Scary Writers Discuss the Most Terrifying Narratives They have Actually Experienced

A Renowned Horror Author

The Summer People by a master of suspense

I discovered this story years ago and it has stayed with me since then. The named vacationers happen to be the Allisons from New York, who occupy the same remote country cottage every summer. On this occasion, instead of heading back to the city, they choose to prolong their stay a few more weeks – a decision that to unsettle everyone in the nearby town. Each repeats the same veiled caution that no one has lingered by the water past Labor Day. Even so, the couple insist to remain, and at that point things start to get increasingly weird. The individual who delivers oil refuses to sell to them. No one will deliver food to the cabin, and at the time the Allisons endeavor to drive into town, their vehicle refuses to operate. A tempest builds, the batteries within the device die, and with the arrival of dusk, “the aged individuals crowded closely in their summer cottage and waited”. What might be the Allisons anticipating? What could the townspeople know? Whenever I revisit this author’s chilling and inspiring tale, I recall that the top terror originates in the unspoken.

Mariana Enríquez

An Eerie Story from a noted author

In this short story a couple journey to a common beach community where bells ring the whole time, an incessant ringing that is bothersome and puzzling. The first extremely terrifying episode takes place after dark, as they opt to go for a stroll and they can’t find the sea. There’s sand, the scent exists of rotting fish and brine, waves crash, but the water appears spectral, or another thing and even more alarming. It’s just deeply malevolent and whenever I go to the shore in the evening I recall this narrative that ruined the beach in the evening to my mind – in a good way.

The recent spouses – the woman is adolescent, the man is mature – go back to their lodging and find out the reason for the chiming, in a long sequence of enclosed spaces, gruesome festivities and death-and-the-maiden encounters danse macabre bedlam. It is a disturbing contemplation regarding craving and deterioration, a pair of individuals growing old jointly as spouses, the connection and brutality and gentleness of marriage.

Not merely the most frightening, but perhaps a top example of brief tales available, and a personal favourite. I experienced it en español, in the initial publication of Aickman stories to be published in Argentina in 2011.

A Prominent Novelist

Zombie from an esteemed writer

I perused this narrative by a pool in the French countryside recently. Even with the bright weather I experienced an icy feeling within me. Additionally, I sensed the excitement of anticipation. I was writing my latest book, and I faced an obstacle. I didn’t know if there was any good way to craft certain terrifying elements the narrative involves. Reading Zombie, I saw that it was possible.

Published in 1995, the story is a bleak exploration into the thoughts of a young serial killer, Quentin P, modeled after an infamous individual, the serial killer who slaughtered and mutilated numerous individuals in the Midwest between 1978 and 1991. Notoriously, the killer was obsessed with making a compliant victim that would remain him and carried out several grisly attempts to accomplish it.

The deeds the book depicts are horrific, but similarly terrifying is its psychological persuasiveness. Quentin P’s dreadful, fragmented world is plainly told using minimal words, identities hidden. The reader is immersed stuck in his mind, compelled to witness thoughts and actions that shock. The alien nature of his mind is like a bodily jolt – or getting lost on a desolate planet. Entering Zombie is less like reading but a complete immersion. You are consumed entirely.

Daisy Johnson

A Haunting Novel by Helen Oyeyemi

In my early years, I walked in my sleep and subsequently commenced suffering from bad dreams. On one occasion, the horror involved a dream where I was confined in a box and, upon awakening, I discovered that I had torn off a part out of the window frame, seeking to leave. That home was crumbling; when it rained heavily the ground floor corridor became inundated, fly larvae came down from the roof on to my parents’ bed, and once a large rat scaled the curtains in the bedroom.

When a friend gave me this author’s book, I had moved out with my parents, but the tale about the home perched on the cliffs felt familiar to myself, homesick at that time. It is a story about a haunted clamorous, atmospheric home and a girl who eats calcium from the shoreline. I cherished the novel deeply and went back repeatedly to the story, always finding {something

Anita Fuentes
Anita Fuentes

Elara is a seasoned poker strategist with over a decade of experience in competitive tournaments and coaching.