psychological

Mind games taken way too far; explore the disturbing genre of psychological thrillers that make us question our perception of sanity and reality.

Widowmaker
I could feel the life draining out of her with every passing second. My hands wrapped tightly around her throat, our eyes locked, adrenaline coursing through my veins. It was kill or be killed, but there was one thing I couldn’t shake as her convulsing spasms finally abated.
By Bradley Ramsey5 years ago in Horror
Brass Clockwork
Thunder rolled in the distance and the gentle sound of rain began to patter against the ramshackle roof of Heinrich's shack. As the last gravekeeper within the small town of Eiselbracht; he had spent the majority of his life living among decay and deceased. Chill had begun to creep down from the mountains near his home, bringing frost and cold mist in the mornings and evenings to settle upon his headstones and cobbled pathways.
By Adam Hardy5 years ago in Horror
Garden without Birds
I was nineteen years old when given the opportunity to try Radionuclide therapy. My lover was shipped away to Cyprus last year, I hadn’t been able to pull myself from the mud. I’ve always been taught to wipe the shit off my face and get up one more time. That time seemed impossible. I was a waste disposal site in every sense of the term.
By Rachel Milt5 years ago in Horror
RED/GREEN
Red/Green By Aoife Nally So unripe, so unready. Oh my God, the thought of it, walking in silence beside him into a dark wood. A man so many years my senior. I’d never felt as young as that. It was the green of the year; first shoots brushed the cuffs of my upturned jeans. A place he didn’t show just anyone, a secret place only a few had ever heard of. We walked through the cathedral of trees, I felt verdant eyes blinking down on me, watching from ancient places. I was not prepared for this. There was a strange undulation on the forest floor, as if the earth had been carved out. A wild place forced to comply over hundreds and hundreds of years. I’d heard stories of men in vines and leaves, stag horns and heavy leather, up to strange rites in ancient places. Never heard of girls going there. I wondered why he wanted to show me this. I knew his sister, while she was alive, she was kind and quick and smart. Maybe he missed her so much he wanted to spend time with me. I knew they had been really close and sometimes in my dreams I could speak to her. I’d ask her about the oak wood and her much older brother and the men who danced in leaves. I never told her that the first time I met him the chain around my neck broke the heart shaped locket fell into my hands or that the first two words in my head when our eyes first met were “have me.” “A heart unchained” that’s what he said, taking the locket from my hands. I felt very naked without the weight of it on my neck. But for the first time I could feel the breeze across my throat. I guess he kept it. I haven’t seen it since.
By Aoife Anastasia5 years ago in Horror
Strange Comings
“Here hold this” I handed my now 12 year old daughter- my late momma’s heart shaped locket -as we heard the police checking door to door for all weapons and valuables. This has happened to us many of times over some of us know some of us refuse to face the knowing of that pain. We heard about when the police come and round everyone up something serious was about to happen and ours lives might’ve been taken this night. When they find our bodies they will find my mommas heart shaped locket on my now 12 year old’s body.
By Mona Muwwakkil5 years ago in Horror
Silence
The whistling of the teapot jolted me straight out of my skin and I trembled as I took it from the heat and poured the hot water into my cup. A stiff quiet had fallen over the house like a blanket. I dropped the teabag in and stared into the water as it steeped, the grayish-green of dried tea leaves seeping and swirling until the water turned murky. Warm, damp frills of bittersweet steam wafted into my nose, a sensation that often comforted me on nights like these.
By E. M. Otten5 years ago in Horror
The Flashlight
Isidoro takes a refreshing inhalation of the cool mountain air as he hikes along the trails in a quiet wooded area. He had worked sixteen days consecutively and was ready for a calm, relaxing day all alone with nature -- hiking, bird watching, and skinny-dipping in the lake.
By Rick Henry Christopher 5 years ago in Horror
Man
For Angel Greer Radmer never handled a body before. As a sniper he had killed his share of people, mostly men, but a few women and one child who had a bomb. Also, comically, a cow, a horse, and a camel, each on separate missions. He killed the cow to create a distraction, the horse was in the way of his target, and he shot the camel so it would fall on his target. That was his favorite kill – it was like a Looney Toons cartoon. But he never handled a body. He simply killed, confirmed the kill, and walked or drove away.
By Gene Lass5 years ago in Horror
The Transforming
The path that led me through the woods was one of the quieter walks of the week. There was nobody around me. It’s just how I preferred it. Since The Transforming three months ago, I had reason to seek as much solitude as possible. I needed time to process everything and get it all journaled. I had never witnessed anything so strange, even if it was my second time seeing it.
By Mariam Naeem5 years ago in Horror
Did They Ever Tell You How They Met?
SUNNY was always embarrassed when he’d tell people how they met. But it was an interesting story, so he’d loosen her up. There’d be laughing, teasing, usually pouring another drink if not a few, and always making sure to start the story off by saying “It could have happened to anyone”.
By Hamish McGlasson5 years ago in Horror
Shadows
It started out innocently enough. Your friends talked about it every so often as a joke, something that happens after you do too many hallucinogenic drugs: Fast-movers, flickering lights, glowing balls - shifting and twisting shadows out of the corners of your vision. Things that you thought were there, but actually weren't. It always sounded amusing, entertaining even - but then you started noticing it yourself, without any /extra/ help.
By Taylor Inman5 years ago in Horror
Since the Lights Went Out
Those who live their lives with blindness don’t know what light looks like; They have never seen a blue sky, a crimson rose, or the painted beauty of an evening sky. I had always struggled with this philosophy; The idea that the connection between our eyes absorbing rays of light and our minds creating images and landscapes was so far beyond our knowledge of the mind that practically nothing had ever been truly known about it baffled me. I had always lived with colour and light, perfect vision, and imagining the world in any other way seemed impossible. Life on earth exists because of our sun, the heat and light it provides fuels the plants and animals that call the earth home. The evolution of sight was a divine miracle, for the first time creatures could interpret distance, time, and colour without the need for sound and touch. Light brings with it life and beauty to our home of earth. When the lights went out, it all seemed to fade.
By Michael Chessell5 years ago in Horror