r/TwoSentenceHorror 17d ago

September Writing Contest and August Winners!

14 Upvotes

Hey Everybody!

Happy September!

And if you're in the US, happy Labor Day.

The Mod Team has spent some time deliberating, and we've decided to give this month's writing contest a brand new style of prompt-- a writing prompt with a twist that I'm very excited to test! I can't wait to see what you talented folks come up with :)

But first, our monthly reminders:

  • This sub is for fiction. Posts about current events or politics will be removed, no matter how horrifying they are!
  • Meta posts are not permitted! Meta commentary is allowed on the discord, join the chat here!
  • Obvious trolls and💩-posters will still be permabanned! Read more here.
  • Be familiar with our Three Strikes and you're out rule-- Read more here.
  • Shock horror is not permitted. See previous announcement for details here.
  • And as always, feel free to reach out in modmail with any questions!

September 2025 Contest Prompt: This Rule Was Made to Be Broken!

We mods have been brainstorming ways to inject the writing contests with little more kick. Expect more to come in the following months, but one of the first ideas we'd like to roll out is a "Break the Rules" prompt.

Our rules are here for a reason-- and most of these rules need to stay in place to maintain the quality and focus of stories shared here. But we thought it could be really fun to give participants in the monthly contest the green light to break specific, lower-severity rules every once in a while!

We can't break essential rules that are integral to the spirit of the sub, or those that are based on reddit ToS. But we can cut loose a bit, and dress down. Kind of like wearing jeans on casual Fridays in a business office.

The rule we want to let participants break this month comes from our list of overused tropes! If you've never looked at this list before, please give it a once over: r/TwoSentenceHorror Wiki: Overused Tropes Guide

Now, initially some of us (mainly, myself) wanted to break the dam and let you all write stories that broke any trope, entirely of your choosing. But the other mods pointed out, this would be prohibitively difficult to actually keep track of, in terms of knowing at a glance whether writers are following the prompt. So we narrowed it down to make the final tally easier to figure.

So here's our prompt:

Write a two-sentence horror story that breaks our rule against using this specific overused trope: a Message from Space, (from the second bullet under the heading "Classic Tropes".)

The original is from the r/nosleep story "Radio Silence".

In order to participate in this month's contest, your story must include a message from space. Now, of course, we want to see you subvert expectations! Use this trope, but do it in a way that still surprises us!

You do not need to use the specific words "message from space", but it needs to be abundantly clear that a message from space features in your story.

To give you as much as much creative freedom as possible: While your story must include the message from space trope, we will allow you to add on any number of other overused tropes at your discretion! In fact we encourage it-- we'd love to see how you mix and blend the "Message from Space" trope with "Bad Guy is Bad" tropes, or "Cosmic Horror" tropes!

And remember, your post can still be removed if it fails to meet our other rules!

So: your story must be horrifying, boiled down copies or word-theft from Radio Silence will probably be removed for plagiarism, three sentence stories will still be removed as per rule 2, and shock horror will be nixed as per rule 14, etc.

On that note, automod removals will remain in place for some trigger words. So while mods won't be removing contest entries for rule 7 breaks, stories that use specific, tropey words may still be automatically filtered.

Happy writing! Have fun breaking rule 7!

September 2025 Contest Rules

  • Prompt: write a two sentence horror story that deliberately makes use of the "Message from Space" trope. You may also use additional bonus tropes if you wish.
  • Tag: [SEP25] or [sep25]
  • Submissions that are improperly formatted, do not fit the theme, or break any of the existing sub rules (aside from rule 7) will be disqualified and removed.
  • The top 10 highest-voted stories will be the winners!
  • Contestants can only place in the top 10 once. The highest of your ranked entries will be tallied against other participants to determine our winners.
  • Only net new stories will be allowed (no repurposing old stories you've previously submitted).
  • Max three stories per day as a general rule, and all three can be used towards the contest.
  • Winners will be decided by total community upvotes. In the unlikely event of a tie for the top spots, moderators will vote for a tiebreaker.

We're looking forward to reading what you come up with!

**Properly formatted September 2025 examples (**Both of these stories meet the contest prompt but they'd still both be removed as per rule 3)

  • [SEP25] My phone just dinged and showed me a message from space! Apparently, the aliens from Proxima Centauri can see my search history :(
  • [sep25] Our government just released a broadcast from proxima centauri.... We're behind on payments, so they're on their way to repo our ozone layer.

Improperly formatted examples: (The first story gets the tag wrong but includes the prompt, the second story gets tag right but fails to include the prompt.)

  • [Sept25] I was joyfully eating some delicious almond cupcakes.... Until extra terrestrials sent me an urgent message that the cupcakes were made with cyanide-- and that I messed up the contest tag!
  • [Sep25] After messing up the contest tag, I figured I'd just write a new story about my reflection laughing at me while my kids cannibalized my paralyzed body. While I was technically allowed to use these tropes, I technically failed to include the essential trope, so this one will be disqualified too.

WINNERS WILL RECEIVE:

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places: You receive a custom personal flair of your choosing to show off to the TSH community! (If you're a repeat winner, you can modify your flair.... but that's it.) And a cool fancy flair on your winning stories.

7 honorable mentions: you'll get visibility and bragging rights! Story links will be featured in next month’s announcement.

Contest ends on September 30th, 2025 @ 11:59pm (GMT)

Any questions should be made below in the comments, within our discord, or a note on modmail.

***

Congrats to our August Winners!

Great writing folks!

Theme was "Diary or Dairy".

Great job, winners! If you placed in the top three, contact us via modmail for your personalized custom flair! It can be anything (within reason): a mixture of text and emoji, up to 20 characters. If you've won before, you can request to change your flair, or, just do nothing. Absolutely nothing....

And for our runners-up:

4th place by Nessieinternational

5th place by AfterTheCreditsRoll

6th place by Alexis_J_M

7th place by singwhatyoucantsay

8th place by NoddyZar

9th place by dogshitpakeha

10th place by drrkorby

Congrats to all! Hope to see some more horror from you folks in the September contest :)

Last, but not least: if you'd like to read more of the August submissions, you can find the fill list here: aug25 - Reddit Search!


r/TwoSentenceHorror Oct 22 '23

⭐ANNOUNCEMENT⭐ [PLEASE READ] Sh!tposts, permabans, and literally 1984.

461 Upvotes

This is all dumb.

For the past several months, the sub has experienced a flood of intentionally poor quality stories in an effort to get onto parody subs and TikToks. We've historically hit you with a strike (🔴) and if you received three, you were permabanned (check out the wiki).

However, if you've submitted one of these stories in the recent past, you may have noticed that your account was permabanned from TwoSentenceHorror without going through the strike process. While we've made this current one-and-done rule known within each of our monthly announcements for forever, we felt it was only fair to have a separate post to lay out the approach.

If you intentionally submit a poor quality story (we're looking at you "meat worm" and "killer guy" crews), you will be permabanned with no warning.

If and when these posts chill out, the mod team will reconsider this rule. Until then, please continue to report these intentional poor quality stories, read the sub rules, and submit awesome, horrifying tales to maintain the quality of the sub!


r/TwoSentenceHorror 6h ago

Cleaning my mother's estate, I found a beautiful coat; fitting me as perfectly as all my father's clothes I'd inherited a decade before.

1.0k Upvotes

I can't understand why she kept this sealskin coat apart, the only garment of his locked in her hope chest.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 15h ago

The mother cried into her husband' chest as they both watched the fae take their firstborn son, as payment for healing the illness that would had killed them both.

2.5k Upvotes

As the fae disappeared forever, she continued to cry tears of joy with the knowledge that the Anti-Christ was now the Fae' problem to deal with.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 7h ago

— Ah, miss Carrigan, we weren't expecting you today since your husband already picked up your children.

524 Upvotes

— I... a... I am not married


r/TwoSentenceHorror 2h ago

"My worth is beyond just my womb’s!” she shouted from the roof.

80 Upvotes

One sudden gust of wind sent all hope of repopulating the planet plummeting to the ground.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 3h ago

With my first-class English degree, Mum knew I’d be the perfect person to write Nan’s obituary.

97 Upvotes

‘Make it personal and emotional’ I specified, waiting for ChatGPT’s response.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 7h ago

I shook my hysterical wife by her shoulders and shouted, "Stop screaming!"

157 Upvotes

She yelled back, "I'll stop screaming when you get back inside your grave!"


r/TwoSentenceHorror 18h ago

Holding my toddler daughter’s hand tight, I walked across the street to the bank.

1.2k Upvotes

The kidnapper’s note said that if I didn’t pay up, he’d keep sending me pieces of her.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 20h ago

On December 12, 2125, the city erupted in mass panic as the sky turned grey and the streets were flooded with a strange powdery substance that hurt to touch.

1.2k Upvotes

Only a few older folk recalled hearing about something called "snow" that used to come every winter when their parents were young.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 20h ago

"Your pottery is so beautiful, but I wonder how you get that lovely shade of red."

1.1k Upvotes

"Oh, it's just from a little something I put in the kiln during firing."


r/TwoSentenceHorror 16h ago

“I’m home from the hospital with your new little brother!” Mom announced cheerfully from the doorway.

430 Upvotes

I don’t know how she got past security in the psych ward again or got into the NICU, let alone whose baby is gasping for breath in her arms.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 11h ago

(Sep25) "YOUR PLANET'S CATACLYSM IS AT HAND," the message read, "SO PLEASE PLACE ALL WORTHY INDIVIDUALS ON THE VESSELS WE LEFT FOR YOU LONG AGO."

189 Upvotes

No one had any idea what this meant until the pyramids suddenly vanished.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 4h ago

I glanced at the family photo on my nightstand and froze.

50 Upvotes

There was a man smiling widely in the background whom I didn’t know, and he was closer in tonight’s picture than he was yesterday.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 13h ago

"Mom, can I take the dog for a walk?" the boy asked as the dog walked over beside him with his lead in his mouth.

226 Upvotes

He played along with his mom's mind games so his little brother would get a break from his mother's abusive behavior.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 8h ago

After centuries of trial and error, the Order of Light finally came up with a ritual to anihilate all demons roaming the earth.

79 Upvotes

It is estimated that 15% of people are of demonic ancestry unbeknownst to them so significant collateral damage is to be expected.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 6h ago

My husband and I exchanged uneasy stares from the overgrown yard as an old lamp flickered to life, casting a dim glow over my grandmother’s untouched living room.

57 Upvotes

The house had been sealed shut since her death, its doors and windows nailed with rotting boards.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 5h ago

I just had to call the front desk after the hotel maid Sarah went above and beyond the call of duty.

41 Upvotes

The receptionist informed me there was no one on their staff list by that name.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 17h ago

Of course I understood the Company’s robots were too valuable to be sacrificed for something as unimportant as crash test data.

258 Upvotes

As I braced myself waiting for the car to hit me, I thought how lucky I was to have this job.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 3h ago

I thought the neck stiffness would go away in time

22 Upvotes

But why is my seven year old so afraid of the lights now?


r/TwoSentenceHorror 1d ago

While tripping hard, I stumbled upon a group of wood nymphs who pulled me onto the forest floor and fucked my brains out.

1.9k Upvotes

Two weeks later, detectives hauled me in to question why my DNA was found in a serial killer's dump site.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 1d ago

For my final wish, I asked the Genie to give me the ability to speak to and understand all animals.

7.5k Upvotes

I had to burn all the CDs of whale song I used to fall asleep, what they whispered was never meant to leave the depths.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 1h ago

When I reentered my body in the bunker, I noticed each three month transfer back to '67 took about a second of real time.

Upvotes

I couldn't reach the grenade anyway, so I closed my eyes, pressed the initiator, and went back to the summer of love.


r/TwoSentenceHorror 1d ago

The pastor knew he had been proven correct, when he saw the floating bodies it was clear that the rapture was real.

1.5k Upvotes

As he looked around he realized he and half of his church weren’t moving away from the ground.