Scary chat stories: abandoned house
People walk into an abandoned house by choice, and that is what sets this setting apart: the character chose to go in. So the story does not rest on who they meet, but on how slowly and quietly the way out closes.
One fresh detail among the old
An empty house is not frightening in itself. One new thing inside it is. Wet soil in a pot, a washed cup, freshly sifted sand, a tag with today’s date: any of them means somebody was here an hour ago and is coming back.
This is the most economical device in the genre. No sounds, no shadows, just an object that is the wrong age for everything around it.
The way out that is no longer there
The other half of the mechanism: the way back stops existing while the character is distracted.
- The window they climbed through turns out to be boarded from the inside
- The doors are welded shut from outside, which means somebody did it on purpose
- None of the doors have handles on this side
- The dirt track they drove in on is gone, and a building stands where it was
- The friend who was right there no longer answers and is busy with something else
How to write your own
Write from the point of view of whoever stayed outside. It is the best vantage point in the genre: outside you can ask, panic and demand they leave, while inside you can only describe. The gap between what one sees and what the other understands is the tension.
Give the last line to the one inside, and keep it calm. Calm text at that moment reads as worse than a scream.
The house with the winter garden
They found a greenhouse inside the abandoned house. The palms are alive, the soil is wet, the watering can is tagged with today.
How it starts
- We are inside. The house really is empty
- Send photos
- The windows are boarded and it is bright in here
- There is glass in the roof. A winter garden
- A winter garden in an abandoned house
The keys to number twelve
Among his grandmother’s things he found keys tagged with an address demolished in 1998. The paper on the tag is new.
How it starts
- I was going through my grandmother’s things
- Found keys tagged "8 River Street, flat 12"
- Go and have a look
- 8 River Street was demolished in 1998
- Then it is just a keepsake
The basement that is not on the plan
The building plan shows no basement, and under the stairs a door stands open above forty steps down.
How it starts
- This building has a basement and the plan has none
- What plan
- The technical one, I got it from the management office
- Solid foundation. No basement
- Then what is that door
FAQ
What abandoned house stories are here
Three: "The house with the winter garden" about a greenhouse somebody waters, "The keys to number twelve" about a flat in a demolished building, and "The basement that is not on the plan" about forty steps down.
How is this different from a ghost town
Scale and time. A house is walked in an hour, and the fear is the exit closing. A town cannot be walked, and the fear is the amount of evidence that people live there.
Does this kind of story need description
Barely any. Dialogue beats description: one line saying the doors have no handles on this side does more than a paragraph about a gloomy interior.