Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
Teens’ sleepovers and camping trips are incomplete without some spooky stories. Horror stories for teenagers can offer them pleasure like no other, whether they have gathered together for a study night out or just a casual get-together with friends.
This post has the finest compilation of terrifying short horror stories to make a teens’ night out thrilling and fun. Prepare yourself for a spooky time with these ghost stories.
16 Short Scary Stories For Teens
1. Humans Can Lick Too
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
This is a frightening story of a girl who was alone at home one night, for the first time. She has a dog to keep her company. The girl listens on the news about a serial killer on the loose. She goes to sleep after locking all the doors and windows but for one, which doesn’t close.
Suddenly she is awakened by a dripping sound. Scared thoroughly, she tries to go back to sleep and puts her hand down the bed for a reassuring lick from her dog. As the dripping sound continues, she goes to check on the taps in the kitchen, bathroom and everywhere else but finds nothing.
She returns to her bedroom and puts the hand down again for the dog to lick. The dripping sound continues and the girl is too frightened to fall asleep. But as her hand gets licked from under the bed, she slowly falls asleep.
In the morning, when she opens the closet, she finds her dog killed and hanged upside down. The dripping sound was from the dog’s blood. On the closet doors, she sees a message – “Humans can lick, too”.
— Urban Legend
2. Aren’t You Glad, You Didn’t Turn On The Lights?
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
Two best friends Meg and Samantha, live in the same room of the college dormitory. Samantha goes out for a party with her date while Meg stays back to study for the upcoming mid-term exams. When Samantha returns from the party, lights are all turned off. She does not switch on the lights as her friend is asleep.
Early in the morning, Sam tries to wake Meg up to discuss the exams. As Meg doesn’t respond, Sam hesitantly uncovers her face to wake her up. She gets horrified to discover Meg’s face turned black and blue, and falls on the floor in a state of shock. She observes that Meg’s study table was all messed up and finds a creepy note on the wall, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?” The murderer must have very much been in the room when Sam came the previous night.
— Urban Legend
[ Read: Vampire Books For Teens ]
3. Spiders In The Hairdo
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
This spine-chilling tale is about Dolores, a teenage girl, who is living on her own for the first time after graduation. She does not have enough money but makes sure to save some bucks to maintain her giant beehive hairdo. She does everything to maintain the hairdo as instructed by the hairstylist, but one day she wakes up with a terrible itch in the scalp.
Dolores tries some cures but realizes that a spider bite is causing the itch. So she calls an exterminator to kill all the spiders and insects in her room. But her pain does not reduce and visits a doctor. The medication given by the doctor fails.
Frustrated, she rushes to her stylist. The salon is full and the hairstylist asks Dolores to wait. She pushes a lady out of the salon chair and asks for immediate attention.
When the stylist begins to unwrap the beehive hairdo, black widow spiders start crawling down her face and soon the salon is filled with the spiders moving slowly in every corner. Everyone in the salon starts rushing out while Dolores is dead in her chair.
The stylist is horrified to see the beehive hairdo fall to the floor and tiny black widow spiders coming out of the hatched eggs in the scalp of Dolores. It was a macabre scene as the scalp of Dolores was half eaten by the black widow spiders.
— David Holt
Did you know?4. The Vanishing Hitch-Hiker
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
This next eerie story is about a man driving home late in the night when he spots a girl asking for a hitchhike. The pretty girl is dressed in a beautiful white dress. The man offers her a ride and they strike up an interesting conversation. He drops the girl at her home.
Next day, while driving for work he notices that the girl by accident has forgotten her sweater in his car. He drives towards her home to hand over the sweater. An old lady opens the door when he rings the bell. He narrates the incident which occurred last night and gives the sweater to the lady.
The lady refuses to accept it, saying he is mistaken. The man is surprised and questions the lady again. He is dumbstruck and left in an unsettling situation when the lady says her daughter died in a car accident a couple of years ago.
— Jan Harold Brunvand
5. Far Far Away
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
In a faraway village called Never Better lived a boy Jeremy Johnson Johnson. Since his childhood, he is haunted by a ghost and he becomes friends with it. But Jeremy is ridiculed by people as they assume that he is talking to himself.
Jeremy’s life changes when he meets Ginger, a beautiful girl, and they grow close to each other. She invites him to play a prank on the town baker and their bond is strengthened when the prank succeeds. The two children set out on an adventure to save the bookstore of Jeremy’s family. While saving the bookstore, Ginger and Jeremy unfold the mystery of disappearing children in the village with the help of the ghost. Would Ginger and Jeremy go missing too?
— Tom McNeal
[ Read: Mystery Books For Teens ]
6. Lover’s Lane
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
A teenage couple is in a deserted lover’s lane, making out in their car. After a short while, the radio stops to announce alarming news that a convicted serial killer just escaped from the asylum. People are asked to report to the police if they see a strange looking man with a hook on the hand.
The girl is frightened and requests the boy to rush home immediately. The boy initially disagrees and tries hard to convince his date to stay, but eventually, they both head back.
When they arrive at the girl’s house, she gets down and tries to close the car door but it won’t close. She freezes as she sees a hook suspending from the doorknob.
— Urban Legend
7. The Cats of Ulthar
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
An old couple in the town of Ulthar finds pleasure in mercilessly killing any cats that enter their property.The other residents of the town do not speak up against the evil acts but try to keep their felines away from the couple’s property.
One night, some travelers pass through this town and among them is an orphaned boy who has nobody but only a kitten. The kitten goes missing after a couple of days and he comes to know about the old couple.
The little boy focuses all his energies and unleashes a prayer which affects the sky and the movement of clouds. The travelers leave Ulthar and the people notice that all their cats have gone missing. People are worried but have no clue about the whereabouts of their cats.
The cats return on the following day and seem well-fed, but the old couple has vanished. When the people explore the property, they find the ghastly skeletons of two humans which have been picked clean.
— H.P. Lovecraft
8. The Monkey’s Paw
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
Sergeant-Major Morris introduces a mummified monkey paw to Mr. and Mrs. White. He tells them that he found it while serving in India. The paw has the ability to grant three wishes but they always come with terrible consequences.
Mr.White ignores Morris’ warnings and asks the paw a wish for £200. Next day he receives the news that his son Herbert died in an accident at his workplace. The employer sends £200 as compensation for the family of the accident victim.
Mrs.White is anguished and wants her son back. After nearly 10 days of the funeral, the couple decides to ask for another wish. They rub the monkey’s paw and ask for his son to come back. They hear a knock on the door. The knock turns into banging and Mrs.White fumbles to open the door.
Terrified with the idea of seeing a mutilated and decomposed body of their son outside his house, Mr.White makes the third and final wish. The door knocks stop and when Mrs.White opens the door, she is shattered in pain and disappointment as there is nobody there.
— W.W. Jacobs
[ Read: Fantasy Books For Teens ]
Quick fact9. Children Of The Corn
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
A quarrelsome couple is driving towards California to find a better paying job for Burt, the husband. While driving, they accidentally run over a boy who appeared out of nowhere. They blame each other for the accident and finally decide to check the body. While examining the boy, a shiver runs down their body as they discover that his throat was slit already and was bleeding to death. On further investigation, Vicky, the wife, finds a strange crucifix made of corn husks, in the boy’s bag.
The couple argues over where to take the body and decide to drive towards Gatlin which is just down the road. Gatlin is an isolated community in an abandoned ghost village. They drive further into the ghostly place and see that the calendar and gas prices are all outdated.
Burt stops the vehicle at a church to go and find someone. Vicky starts to scream for help when she sees many children dressed in Amish clothing heading toward the car. The children pull Vicky out of the car and start beating her mercilessly. When Burt intervenes, Vicky escapes and goes missing.
The sun sets and the ghostly place turns very dark. Burt goes and hides in a cornfield. As the daylight breaks, he sees Vicky tied to a cross with barbed wires and her eyes ripped out. There are no animals or weeds in the cornfield and nobody to take care of the corn fields. But the cornfield is still blooming.
Children of the corn find Burt, and a giant red-eyed monster emerging from the field ruthlessly kills Burt. The children belong to a cult that worships “He Who Walks Behind the Rows,” the monster who killed Burt.
— Stephen King
10. The Black Cat
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
The narrator and his wife live in a house with their pet cat named Pluto. The couple is very fond of their large black cat, and Pluto too loves the narrator. Their close friendship lasts many years until one day when the narrator hangs the cat under the influence of alcohol.
Soon after the cat’s death, their house catches fire and everything is destroyed. But one wall, which survives the mysterious fire, has an imprint of the large cat tied upside down with a rope.
Disturbed on seeing this, the narrator regrets his actions. One fine evening, he finds a similar cat in a bar and brings that home. The new cat is very similar to Pluto, except for minor differences. Whenever the man sees the new cat, he is reminded of Pluto and is filled with a feeling of guilt.
One day when the man and his wife are walking towards the cellar, the cat gets under the feet of his master and he trips down the stairs. In a fit of rage, he tries to kill the new cat too. But the wife stops him, and in this process gets killed accidentally.
He hides the body inside a wall in the house and when the police investigation begins he takes careful steps. On the day of closing the murder mystery, the police hear a disturbing loud crying sound from one of the walls. The police start breaking down the walls of that room and discover the rotting body of the dead wife.
Beside the dead body is a cat, grinning and meowing vehemently.
— Edgar Allan Poe
11. The Vampyre
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
Aubrey, an English gentleman, meets a mysterious man named Lord Ruthven. Aubrey goes to Rome with Ruthven but when he finds Ruthven doing wrongful acts with the daughter of a mutual acquaintance, he leaves him.
Aubrey is attracted to Lanthe, a pretty woman he meets in Greece. Lanthe shares stories about the legends of the bloodcurdling Vampires. Ruthven hears them talking and a couple of days later, Lanthe is found dead. Apparently, she is killed by a vampire.
Aubrey continues traveling with Ruthven. On their journey, they are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is gravely wounded. Ruthven takes a promise from Aubrey before dying, that he will not mention about this death to anyone for one year and a day.
One day, Aubrey suddenly realizes that everyone who met Ruthven suffered horribly. He is in London now and is shocked to see Ruthven alive and healthy. Ruthven starts seeing Aubrey’s sister and proposes her for marriage. Aubrey wants to warn his sister about Ruthven but Ruthven reminds him of the oath.
Aubrey is bound by the oath and has a nervous breakdown. Still he writes a letter to his sister, but she gets married to Ruthven before the letter arrives. On the night of the wedding, Aubrey’s sister is discovered dead, fully drained of her blood. Ruthven has fled.
— John William Polidori
Did you know?12. A Room In The Tower
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
A young man repeatedly gets a nightmare that he is visiting a friend’s house, whose family is weird. The malevolent mother of his friend, Mrs.Stone, allots a dreadful room in a huge tower for him to retire.
His nightmare repeats but keeps varying every night and the characters in the dream keep growing over the years. In his dream one day, Mrs.Stone expires and she is buried, but she still keeps assigning the same room to him.
In the young man’s normal life, his friend Clinton invites him for dinner one day. He is surprised to see that everything matches with the nightmare. But the personalities and names are different and he has an enjoyable experience. Due to a thunderstorm warning, Clinton’s mother advises him to stay with the family that night and allots a room that is similar to the one he sees in his nightmares. He is shocked at the resemblance.
In the room, he finds a very old painting of Mrs.Stone. With the help of Clinton, he moves the painting to the hall. They are amazed to see their hands covered in blood even though neither of them is injured.
They go to bed but the young man is unable to fall asleep and wake up in horror to find Mrs.Stone standing on the top of his bed. She tells him that she is a vampire and is here to turn the young man also into a vampire.
They get into a fight and he manages to escape. When he rushes out of the room, Clinton comes out hearing the commotion. They discover that the portrait is back on the wall in his room. They get scared and flee away.
An old newspaper carries the news that Mrs.Stone’s coffin keeps erupting every day and has to be reburied.
— E.F. Benson
13. The Boarded Window
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
Murlock, a villager, returns from the forest and finds his wife having severe fits, which eventually causes her death. He could not save her and sits alone with his dead wife. Tired and exhausted, Murlock falls asleep.
From an open window in his cabin, comes a loud, weeping sound which is similar to the crying of a lost child in the deep woods. Murlock doesn’t move. The sound starts again and gets louder and louder.
When Murlock wakes up, he feels some strange presence in his cabin. There is some weird movement in the dark. Murlock fires his rifle in the air and lights a candle. He witnesses a panther hauling his wife by the neck. When he examines the dead body of his wife, Murlock notices the earlobe of the panther stuck between her teeth.
— Ambrose Bierce
14. The Monkey
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
Two young brothers Peter and Dennis find a clapping monkey toy in the basement of their great uncle’s home.
In the past, their father, Hal, had originally found the monkey in his father’s cupboard when he was a child. Hal’s father disappeared under strange circumstances and a weird connection between the monkey and the missing father is established. It is revealed that the monkey is cursed and whenever it claps, someone from Hal’s family dies.
As a child, Hal saw his relatives dying one after the other whenever the monkey clapped. Oppressed by the monkey’s devilish enchantment, Hal threw the clapping monkey into a deep well, which now resurfaces with his children.
When Peter and Dennis find the monkey again, Hal shoves it deep down inside a lake. He hopes the problem is solved forever. A couple of days later, a news headline mentions about the mysterious death of all the fishes in the lake.
— Stephen King
15. The Landlady
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
A young man Billy Weaver is traveling in a cold winter night and seeks a place to stay. After searching a lot, he comes across a boarding house. He rings the bell and an old lady welcomes him inside.
He signs the guest book and gives all the required details. While filling up the guest book, he reads the names and details of other guests who previously stayed there and finds their names quite familiar.
The old lady offers some food and drinks to Billy but he refuses as he is tired and wants to go to bed. However, they have a conversation over some tea. Billy notices some peculiar things about the living room. The parrot is sitting quietly in the cage and a dog is lying near the fireplace.
While talking, Billy asks about the other guests and the lady starts saying strange things. She says that one of her guests, Mr. Mulholland, had nice, soft skin.
The situation gets ominous. Billy asks if the parrot is alive. The lady says neither the parrot nor the dog is alive. He panics and wants to get out immediately. He realizes that the names which appeared familiar were the names given in the newspaper about people who mysteriously disappeared. Finally, Billy asks if there have been any other guests, in the last three years, at the boarding house. The lady says none but him.
— Roald Dahl
16. The Graveyard Challenge
Image: Dall·E/ Momjunction Design Team
A group of teenage girls spends a sleepover at the house of one of the girls whose parents were out for the night. The girls start talking about a ghost in the nearby cemetery. One of them says that a man was recently buried alive and that people can hear him trying to break out of the coffin at night.
Another girl expresses disbelief at the urbane legend and rubbishes it as a fake story. They challenge her to prove her point, so she dares to go to the cemetery and promises to return after driving a stake into the soil above the dead man’s coffin. She leaves immediately while her friends wait for her return. When she doesn’t return until morning, they visit the cemetery to find her.
In the cemetery, they see her lying dead next to a grave with a stake driven into her heart. Examining the stake, they notice ‘challenge accepted’ written on it.
— Urban Legend
Image: Stable Diffusion/MomJunction Design Team
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are horror stories appropriate for middle schoolers?
For middle schoolers, horror is often considered appropriate for intellectual development. The students are keen on understanding their fears and overcoming them. By experiencing them through gothic stories, they get a chance to be afraid while still feeling safe.
2. Why should schools teach horror stories?
Horror stories help children expand their imagination, experience courage, and look for solutions to the puzzle. These stories let them know that they are allowed to be afraid. By exploring scary suspenseful stories in a safe environment like a classroom, the students can also expand their sense of community. With the guidance of a teacher, middle schoolers may learn to face their fears.
3. Why do some teenagers love horror?
Horror stories can stimulate the senses and make teenagers feel the thrill and excitement along with fear. Jump scares, deformed faces, and the unavoidable suspense leads them to seek adventures without leaving the comfort of their safe surroundings. Besides, sharing horror stories brings people closer together, thus establishing a stronger bond between friends.
Night-outs, sleepovers, and camping excursions can be made more thrilling when you include some spooky, hair-raising horror stories for teenagers. You may narrate any classic horror story, such as “Spiders in the Hairdo,” “The Cats of Ulthar,” and “Monkey’s Paw,” to add some spookiness to the night. Horrors stories are most effective when narrated as if they are real-life stories and had happened to someone you know. Turn on a torch, wrap a blanket around you, and narrate the story in a spooky, mysterious voice for some extra effects.
Key Pointers
- Short horror stories for teens are thrilling, engaging, and a spine-chilling experience.
- These spooky stories are best narrated during sleepovers, campfires, and around the Halloween festival.
- Horror stories listed in this article are written in age-appropriate language and they cover different experiences ranging from a lonely graveyard to a black spider and a vampire.
Four terrifying true stories of teenagers that will give you chills. Hear about their experiences and be prepared to be scared!
Read full bio of Elisabeth Daly
Read full bio of Harshita Makvana
Read full bio of Deepa Thomas
