Staley Fleming’s Hallucination
Ambrose BierceStaley Fleming sees a dog beside his bed every night, but it vanishes when he sits up.
4 min · Eerie
The story shelf
Follow your curiosity.
A name you know. A mood you’re in. Ten minutes to yourself. Start anywhere.
What would you like to read about?
That of Granny Magone
Ambrose BierceNeighbors keeping vigil beside a dead woman in her mountain cabin witness something they cannot explain.
3 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Superstition · Death
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Occasion
- Funerals & wakes
- Written for
- For adults
The Death of Halpin Frayser
Ambrose BierceLost in a California forest, Halpin Frayser dreams of a deadly encounter with someone he knows.
26 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Death · Family · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- Wilderness
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Isle of Pines
Ambrose BierceAn isolated house rumored to hide a fortune draws visitors after its secretive owner dies.
7 min · Eerie
More details
- Settings
- The countryside
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Haunted house · Buried treasure
The Middle Toe of the Right Foot
Ambrose BierceTwo men agree to fight with knives in a house said to be haunted.
15 min · Foreboding
More details
- Settings
- The home · The countryside
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Haunted house · Duels
The Moonlit Road
Ambrose BierceA mother is murdered, a father vanishes, and three accounts tell different parts of what happened.
16 min · Eerie
More details
- Settings
- The home · The countryside
- Style
- Ornate
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Epistolary & diary
- Motifs
- Séances & spiritualism
The Mystery of Charles Farquharson
Ambrose BierceA corpse appears in a locked third-floor bedroom, and no one can identify it.
3 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Death · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
The Night-Doings at “Deadman’s”
Ambrose BierceAlone in a deserted mining camp, Hiram Beeson waits each night for a visitor from beneath his floor.
14 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Death · Race & prejudice
- Settings
- The frontier · Wilderness
- Tone
- Darkly comic
- Style
- Ornate · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Written for
- For adults
The Other Lodgers
Ambrose BierceAn exhausted traveler checks into an Atlanta hotel and wakes to find his room occupied.
4 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Death · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
- Motifs
- Haunted house
The Secret of Macarger’s Gulch
Ambrose BierceA hunter spends the night in an abandoned gulch cabin and hears a struggle he cannot see.
13 min · Eerie
More details
- Settings
- Wilderness
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Haunted house
The Spook House
Ambrose BierceTwo travelers shelter from a storm in a house whose owners disappeared years earlier.
6 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Death · Appearance vs reality
- Settings
- The countryside
- Style
- Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
- Motifs
- Haunted house
The Stranger
Ambrose BierceA stranger at a desert campfire tells how four prospectors were trapped in a cave thirty years earlier.
9 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Death · Survival · Courage & cowardice
- Settings
- Wilderness · The frontier
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Conversational
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
A Dead Body
Anton ChekhovTwo peasants keep vigil beside a shrouded stranger while a nervous pilgrim discovers that faith offers little protection from fear.
8 min · Eerie
More details
- Themes
- Death · Superstition
- Settings
- The countryside
- Tone
- Wry
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
A Story Without an End
Anton ChekhovA writer tends a wounded widower beside his wife’s coffin and listens as he tries to explain a despair he cannot explain to himself.
15 min · Unsettling
More details
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Conversational · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Occasion
- Funerals & wakes
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story
An Actor’s End
Anton ChekhovA strong old actor falls ill far from home, while his theatrical companions mistake remedies and affection for understanding.
11 min · Tragic
More details
- Themes
- Death · Isolation · Art & artists
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Darkly comic
- Style
- Plain · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
An Incident
Anton ChekhovTwo small children make newborn kittens the center of their world, while the adults around them barely notice the stakes.
9 min · Tender
More details
- Themes
- Coming of age · Death · Parenthood
- Settings
- The home
- Tone
- Ironic
- Style
- Plain
- Pace
- Brisk
- Written for
- For adults
Gusev
Anton ChekhovA gravely ill soldier sails home from the Far East, sustained by memories of snow, family, and a village impossibly far away.
25 min · Melancholy
More details
- Themes
- Death · Class & poverty · Empire & colonialism
- Settings
- At sea
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Lyrical · Descriptive
- Pace
- Leisurely
- Occasion
- Funerals & wakes
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Journeys & quests
In the Coach-House
Anton ChekhovWhile servants play cards in a dark coach-house, a lodger dies nearby and an old tale turns a child’s unease into terror.
10 min · Chilling
More details
- Themes
- Death · Superstition · Grief
- Settings
- Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story · Vignette & sketch
In the Graveyard
Anton ChekhovA wet graveyard walk leads to an actor drinking beside the neglected grave of the man who shaped and ruined his life.
4 min · Melancholy
More details
- Themes
- Death · Memory · Art & artists
- Tone
- Darkly comic
- Style
- Descriptive · Conversational
- Pace
- Measured
- Occasion
- Funerals & wakes
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
Misery
Anton ChekhovA grieving cabman carries strangers through the snowy city, searching among them for someone willing to hear about his son.
10 min · Melancholy
More details
- Settings
- The city · Offices & workplaces
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Descriptive · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Vignette & sketch
Sorrow
Anton ChekhovDriving his gravely ill wife through a blizzard, a drunken turner discovers remorse only when time is almost gone.
10 min · Tragic
More details
- Themes
- Guilt · Addiction & dependence · Death
- Settings
- Wilderness · The countryside
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Plain · Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Motifs
- Journeys & quests
The Bishop
Anton ChekhovDuring Holy Week, an ailing bishop longs to meet his visiting mother as a son rather than as the distant office everyone sees.
29 min · Melancholy
More details
- Settings
- The city
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Descriptive · Symbolic
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Dependents
Anton ChekhovAn impoverished old man can no longer feed the horse and dog that depend on him, yet neither anger nor dismissal can break their attachment.
11 min · Tragic
More details
- Themes
- Class & poverty · Aging · Death
- Settings
- Villages & small towns · The countryside
- Tone
- Detached
- Style
- Descriptive
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
The Examining Magistrate
Anton ChekhovOn the road to an inquest, a magistrate challenges a doctor to explain a healthy woman’s precisely foretold death.
9 min · Unsettling
More details
- Settings
- The countryside
- Tone
- Earnest
- Style
- Conversational · Plain
- Pace
- Measured
- Written for
- For adults
- Craft
- Frame story