We’ll be honest: sometimes we scare ourselves with our editorial selections (in a good way). We’ve featured some pretty freaky miCRos over the years, clearly so we could present you, our esteemed CR reader, with this Halloween roundup. Here’s a list of the scariest tiny fictions and poems from our archives.
“Evening Caller” by Kate McIntyre
In this recent feature, death is here — and he’s really, really cute.
“Ghost Words” by Vimla Sriram
Some ghosts want to scare. In Vimla Sriram’s “Ghost Words,” ghosts just want to inhabit the everyday world.
“Checking on the Devil” by Alyson Mosquera Dutemple
The devil is still around, and still delights in your misfortune. These days, as Alyson Mosquera Dutemple shows us, he sometimes needs someone to check in on him.
“Child-Witch” by Hussain Ahmed
Witch hunting, specifically of children, is still practiced in parts of Africa. In “Child-Witch,” Hussain Ahmed gives voice to the accused.
“What a Ghost Can Do” by Cady Vishniac
In Vishniac’s story, the daughter-ghost is eerily alive, and the narrator-mother is a bit ghostly herself. The ambiguity is a useful one, and the story highlights how relationships can turn us into phantoms.
“Suburban Legend #3” by Catherine Pierce
A classic hitchhiker tale, with a twist.
“Neat Freak” by Katie Cortese
A grieving mother’s pain is transmuted into cleanliness in this unsettling piece by Katie Cortese.
“The Hunted” by K.C. Mead-Brewer
Helen’s mom is a real-life witch. That’s not the scary part of this story.
“Haunting Season” by Cindy Juyoung Ok
The haunting is both unsettlingly personal and bizarrely mundane in this flash story.
