Another one could be 'Dark room, breathing follows me.' This short story creates a spooky atmosphere. You're in a dark room, probably already a bit scared because of the lack of light, and then you hear breathing that seems to be following your every move. It makes you wonder what unseen entity is there with you in the darkness.
One night, I heard a strange scratching at my window. I peeked out, but saw nothing. Then the doorknob slowly turned. My heart raced as I hid under the bed. I saw a shadow pass by. The next morning, the door was still locked. I still don't know what it was.
I'll share one. 'I woke up in the middle of the night. There was a figure at the foot of my bed, grinning with no eyes.'
Once, while camping in the woods, a friend of mine heard strange howling at night. It was like no animal he knew. As he peeked out of his tent, he saw a shadowy figure moving among the trees. He was so scared that he didn't dare to move or make a sound until morning. When he told us in the morning, we thought it might be his imagination, but the fear in his eyes was real.
Words like 'haunted', 'gloomy', 'eerie' are great for a scary story. 'Haunted' gives the idea of a place or object being inhabited by spirits. 'Gloomy' sets a dark and depressing mood, making the reader feel uneasy. 'Eerie' often implies something strange and a bit frightening that can't be easily explained.
One classic scary horror tale is 'The Tell - Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. It's about a narrator who is driven mad by an old man's vulture - like eye. He decides to kill the old man and hides his body under the floorboards. But then he starts to hear the old man's heart still beating, which drives him to confess his crime. It's a story that plays on the themes of guilt and madness.
Haunted, cursed, and malevolent are great scary words for a story. 'Haunted' immediately brings to mind a spooky place filled with ghosts. 'Cursed' implies that there is some kind of evil spell or bad luck attached to something or someone. 'Malevolent' describes a being with ill will, which can be very frightening in a story.
One of my favorite scary stories is 'The Tell - Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. It's about a narrator who is haunted by an old man's vulture - like eye. The narrator's slow descent into madness as he plots and executes the old man's murder is truly terrifying. Every little detail, like the way he describes how he hid the body under the floorboards, and then the growing paranoia as he starts to think he can still hear the old man's heart beating, makes it a classic scary story.
Strange sounds are also quite scary. If there are echoing moans or scraping noises in the tunnel, it gives the impression that something sinister is lurking. And if there are stories of disappearances or deaths in the tunnel, that adds to the scariness. People will be constantly worried that they might be the next victim.
The 'Bloody Mary' story is also very scary. Legend has it that if you stand in a dark bathroom, in front of a mirror, and say 'Bloody Mary' three times, a vengeful spirit will appear. It plays on our fear of the unknown and the supernatural, and the idea of summoning something evil just by saying a name is quite chilling.
A child's bedroom where all the toys seem to move when no one is looking. The stuffed animals have a menacing look in their glassy eyes, and the dolls' heads turn slightly when you pass by. The room is filled with an unnatural silence, broken only by the occasional giggle that seems to come from nowhere.