Welcome one and all! Before I get to the winner and sharing all of the amazing people who entered the contest, special thanks to the judges:
Our amazing judges worked tirelessly to read every single entry: S.E. Reid / Keith Long / Shane Bzdok [Read their additional comments below the list of stories.]
You should all feel proud of yourselves for entering this contest and I urge you to consider submitting your story to the Killer Shorts contest.
You’re about to see a list of 34 stories. Take your time going through each, and read them with the light on.
And the winner is…
(Will receive 1 free entry into this year’s Killer Shorts Contest for their story)
Wake. Look. Dread. by Nick Buchheit
The Runner Up is…
(Will receive a 50% discount into this year’s Killer Shorts Contest for their story)
The Honorable Mentions…
The Knack Witch’s Child by Garen Marie
Where It Belongs by Shaun Baland
All the Stories!
Quinceañera of the Damned by Miguel Martinez
The Thing That Remembers by CradleRot
Loot Table by Luke H
Little Man & the Moonlight Darlings by Sean Thomas McDonnell
My Little Verity by Coral Evermore
Curtained Off by Kimberly B🌴👻🌴
I received a cassette tape in the mail labeled “To Mom.” My first child doesn’t arrive for another month. by Eric Lockaby
The Third Lamppost From The Left by Wendy Cockcroft
Broken Crystal by Adi Out Here
The Orange Drum by Joseph Young
Maw of Eternity by Connor Mancuso
Claws by L.G. Wells
The Original Knogler Witch by Sincerely, Sarah S. 🧚🏻♀️
The Inanimate Rapture by Evelyn K. Brunswick
The Sinister Slumber of Forever by Ken Beyer
WHAT’S NEXT?
The wheels are already in motion for the Inanimate Objects Anthology. Tentative release date of October 27, 2027. In the meantime, personal invitations will be sent to select writers to be featured in this Anthology. There will be more information on this next Summer.
Want to enter our next contest and get an opportunity to be included in future Anthologies? We have 3 chances coming in 2026. Subscribe to stay informed. Follow TiF Team on Substack Notes for daily updates. And whatever you do, tell your friends to prepare for more stories and storytelling opportunities!
COMMENTARY from SHANE BZDOK
There were over three dozen submissions for this contest. Thirty-five to be exact, ranging in length from 433 words to 3,990. But what they all had in common, of course, was an object—an inanimate object.
With projects like this, I am as fascinated with the whole as I am with any singular story. Sizing up the entire collection, the differences and the similarities, are striking. The stories spanned a broad spectrum of interpretation on the theme across different subjects and genres. Some writers took the word “inanimate” quite literally and featured an object that had no life of its own, truly inanimate, treated as a static prop in the dynamic narrative unfolding around it. Others took some license on the meaning, and in my mind, brought a considerable amount of life and energy to the objects. Evelyn K. Brunswick presented a very interesting take, using the concept of inanimate (vs living) as an overarching theme in her story.
How much life an inanimate object appears to have or not to have is what brings me to the winning story, “Wake. Look. Dread.” by Nick Buchheit.
But first, let me address the elephant in the room. Are you sitting down? Good, because Second Person. Yeah, that. Now, based on what I’ve heard around these parts, this particular POV sends shivers and shockwaves down most spines. But folks, let me tell you, when it’s done right? Well, in a great story like Nick’s, it folds you into the experience, becoming as invisible and necessary as the air we breathe. Well, maybe invisible isn’t quite the right word. In truth, it was hard not to notice at first, only because it is so incredibly rare to read. But it worked. In fact, it was great, and if anything, made the story stand out that much more for me. Bold decision, Nick!
The main reason this story made it to the top for me was its concept of influence. How these inanimate objects, not capable of intent or nefarious motives of their own, were able to gain complete control and manipulate their wearer to the degree of near-demonic possession. These passive objects become a means to the character’s end, providing direct lines and a constant IV drip to our generation’s new god, the Algorithm. At times in the story, these dark talismans are placed out of the character’s reach, maybe to remind us that with physical distance, they lose their power, reverting back to lifeless husks of plastic and metal. Only when united with the objects do we witness the character’s tortured servitude and self-destructive behaviors.
While the topic of doom scrolling may be nothing new, the underlying concept of this story as it relates to the prompt, and how enjoyable it was to read made this a winner in my book. Congratulations, Nick!
COMMENTARY from KEITH LONG
There have been more than a few trance-like moments where I’ve come out of a doom scroll and wondered what I was doing and why. Nick takes this reality and adjusts it a tick to the left, creating a creeping fear to hit the reader where they live. The slow unwinding of the main character’s sanity, the attempts to combat it, the seemingly deliberate roadblocks life throws in the way – it’s all very real and that’s what makes this story unsettling.
COMMENTARY from S.E. REID
First, I want to thank EVERYONE who sent in their tales to this competition. I don’t always have the time to read as much fiction on Substack for fun as I would like to, so this was a fantastic excuse to dig through a veritable treasure-trove of styles and genres and find some real gems. It was a seriously tough competition, and you should all be really proud of the work you did!
The winning story took me by surprise. I confess: I’m not the world’s biggest fan of second-person POV, so the story had a bit of a hill to climb to win me over from the get-go. But very quickly I realized that the unusual POV wasn’t just a style choice; it was purposeful, and a masterful decision on the part of the writer. It was meant to give us the same dread-inducing feeling that those health-fad blog-posts give us when they look us directly in the eye and say, “You’re failing. Fix it.” Believe me, I know that feeling all-too-well.
The story’s unrelenting rhythm, snappy pacing, and intriguing mystery kept me hooked and guessing all the way to the end. It’s horror, but the subtle and relatable kind. It’s what rising anxiety feels like, the shame that comes from knowing you have a problem and not being able to repair it. Is our tech truly a tool for our own self-improvement, or merely another way for us to harm ourselves? The answers aren’t so clear-cut.
Brilliantly rendered, deeply eerie, and darkly funny. A deserving winner, and congratulations to Nick for such a fantastic entry!
Finally, BIG THANKS to Erica and the TiF crew for letting me be a part of this judging team! It was a genuine delight. Happy Hallowe’en, everyone! :)
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Wow! Um....I didn't expect this at all. So many talented writers submitted for this. I'm a little lost for words. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Congratulations to Nick and Brooke! We can't wait to read your stories here at Killer Shorts. And everyone who completed a story because of this prompt, you should be proud! Check out https://killershorts.com for more info about our writing competition. We are open until December 31st, 2025. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!