I love October. The season turns and the nights draw in and the blankets come out and the spooky stories come out to play, and I’m all here for that. Let’s be honest I ain’t limiting all that good stuff to October—scary stories and blankets and wholesome soups are welcome here all year-round. So, the round up of stories from October certainly contains a few healthy doses of horror, you have been warned. Some of it comes with a twist of humour, some of it comes full dark. But all of them are great.

Share your short story and flash finds in the comments below—all links are welcome, feel free to shout about your own publications too 😊

Memoranda from the End of the World by Gene Doucette at Lightspeed Magazine – I just can’t get enough of the apocalypse in email form.

Caw by WC Dunlap at Nightmare Magazine – you can’t go wrong with a bit of bird based horror.

Appearances can be Deceptive by Stephanie Ellis – not all nefarious deeds are done by the invisible man, but certainly some of them are…

Trauma Scouts of America by Joe Kapitan at X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine – nostalgia slips you dark traumas and lives growing up and apart.

Never Gone by Lyndsey Croal at Ellipsis Zine – a fantastically charming ghost story.

The Answer was Snails by Bo Balder at Clarkesworld Magazine – a reminder to check your terrarium and tank dwellers are happy and not in regular and imminent mortal peril.

Wait for Night by Stephen Graham Jones at Tor.com – you’re always in reliable hands with Stephen Graham Jones’ horror tales.

I Always Wanted to Do It by David Centorbi at A Thin Slice of Anxiety – I’ll never be able to go to a drive-through again without thinking about this story.

AITA for Using My Side Hustle to Help My Boyfriend Escape the Clutches of Death? by Aimee Picchi at Flash Fiction Online – a brilliant take on the undead, pets, and boyfriends.

Hundreds of Little Absences by Aimee Ogden at The Dark Magazine – It’s not often stories leave me with genuine chills, but this is uneasy and disturbing and even now it makes me quietly shudder.