Category: Short Stories

I love me some Halloween. I honor the holiday by celebrating it with 31 Days of horror stories, novels, comics, movies, and TV shows. I try to strike a balance between enjoying the classics and my favorites and seeking out things that are new to me. In case you need a short story, here’s a list of 6 of my spooky stories available on my site:

CLIP SHOW – a bad habit becomes something worse.

POINT THE FINGER – a gory tale of infection set on a school bus

CAVE TROLL – a dialogue only tale set in the darkness of a cave.

MOUNTAIN PASS – a hike goes awry when two hikers stray from the path.

SPIDERFACE – a young girl gets bit by a spider or two.

ENGIRIL – never forget the boogeyman.

THE LITTLE GIRL – a ghost story.

Hope you all have a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dear Potential Reader,

As a parent, we all want our kids to be safe, but things happen. The following story is such a thing that a parent would call unthinkable. And while I’m not all for ‘trigger warnings’ I will preface this by saying POINT THE FINGER is not suitable for all readers . . .

CLICK HERE TO READ

With horror, sometimes subtle is too little, but graphic can be too much. While I am often enamored with subtle horror, creeping up on me, I don’t mind a good splatter fest. At the end of the day, as a writer, I’m not sure I can claim full responsibility when subtleness works or graphic horror lands. The reader has to participate. And sometimes expecting one and receiving the other can lead to disappointment. So I will say this about POINT THE FINGER, it certainly gets graphic.

Hope you Enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

Dear Potential Reader,

Spelunking is most people’s nightmare, but for those that love it, something else has to push that adrenaline rush into the realms of fear. But when all you have to guide you are voices, the absolute darkness has so much more potential for terror to be waiting . . .

CLICK HERE TO READ

This was one of the first dialogue only exercises I attempted. See THE EGG for another example. But this is the one that I believe welcomed the reasoning behind only dialogue because one of our most relied upon sense is taken away: sight. Without sight, what can be described except the darkness?

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

Dear Potential Reader,

The weather is warming up, and mountain laurels are starting to bloom all along the east coast. It might be worth the hike to the national and state forests, so long as you don’t find yourself trespassing, stumbling off the beaten path, disturbing an unnatural order as they do this short story . . .

CLICK HERE TO READ

MOUNTAIN PASS is an old tale from 2012, the 34^th short story in a goal to write 1 short story a week for the entire year. I’d over achieve on that goal and while not all are gems, it’s fun to keep returning to this tale, which was so vivid in my mind as I was also hiking almost weekly during this period—often times alone which is a great way to let the mind wander into all the what ifs.

Last year, I took a hike with a fellow writer and a few snafus in the morning had us arrive late, and so on our way down the mountain we began racing the sunset, ending up two miles away from our ride when we were plunged into darkness. Every root a possible injury and those noises in the leaves . . . well, one hoped not every creature was stirring just yet.

Of course, I’m telling you this tale, so you know it turned out fine in the end, but not every is so lucky as you’ll find out in this short story . . .

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE

Dear Potential Reader,

Need any reminders of the winter? Here’s one last snowy tale before the weather gets so hot we start to miss the opportunity for snow and school closings. In this tale, three boys get the day off with their dad for some backyard sledding and terror . . .

CLICK HERE TO READ

I’m of the variety of a person that loves seeing snow. I grew up plunging my face into the snow, trying to get that perfect frost-bitten look before mumbling, ‘Ben . . . Dagobah . . . Yoda . . .”

I still like to be reminded of winter weather (as we tend to get less and less here in Central Virginia). I’ll pop in EMPIRE STRIKES BACK or THE THING. But now that I’m older and snow impacts my safety and schedule, I do secretly cross my fingers for a warm winter. Perhaps the characters in this short story feel the same way.

Hope you enjoy.

All the best,

DAN JIRE