Short Horror Stories

The Children By the Window

The town of Harrows had a legend; an old house, decrepit and surrounded by overgrown vegetation, stood isolated from the rest. They said children disappeared inside, and on moonlit nights, you could see their faces pressed against the windows.

Sarah, a journalist, had recently moved to Harrows. Intrigued by the tales, she decided to spend a night in the house, hoping to debunk the myths. Armed with a flashlight and her courage, she stepped into the building at dusk.

The house groaned under the weight of the years. Cobwebs stretched across corners, and the dust had claimed every surface. As night fell, Sarah settled in a room with a broken window, which gave her a view of the moonlit outdoors.

Hours passed in silence until a soft, almost imperceptible tap came from the adjacent room. Sarah followed the sound and found herself before a large, grimy window. To her horror, she saw small handprints all over it. Then, more tapping. She turned her flashlight to the source and gasped.

There were children. But these weren't ordinary children. Their eyes were hollow, skin pale and stretched, and their fingers ended in sharp, bony points. They tapped on the window, their gaze fixed on Sarah. Transfixed by fear, she stumbled back, only to feel more of those bony fingers tap on the window behind her. She was surrounded.

Sarah, with newfound courage, shone her light directly onto the closest child's face. Instead of recoiling, it smiled, revealing a mouth full of jagged teeth. The other children began to hum a haunting melody, their voices blending in a spine-chilling harmony.

Panic gripped her. Sarah remembered an old escape route mentioned in the town's records. She sprinted towards the cellar, narrowly avoiding the children's grasps. Reaching the underground tunnel, she crawled desperately. The humming grew distant, but the cold, eerie feeling never left her.

Emerging from the tunnel, she found herself outside, gasping for breath. The house loomed ominously behind her, the windows glowing with the silhouettes of the children, watching.

Sarah never returned to Harrows. But the legend grew. The story said that on moonlit nights, along with the children's faces, you might also see a woman, her eyes wide with terror, forever trapped among the children by the window.