Harrowing Tales Horror Stories

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The summer she was four, a little girl drew the same picture every night: the family farmhouse, the dog, the sun in the corner, and a tall gray friend with no face. Her mother kept every drawing, all two hundred of them.

In this original horror story, a woman looks back on a hot summer in 1991, on five acres at the edge of a hayfield, where her daughter played all day inside a sturdy wire fence, always in view of the kitchen window. The imaginary friend seemed harmless, even sweet. So did the soaked shoes on dry afternoons, and the burrs in her socks from somewhere that wasn't the yard. Then, on Labor Day weekend, the mother walks out past the fence for the first time all summer, and turns around.

A slow-burn, unsettling tale of childhood drawings, an imaginary friend, and the treeline at the edge of a quiet farm. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.

🎧 If this one got under your skin, follow Harrowing Tales for new scary stories every week, and leave a rating to help other listeners find the show.

📺 Watch the illustrated version on YouTube: Harrowing Tales

All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Every Friday night in 1985, a fourteen-year-old babysat for a family four blocks down, and every Friday the kids' father came home around eleven and drove her home. He was polite and quiet, and he always waited until she got inside.

In this original horror story, a woman looks back on the year she spent babysitting for a nurse who worked the overnight shift. The key was kept under a flowerpot, the kids were asleep by nine, and the house was all hers until the storm door opened. It became routine, eleven rides home in all. Only much later does she notice the small things: the long way around the school, the questions about her family, the porch light, the back door left open.

A slow-burn, unsettling tale of small-town 1980s nostalgia, a babysitting job, and how comfortable a routine can make you. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.

🎧 If this one got under your skin, follow Harrowing Tales for new scary stories every week, and leave a rating to help other listeners find the show.

📺 Watch the illustrated version on YouTube: Harrowing Tales

All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

The night an ice storm knocked out the power, two brothers were home alone at the top of a dead-end hill. Then a light started blinking in the treeline below the house.

In this original horror story, a seventeen-year-old and his eleven-year-old brother ride out a winter storm with a woodstove and a handful of candles, their mother stranded in town and the phone lines down. Their road goes nowhere and nobody drives it after dark. So when a flashlight flickers in the woods, again and again, in a pattern he can't work out, he makes a careful decision: blow out every candle, lock every door, and keep count. Hours later, someone climbs the porch steps.

A slow-burn, unsettling tale of a rural winter night, a stranger in the dark, and the choices you make when you're the only one keeping watch. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.

🎧 If this one got under your skin, follow Harrowing Tales for new scary stories every week, and leave a rating to help other listeners find the show.

📺 Watch the illustrated version on YouTube: Harrowing Tales

All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

When he was eleven, there was a small door in his bedroom wall that led into the crawlspace behind it, and it would not stay shut. Nobody in the family had opened it. So one night, he left it open to see what would happen.

In this original horror story, a man looks back on the old house he grew up in, where the second floor sat tucked under the roof and a narrow crawlspace ran behind every wall. What started as a door left ajar became months of watching, one night he has never forgotten, and a family that moved away without talking about it. Years later, he goes back to the house with a camcorder and a friend, and the new owner has a story of her own. Then, thirty years on, he finds the tape.

A slow-burn, unsettling tale of a childhood bedroom, an attic crawlspace, and something in the dark that is patient. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.

🎧 If this one got under your skin, follow Harrowing Tales for new scary stories every week, and leave a rating to help other listeners find the show.

📺 Watch the illustrated version on YouTube: Harrowing Tales

All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

Seven friends rent a cabin in a beach town that has shut down for the winter. There's no one on the streets and nothing moving on the roads, just a single sheriff's patrol car parked at the campground entrance, keeping watch.

In this original horror story, a cheap December getaway to the coast turns into a long, rain-soaked night. The campground is flooded and the town is deserted. A stranger collapses in the road by the lighthouse, an old car idles outside the bathrooms with its lights off, and a woman sitting alone in the rain says something the narrator still can't explain. Then, at three thirty in the morning, the trucks arrive.

A slow-burn, unsettling tale of an empty off-season town, a camping trip gone wrong, and a night that turns out to be far more dangerous than anyone realized. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.

🎧 If this one got under your skin, follow Harrowing Tales for new scary stories every week, and leave a rating to help other listeners find the show.

📺 Watch the illustrated version on YouTube: Harrowing Tales

All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

A hotel night clerk writes a lie to get out of the last two hours of his shift. By morning, the lie has come true, and something knew about it before he did.

In this original horror story, a twenty-six-year-old front desk clerk works the graveyard shift at a high desert hotel, where nobody checks in after midnight and the only company is Marcus, the quiet security guard. One slow night he sneaks out early and leaves his manager a made-up excuse: his brother stranded on a lonely highway past the old fairgrounds. It was supposed to be harmless. Then his phone rings.

A slow-burn, unsettling tale of night shift horror, a creepy phone call, and a lonely road where something is waiting. No gore, no jump scares, just quiet dread that stays with you.

🎧 If this one got under your skin, follow Harrowing Tales for new scary stories every week, and leave a rating to help other listeners find the show.

📺 Watch the illustrated version on YouTube: Harrowing Tales

All Harrowing Tales stories are original works of fiction.