The following story won 1st place in our Scary Short Story Contest. The boy smiles. It is late. He is in the car, driving home. He is clutching his new, soft toy. He is happy. Or he would be, if it wasn’t for the sack. It’s only the sack that spoils things. It’s here, in…
The following story won 2nd place in our Scary Short Story Contest. His mother’s head, which had been hollowed out, served host now to a hermit crab. Sharp-limbed and bristly and shiny-eyed it hugged the walls of her skull like a shell. It did not speak like his mother once did— it did not look…
The following story won 3rd place in our Scary Short Story Contest. “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary,” the three boys intoned within the darkness, the flicker of a solitary candle flame casting dancing shadows upon the walls. They peered into the bathroom mirror, awaiting glowing eyes and outstretched arms, but none came. She had…
We have the winners for our 2016 Scary Short Story Contest! Without further ado, here are the top three, along with their publication dates: First: “Happy” by Nick Rawlinson (10/31) Second: “The Hermit” by Jake Deluca (10/30) Third: “Player Four” by Dan Diehn (10/29) Congrats to the finalists and a big thank you to all…
Lovely CC Readers, Starting this Thursday, Cease, Cows will be accepting submissions for our Scary Short Story Contest. Your mission? Submit one previously unpublished flash fiction piece that will scare the cud out of us in 1,000 words or less. Our editorial staff reads contest entries blind, so please do not include any identifying information on the…
The following story won 1st place in our Scary Short Story Contest! Enjoy… HAZMAT Maggie stopped midstride and surveyed the office; more people were missing today, a trend that had started the previous week. Usually the place was buzzing with life–or something like it–but that day, Maggie counted a total of five people in the…
The following story won 2nd place in our Scary Short Story Contest! Enjoy… Fossilized He lit a cigarette, the Tyrannosaurus Rex in flannel and torn jeans, one hand by the gas pump. His oily hair dripped with sweat, as if he’d bathed in a tar pit at three hundred and fifty degrees. She held a…
The following story won 3rd place in our Scary Short Story Contest! Enjoy… Insolence For days all he had been able to think about was how badly he had fucked everything up. How anyone could have conjured a life so bleak and then have the gall to live it and keep living it–despite new mornings,…
Our partners at LitDemon.com are hosting War: Paradise Lost! What is WAR? WAR: Paradise Lost is a tournament-style competition. The tournament will consist of several writer “battles” in which two participants will receive a prompt and a time limit. The stories they create will be voted on by their peers and the winner (the one…
The following piece received 1st Place in our 2013 Hallow/Hallowed Flash Fiction Contest. Congrats, Gordon! The Rising Son Donna and I weren’t married, which is probably just one reason we didn’t go up into the sky with most other folks in Despin Creek. Donna set to bawling that we’d missed The Rapture, but I wasn’t…