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THE OBSIDIAN REGISTRY

THE CAMPFIRE · 54 STORIES · BUILT TO BE READ OUT LOUD

The scariest stories ever told around a fire.

30 classics, 11 legends, 13 originals. Every one is written to be told in the dark, and every one comes with a card that tells you exactly where to pause, where to whisper, and when to grab somebody.

Read tonight's free storyBrowse all 54
Free tonight · never told anywhere elseCount OffEvery night they counted off around the fire. Every night, the dark said one more number.15 min telling · interactive endingRead it free →

How this room works

  1. Pick a story. Filter by what scares your group, how long you have, and how bad you want it.
  2. Read the telling card. It shows where to slow down and where the ending lands.
  3. Turn on Campfire mode. Big type, dark screen, nothing else on the page.

Start here

The best first stories. Short build, big finish.

  1. Count Off15 min ·
  2. The Monkey's Paw10 min ·
  3. The Babysitter's List12 min ·
  4. The Golden Arm5 min ·
  5. The Tell-Tale Heart13 min ·
  6. Snow Angels8 min ·
  7. The Hook4 min ·
  8. The Signal-Man13 min ·

Jump endings

The last line is a grab. Tell these to people who think they are brave.

  1. Count Off15 min ·
  2. The Monkey's Paw10 min ·
  3. The Golden Arm5 min ·
  4. The Hook4 min ·
  5. The Lake Side Door7 min ·
  6. The Neighbor Who Waves8 min ·
  7. Tailypo5 min ·
  8. The Quiet Game7 min ·

Quick frights

For when the fire is dying and someone says, one more.

  1. The Golden Arm5 min ·
  2. The Hook4 min ·
  3. Humans Can Lick Too4 min ·
  4. Tailypo5 min ·
  5. The Killer in the Back Seat5 min ·
  6. La Llorona6 min ·
  7. The Echo6 min ·
  8. August Heat6 min ·

Too scary for the tent

Save these for the last night. You have been warned.

  1. Count Off15 min ·
  2. The Babysitter's List12 min ·
  3. The Second Tent10 min ·
  4. Snow Angels8 min ·
  5. The Wendigo9 min ·
  6. The Bell Witch8 min ·
  7. Channel Nine9 min ·
  8. The Upper Berth8 min ·

All 54 stories

Showing 54 of 54

OriginalFreeCount OffEvery night they counted off around the fire. Every night, the dark said one more number.15 minClassic · 1902SealedThe Monkey's PawThree wishes. A dried-up paw from India. And a warning that every wish comes true in the worst possible way.10 minOriginalSealedThe Babysitter's ListThe parents left a list of rules on the fridge. Rule 9: If we come home before midnight, don't open the door. We will never come home before midnight. At 11:40, someone knocks.12 minFolklore · 1895SealedThe Golden ArmHe married her for the arm made of solid gold. He buried her with it. He couldn't leave it in the ground.5 minOriginalSealedThe Second TentFour friends pitched one tent in the backcountry. In the morning, there was a second tent beside it. Nobody had heard anyone arrive.10 minClassic · 1843SealedThe Tell-Tale HeartHe swears he isn't mad. He just wants to explain, very calmly, why the old man's eye had to go.13 minOriginalSealedSnow AngelsEvery morning at the cabin there's a new snow angel in the yard. No footprints going to it. Each one a different size. Each one a little closer to the house.8 minFolklore · 1950sSealedThe HookA couple parks at the lookout on a dark road. On the radio: a killer has escaped from the asylum. He has a hook for a hand. Then something scrapes against the car door.4 minClassic · 1866SealedThe Signal-ManA lonely railway worker keeps seeing a figure at the mouth of the tunnel, shouting a warning. Every time, someone dies.13 minOriginalSealedThe Lake Side DoorGrandpa's cabin had one rule painted on the wall. Never answer a knock from the lake side. The lake side of the cabin has no door.7 minFolklore · 1980sSealedHumans Can Lick TooHome alone, a girl hears a news report about a killer nearby. Every time she's scared in the night, she reaches down, and her dog licks her hand. Every time.4 minClassic · 1910SealedThe WendigoA hunting guide in the northern woods hears his name called from the dark. He runs toward it. Then they hear him, high in the trees, screaming about his feet.9 minOriginalSealedThe Neighbor Who WavesThe old man across the street waves every time she looks out her window. Morning, noon, three in the morning. Always waving. She finally figures out he isn't waving hello.8 minFolklore · 1817SealedThe Bell WitchIn 1817, something started knocking on the walls of a Tennessee farmhouse. Then it started talking. Then it said it was going to kill the father. And it did.8 minClassic · 1904SealedOh, Whistle, and I'll Come to YouA professor finds an old whistle buried on a lonely beach and blows it. Something hears. Something that is made out of bedsheets.8 minOriginalSealedChannel NineThe kids brought walkie-talkies camping. Channel nine was supposed to be empty. At night, someone on channel nine started describing their campsite.9 minClassic · 1912SealedThe Room in the TowerFor fifteen years he had the same nightmare. A strange house. A silent family. A woman who says, "Jack will show you your room. I have given you the room in the tower." Then he went to a real house, and the hostess said it.9 minFolklore · 1800sSealedTailypoAn old man in the mountains chops the tail off a creature that crept into his cabin, and eats it for supper. That night, something scratches at the door, asking for it back.5 minOriginalSealedThe Man in the Family PhotosGrandma's photo albums go back to 1890. In every family picture there's a man at the back nobody can name. He's in the new ones too. He's getting closer to the front.7 minClassic · 1886SealedThe Upper BerthOn an ocean liner, everyone who sleeps in cabin 105 jumps overboard. The porthole won't stay shut. And the upper bunk is always wet.8 minFolklore · 1960sSealedThe Killer in the Back SeatA woman driving home late is followed by a truck that keeps flashing its high beams at her. She's terrified of the driver. She should be terrified of what he can see.5 minOriginalSealedThe Extra SwimmerAt the old summer camp, the lifeguard counted heads in the lake every fifteen minutes. One afternoon there was one more head than swimmers. It was facing the wrong way.9 minClassic · 1911SealedCasting the RunesA strange man slips you a piece of paper covered in symbols. Three months later, something comes for you. Unless you can hand it back.9 minFolklore · 1500sSealedLa LloronaNear rivers at night, across Mexico and the American Southwest, people hear a woman crying. "Ay, mis hijos." Oh, my children. If you hear her far away, she is close. If you hear her close, she is far away.6 minOriginalSealedThe Quiet GameAt sleepovers they played the Quiet Game. Whoever makes the first sound loses. One night, in the dark, everyone stayed silent for an hour. Then someone laughed. All six of them had their hands over their mouths.7 minClassic · 1891SealedThe Judge's HouseA student rents an empty old house to study in peace. The rats are loud. The bell rope moves by itself. And there's a painting of a judge who keeps leaving his frame.8 minFolklore · 1930sSealedResurrection MaryShe's been hitchhiking on the same Chicago road since the 1930s. Blond hair. White dress. She asks for a ride home. Home is a cemetery.7 minOriginalSealedThe EchoHikers love the canyon because it echoes everything you shout. Three times. One evening, the echo started answering back with words nobody said.6 minClassic · 1907SealedThe WillowsTwo friends paddle down a flooded river and camp on a sandbar covered in willows. In the night, the willows start to move closer.9 minClassic · 1910SealedAugust HeatOn the hottest day of the year, a painter draws a man he imagined. That evening he meets the man. He's carving a tombstone. It has the painter's name on it, and today's date.6 minOriginalSealedFlashlight TagAt camp they played flashlight tag in the woods. If the light hits you, you're out. That night somebody was playing who didn't show up in the light.7 minClassic · 1891SealedThe Boarded WindowA frontier settler sits up all night with his dead wife's body in their cabin. He falls asleep. Something comes through the window.6 minFolklore · 1577SealedBlack ShuckIn 1577, during a thunderstorm, a huge black dog burst into a church full of people in Suffolk, England. Two people died. You can still see its claw marks on the door of another church nearby.6 minOriginalSealedThe Last Train HomeShe fell asleep on the last train of the night. When she woke up, every passenger in the car was asleep too, swaying in perfect time. The train wasn't stopping at any stations. And the conductor was counting tickets.8 minClassic · 1893SealedThe Damned ThingA man in the hills is torn apart by something nobody could see. His diary explains why. There are colors the human eye can't see. And something out there is one of them.6 minClassic · 1914SealedThe Open WindowA nervous visitor waits in a country house. The niece explains why the French window is always left open. Three years ago today, three men walked out of it and never came back.8 minClassic · 1892SealedThe Yellow WallpaperLocked in an attic room for a "rest cure," a young mother starts to see a woman trapped behind the wallpaper. Then she starts to help her get out.7 minClassic · 1926SealedThe OutsiderSomeone has lived their whole life alone in a dark castle, with no memory of any other face. One night they climb the tower to see the moon, and find a party. Everyone screams.6 minClassic · 1842SealedThe Masque of the Red DeathA plague is killing the country. A prince locks a thousand guests inside his castle and throws a party. At midnight, one guest arrives who wasn't invited.6 minClassic · 1846SealedThe Cask of AmontilladoA man swears revenge on a friend who insulted him. During carnival, he invites the friend down into the catacombs to taste a rare wine. He brings a trowel.9 minFolklore · 1790sSealedThe Hand of GloryA beggar asks to sleep by the fire at a lonely inn on the moors. The maid can't sleep. She watches him take something out of his coat. It's a dead man's hand, and he's lighting the fingers like candles.7 minClassic · 1812SealedThe Robber BridegroomA miller's daughter is engaged to a rich stranger who lives deep in the woods. She visits his house before the wedding. A bird in a cage tells her to turn back.9 minClassic · 1910SealedAfterwardThe old English country house has a ghost, the neighbors say. But you never know it's a ghost when you see it. You only know afterward.7 minClassic · 1887SealedThe HorlaA man keeps a diary. Every night, the water jug by his bed is emptied while he sleeps. He's alone in the house. He starts leaving out milk, to see what drinks it.9 minClassic · 1910SealedSredni VashtarA sick, lonely boy keeps a secret god in the garden shed. It's a ferret. He prays to it every night. His cruel guardian is going to take it away.6 minClassic · 1919SealedThe Beast with Five FingersA blind scholar dies and leaves his nephew a box. Inside is his right hand. It's still alive. And it remembers who it didn't like.6 minFolklore · 1800sSealedJenny GreenteethIn the north of England, parents warned children about the pond. When the water is covered in bright green weed, you can't see what's underneath. Jenny is underneath.6 minClassic · 1839SealedThe Fall of the House of UsherA man visits his sick childhood friend in a rotting mansion by a black lake. The friend's twin sister dies and is sealed in the vault. Then, in a storm, the noises begin.10 minClassic · 1842SealedThe Pit and the PendulumA prisoner wakes in total darkness. He's been sentenced to death, but nobody told him how. He's about to find out, one swing at a time.10 minClassic · 1922SealedThe Music of Erich ZannA student rents a room below an old mute violinist. Every night the old man plays wild, desperate music toward his window. He isn't playing for an audience. He's holding something back.8 minClassic · 1919SealedDagonA sailor adrift in the Pacific wakes to find the ocean floor has risen out of the sea. Something huge has come up with it. It's worshipping at a stone.6 minClassic · 1895SealedThe Yellow SignA painter keeps seeing the night watchman of the church across the street. His face looks like a white grave worm. Then the painter's model finds an old book, and a little golden clasp with a symbol on it.8 minClassic · 1812SealedFitcher's BirdA wizard steals three sisters, one at a time. He gives each one a key and an egg, and one rule. Don't open the last door. And don't let anything happen to the egg.10 minClassic · 1928SealedThe Call of CthulhuArtists all over the world dream of the same city under the sea on the same nights. A cult in a Louisiana swamp chants about something sleeping there. A sailor finds the city. Then it wakes up.10 min

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The classics here are our own retellings, written to be read aloud. The originals are free in the public domain, and every page links to them.