"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a classic scary short story by Edgar Allen Poe. In it, the narrator recounts a time when he killed an old man who had an eye resembling a vulture's. He is then driven mad by the perceived beating of the dead man's heart from under the floorboards, where he stashed the body, leading him to confess to the crime. The short story was first published in 1843 and incorporates many literary techniques, including alliteration, personification and literary irony. It is often referenced in popular culture and remains one of Poe's most well-known stories.
H.P. Lovecraft was a prolific horror writer whose influential longer works include "The Call of Cthulhu," which focused on themes of madness and featured one of the most famous characters in horror literature, the alien god-king Cthulhu. An intriguing short story by Lovecraft is "The Rats in the Walls." It was published in 1923 in an issue of "Weird Tales," a literary magazine. It is about a man driven insane by the sound of rats in his home's walls.
"The Minister's Black Veil" is a classic scary story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is set in Milford, a Puritan town, and concerns the Reverend Hooper, a trusted reverend the townspeople liked until the day he chose to wear a black veil that covered his eyes and nose. After that, the townspeople became frightened of him. It is suggested that he does this because he is hiding or repenting for a sin. He is never seen without the veil again. The story concerns common themes in Hawthorne's works, including the idea that there is evil in every human and that man has a tendency to hold beliefs as absolute.
"The Mortal Immortal" was written by Mary Shelley, who also wrote "Frankenstein." This 1833 short story is about a man who drinks a potion and becomes immortal. He finds it invigorating at first, but soon learns he has been cursed to live a tortuous life forever. The main character's name is Winzy, which refers to "winze," the Scottish word for curse. The reader is made to sympathize with this character and feel the same maddening effects of his declining health that will never end with death.