Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

by Hector Platt

They entered the old prison. Summer had just started. It was an abandoned prison, just the two of them. Kylie and Destiny.

“I don’t know why we have to do this.” Destiny grumbled.

It wasn’t the highlight of her day.

“I want to see what it looks like on the inside.” Kylie whined at her.

Kylie was for adventure and Destiny was not.

They went through the gate. There was no turning back now.

The rusted metal sign “Keep out.” Didn’t keep them out.

Walking up and down the cell blocks it didn’t take Destiny long to see that she wanted to get out of there.

“Look!” She cried out, her voice echoing off the walls.

There were human remains in one of the cells and the more they passed they saw remains of some even clinging to the bars.

“You’d think that someone would clean these out.” Destiny was shaking. She’d never seen human bones before.

They went to the office where the warden would be if it wasn’t abandoned.

Going through the drawers Kylie found papers that stated the deaths.

The pictures were gruesome. There were pictures with the warden smiling next to the dead inmates.

“No one had called these in.” Kylie gasped, her eyes growing wide.

"Cold-blooded murder." Destiny winced.

There was a loud banging sound. Like a metal cup running up and down the bars.

Someone was singing.

“Who could it be?” Destiny asked, whimpering.

She was scared…

Genres: Horror

167 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 24, 2019

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fine anthology packed with 35 (!) short horror stories, often with a nasty twist. You meet a 'Stranger', a 'Caller', learn about 'Truth or Dare', see why a 'Smile' can be deadly, be warned of a 'Killer Mask' (one of my favourites here, good start for Halloween), see 'Sally' a doll comes alive, shudder about the boogeyman, fear the 'Fortuneteller'(or better the evil entity behind), shudder at the thought of vanishing into a 'Mirror'. Every single story is foreworded by a short description. There wasn't a single miss in this huge collection and I can really recommend reading it. The stories aren't particularly long but might cast a long shadow on your mind...

[Miglė · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are 35 very short stories in modern settings, but they have a kind of old-timey feel in their structure, as most of them (not all of them, though) are composed like this:

there's a threat -> someone faces a threat despite warning -> dies

They are various and inventive, threats varying from a maniac in a forest, fortune-teller, monster under the bed, mirrors, pact with evil, wolf-like monster etc.
There's some repetition (well, there are 35 stories, it's hard to avoid it), but they don't feel repetitive.

It's an enjoyable horror collection, I didn't get too spooked, because the short format prevents much development, such as providing an answer of why the threat is like this, or much space to give a hero / heroine a chance to avoid dying. But I do recommend this collection if you want to explore some ideas of where the evil might lurk.

[Inga · Rating 1 out of 5]

dnf at 10%

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