Spooky Stories To Share By The Fireplace
There’s something about autumn evenings that screams out for urban legends and spooky tales to be shared during this atmospheric season.
So, whether it’s because Halloween is on its way or the gorgeous pinks and oranges of an October sky bring out the storyteller in you, it’s impossible to resist placing a few heat logs in the wood-burning stove and sharing some scary stories with your loved ones.
Here are a few tales to enjoy around the fireplace…
The Slasher
A young woman finishes a late shift in the restaurant she works at and gets into her car to drive home.
As she drives down the street, a man in white suddenly jumps out in front of her car and tries to get her to stop. He is covered in blood and he yells at her while banging his hands against the car, but the young woman is frightened and she speeds away.
Turning on the radio, the news announces that the police are looking for a serial killer known as ‘The Slasher’ after a murder had taken place in the city that night. The newsreader states that The Slasher is wounded and should not be approached, as he is extremely dangerous.
Continuing to drive home, the young woman notices that her car is low on petrol, so she begins to anxiously look for a station to fill up.
Stopping at a red light, she sits and waits for it to turn green – no other traffic appears on the road. But, suddenly, the man covered in blood reappears and, once more, slams his hands against the car, seemingly trying to get in. He is jabbering uncontrollably, which frightens the young woman further and she drives through the red light and away from him. He runs after her, but she puts her foot down and drives away.
Only a mile away from home, she spots a petrol station and pulls in, knowing it will be safer than to going back to her empty house. But, as she pulls in, she can’t see any staff members around. Just then, the man covered in blood comes out of nowhere for the third time, hollering and pounding the car.
At this, the young woman grabs her mobile phone and rings the police. They say that an officer is just around the corner and will be with her shortly. Hanging up, she realises that the man has disappeared.
Less than a minute later, a police officer arrives, and the young woman is relieved. Informing them of her ordeal, the officer checks over her car, only to find a second man hiding in her back seat.
It’s The Slasher!
Injured and bleeding heavily, he was hiding in the back of her car the whole time, just waiting for the opportune moment to claim the young woman as his next victim.
Later that night, as the young woman watches television at home, she sees a photo of The Slasher’s victim who had died earlier that day – the man covered in blood who had been chasing her.
As a ghost, he’d been trying to warn her of the unknown assailant hiding in the back of her car.
Okay, so that might not have been the eeriest of Halloween stories, but this next one is the perfect chilling tale for in front of the chiminea…
The Hook
A teenage couple parks their car at Lover’s Lane, just outside their hometown and, just as they begin canoodling, the radio informs them that a murderer has escaped from a nearby prison. He’s unstable, dangerous and has a hook instead of a right hand.
As soon as she hears this, the girl says she wants to go back home, while her boyfriend insists they have nothing to worry about. She is unconvinced and demands he take her home at once.
Infuriated, he starts the car and stomps on the accelerator, driving his girlfriend straight back to her house.
Reaching her home, they are both annoyed with each other and, as the girl leaves the car, something catches her eye. She starts to scream and cannot stop. As the girlfriend uncontrollably shrieks and sobs, the boyfriend leaps out from the driver’s side of the car and rushes to her side, only to see what has caused her so much distress: a shiny hook, hanging from the door handle and glistening in the moonlight.
Still not scary enough for you?
Well, place some briquettes in the wood burner and read this yarn that's so creepy, you'll drop a log…
The Babysitter
A teenage girl earns some extra money babysitting for the families in her hometown.
One night, she’s hired to look after the children of a couple she’s never worked for before and, after the kids have gone to bed, she begins to nosily explore the house.
In one room, she sees a beautiful oak dining table and, lighting a fire, she sets down to do the homework she has brought with her.
She cannot focus, however, as the room also contains a creepy clown statue. The girl tries to continue with her studies, but she cannot escape the feeling that the clown statue is watching her. She drapes a large blanket from the living room over the clown and sits down to complete her homework.
***
Forty-five minutes later, the house phone rings, and it is the couple for whom she is babysitting. They are ringing to make sure everything is okay and that the children settled down for her.
The babysitter confirms that everything is fine and that the children are fast asleep in their beds, but she informs them that she has had to put a blanket over the clown statue in their dining room, as it was creeping her out.
‘Get the kids and get out of the house!’, the dad says, rather coldly from the other side of the phone.
‘What, why? What’s wrong?’ the babysitter asks, worried.
‘We don’t have a clown statue.’
If these stories are sending shivers down your spine, be sure to put another Lekto Night Briquette onto the wood burner.
Ready for one another sinister story?
The Hitchhiker
A man is driving a long distance and is doing so through the night. Making his way through winding country roads, his headlights find a young woman standing by the side of the road. As they’re in the middle of nowhere, he pulls over and offers her a lift.
Smiling, she accepts and gets in the back. The man asks where she is heading and, as she answers, he notices she is shivering. He hands her his jacket, and, after a few more minutes, the young woman is asleep.
The man continues to drive and, after an hour or two, he reaches the town the young woman had asked to be driven to, just as it becomes light.
He drives right up to the address she had given, but when he turns to inform her that they’ve arrived, she – and his jacket – are gone!
Shocked, as they hadn’t stopped since he’d picked her up, the man had nothing else to do but knock on the door and see if whoever lived there can offer any solution.
An old lady answers and the man - still reeling from his hitchhiker vanishing - tries to calmly explain what had happened and why he is currently at her door.
The old lady invites him inside and sits him by the roaring fire in her living room.
She asks the man to describe the hitchhiker and, as he does so, he notices that he is describing the woman who appears in many photos around the room. The old lady picks up a photo from her mantelpiece and explains that the woman who got into his car was her daughter…and she had died twenty years ago on the very same spot he found her!
Believing it all to be a prank, the man doesn’t believe the old lady, so she tells him to go to the local cemetery and find the grave of her daughter as proof. She even writes down the hitchhiker’s name, date of birth and date of death for him.
Uncertain, the man says goodbye and drives away. He arrives at the local cemetery and begins to look for the woman’s graveyard, but he doesn’t have to look far, as he sees a tombstone with his jacket draped over it.
Lifting the jacket up, he sees the name and dates the old lady gave him.
One more?
How’s your fire looking? If your wood burner needs another heat log or night briquette, put it in there now, because this final tale is positively bone-chilling…
The plane crash
A British pilot is signed up to fight for his country during World War Two and the night before he leaves home, he makes a pact with his younger sister. They promise each other that, if either of them dies during the war, they will return to tell the other that there is life after death.
The young sister even seals her side of the promise by giving her brave brother her favourite ring to take with him.
As the war rages on, the letters home from the pilot dry up and the family don’t hear from him again.
***
Two years after the war, the pilot’s sister visits her local church with her grandfather and, suddenly, the colour drains from her face and she falls backwards, passing out for a few moments.
When she comes to, her grandfather asks what happened and she tells him she saw her brother step forward from behind a pillar and smile at her.
***
Many, many years later, a young man is exploring the French countryside. In the middle of nowhere, he takes a moment to stop for a rest.
Appreciating the natural beauty around him, a plane suddenly screeches across the blue sky and, clearly in some distress, it arrows towards the ground, crashing just behind the next hill to where the young man was sitting.
On his feet, he races over the hill, towards where he believed the plane had crashed. However, when he gets to the spot, nothing is there. No debris, no smoke, no plane.
Shocked and more than a little shaken, the young man stands in the spot for some time, trying to fathom out what had happened, only to look down and find a beautiful ring amongst the grass.
Taking it home, he shows the ring to his family, including his elderly grandmother, who recognises the ring instantly as the one she gave her older brother all those years ago.
Whether you enjoy telling ghost stories or being scared by them, there’s no denying that they are a great way to enjoy a roasting fire.
If you require environmentally-friendly warmth to keep you warm whilst being scared to the bone this Halloween, buy your Hardwood Heat logs here.
If you need a safe and reliable flame throughout the night, buy your Lekto Night Briquettes here.