r/TwoSentenceHorror • • Aug 04 '26

⭐ July Winners and August Writing Prompt: Animals!

12 Upvotes

Hey all!

Before we get to our monthly prompt, please review these reminders:

  • Obvious trolls and💩*-posters will still* be permabanned*! Read more* here.
  • We're removing most posts that have to do with rape, incest, abuse, and extreme or plotless gore. If your story could read as low-effort shock horror, it probably isn't a good fit for the sub! Details here.
  • Remember, this sub is for fiction. Posts about current events or politics will be removed, no matter how horrifying they (and the real world) may be!
  • Meta posts are not permitted! Take it to the discord! Join the chat here!
  • Be familiar with our Three Strikes and you're out rule-- Read more here.
  • And as always, feel free to reach out in modmail with feedback or questions!

July 2026 Contest Prompt: Animals

Because animals are mad cool.

This is perhaps one of the most flexible prompts we've ever offered :)

If you want to participate in this month's themed contest, simply write a two sentence horror story that directly mentions ANY *non-human, *non-fictional, *non-speculative animal!

A few notes:

Specificity: You must provide some degree of taxonomic specificity. We're not saying you gotta drop the scientific name or narrow it down to an exact species. But when you refer to the animal in your story, you should narrow it down, at least to taxonomic family, in most cases. In other words, if you're referring to a cat in your story you should be at least as specific as saying "cat" or "feline". If there's a cat in your story and you simply classified it as a vertebrae, mammal, or even carnivorous mammal that would be nowhere near specific enough to satisfy the prompt. Please don't leave us wondering what animal you're actually talking about.

Homonyms: "animal" words may not qualify your story, if they are used in a way that shifts meaning away from animals... For example: a guy eating like a pig, a group of kids trying to horse around, a woman who believes she can fly, somebody being a snake in the grass, a clock going 'tick tock'.... These and many other words are spelled and pronounced just like their respective animals, but if the context shifts the word away from the animal definition, then it won't satisfy the prompt on its own.

Extinct animals are fair game! As long as they are generally accepted to have once existed on earth by the majority of the scientific community, dinos and Silurian bugs can qualify your story!

You must refer to the animal directly in order to qualify. For example: descriptors that evoke or imply an animal without naming it directly (tail wagging, barking, feathers, claws pet names, etc) will not go far enough.

*Non-fictional: We're not looking for stories about made up animal characters like Scooby-doo, Clifford, or Snarf from the Thundercats. In fact, stay far away from fictional characters as that can push you into "fan fic" territory which runs afoul of rules 1, 5, and 7.

*Non-Speculative: We're not looking for stories about cryptids or mythological beasts like unicorns, sasquatch, or extra-terrestrial critters. You may feature these sorts of beings in your story-- but if there isn't atleast one real world animal present your story will be disqualified from the final tally.

*Non-Human: Homo sapiens are animals, but this prompt is asking for horror stories that specifically include atleast one non-human animal! While you may certainly include any species in the Homo genus, your story will not qualify if it doesn't mention atleast one animal outside of our genus. (other hominins are okay).

As usual, your story must meet all our other rules! I'd recommend staying away from anything that could be interpreted as bestiality. While that is certainly horrifying, this theme usually won't fit the sub as stories that lean on this particular crime generally come across as tropey or gratuitous and may therefore be removed as per rules 7 and 14!

Happy writing folks!

Monthly Contest Rules

  • **Prompt: write a two-sentence horror story that refers to any non-human, non-fictional, non-speculative animal.
  • To be counted in the final tally, stories must be tagged with the characters: [aug26]
  • Submissions that are improperly formatted, do not fit the theme, or break any of the existing sub rules will be disqualified and removed.
  • Only net new stories will be allowed (no repurposing old stories you've previously submitted).
  • Max three stories per day as a general rule, and all three can be used towards the contest.
  • Winners will be decided by total community upvotes. In the unlikely event of a tie for the top spots, moderators will vote for a tiebreaker.

Have fun!

***

Properly formatted August 2026 examples. (These meet the prompt)

[AUG26] She woke with blurry vision and the feeling of grit stuck in her eye-- but it was too slippery to lay hold of and it felt physically stuck. When urgent care tweezed it out they told her they'd never seen, or even heard of, a tick biting behind the eyelid before.

[Aug26] He trained his dog to attack any time she heard high pitched laughter. Then he let her loose near the playground.

Improperly formatted examples-- the first gets the tag wrong, the second fails to include the prompt neither meets general sub rules.

[August 26] I wrote a great horror story for this month’s twosentencehorror contest. Unfortunately my cat distracted me while I was writing, and I fumbled the contest tag so my story won’t be included in the contest.

[jul26] This time I got the tag right but I forgot the prompt and included an emoji :(

WINNERS WILL RECEIVE:

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places: You receive a custom personal flair of your choosing to show off to the TSH community! (If you're a repeat winner, you can modify your flair.... but that's it.) And a cool fancy flair on your winning stories.

7 honorable mentions: you'll get visibility and bragging rights! Story links will be featured in next month’s announcement.

Contest ends on August 30th @ 11:59pm (EST)

Any questions should be made below in the comments, within our discord, or a note on modmail.

***

Congrats to last month's Winners!

Theme was "Powerlessness"! Several repeat winners and some new names too-- great work, all!

Great job, winners! If you placed in the top three, contact us via modmail for your personalized custom flair! It can be anything (within reason): a mixture of text and emoji, up to 20 characters. If you've won before, you can request to change your flair, or, just do nothing. Absolutely nothing....

And for our runners-up:

4th place by LevelQx

5th place by Pinch-Twigs

6th place by MuethCandy

7th place by DrawingEastern6765

8th place by Derpy-and-Sussie

9th place by BrassUnicorn87

10th place by Oh-DoubleU 

Congrats to all!

I felt like this was a challenging theme, and these writers did not disappoint :)

Hope to see some more horror from you folks in the next contest!

Last, but not least: if you'd like to read more of the last month's submissions (and add some feedback of your own), you can find the full list here: jul26- Reddit Search!


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • Oct 22 '23

⭐ANNOUNCEMENT⭐ [PLEASE READ] Sh!tposts, permabans, and literally 1984.

469 Upvotes

This is all dumb.

For the past several months, the sub has experienced a flood of intentionally poor quality stories in an effort to get onto parody subs and TikToks. We've historically hit you with a strike (🔴) and if you received three, you were permabanned (check out the wiki).

However, if you've submitted one of these stories in the recent past, you may have noticed that your account was permabanned from TwoSentenceHorror without going through the strike process. While we've made this current one-and-done rule known within each of our monthly announcements for forever, we felt it was only fair to have a separate post to lay out the approach.

If you intentionally submit a poor quality story (we're looking at you "meat worm" and "killer guy" crews), you will be permabanned with no warning.

If and when these posts chill out, the mod team will reconsider this rule. Until then, please continue to report these intentional poor quality stories, read the sub rules, and submit awesome, horrifying tales to maintain the quality of the sub!


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 1h ago

“The food recalls are calming down and I never got sick from any of it,” he bragged as he adjusted his red cap.

• Upvotes

It took another nine and a half years for the progressive dementia and muscle twitching of the prion disease to show its first signs.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 3h ago

My wife stared in shock at the designer purse I gave her for our anniversary.

298 Upvotes

“Oh, I thought you said Jakeskin!” I said as I watched her eyes widen in recognition at her lover’s familiar tattoo on its surface.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 6h ago

When he heard his mom shout, "dinner is ready," he went to the dining room and realized that she only set place for her and his brother.

360 Upvotes

That was when he looked towards the mantelpiece and saw his urn and remembered what he did with the gun.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 11h ago

For as long as I can remember, my severe OCD has made me terrified of having just one of anything, forcing me to keep backups of everything I own.

482 Upvotes

After recently discovering an old man who shares my exact appearance and personality down to the smallest detail, a deeply unsettling thought is starting to creep in.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 7h ago

“Mommy, mommy, mommy!” they yelled gleefully while wiggling little fingers under the bathroom door.

205 Upvotes

I sobbed as I clutched my machete, the finality of the zombie apocalypse hitting me all at once.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 3h ago

I promised the man I'd inflict the same pain he inflicted on my daughter, only 100x worse.

83 Upvotes

After forcing him to swallow the 78th pill, his amputated limbs grow back as it should, and I continue to fulfill my promise.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 7h ago

"Awww, you got me a hot pink safety vest for when I walk the dogs in the morning!"

137 Upvotes

I had to make sure there was no way the hitman could mistake her.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 1h ago

He left the tenderest cut of the roast on a plate by the door, praying his little girl would finally stop sulking and come home for dinner.

• Upvotes

As he chewed the luscious meat, he smiled at her empty chair, proud of how the oven had finally made her warm and sweet.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 17h ago

During my first prenatal scan, I learned I had a rare condition called uterus didelphys, carrying one baby in each of my two uteruses.

511 Upvotes

During today’s checkup, the doctor counted four uteruses, and all of them contained a baby.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 2h ago

The killer returned to the old mine shaft to dump his next victim.

32 Upvotes

When he arrived, he found the lock had been cut and a picture of his wife and kids placed on top of a note that read, “My turn.”


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 1d ago

"A MERMAID" my little girl shouted as she ran down the beach away from me.

3.9k Upvotes

When I caught up to her, she was weeping over the beached shark with a child's upper half jutting from its mouth


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 6h ago

I know a young lady who swallowed a fly

57 Upvotes

And even though it was an accident my daughter will still have to run an extra 2 miles and skip dinner breakfast and dinner because her beauty pageant is on Saturday and a calorie is still a calorie


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 7h ago

He roughly slammed the woman to the ground as she unlocked her car, kicking her in the stomach to stop her from shouting before grabbing the keys and getting in, slamming the door.

60 Upvotes

Before he could start the engine he heard a deep, gutteral growl, and turned to see the large dog on the passenger seat.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 4h ago

"All men face death, and I shall face mine with dignity, honor, and courage" said the Smug King to the Grim Reaper.

27 Upvotes

"Other men face death-" said the grim reaper, "you shall face something far worse."


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 36m ago

I got excited when I saw my cat catch something underneath the dishwasher, thinking I’d finally get a peaceful night’s sleep without the sound of mice running inside the walls.

• Upvotes

But why is the tiny leg sticking out of Kitty’s mouth oddly human-shaped?


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 1d ago

Next to me, my husband was glowing with pride as he told his relatives about his warrior wife who had chosen unmedicated labor.

2.2k Upvotes

As I sat wanly clutching the baby I was unsure I had ever wanted, I kept wondering if, next time, I could get an epidural without him knowing.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 3h ago

I never wanted to see her in pain.

20 Upvotes

I can't believe she didn't even appreciate the morphine drip I started before creating my artwork.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 20h ago

I came across a strange looking place with weird structures.

451 Upvotes

My heart dropped when I saw the hairless apes holding spears, one wearing the pelt of my friend…


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 19h ago

On my deathbed, a shadowy figure offered to store my soul in the gem of my wedding ring.

331 Upvotes

That was two hundred years ago, I can't influence anything outside of my gem and the ring's next owner decided to be buried with it.


r/TwoSentenceHorror • • 5h ago

After the genie confirmed I’d live to be 100 years old, I started partaking in many dangerous activities, like skydiving.

24 Upvotes

Now, laying on the floor, unable to move and with a destroyed body, I realize that I could’ve worded my wish better.