The mirror showed my reflection. Then it smiled without me.
I heard a baby crying in the attic. I don't have a baby.
They are effective because they create a sense of mystery and fear quickly. In just two sentences, they can introduce a terrifying situation like 'I opened the old wardrobe. A pair of eyes stared back at me.' It makes your mind fill in the blanks and imagine the worst - case scenarios.
I heard a baby crying in the attic. I climbed up. Only a doll stared back at me with dead eyes.
One story could be about an old, abandoned house. A family moved in despite the warnings. On the first floor, they would hear strange scratching noises at night. As they explored, they found a hidden basement door. In the basement, there was a dark figure that seemed to disappear when they turned on the light. Another story is of a hotel. A traveler checked into a room on the second floor. At night, he saw a woman in an old - fashioned dress in the hallway mirror. But when he turned around, no one was there. Every time he looked in the mirror, she got closer until he ran out of the hotel in fear.
The first sentence: I woke up in the middle of the night to a strange noise. The second sentence: When I turned on the light, I saw a figure standing at the foot of my bed.
I heard strange noises coming from the attic. When I opened it, a pair of yellow eyes stared back at me.
I found an old diary in the attic. The last entry said 'They're coming for me, and now they know I'm here' and then the pages started to bleed.
I woke up to find a strange handprint on my window. Then I realized I live on the 13th floor.
Sentence 1: I woke up in the middle of the night to a strange scratching at my window. Sentence 2: When I finally summoned the courage to look, there was a shadowy figure with no face staring back at me.
I heard a baby crying in the attic. When I went up, I saw my old doll with a knife in its hand.
I woke up to find a handprint on my window. It was on the inside.