The Red Room
A confident young man insists on spending a night alone in the castle's haunted red room.
Short horror stories you can read in 20 minutes
These short horror stories build unease through haunted rooms, unsettling secrets, and the fear of what may be waiting just out of sight. Read “The Red Room,” “The Monkey’s Paw,” and other brief classics at your own pace; every story is free to read or listen to on Pagehush.
The Black Cat
A man who once loved animals begins to drink, and turns on his black cat, Pluto.
The Monkey's Paw
A dried monkey's paw will grant three wishes. The White family wish for two hundred pounds, and get it.
The Tell-Tale Heart
"True! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?"
The Cask of Amontillado
During carnival, Montresor lures the man who insulted him down into the family catacombs with the promise of a rare wine.
The Masque of the Red Death
While a plague rages through his country, Prince Prospero locks himself and a thousand friends in an abbey for a masked ball.
Thrawn Janet
In the Scottish village of Balweary, the young minister Murdoch Soulis takes as his housekeeper old Janet McClour, whom the parish distrusts because she is said to…
Living or Dead?
Kadambini, a young widow, falls ill and seems to die. They carry her to the burning-ghat on a stormy night, and there she wakes.
MS. Found in a Bottle
A passenger on a merchant ship is swept alone into a typhoon, and then carried south aboard a vast black phantom ship, manned by silent old sailors who never see him.
The Boarded Window
In the forests near Cincinnati, in 1830, a lonely settler lived in a cabin with one window, always boarded up.
The Damned Thing
At an inquest in a lonely cabin, the coroner reads out the diary of a dead man who was being followed by something no one could see.
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
A man who studies mesmerism asks a dying friend to be put under hypnosis at the very moment of death.
The Skeleton
When the narrator was a boy, a human skeleton hung in the room where he learned anatomy.
Where can I read short horror stories for free?
You can read these stories for free on Pagehush, with no ads. They’re easy to read on a phone, too.
Can I listen to these horror stories aloud?
Yes. Pagehush can read any story aloud in a natural voice, so you can listen instead of reading.