72 Micro Horror Stories That Prove You Can Be Terrified In Just Two Sentences

    They're! Scary!

    Listen — sometimes you don't have time to read a whole-ass horror novel, and you're trying to get scared STAT!

    Well, that's where one of my personal favorite corners of the internet — the subreddit r/TwoSentenceHorror — comes in! The subreddit is precisely what it sounds like: people sharing their favorite scary stories that are all precisely two sentences, usually consisting of one set-up sentence and one punchline scare!

    So, in the preparation for ~spooky season~, we've compiled just a few of the most popular stories in the r/TwoSentenceHorror subreddit for your viewing pleasure!

    Ready? I sure hope so, because to quoth R. L. Stine, "Readers, beware, you're in for a scare!" Here we go:

    1. "I was born blind but was lucky enough to have a loving mother who took care of my every need. Imagine the betrayal I felt when a stitch slipped and a ray of light hit my eye for the first time."

    u/Tryandtryagain123

    2. "Out of sheer boredom I turned on the radio in my kidnapper's basement, only to hear that he had been arrested the day before. I thought they were still searching for me, but then I heard my own voice saying how much I was glad to finally be found."

    u/KangarooDense

    3. "An hour into her cave exploration, Sarah’s flashlight broke, and she was forced to blindly follow the faint breeze coming from the cave’s entrance. Remembering the Zippo in her pocket, she flicked it on, revealing the lanky, eyeless man who had been blowing on her face, leading her deeper underground."

    4. "I knew it must’ve been a mistake when the police said I was involved in aiding a kidnapping, but when they told me they had video proof I became intrigued. I felt myself go from hero to villain as they played the grocery store footage from hours prior, showing me returning a lost girl to who I thought was her dad."

    u/Jakeh7494

    5. "When mother died, we were faced with the monumental task of cleaning out the house she'd been hoarding in for four decades. The roaches and rats and dead pets and piles of animal excrement were bad enough, but when we found out that dad hadn't run out on us all those years ago, we decided to just burn the place down."

    u/LeodFitz

    6. "I was driving down the foggy highway when I blinked, and all the red taillights of the cars ahead of me suddenly vanished in the mist. I’ve been driving for two hours since then, I haven’t seen a single car or exit ramp, and the fog keeps getting thicker."

    u/cedarwould

    7. "All my life, my parents have told me not to open the basement door, but I got curious and disobeyed them. What is that glowing ball in the sky and why does it hurt my eyes?"

    u/DayerethDdraigson

    8. "My twin and I have always been really close, and people say we're 'joined at the hip.' As the cancer spreads, I really wish we didn't share the same vital organs."

    u/ShotMammoth8266

    9. "I used to hate the sound of crickets outside the lonely farmhouse. Now every time they go silent, I know that thing is passing by, and I pray for them to chirp again."

    u/IknowKarazy

    haunted house

    10. "I decided to kill off a few characters in the book I’m writing. It should definitely spice up this autobiography a little."

    u/Killroy137

    11. "The last thing I saw was my alarm clock flashing 12:07 before she pushed her long, rotting nails through my chest, her other hand muffling my screams. I sat bolt upright, relieved it was only a dream, but — as I saw my alarm clock read 12:06 — I heard my closet door creak open."

    u/jmperson

    12. "I love to turn up my favorite songs and sing along. It drowns out the screaming from the root cellar."

    u/Kanuck88

    13. "My family can all remember their past lives, so one day I told my son I was a girl who was murdered. He grinned and responded, 'What are the odds we’d meet again?'"

    u/greedspossession

    14. "On the monitor, I can see my husband's cheeky face slowly creeping up to the security cam in an attempt to scare me. I'd laugh, but then I see his torso, arms and legs all separated on the ground in the background."

    u/hellblade0x

    15. "I finished my final perfect pirouette to thunderous applause. If only I could speak, and tell the little girl who owned my music box of the living hell I was trapped in."

    u/velvetujung

    16. "Being buried alive was bad enough. Realizing I wasn't alone in my own grave was worse."

    u/harshcougar

    17. "'Remember don’t peek, it’s a surprise,' said my parents coldly. I heard them chuckle as they threw me down the basement steps as food for the Thing."

    u/Jojoisbestboi

    18. "My blind date texted that he'd finally arrived, and was sorry for being 15 minutes late to pick me up. The issue was, we'd already been driving for 10 minutes."

    u/lurker1125

    19. "People always ask how many kids come to my house for trick-or-treating. None of them ever ask how many leave."

    u/Sin-A-Bun

    20. "I thought I had witnessed a miracle when I saw a mother lifting her car off of her newborn baby today. It wasn't until she dropped it down again, yelling her baby was the devil, that I realized, maybe not."

    u/Syphon88

    21. "Another young couple came in through the door, and I hurried to get a table ready, sighing, 'Weekends are always so busy!' Car accidents, murders, drug overdoses; it's always the worst shift in the morgue."

    u/trowzerss

    22. "I kept hearing a strange giggle coming from my TV, regardless of what channel or volume it was on. I never thought to check behind the TV."

    u/IBMadMan

    23. "I can't move, breathe, speak, or hear and it's so dark all the time. If I knew it would be this lonely, I would have been cremated instead."

    u/Graboid27

    24. "The pictures I take of others tell a thousand words. Every one of them is 'help.'"

    u/Shelbckay

    25. "I'm not scared that I’ve been seeing 'missing' posters for myself. It’s the fact that the news is now saying that my body has been found."

    u/NearDead-Star

    26. "I'm tucking my son into bed when he tells me, 'Daddy, check for monsters under my bed!' I look underneath for his amusement, and I see him — another him, under the bed — staring back at me, quivering and whispering, 'Daddy, there’s somebody on my bed.'"

    u/justAnotherMuffledVo

    27. "I recently taught myself Morse code, but I wish I hadn't. Now the birds peck at my window, warning me that 'It's coming.'"

    u/APantaloon94

    28. "'Our son always screams when we cut his hair,' we told the psychiatrist, hoping for guidance. Several tests and doctors later, guilt brought me to my knees when the genetic specialist described what was believed to be unique condition — there were live nerve endings in the boy's hair."

    u/knaet

    29. "You know, they say once you become a murderer, you can tell who else has murdered. 'He’s innocent,' I announce with the bang of my gavel, dismissing the court."

    u/Jebbsterboy

    30. "I woke up, got myself a drink of water, and returned to get back into bed. There I was, still laying there, my face blue and my hollow eyes staring off into the distance."

    u/Reasonable-Bath-4963

    31. "Out of breath, I sat in the front hall knowing I was safe, as the Fae could not enter my home without an invitation. Imagine my surprise when the creature burst through the door, a sneer on its face and my 'WELCOME' mat in its hands."

    u/SpaceLemur34

    32. "Every pet I've owned since I was a kid is buried in my back yard. I've moved eight times and they're always there."

    u/Dadraik

    33. "I wake up in pain in a hospital bed; most of my body covered in burns from the fire. A man in a white gown walks in holding a steel wool brush, and I realize this is not a hospital room."

    u/chris1096

    surgery

    34. "After the psychic told Mike that he would 'die of a heart attack,' he picked up biking and would do five mile rides into town every weekend. But — when a car suddenly swerved, coming right at him with an old man slumped over the steering wheel — he realized with final clarity that it wasn’t his heart attack she'd meant."

    u/wildflowersummer

    35. "My mother screamed as I peeled the skin from my face.I knew she would get mad, but I was tired of pretending I was my brother and the staples holding his face to mine were really hurting."

    u/Stolen_Faces_Kabal

    36. "As I felt the knife run down my skin, I felt oddly happy. Well, it wasn’t my skin yet."

    u/anonymous

    37. "My son told me that his mirror image was threatening to replace him in the real world. I thought he was imagining things, until I saw my right handed son write using his left hand."

    u/GamerRipjaw

    Creepy face in the mirror

    38. "My daughter won't stop crying and screaming in the middle of the night. I visit her grave and ask her to stop, but it doesn't help."

    u/skuppy

    39. "A guy just ran up to me while screaming that somebody had locked him in a basement, blindfolded him, and starved him for days. You should’ve seen the look of absolute horror on his face when he recognized my voice."

    u/Roborob03

    Young man possessed by devil

    40.

    Watching horror movie on tv

    41. "I rage quit after being crushed by the final boss for the ninth time in a row. Just before the monitor went dark, I saw my avatar, pounding on the other side of the screen, screaming 'Don't leave me!'"

    u/JessumGui

    42. "My grandmother told me that it was a gift to see the angel of death in front of people's houses, to know that he'd be collecting someone there soon. I thought it was a gift too, up until the day I began to see it in front of every house."

    —u/resurrection_man

    43. "My sister says that mommy killed her. Mommy says that I don't have a sister."

    u/i-am-the-assbutt

    44. "Yesterday my parents told me I was too old for an imaginary friend and that I had to let her go. They found her body this morning."

    u/BitterSimplicity


    crime scene shootout

    45. "Don't be scared of the monsters, just look for them. Look to your left, to your right, under your bed, behind your dresser, in your closet but never look up, she hates being seen."

    u/AnarchistWaffles

    46. "I can't move, breathe, speak or hear and it's so dark all the time. If I knew it would be this lonely, I would have been cremated instead."

    u/Graboid27

    47. "I’ve worn a face mask in public my entire life. I just love the feeling of skin on skin."

    u/noswans

    48. "For years we heard the little voices and footsteps of the ghost children in our old farmhouse, and we got used to them. Then one day they went quiet, which should have been our own cue to leave."

    u/gorillasaurusrexx

    Children dressed up as ghost draped with white sheet in a forest

    49. "I woke up to hear knocking on glass. At first, I though it was the window until I heard it come from the mirror again."

    u/therealhatman

    50. "When I finally grabbed her in the darkness, I swam back to the surface. It never occurred to me how fast the ice could freeze over."

    u/ADGE_S

    51. “'Congratulations, you are our 5th caller and the winner!' the perky voice declares as I hyperventilate into the phone. 'Having won the elusive prize of receiving police, fire or ambulance assistance from 911, what is your emergency?'”

    u/GuyAwks

    52. "The operation wasn't successful in the traditional sense since my sight didn't return, but it left me with the ability to distinguish heat signatures, at least. Three weeks have passed and I'm still not sure how to politely ask my best friend why he's room temperature."

    u/pentakill-lux

    53. "After so many years living alone in this large house I came to a startling revelation. In this time I had closed far more doors than I had opened."

    u/namelessuser

    54. "There was a picture in my phone of me sleeping. I live alone."

    u/guztaluz

    55. "You know that weird, full-body twitch you get sometimes when you're falling asleep? If there was a camera pointed at you, and you saw what it captured at that moment, you'd never sleep again."

    u/CakeIsAMeme

    56. "They delivered the mannequins in bubble wrap. From the main room I begin to hear popping."

    u/MikeySeventyFive

    Photo of mannequins taken in Tanjungkerta, Indonesia

    57. "She wondered why she was casting two shadows. After all, there was only a single lightbulb."

    u/pgan91

    58. "'Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary,' I whispered into the mirror darkened by the lightless room. I knew it was just a legend, but, after 10 years of being locked down here alone, I was desperate to see another face."

    u/RScommitted

    59. "Working the night shift alone tonight. There is a face in the cellar staring at the security camera."

    u/hctet

    A security workplace with a modern high-tech control panel in the form of large monitors that display real-time information from external video surveillance cameras for 24 hours.

    60. "I wake up and everything feels wrong; it's too quiet outside. I look out the window and see everyone standing still, looking at my house."

    u/golfmade

    61. "The grinning face stared at me from the darkness beyond my bedroom window. I live on the 14th floor."

    u/bentreflection

    62. "I've only just started reading lips, so my dad knelt down in front of me to make sure I understood him clearly.Very slowly, he mouthed the words, 'If you keep up this behavior, I'll take away your eyes next.'"

    u/AcheronFlow

    63. "They say practicing smiling in front of a mirror makes you feel happier. I wish my reflection would join along."

    u/lordatomosk

    64. "For my last wish, I wished my dad to be alive again. I stood atop his grave and smiled, imagining him screaming and clawing at his coffin lid as he did the two previous times I wished him back."

    u/MintClicker

    65. "Being buried alive was bad enough. Realizing I wasn't alone in my own grave was worse."

    u/harshcougar

    66. "I received a text from my husband last night that read 'I hope you burn in hell for what you've done, you bitch!!!' I couldn't comprehend how he managed to send a text without his fingers."

    u/R2Beatngu

    67. "Back against the door, desperately trying to keep the voracious dead out, I looked in the mirror. My reflection raised his hand in goodbye and smiled sadly, never to be needed again."

    u/247_turtle_delivery

    68. "'Now be careful, that line of rock salt is the only thing keeping them out,' the man said, welcoming my group into his refuge. 'Sea salt,' I clarified, 'sea salt keeps us out.'"

    u/bookseer

    69. "I was having a pleasant dream when what sounded like hammering woke me. After that, I could barely hear the muffled sound of dirt covering the coffin over my own screams."

    u/vigridarena

    A slightly open empty wooden coffin with a metal crucifix and handles on a dark ominous background - 3D Render

    70. "My daughter won't stop crying and screaming in the middle of the night. I visit her grave and ask her to stop, but it doesn't help."

    u/skuppy

    71. "'Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!' I said. Smiling, I slowly ripped out his dental implant."

    u/skeletxn

    72. "I always liked this picture of my great-grandmother. Why does she seem closer to the camera than before?"

    u/dkahn04

    Which two-sentence horror story was your favorite? Do you have any micro horror stories of your own? Share all of your thoughts in the comments below!

    Some stories were edited for clarity. H/T: Reddit.

    This article contains content from Allie Hayes, Kai Kamryn, and Tanner Greenring.  It was compiled by Salimah McCullough.