We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us about their favorite creepy lines from literature. Here are some of their responses.
1. "Even the dead tell stories."
—Marcus Sedgwick, Revolver
Suggested by Tallulahmac
2. "Of all of them there at the bar that night, the bartender was the one who survived the longest. He died three weeks later on the road out of the city."
—Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
Suggested by caitlinm18
3. "The man screamed and clawed frantically, like a drowning swimmer. The screaming filled the universe."
—Ray Bradbury, Kaleidoscope
Suggested by Jonny Lim
4. "With a mocking smile, he placed one hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight, bared my throat with the other, saying as he did so: "First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions."
—Bram Stoker, Dracula
Suggested by Amy Wildman on Facebook
5. "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."
—Kurt Vonnegut
Suggested by kellym4af8fad7c
7. "But when the interrogator with less shiny shoes pressed the eel, teeth first, between the imam's pale buttocks, it could be nothing else."
—Anthony Marra, A Constellation of Vital Phenomea
Suggested by sahelc
8. "For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated."
—Edgar Allan Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher
Suggested by haleyb4d0121d3f
10. " At the same time a light unexpectedly sprang up, and I saw Carmilla, standing, near the foot of my bed, in her white nightdress, bathed, from her chin to her feet, in one great stain of blood."
—Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla
Suggested by jennywintersb
11. "She thought she heard a sound behind her—fragile, skittering. Amelia turned.
The sound had stopped. She felt a chill move up the backs of her legs. "It's He Who
Kills," she said with a smile."
—Richard Matheson, Prey
Suggested by tristinam
12. "There were times when John Wade wanted to open up Kathy's belly and crawl inside and stay there forever. He wanted to swim through her blood and climb up and down her spine and drink from her ovaries and press his guns against the firm red muscle of her heart."
—Tim O'Brien, In The Lake Of The Woods
Suggested by kelseyanne7
14. "A cold hand fell on Louis's shoulder. Rachel's voice was grating, full of dirt 'Darling' it said."
—Stephen King, Pet Semetary
Suggested by linnea11
15. "I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ..."
—Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
Suggested by jamie102
16. "There were worse things than crucifixion. There were teeth."
—Stephen King, The Stand
Suggested by chrisw43af8432e
18. "Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair."
—William Faulkner, A Rose For Emily
Suggested by kaleidoscopemind
19. "I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat."
—Truman Capote, In Cold Blood
Suggested by Cecily Bohanek on Facebook
20. "Wandless, helpless, Pettigrew's pupils dilated in terror. His eyes had slid from Harry's face to something else. His own silver fingers were moving inexorably toward his own throat."
—JK Rowling, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows
Suggested by Tatiana Hernandez on Facebook
22. "I sent letters to the families of every service member who laid down his or her life in the war on terror. By the end of my presidency, I had written to almost five thousand families."
—George W. Bush Decision Points
Suggested by Chuck Haint on Facebook
23. "Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry."
—Terry Pratchett, Thief Of Time
Suggested by Trenton Taylor on Facebook
24. "Without passion or haste, they shot their prisoners, who were forced to approach the trench one by one and offer their necks. Infants were tossed into the air and used as targets for the machine guns."
— Elie Weisel, Night
Suggested by Jo Sam on Facebook
26. "Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away..."
—Hughes Mearns Antigonish
Suggested by Kristy Hopper on Facebook
27. "He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
—Edgar Allan Poe, The Masque Of The Red Death
Suggested by Gabi Bisconti on Facebook
28. "I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed: when, by the dim and yellow light of the moon, as it forced its way through the window shutters, I beheld the wretch -- the miserable monster whom I had created. He held up the curtain of the bed and his eyes, if eyes they may be called, were fixed on me."
—Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
Suggested by Suzanne Shedd on Facebook
29. "...I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..."
— Psalm 23:4
Suggested byGabby Arzola on Facebook
31. "I would imagine being tied up and put in a haystack while someone put the dry, stale straw ablaze. I would picture it perfectly while rocking on my hand. The daydream was about struggling to get free while the fire burned hotter and closer. I am not sure if I came when the fire reached me or after I had imagined escaping it. But I came. I orgasmed on my hand to the dream of fire."
—Dorothy Allison, Bastard Out Of Carolina
Suggested by Julie McCartney on Facebook
32. "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far."
—H.P. Lovecraft, The Call Of Cthulhu
Suggested by Jared Johnson on Facebook
33. "It occurred to me that this might be the bed used by the resident of the house, whose monstrous anatomy was revealed obliquely by this object in much the way the anatomy of an animal, or a god, may be known by the shadow it casts."
—Jorge Luis Borges, There Are More Things
Suggested by Encyclopedia Brown on Facebook