Weekly Prompt: Under the Bed
It’s more than dust bunnies under there
Welcome to the second weekly challenge for October, where the theme is Oh, The Horror!
The goal is to get you to write a truly terrifying horror story—the best of which we want to collect in our first themed anthology.
These are those banned kinds of stories every parent wants to be kept from the ears of their young children. The ones that once they’ve crawled into the damp recesses of their receptive minds lodge there and bring forth those sleep-obliterating nightmares.
Nothing turns parents into the walking dead more than a child afraid of the dark. Or what lurks under the bed? Or in the closest. Or down the hall and under the stairs.
A child that jumps at every creak. Every scratching at the door. Every looming tree branch shadow.
I was foolish enough to watch IT with my older brother when I was an impressionable young lad with a brain like soft clay.
Let’s just say, I’m hard-wired to hate clowns. Especially since my mother — in a fit of decorating innocence — stuck ludicrously happy clown place mates to my cupboard doors because they cheered up the place.
I still remember laying in bed with those clowns staring back at me… So dust your keyboard free of cookie crumbs and raise those fingers. It’s time to:
Make us young again. Treat us like kids. And tell us a story that keeps us from looking under the bed.
Just in case.
Challenge Requirements
Your story must:
- Tell us a scary story of what’s under the bed, in the closet or under the stairs. Anywhere in the house where, when it’s dark, the scary comes out.
- Just for fun: Be min 100 and max 1000 words long
- For Anthology: 500–750 words.
- This excludes the title, subtitle, and any post-story bio/links. (We use Medium’s word count feature.)
- Be fictional, even if it includes factual information or concerns.
- Use “Bedtime” as one of your five tags.
Example Story by Teresa Grabs
Find other answers to this prompt.
Bonus Challenge:
Because it’s Paul’s birthday month, and a contest feel’s like a repeat, why not take inspiration from his bio, making a monster of him. In his honour, of course.
He likes stories involving beds, so put him under one instead of on top. 😇
What goes bump in the night,
Gives us a good fright.
Turn out your night light,
And hear the darkness delight.
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