sounds; then your reader starts to identify with that character and that’s what makes something really scary.” (via AdWeek)

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#4

Monster In A Closet

Reddit post of Monghostwriter about monster in a closet

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#5

The Horrors Of Uber

Reddit post of Thecoldflame about the horrors of uber

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TheExtremeSmell
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I mean wasn’t there just a case where someone got into a car thinking it was their Uber and was killed or something?

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#9

Short But Powerful Horror Story

Reddit post of katsudonlink, short powerful story

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#13

The Woods Are Full Of Horrors

Reddit post of luciferthecat about monster in the woods

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#15

Fade Into Oblivion

Reddit post of SapphireLycanrock about fading into oblivion

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#18

Drawing The X

Reddit post of BrianHotshot about drawing "x" on a map

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Rowlie
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's freezing and dark, the constant movement is making me naseous, everything hurts, I'm lonely and scared. I wish I didnt' ask for my ashes to be spread into the ocean

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#19

Alien Horror

Reddit post of Mr7000000 about wife being pregnant with alien baby

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Dann999
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

think positive. self pregnant. some reptile can do that. oh wait, that’s even scarier..

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#23

Double-Sided Horror

Reddit post of Alfieski25 about homework

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#26

Alien Entity

Reddit post of erichwanh about wife being an alien

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Molly E
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"You're colorblind!" She screamed, yet the knife never left his hand.

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Mariana Schneider
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My husband is actually red/green colorblind. I guess I'll sleep at my mom's tonight.

Dynein
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some person downvoted you... -.- indeed this isn't how colorblindness works. To anyone who thinks it is... Colorblindness generally means you can't tell the difference between two or even three colors. Red-green colorblindness is when a person can't tell red and green apart - to them, they look as different as, say, light blue and dark blue to other people. The story seems to imply that the person sees the blood as green and thinks their wife is an alien because it's "not red". Except that person wouldn't be able to tell if it's "not red", it'd just be a darker shade of the redgreen color they see instead.

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Mahendra Arhana
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Plot Twist: He was never color blind because he checked his own blood and it's red

Chloe_Macaroni
Community Member
2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He's colorblind? Damn. He mutve gotten mad at her cause she got him a rubix cube for his bday! XD

Bacony
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And i was, it was actually blue. These interspecies relationships are getting a bit crazy.

IllisMoreo 87
Community Member
4 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

imagine when he discovered everyone else's blood is also green. then they investigate his blood & it turns out he's the alien.

Jomel David
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Your green is his red, unless he was not colorblind to know the difference.

K. Blanchette
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some color blind people can't see reds, so this is implying the husband killed her, saw her green blood and thought she was an alien, when he's just colorblind and THOUGHT it was green. Hope that helps!

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Tea Koles
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No, she's screaming "YOU TOOK ME FROM AREA 51 TO CLAP MY ALIEN CHEEKS!"

Barbara Hiller
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

color blindness does not work that way, red and green won't be mistaken for one another, they are just perceived as the same.

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There you have it, a collection of scary two-sentence stories to add a quick dose of fear to your day! Which short horror story freaked you out the most? Drop a comment and let us know. Feel free to upvote your favorites and, if you’re feeling brave, share your own terrifying two-liner. Let’s see if you can give these short spooky stories a run for their money!

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#32

Two-Sentence-Horror-Stories

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#39

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logical fallacy
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That's interesting, because there's a couple of movies where this happens with 911, where basically the helper calls back, the invader notices the call and kills the 'last girl'. I'm very curious on what the official guidelines say.

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#40

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Pretty Pangolin
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This one's sad bc it's reality based - Alzheimer's is way scarier than a zombie invasion.

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#44

Two-Sentence-Horror-Stories

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#50

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Zoe's Mom
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There was a law series on TV when I was very young about a serial killer of women. When caught he said that they ALL TOLD HIM THAT THEY WOULD RATHER DIE THAN DATE HIM. I can't remember the name of the series but I always remembered that line.

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#61

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#62

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Julie He
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My interpretation is that the dog hurt a person that came to the door, so the owner is driving the dog to be put down for violent behavior. I'm crying.

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#63

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Jocelyn
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well f**k. Hope you dont get too attached then. How did u end up marrying an anti-vaxx chick anyways?

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#64

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#68

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nanashi
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

sadly this is not just a horror story; it happened IRL too many times.

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#71

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BusLady
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Only one guy survived. He thought to bring a pocket knife.

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#82

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#85

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NoobMaster69
Community Member
5 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The golden idol sent him a human to eat. It is funny because it's a joke on Reddit's gold system as people say "thanks for the gold, kind stranger" when you get a gold medal.

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#88

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