Shortly after the familiar pitter-patter began, my wife grabbed her umbrella and headed outside for a walk.
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Five seconds later she started screaming: “BUGS!”
Bite-Sized Horror #20: Precipitation
Author: Joshua G. J. Insole
A three-time winner of the Reedsy contest, Joshua G. J. Insole is a British writer who lives in the Austrian Alps. Author of several other shortlisted stories, he published his first book in 2020. Joshua’s favoured genres are horror and science fiction.
Bite-Sized Horror #19: Learning
My baby daughter has just started learning to crawl.
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I wish I knew how to get her down from the ceiling.
Bite-Sized Horror #18: Slab
“Is this a joke?” I asked, shivering.
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“She was right here,” said the diener, gesturing towards the bare slab.
Bite-Sized Horror #17: Search
After he confessed, they searched day and night for the bodies.
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It never occurred to the police that they might have moved on their own.
Bite-Sized Horror #16: Window
“What’s that noise?” asked my four-year-old daughter.
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“Just trees in the wind,” I said, whilst blocking her view of the window.
Bite-Sized Horror #15: Beautiful
Mom said she was just putting her face on.
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I walked in without knocking, thinking she was talking about makeup.
Bite-Sized Horror #14: Best Friend
I was really upset when Fido barked in my direction.
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I was even more upset when I realised, he wasn’t barking at me.
‘Too Many Candles’: Read my birthday-themed short horror story for this week’s Reedsy contest!
Happy Friday! I hope you’re all well! It’s been a great week, right? New music from Tool and everything! Anyway, to maintain tradition, I’ve submitted another story for Reedsy’s weekly contest!
As this is Reedsy’s 150th weekly prompt, the theme was that of ‘birthday’. Rather appropriate, don’t you think? Initially, I wasn’t sure where to take the story, but thoughts of cakes and candles set me off in the right direction… The title of my short story is Too Many Candles. You can read it here!
Enjoy the short read! And remember: always take a gift to a birthday party… you never know what might happen!
Have a good weekend!
P.S. As usual, I’ll be skipping Bite-Sized Horror today as I’m already posting. Check back for more two-sentence chills tomorrow!
Bite-Sized Horror #13: Prices
“All purchases are final,” said the salesman.
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I truly understood why he said it cost “an arm and a leg” when I heard the revving of the chainsaw.
Bite-Sized Horror #12: Eight
“They’re more scared of you than you are of them,” I had mocked.
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Slowly, I backed into the corner as the spiders kept coming.
joshuainsole.com 