30 Days of Fright - Week 2
Week two Recap
Welcome to the second recap of the 30 Days of Fright. The shadows deepen, and the stories turn stranger. This week, we wander through graves and memories, trickery and tenderness, where not all monsters were villains and not all heroes were whole. The mind frays. The veil thins. And every tale leaves a mark.
Step carefully, reader. The path winds on.
Day 8: The Mind Plays Tricks
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – As A Thief In The Night
Leo finds the local street preacher so annoying, he plots to get rid of him.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories From The Dreamatorium) – The Practiced Smile
Some expressions take years to perfect.
⚜️ The ADHD Brain (Alma Muminovic) – Eidolon
Other people have a grip on Eliza's reality.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Forty Eight Hours
When you've gone 48 hours without sleep and your mind begins to play tricks on you.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – Gretel's Witch
What happens after the fairy tale ends?
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Tell Me What You’re Thinking
Lester's niece has a special gift.
Day 9: Beneath the Graveyard
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Elder Bones
A building development company relocating a graveyard find something much older near the edge.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories From The Dreamatorium) – Terms and Conditions
Tom's inheritance comes at a cost. Can he afford to pay it?
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Where Is MacNeal's Gold?
What do you do when your relatives have their eye on your fortune?
⚜️ James Mayes – Into The Heartbeat
When after a killer, there's no time for supernatural nonsense.
⚜️ Bradley Ramsey (The Writer's Journey) – What Lies Beneath?
Would-be grave robbers find more than they bargained for.
⚜️ Maryellen Brady (Magical Musings With Mebrady) – Beneath The Graveyard
A curious archaeologist discovers something too important to speak of.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – Rosemary Must Be Fed
Rosemary might be dearly departed, but a girl's still gotta eat.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Saturday Overtime
Something is causing the graves to sink in the old church yard
Day 10: The baddie’s Not So Bad
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – It's Not Me, It's You
A ne'er-do-well excuses his behaviour in an effort to gain sympathy.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Room 101 Revisited
What if the original was a psychotic nightmare?
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Feathers and Other Misfortunes
A Harpy longs to be mistaken for something beautiful, at least once a century.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories From The Dreamatorium) – Borrowed Voices
She stole their voices, only to lose her own.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – A Mother's Lament
Someday you'll appreciate all your mother has done for you.
Day 11: The Summoning
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Summoning Of Pyrangeoth Crun
Billy summons a demon, but something has gone wrong.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Through The Looking Glass
A college student faces down a villain…
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Merribane
Meet Merribane, Magda's unwelcome house guest.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories FromThe Dreamatorium) – The Keeper’s Prayer
He summoned a light to save them, and became its eternal flame.
⚜️ James Mayes – The Ride
Summoning darkness for research isn't always a joyride.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – Winslow's Ghost
Viola helps ghost cross over, but first they need to attend to unfinished business.
Day 12: Twist a Trope
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Taming of the Sue
Truth is the greatest horror for the wishful thinker.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – Washburn House
And you thought your ex was a nightmare.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – Twist A Trope
When @macheteman1998 shows up at her house in burlap ready to kill he finds a new breed of final girl to deal with...this one doesn't run.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories FromThe Dreamatorium) – Unknown Variables
Some bonds don’t fracture the way they’re expected to. Some simply hold.
⚜️ The Graveyard Kitchen – A Spoonful Of Betrayal
Not every monster lurks in the shadows. Some wear badges and call you “ma’am.”
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – What's The Nature Of Your Emergency?
An abandoned amusement park, a clown with an axe, and kids making out in a car. What could go wrong?
Day 13: Anthropomorphic Personification
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – Renly Woods
There's something special about this forest, as if it knows you're there.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – He Talks With The Squirrels
The actual Deep State horror.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Haughty Journal
The days when your beautiful journal leans into your self-doubt, you write anyway…
⚜️ Anndrais mac Chaluim (Anndrais’ Fiction Factory) –
Myrddin And The Whispering Tweed
He cried his desperation into the valley, and the river heard it.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories FromThe Dreamatorium) – Sanctum
Fixed in place, I held what no one else could bear.
⚜️ James Mayes – The Garden
When the garden calls, you must go.
⚜️ Maryellen Brady (Magical Musings With Mebrady) – The Bone Garden
She stole their voices, only to lose her own.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – Branches
Sometimes it's not ghosts, but our memories, that haunt us most.
Day 14: The Mourning Bell
⚜️ Wendy Cockcroft – The Veiled Lady
There's a mist that falls over the abandoned village of Aberduff. It looks like a veil.
⚜️ Larry Shell (Renz In The Woods) – 02:17 AM
Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.
⚜️ The Sable Butterfly (The Verdant Butterfly) – The Bell Who Grieves
It rang because it remembered
⚜️ Anndrais mac Chaluim (Anndrais’ Fiction Factory) –
The Mourners of Crosswoodhill
They stood in perfect silence, their breath steaming in the cold air, watching.
⚜️ Chip Spencer (Stories FromThe Dreamatorium) – Foundations
Where memory becomes mortar.
⚜️ The Shrouded Grouse – The Mourning Bell
Each toll of the bell brings them closer to goodbye.
🖤 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 15–21… and remember to leave the lights on.
Another wonderful collection here. It's amazing how many people are participating in the event!
Thank you both for this.