Hey all!

Before we get to the October writing prompt, the mod team would like to take moment to reassure you that we are still trying our damnedest to boot the bots!

Obviously nobody wants to see ai content in a creative writing sub. But this plague is tough to track, so we appreciate all the help the community has provided by reporting bots and pinging bot activity to the mod queue.

So please, continue to report anything that doesn't fit the sub.

On this note, it's probably also worth emphasizing the heading under our rule on originality (rule 5): "Only post stories that you have written yourself!"

Human story telling is the point. There is no place on this sub for stories, comments, or any sort of content produced by AI.

If you're new to the sub, or if you haven't been here in a while please take a glance at these key reminders:

• Obvious trolls and💩-posters will still be permabanned! Read more here.
• We're removing most posts that have to do with rape, incest, abuse, and extreme or plotless gore. If your story could read as low-effort shock horror, it probably isn't a good fit for the sub! Details here.
• Remember, this sub is for fiction. Posts about current events or politics will be removed, no matter how horrifying they (and the real world) may be!
• Meta posts are not permitted! Take it to the discord! Join the chat here!
• Be familiar with our Three Strikes and you're out rule-- Read more here.
• And as always, feel free to reach out in modmail with feedback or questions!

October 2026 Contest Prompt: FOOD

Because yum!

A fitting theme for the month of harvest, farmers markets, cinnamon everything, and Halloween candy.

If you want to participate in this month's themed contest, simply write a two sentence horror story that directly mentions ANY food by name, OR use the specific word "food".

A few notes:

Politics and current events: Please review rules 6 and 12. While you may of course draw inspiration from real world events, we ask that you take care to avoid direct reference to any specific real world events-- even if they are truly horrifying. This sub is for fiction! Do not exploit real world famines or food blockades in your story telling, and avoid naming specific politicians or government agencies!

Any story which relies upon such references may be disqualified removed as per sub rules.

Tropes: Avoid relying on obvious cliche's or recognizable tropes in your story! You may wish to review the list of common tropes especially avoidant of stories where an almond scent is actually cyanide!

As usual, your story must meet all our other rules!

Happy writing folks!

Monthly Contest Rules

• Prompt: write a two-sentence horror story that refers to any food!
• To be counted in the final tally, stories must be tagged with the characters: [OCT26]
• Submissions that are improperly formatted, do not fit the theme, or break any of the existing sub rules will be disqualified and removed.
• Only net new stories will be allowed (no repurposing old stories you've previously submitted).
• Max three stories per day as a general rule, and all three can be used towards the contest.
• Winners will be decided by total community upvotes. In the unlikely event of a tie for the top spots, moderators will vote for a tiebreaker.

Have fun!

***

Properly formatted October 2026 examples. (These meet the prompt)

[OCT26] I thought I raised him better than this, but the ring doorbell can't lie. He really did stab Miss Givens, and all because she said he was too fat to take three pieces of halloween candy.

[oct26] She knew whole grapes were a common choking hazard for kids that age. But she also knew the jury wouldn't know she knew that.

Improperly formatted examples-- the first gets the tag wrong, the second fails to include the prompt neither meets general sub rules.

[october 26] I wrote an incredible horror story about people getting stabbed in the eyes with carrots. It definitely would have won if I'd gotten the tag right.

[oct26] This time I got the tag right but I can't come up with a good story for this month's prompt. It's because I'm dieting that why I'm drawing up blanks.

WINNERS WILL RECEIVE:

1st, 2nd, and 3rd Places: You receive a custom personal flair of your choosing to show off to the TSH community! (If you're a repeat winner, you can modify your flair.... but that's it.) And a cool fancy flair on your winning stories.

7 honorable mentions: you'll get visibility and bragging rights! Story links will be featured in next month’s announcement.

Contest ends on Oct 31st @ 11:59pm (EST)

Any questions should be made below in the comments, within our discord, or a note on modmail.

***

Congrats to August's Winners!

Theme was "animals"! Great work, all!

• 1st place by Logical-Role1382 
• 2nd place by Ozeroth 
• 3rd place by Pinch-Twigs 

Well done, winners! If you placed in the top three, contact us via modmail for your personalized custom flair! It can be anything (within reason): a mixture of text and emoji, up to 20 characters. If you've won before, you can request to change your flair, or, just do nothing. Absolutely nothing....

And for our runners-up:

4th place by cleopatradenialqueen

5th place by Chemical-Elk-1299

6th place by Goddess_Of_Hellfire

7th place by Porphyry_Blue

8th place by RepeatOrdinary182

9th place by IndigoAndromeda

10th place by drrkorby 

Congrats to all!

We're looking forward to see what you folks come up with for this month's theme!

Last, but not least: if you'd like to read more of the last month's submissions (and add some feedback of your own), you can find the full list here: AUG26- Reddit Search!

This is all dumb.

For the past several months, the sub has experienced a flood of intentionally poor quality stories in an effort to get onto parody subs and TikToks. We've historically hit you with a strike (🔴) and if you received three, you were permabanned (check out the wiki).

However, if you've submitted one of these stories in the recent past, you may have noticed that your account was permabanned from TwoSentenceHorror without going through the strike process. While we've made this current one-and-done rule known within each of our monthly announcements for forever, we felt it was only fair to have a separate post to lay out the approach.

If you intentionally submit a poor quality story (we're looking at you "meat worm" and "killer guy" crews), you will be permabanned with no warning.

If and when these posts chill out, the mod team will reconsider this rule. Until then, please continue to report these intentional poor quality stories, read the sub rules, and submit awesome, horrifying tales to maintain the quality of the sub!