30 Days of Fright - Week 1
Week one Recap
Welcome to the first round-up of “30 Days of Fright,” a month long horror writing challenge where imagination meets unease. Below you’ll find all the stories submitted by our bold and brilliant writers for Days 1 through 7. From cursed elixirs to sealed-off rooms and haunted portraits, the shadows are only just beginning to stir…
Day 1: Elixir of _____?
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Ultimate High
A search for the perfect high turns into something far more permanent. Wings are a gift… until you can't walk away.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Elixir de la Llorona
A mysterious drink. A disappearing lover. And whispers along the water that won’t let him go.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Elixir of Calm
It silenced the panic, then the hunger, then the voice that said “I.”
⚜️ Cozy Quill Tales – The Promise Jar
A glimmering jar, a whispered vow, and the quiet horror of getting exactly what you asked for.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse - Miss Mead’s Catalogue of Peculiar Potions
Pick your poison, I mean potion…a fun take on the prompt with downloadable zine.
Day 2: Apparently Innocent… But Unsettling
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – Boofy
A mother mends a toy to heal her daughter’s heart, but something old and watchful comes home in the stitching.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Steam Heat
Each morning begins the same: tea, toast, and a whisper of tragedy riding the steam. She never remembers. But the kettle always knows.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Porcelain
She never moved. Not really. Just shifted enough to be noticed. And that was all she ever needed.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – Rattle Rattle
A forgotten toy. A new name. And a girl who knows better than to smile back at something that smiles first.
Day 3: What’s Inside the Locked Room?
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Room Unknown
A door that won't unlock, a voice that shouldn't speak, and a secret too monstrous to share.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Locked In
All they had to do was leave him alone. Now they have. And the typing on the other side won’t stop.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Well Room
Beneath the stairs, something waited, not for the key, but for the fear to ripen.
⚜️ The ADHD Brain (Alma Muminovic) – The Key
She kept the key close. Generations did. But some legacies aren’t inherited, they awaken.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse - Knock-Knock
A door in her room, her door, one she can’t open until the time is right.
Day 4: The Puppet Master
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – Control
He thought he was the one pulling the strings. Now he’s just another pawn in someone else’s game.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – The Doll Maker
A strange music box arrives with no name, no note, just a tune that hums in your bones… and waits for you to waltz.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Puppet Master’s Love
She wouldn't look at him, so he carved her from wood, strung her with silver wire, and hung her in the theater of his private affection.
⚜️ The ADHD Brain (Alma Muminovic) – The Siren’s Hand
A voice in the dark, seductive and devouring. It calls not to be heard, but to be obeyed.
⚜️ Luna Asli Kolcu (Found In Between Pages) – The Circus
A summer night. A red and white tent. And a show that doesn’t ask for volunteers, it chooses them.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse - Lazybones
They still whisper of the puppet maker’s final show, and the boy who danced without strings
Day 5: Whispers in the Walls
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – 32 Millbrook Hill
A quiet house. A forgotten inheritance. And a door that should never be answered, no matter how many times it knocks.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – This Ole House
An old house, A young boy named Ben with a special gift and a house with a lot to say. My skin crawled with realization at the end.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Mourner in the Wood
They say if the Mourner ticks, death is already in the house. But what happens when death refuses to come?
⚜️ The ADHD Brain (Alma Muminovic) – In The Quiet
An old house. A sleepless narrator. And a mirror that remembers more than it should.
⚜️ Sarah the Scribbler – The Walls Take
A woman haunted by sounds no one else can hear. A house with claws. And a whisper that never stops calling her name.
⚜️ Bradley Ramsey – Cursed Ground
A home steeped in rot and rage. An ancient ritual seeps through the walls, and the price of silence may be blood.
⚜️ Luna Asli Kolcu (Found In Between Pages) - Bone House
The house was not made of wood. It was made of memory.
⚜️ Chip Spencer – Oh, the Secrets You’ll Spill
Some houses have ears, and they’re all listening.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse - The Twelve Secrets of Lucy Atkins
Lucy arrives beaten, bloody, and starved. She has secrets whispered to her by the others...
Day 6: Atmospheric … More Than a Feeling
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – Norton Heath
A painting retreat in a moorland cottage, perfect, peaceful, and entirely hers. Until she brought something home she never meant to paint.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Graveyard
Mist curls around the stones as midnight tolls, and the graveyard waits to claim what was promised.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Murker Waits
It watches from the fog, rearranges the trail, and whispers in your voice, until you’re not sure how long it took you to get back.
⚜️ Sarah the Scribbler – Fog
In San Francisco, the fog isn’t just atmosphere, it’s an apex predator. Quiet, patient, and unassuming.
⚜️ The ADHD Brain (Alma Muminovic) – The Queen
She landed, not born, an exile draped in scales and tar. beautiful, dangerous, and always hungry.
Day 7: The Preternatural Portrait
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Restoration of Lady Sarah de Mouncey
A Regency portrait, a missing signature, and a gaze that refuses to stay still.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Portrait
Some paintings change with time. But this one… this one changes with who's watching.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (The Signal & The Static) – The Vigil
Vigil House was supposed to be empty. Just another night shift. Until the portrait blinked, and the walls began to breathe.
⚜️ Sarah the Scribbler - A Night At The Museum
The Chicago Art Museum sets the stage for a chilling tale on the night shift.
🖤 Want to Join In?
Write your own entry for the next prompt or just read along. Every day brings a new nightmare and a new opportunity to dive deeper into the dark.
To participate in the daily horror prompts, hop over to Wendy Cockcroft’s Substack and join the chat thread. Whether you post stories, poems, or eerie fragments, all voices are welcome in the gloom.
Stay tuned for next week’s roundup with Days 8–14… and remember to leave the lights on.
Ohh thank you for this! Now it's all in one place!
Thank you, Heather. I really do appreciate this!