Folkhorror Stories

Humanity is struggling to survive in a world that's no longer theirs. Liv, a scavenger leading missions to the edges of the city for food, medicine, and iron, knows things are getting worse. Every trip feels more desperate than the last. Humanity has an expiration date-the forest, and the creatures that dwell there, just have to wait them out. When a mission turns out to be a trap and Liv wakes up on the wrong side of the tree line-alone, disoriented, and for some reason not dead-she learns the forest doesn't just kill people or take their souls. It changes them. She doesn't know what she's becoming. Only that it's something way stronger than what she was. And that killing things never felt this good. Murderbot meets The Cruel Prince-with a whole lot of psychological horror My entry for onc2025, based on prompt 125: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. - Frank Herbert

The Covenant of the Hollow Womb (A three-part Ozark folk-horror novella) In the iron-dark hollers of Caldwell Ridge, the mountain keeps its own scripture. 1888. Mercy Caldwell makes a bargain with something older than sin: one child every generation, measured exact, paid in blood and breath. The cradle never burns. The handprint never fades. The psalm is always sung backward. A century later, the tithe comes due again. Three women, three lifetimes, one cradle. Mercy, who spoke the covenant. Temperance, who tried to break it. Clara, who was born to finish it. They all thought they could outrun the mountain. They all learned the mountain doesn't chase. It waits. It rocks. It hungers. Some debts are measured in inches. Some debts are measured in souls. The Hollow Womb is full... ...but never satisfied.

Me and @DarkPsychoPrincess have made a plot and idea together and are taking it and making it into our own separate stories so check hers out too! ... When Emily Ash Williams returns home to Hollow's End after visiting her sick mother, she finds nothing where her town once stood - no houses, no roads, just empty earth and a field of half-melted candles still warm to the touch. She isn't alone. Michael "Mickey" Anderson, who'd been away on a college tour, has come back to the same nightmare. Together they uncover a forgotten book buried in the sand - a record of a century-old pact made between the founders of Hollow's End and something called the Keeper Beneath. Every two years, the town was meant to perform a ritual of light to keep the darkness at bay. But the candles went out. And now the Keeper has come to collect what it's owed. As the line between the living and the vanished begins to blur, Emily must decide whether to relight the candles and risk becoming the next "keeper"... or let the town stay buried forever. The light protected them once. Now it might be what destroys them.

On a world where Canada is a global superpower, Kadence Yates has recently moved to a new city with her father. They are starting a new life after a dark past with Kadence's mother on the reserve. But V20 isn't just any city. It's located on the side of a volcano! There are plenty of cities like this through out Canada. Where people sell precious metals and stones from the cooled down magma. Even selling oil has gotten easier. Thanks to the discovery of it's solid form; Oleum Petrae. People have transformed and refined it into refined oil. Though Kadence is going to be encountering things from myths, legends, and the past of the mining city. Could Kadence take the heat from these scary supernatural threats? Or is there something else she doesn't know about? Something so mysterious that it could only be found in the hot lava of the Vio-Burst volcano.

The rain never stops in Salem's Wake. When Lenora Hallow returns to bury her father, the town feels less abandoned than asleep - and the church he left behind still breathes. Each night, the bell tolls at 3:33. Each morning, the soil on her floor grows darker. Something beneath the church listens when she moves, remembers when she speaks, and waits when she prays. In a place where faith rots slow and silence has a pulse, Lenora must decide whether she's uncovering her father's madness or inheriting his devotion. Because in Salem's Wake, there is no God. Only the one who remembers.

She said no. It killed her husband. Then took her child. Now it wants her. Gachsaran, 1985. One promise. One stalker.

When five teenage boys hike to an abandoned town deep in the Appalachian wilderness, they expect a weekend of exploration and legend-chasing. But something in Lost Cove has been waiting for them. Something old. Something that marks and chooses. As the forest folds in around them, one by one they begin to disappear, and the only way out may be through a preacher who never stopped preaching.

When a grieving family moves into an isolated countryside manor to escape their past, they discover the estate is built upon a cursed land where the boundary between the living and the dead is paper-thin-a hollow veil. At first, it's whispers, fleeting shadows, and strange reflections in mirrors. But soon, the veil begins to tear open, unleashing grotesque figures and tortured souls desperate to reclaim their place in the living world. The family must uncover the dark ritual that created the veil centuries ago-before they themselves become part of it. But every answer they find pulls them deeper into the hollow, where reality and nightmare fuse into one.

Paranelope, a ghost hunter who's been cancelled for faking evidence, must discover the truth behind a local cryptid in order to clear her name. -- Penelope, better known as the ghost hunter PARANELOPE to her millions of followers, has only ever wanted one thing: to find solid, irrefutable proof of the supernatural. But when her ex-boyfriend outs all of her evidence as fake, her fans and the rest of the Internet are quick to turn on her. Now not only is Penelope betrayed, heartbroken, and #cancelled... She's not sure what to believe in anymore. Seeking refuge, Penelope lands in the quiet little mountain town of Ridgestone, far away from the city and reliable cell service. But Ridgestone isn't as quiet as it first appeared, and washed-up influencers aren't the only thing haunting its surrounding woods. The little town is home to a cryptid, a legendary monster, just like the ones she used to hunt. A monster that seems particularly interested in Penelope. If only someone would believe her... Rankings ------------ Featured on the Front Page Featured in Don't Get Ghosted #1 in #Paranormal #1 in #Cryptid #1 in #Creature #1 in #FolkHorror #2 in #Ghost

Before the next page in Hermeitis's grimoire, there is another story. Not written by a wizard, but spoken by a villager who strayed too far past the tree line. They say he's an old friend of Hermeitis-a kindly mage with a strange grin and stranger hobbies. But the boy who wandered into his lair would tell you otherwise. This is the tale of Fenwick Merryweather-where the jars still breathe, the tea speaks in memories, and the smoke never rises.

An English reconnaissance unit vanished deep in Serbia in 1915. Months later, two soldiers returned-marked by trauma, changed beyond recognition, and obsessed with a place no one could find on any map: Velinovac. A chapel that breathes. Children without eyes. A village not buried in soil, but in memory. Velinovac was never found-because it was never meant to be.

Written by Shantanu Singh Call of the Dark Woods is a chilling horror story that follows Emma as she ventures into the mysterious and cursed Dark Woods. Despite hearing stories about the dangers lurking there, Emma dismisses the idea of a curse until she finds herself pulled deeper into the forest by a voice calling her name. As the fog thickens and the trees close in, Emma encounters a ghostly figure that beckons her forward. Desperate to escape, she stumbles upon an eerie cabin, only to realize that her fate is sealed. The woman from the woods claims her, and Emma is swallowed by the darkness, forever lost to the cursed forest.

In the isolated village of Ravensbrook, whispers tell of shadowy figures that lurk in the ancient woods, waiting for their next victim. Historian Dr. Eleanor Graves arrives to uncover the truth behind the disappearances that have plagued the village for centuries. But as she digs deeper, she realizes the terrifying folklore is not just a legend-it's a curse. Marked as the next sacrifice, Eleanor must unravel the secrets of a forbidden ritual before the darkness claims her. As night falls, the shadows stir, and the village breathes. Will she break the cycle or vanish into the abyss like so many before her?

Everybody wants to be free. To live freely, but even "freedom" exists with a boundary until you get lost with weary. Where do people go when they vanish? And how could they return after leaving the door? This is a story of people who disappeared and were found different than before.

What happens after you hit a deer with your car? And not turn it into pocket jerky?

Sir Denys de Morville, The Knight of Ivy, is journeying back to his home in Knaresburgh, fresh from his triumph at a grand tournament. His bravery is legendary, his arrogance equally so, yet he is adored by all. His reputation as a fearless knight precedes him, and he has never shied away from a challenge. As he travels past the ominous Ryngwoode, he senses a dark presence lurking in the shadows. However, unbeknownst to him, a different challenge awaits: the simple needs of a local merchant. Set in an alternate-history medieval England, "The Knight Of Ivy: A Tale From The Ryngwoode" is the first in a series of short stories building the world of "Children of Wolves", a forthcoming full-length novel set in a world inspired by knights, folk-horror and black metal!

In the forgotten village of Dunhallow, the earth remembers what the living have tried to forget. When Maeve Halcroft returns to bury her estranged mother, she finds a place bound by ancient rituals, unspoken rules, and voices that rise from the soil at night. Drawn deeper into the village's spiraling patterns, she uncovers a truth older than the stones-and a fate written in the roots beneath her feet.

A young woman's first day out with a new friend in a new town takes a turn for the strange.

A short horror story - Part 1 What started as a simple mix-up turned into something else entirely. Would you stay on the bus... if it stopped by the cemetery? 👻 Let me know if I should post Part 2... #horrorstories #shortfiction #busridegonewrong #halloweenstory #creepypasta

In the quiet hills of Darjeeling, something ancient has awakened. when tragedy strikes the Rai family in the peaceful villageof Mansi Gaw. It sets off a chain of eerie events that no one can explain. Children fall ill. Shadows whisper. And at night, something moves in the forest. as school teacher John Rai searches for answers, he is pulled deeper into the haunted past of his family- and the terrifying rituals of the jhākris, shamans who peak with the dead. with faith unraveling and fear spreading, a horrifying truth surfaces, some spirits never rest, and some bloodlines are cursed.