The Hospital’s Last Rooms
An urban explorer decides to infiltrate an abandoned psychiatric hospital rumored to be haunted. Inside, they find unsettling sculptures made from hospital implements and patient belongings. Each room reveals another piece of a macabre puzzle, leading to a horrific revelation about the hospital’s last operating days and the real reason it was shut down.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Let one rule of the house or town be broken, and show why it existed.
- End before the danger is over.
- Tell it as a story someone is begging the reader to believe.
Writing horror books
Something is wrong here, and it's getting closer.
Horror is defined by the feeling it creates: dread, then fear, then the urge to keep reading anyway. The threat might be a ghost, a creature or the person in the next room. Underneath, the best horror is about something real: grief, guilt, the things we can't control.
What readers expect
- Dread that builds
- A threat that can't be reasoned with
- Characters out of their depth
- An ending that doesn't let you off easy
A tip before you start
What you don't show is scarier than what you do. Let the reader's imagination fill in the dark.
More Horror prompts
- The Room of ClocksA character wakes up in a room lined with clocks, all ticking out of sync. Each clock shows a different time, and with each full hour, a deeply…
- The Hospital’s Hidden WingCraft a story centered on an old, dilapidated hospital scheduled for demolition. A group of urban explorers goes in for one final look and stumbles…
- The Uncharted Space StationCreate a horror story set on a space station where the crew members begin to disappear one by one. The remaining crew discovers that the station is…
- The Cabin's Waiting TributeDuring a fierce winter storm, a group of friends is snowed in at an isolated cabin. As they explore the attic to find more blankets, they discover a…
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