There are few pleasures sweeter than reading a truly fine horror story. They are especially effective with reluctant readers. Which is why we’ve compiled 40 scary stories to read online.
Below you’ll find ghost stories, murderous tales, terrible monsters and fantastic creatures, adventures gone horribly wrong and scary stories about future worlds not all that different than our own.
We’ve provided links to every story so you can read for free online.
The lineup below includes Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, HP Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Lucille Fletcher, Ramsey Campbell, Tyler Miller, Benjamin Percy, Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury and many more.
If you’re looking for even more short stories, check out our pages on 41 Short Stories for Middle School and 41 Short Stories for High School.
Ghost Stories & Other Hauntings
Sometimes They Come Back
By Stephen King
A teacher returns to his hometown only to find that the ghosts of his past are literally haunting his classroom.
The Man Who Collected Poe
By Robert Bloch
A mysterious Poe collector claims to possess the ultimate collector’s item: the body of Edgar Allan Poe itself.
The Rocking Horse Winner
By DH Lawrence
A little boy believes that he can correctly guess the derby winners each time by riding his rocking horse.
An Original Revenge
By WC Morrow
A soldier intends to kill himself in order to return as a vengeful spirit and take his revenge upon his commanding officer.
The Little Room
By Madeline Yale Wynn
A tiny room in a farm house holds a mysterious secret, appearing to be a different room to each person who enters it.
The Hitchhiker
By Lucille Fletcher
A radio play written by a master of the form about a man driving the lonely American highways, and the hitchhiker who appears time & again.
The Companion
By Ramsey Campbell
Not every ride at the carnival is full of fun and laughter. Some are downright scary. And some you never escape.
Number One Fan
By Tyler Miller
A young woman gets a chance to manage her favorite baseball team, but the price for fandom may just be your soul.
Dial Tone
By Benjamin Percy
A man becomes obsessed with a local suicide that hung himself from one of the nearby electric towers and discovers more than he bargained for.
The Evil Men Do: Killer Stories
The Cask of Amontillado
By Edgar Allan Poe
The classic tale of the ultimate revenge.
It Only Comes Out at Night
By Dennis Etchison
A couple stops at an isolated rest stop to take a break and discover that the other cars sitting in the parking lot are not as empty as they believed.
The God of Dark Laughter
By Michael Chabon
Thirteen days after the Entwhistle-Ealing Bros. circus left Ashtown two boys stumbled on a body that was dressed in a mad suit of purple and orange velour.
A Dress of White Silk
By Richard Matheson
A twisted little tale about a very disturbed young girl by the author of I Am Legend and The Incredible Shrinking Man.
Til Death Do Us
By Tyler Miller
A man thinks he’s gotten away with murder, until someone sends his dead wife’s severed finger to him in a box.
Night Drive
By Will F Jenkins
Madge just wanted to pick up her husband, but an unexpected passenger leads to dark and terrible truth about the human soul.
Mars Will Have Blood
By Marc Laidlaw
“Too much ichor,” said red-faced Jack Magnusson, scowling into a playbook. “The whole tragedy is sopping in it. Blood, blood, blood.
The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains
By Neil Gaiman
Two men travel deep into the Black Mountains in the search for gold. Or maybe it’s not gold they want after all.
Monsters & Other Creatures
The Crate
By Stephen King
It’s just a crate found tucked away under a dusty stairwell. Nothing to worry about. Right?
Dracula’s Guest
By Bram Stoker
Removed by Stoker from the novel, this tale serves as an excellent introduction to the greatest of all vampires: Count Dracula.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth
By HP Lovecraft
What really happened in the deserted seaport town of Innsmouth? And why was the government so disturbed they destroyed the town?
They Bite
By Anthony Boucher
One of the most unique and disturbing monsters ever put on paper resides far out in Boucher’s desert.
Children of the Corn
By Stephen King
The classic story about He Who Walks Behind the Rows and the horrors visited upon a tiny rural town when the children finally take control.
Lazurus
By Leonid Andreyev
A powerful tale spun from the biblical tale of Lazurus. Andreyev looks at the reality of how people might view someone who actually came back from the dead.
Pop Art
By Joe Hill
My best friend when I was twelve was inflatable. His name was Arthur Roth, which also made him an inflatable Hebrew…
The Spindly Man
By Stephen Graham Jones
A book group sits down to discuss a story by Stephen King and the conversation goes very, very awry.
Classic Horror Stories
The Monkey’s Paw
By WW Jacobs
The greatest tale ever told about being careful what you wish for, with one of the finest endings ever penned.
The Lottery
By Shirley Jackson
Perhaps the greatest twist ending in 20th Century fiction. A wicked tale of a small town lottery and the danger of tradition.
Markheim
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Markheim enters an antique shop late one night to sell a rare item but ends up murdering the shop owner instead.
The Great God Pan
By Arthur Machen
An experiment designed to reveal the spirit world goes horribly wrong, leading to a series of disappearances and deaths.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
By Ambrose Bierce
A man set for execution escapes his fate when the noose breaks. He flees, desperate to escape from his executioners.
Horrific Adventures
A Descent Into the Maelstrom
By Edgar Allan Poe
A seemingly old man recounts his horrific tale of being sucked into a massive whirlpool at sea and how he managed to survive.
The Most Dangerous Game
By Richard Connell
A madman hunts human beings for sport on his private island. But with his latest “guest” he may have finally met his match.
The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes
By Rudyard Kipling
There is, as the conjurers say, no deception about this tale. Jukes by accident stumbled upon a village that is well known to exist, though he is the only Englishman who has been there.
The Boar Hunt
By Jose Vasconcelos
A group of hunters stalk wild boars through the jungle. When they begin shooting a herd from the trees, they mistakenly believe it’s their lucky day.
Sci-Fi Horror
The Autopsy
By Michael Shea
Dr. Winter stepped out of the tiny Greyhound station and into the midnight street that smelled of pines.
The Veldt
By Ray Bradbury
The classic tale of the dangers of technology replacing reality and a critique of lackadaisical parenting.
Trucks
By Stephen King
A classic end of the world tale centered in a diner after all the machines in the world have gone crazy and started killing people.
Mars is Heaven
By Ray Bradbury
They land on Mars only to discover themselves in a town that looks exactly like one they left on Earth, and it’s filled with people they know.
The River Styx Runs Upstream
By Dan Simmons
I loved my mother very much. After her funeral, after the coffin was lowered, the family went home and waited for her return.
Patient Zero
By Tananarive Due
Written over a decade ago, this tale of a young child who may be the first patient in a worldwide plague is disturbingly prescient post-COVID.
