Here's one. A man bought an old camera from an antique store. When he developed the film that was already in it, the pictures showed a figure that seemed to be lurking in the shadows of his own house. Every picture had this strange, menacing figure, and he started to feel very uneasy in his home.
Isolation is also a key theme. Often, the main character is alone, either physically in a remote location or emotionally cut off from others. This isolation amplifies the fear when something creepy starts to happen. For instance, a person alone in a big, old house and strange noises start coming from different rooms.
A rather creepy online story involves a person who noticed that their webcam light would turn on by itself at odd hours. When they checked their computer's activity log, there were no signs of any software accessing the webcam. However, they later found some really strange and blurry photos in a hidden folder on their computer that seemed to be taken from the webcam angle. It was a terrifying discovery that made them question their online security.
Trust your gut. If something feels off, end the conversation. For example, if someone is being overly pushy about meeting right away, it's probably not a good sign.
One short creepy story is 'The Tell - Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. It's about a narrator who is haunted by an old man's vulture - like eye and eventually kills him. He then hears the old man's heart still beating under the floorboards. Another is 'The Hitchhiker'. A man keeps seeing the same hitchhiker on a long drive, no matter how far he goes or how many times he tries to leave the hitchhiker behind. And 'The Monkey's Paw' where a family gets a magical paw that grants wishes but with horrible consequences for each wish they make.
One short creepy story is about a haunted doll. A girl found an old doll in the attic. At night, she would hear it giggling and its eyes seemed to follow her around the room.
The combination of dark themes, mysterious settings, and unexpected plot twists makes it creepy. The way the characters are presented and the atmosphere created adds to the overall creepiness.
There was this instance where a man thought he was chatting with a normal woman on an online dating platform. However, as they video - called, the woman's face looked really strange. Later, he found out that she was using someone else's pictures. It turned out she had some malicious intentions and was trying to scam him.
The unknown is the scariest element. In many creepy online stories, like the ones where people get mysterious messages from unseen senders, not knowing who is behind it or what their intentions are is truly frightening.