The funeral attendees were shocked by the behaviour of the veiled gatecrashers. They had arrived midway through the funeral, chatting and laughing loudly while covered head-to-toe in black. They were far more horrified when the deceased climbed out of the the coffin to join them.

Since my cat learned to push doors open, she often finds herself trapped trapped inside my bedroom, having shut the door herself. As I lie in bed in the dark, I hear her close the, door and feel her snuggle up against me. Minutes later, drifting off, I hear my cat scratching from the other side of my door.

It had been so hard to remember what everyone was allergic to. Nieces with gluten intolerance, grandsons with nut allergies, children with shellfish allergies, yet they all demand that I cook for all of them every Sunday. After hours of thankless work, I finally serve the meal and am certain that no one will ask me to cook again.

There are ten of us, poor beyond belief, but together we have just enough money to pull one of us out of poverty. We have each signed wills leaving everything to a blank beneficiary and we shoot back our drinks at the same time. It should take less than a minute to find out who gets to try a new life and who gets to escape entirely.

Sydney had never noticed the door, despite it sitting between the two windows in her lounge-room. Her attention was only drawn to it when she heard knocking and as she approached, she heard her late husband calling to her. Without thinking, she opened and walked through the door on the 17th floor of her building.

At last, Nate had all the parts to restore the classic car he and his father had worked on when he was a teenager. His father had died midway through restoring it, crushed when the propped car fell on top of him.

Nate still felt that he had been justified to drop it after finding out it was going to be sold and not gifted to him.

When my maternal grandmother died, she willed me her house on the strict condition that I not unlock the basement for the first month. This was easy, as I was out of the country for weeks immediately after the funeral. When I finally entered the house and opened the basement, I was horrified to find that my father had not run away years ago.

It took all night, but I have finally boarded up every window and door. There’s no way that the creatures can get to me now. I just hope that they don’t wake up before the fire consumes their house.

The voice over the speaker tells us that out of the ten of us, only one person will get to leave alive with one million dollars.

Looking around, I see that others are confused as one-by-one they realise there are eleven of us here. I can’t believe they forgot to change the announcement after all the money I paid to get into this.

It’s rare that someone I met online looks exactly like their profile photo.

I thought that when I met him I would be able to bust him for using someone else’s photo, but as he introduces himself I find myself silent. He looks exactly like the last photo that was taken of my friend before he disappeared ten years ago, down to the birthmark on his neck.

He collapsed, panting and drenched in blood that was too dark to be human. The corpse of the monster lay still in front of him with far too many legs curled up around its torso.

It was such a shame that he never had time to realise that it was only a child.

I can hear my children beating at the boarded door and see their silhouettes, backlit by the setting sun. I remain quiet and listen for the approach of the creatures waiting in the darkness. While waiting for the problem to resolve itself, I hug my remaining child and gently remind him that this is why he should always listen to his mother and not stay outside after dark.

Ever since my father died my mother has been locked in their room, talking to herself. It was so lovely to hear her laughter for the first time today that it took me a minute to realise I heard my father’s laugh as well. I wish she would have let us remove his corpse from their room.

There is no light coming in through the windows. There hasn’t been for days, not since the insects began swarming at the windows and doors to my house. I try to calm my children as we hear buzzing and skittering from the chimney.

Grave robbery wasn’t the most immoral job in the world; after all the only real difference between it and archaeology was time. This thought calmed the man as he began prising the coffin lid open. He paused to wipe the sweat and dirt out of his eyes, which stopped him from seeing skeletal fingers reaching from inside the coffin to take advantage of the gap he had provided.