Dark English Horror Stories to Read With the Lights On (18+)
Dark English horror stories to read online: haunted trains, cursed houses, folklore ghosts and hospital nights from The Poetic Land's 18+ Horror room.
Nov 3, 2026Tag
Folklore
25 writings · page 1 of 2
বাংলার মুখ আমি দেখিয়াছি – জীবনানন্দ দাশ
বাংলার মুখ আমি দেখিয়াছি, তাই আমি পৃথিবীর রূপ খুঁজিতে যাই না আর: অন্ধকারে জেগে উঠে ডুমুরের গাছে চেয়ে দেখি ছাতার মতন বড়…
Nov 3, 2026The Sixth Bowl
by Pema Dolkar Bhutia
Every winter night in Lachen, Ama set one bowl more than there were people. The Delhi cousins thought it was sweet. Then one of them ate from it.
Nov 1, 2026
Nahual
by Ximena Albarrán
In my year of social service in the Sierra, a woman brought me a black dog to stitch after dark and asked me, very politely, to tell nobody.
Nov 1, 2026
Fish Smell, Fourteenth Floor
by Ishani Mukhopadhyay
Nobody in flat 14B fries fish at three in the morning. Sharmila would like that on record, before the smell, before the balcony, before Saturday.
Oct 31, 2026
Line Work in Bohag
by Partha Pratim Lahkar
Every Bohag storm, the same call, the same transformer at the end of the paddy road, and the same woman in a wet mekhela waiting to thank me.
Oct 31, 2026
Jasmine for the Ride
by Kavya Raghunathan
Every night at 2:40 the same rider waits outside an unfinished tech park on OMR. She tips in five stars. She only ever wants one stop, for jasmine.
Oct 31, 2026
Voice Notes to Apa
by Mehrunnisa Qadri
Rukhsar's new mother-in-law keeps an iron knife under every pillow and a dupatta over the long mirror after Isha. Rukhsar thinks it's very sweet. Mostly.
Oct 30, 2026
Kos Rule Number Four
by Wulan Sasmitaningrum
Our boarding house had six rules on a whiteboard, under the wifi password. Number four was simple. After midnight, if the knock comes in three, you don't open.
Oct 30, 2026
The Fare
by Partha Pratim Lahkar
The last bhutbhuti out of Nimati ghat runs aground on a sandbank in the fog, and the old boatman says somebody on board still owes the river.
Oct 29, 2026
Calan Gaeaf
by Rhian Pryce
When we were small we ran home from the bonfire shouting the old rhyme, so the tailless black sow would not take the last one. Elin was always slow.
Oct 29, 2026
Iyi-uwa
by Chidinma Ezeugo
My mother kept a list of every time I nearly died, and she read it to anyone who would listen. I thought it was her hobby. It wasn't.
Oct 29, 2026
The Light on Ward Nine
by Rhian Pryce
Three in the morning on a medical ward in North Wales. A small pale light comes along the floor from the lifts, and it always knows which bed.
Oct 28, 2026
The Cobbler of Bhelupur Lane
by Pankhuri Tiwari
Munna the cobbler had mended every foot in Bhelupur for forty years. Then a veiled woman sat on his stool and put out a foot that faced the wrong way.
Oct 28, 2026
The Mask Facing Forward
by Arnab Ghoshal
In the mangroves the honey collectors wear their masks on the backs of their heads. Every morning Ratan wakes to find his has been turned around.
Oct 27, 2026
Don’t Whistle on the Bugyal
by Tarun Dhoundiyal
Two rules above the treeline. No whistling. No red. I tell every group the same thing at the last village, and most of them laugh.
Oct 27, 2026
Old Flags
by Pema Dolkar Bhutia
She only wanted a nicer background for her photos. So she pulled down the faded flags on the ridge and burned them, and the wind turned round.
Oct 26, 2026
The Hora Doesn’t Stop
by Ilinca Vrânceanu
At her cousin's wedding in Maramureș, the hora started just after nine. By midnight nobody could let go of the hands they were holding, and nobody was laughing.
Oct 26, 2026
Haint Blue
by Wade Tolliver
The city couple wanted their porch ceiling white. The old woman next door asked me not to do it. I needed the money, so I did it anyway.
Oct 25, 2026
The Tamarind at the Edge of Varchi Wadi
by Pallavi Deshmane
In Varchi Wadi we left new chappals for Vetoba every Shimga, because he wore the old ones out walking our boundary. Then Raghu Sawant came home from Dubai.
Oct 25, 2026
Fourteen Dots
by Kavya Raghunathan
Home in Mylapore to sell my grandmother's house, I left her doorstep bare after sixty years of kolams. The neighbours noticed. So did whatever counts the dots.
Oct 24, 2026
Three Times from the Shade Tree
by Mridusmita Hazarika
In the labour lines everybody knew the rule. If your name came three times from the shade trees after dark, you didn't answer. Somebody always did.
Oct 24, 2026
Ballad of the Jealous River
by Jonaki Rajkonwar
A long ballad from the banks of the Luit: a boatman's wife, a lover with a lantern, and a river that has loved her longer than either of them and will not share.
Oct 24, 2026
The Wake at Keaveney’s Cross
by Siobhán Keaveney
Three nights of tea, ham sandwiches and the rosary in a Mayo farmhouse. The clocks are stopped, the mirrors covered, the window open. Conor thinks it's theatre.
Oct 24, 2026