One could be 'The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.' It's short but extremely creepy as it makes you wonder what could be knocking when there's supposedly no one else left.
Another might be 'I woke up to whispering in my ear. No one was there.' This plays on the fear of the unknown and the sense of something being very wrong in a familiar, safe place like one's own bed. It gives you that shiver down your spine just imagining it.
One shortest scary story is 'The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.' It gives a sense of dread as you wonder who or what could be knocking when there's supposedly no one else left.
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
It might be something like 'The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.' This is super scary because if he is the last man, who could be knocking?
They are often concise. For example, they can quickly create a sense of unease with just a few words, like 'The doll's eyes followed me.' It doesn't need a lot of description to be scary. The simplicity makes the horror more immediate.
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
The brevity. They leave a lot to the imagination. For example, in 'The phone rang in the empty house', we don't know who's calling or what will happen. It's the unknown that scares us.
By playing on common fears. 'I looked in the mirror. My reflection smiled back, but I wasn't.' This touches on the fear of losing control of oneself or something being wrong with one's identity. The idea that our reflection can act independently is deeply unsettling.
Sure. One of the shortest scary stories could be about a creaking sound in an empty house at night. You hear it slowly getting louder, but when you turn on the light, there's nothing there. Another might be a story where a person always feels like they're being watched while walking alone in the woods, and every time they look back, they see a shadowy figure disappear. And then there's the story of a doll that moves on its own when no one is looking, with its eyes following you around the room.
Sure. One could be 'The last man on earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.' It's super short yet terrifying. Another might be about a girl who woke up in a dark room and saw a pair of eyes staring at her from the corner. And there's a story where a man walking in the woods heard strange whispers all around him but saw nothing.
The main characteristic is their brevity. They are very short, yet they manage to tell a complete story or at least convey a strong message.