One classic is 'The Tell - Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe. It's about a man who kills an old man because he's unnerved by the old man's 'vulture - like' eye. The murderer hides the body under the floorboards, but he starts to hear the heartbeat of the dead man, which drives him to confess.
The most terrifying element is often the prediction of death or doom. Just like in many stories where the fortune teller foretells someone's untimely death, it creates a sense of impending dread that is really scary.
There's 'The Monkey's Paw'. In this story, a family comes into possession of a magical monkey's paw that grants wishes, but each wish comes with a horrible and unforeseen consequence, leading to a series of terrifying events.
The suspense. They keep you on the edge of your seat, not knowing what's going to happen next. For example, in 'The Woman in Black', the slow build - up of the mysterious woman's presence creates a great sense of unease.
Stephen King is a very well - known author who tells great scary stories. His works like 'It' and 'The Shining' have terrified readers for decades. 'It' features a shape - shifting entity that preys on children in the town of Derry, and 'The Shining' is about a family in an isolated hotel with a lot of dark secrets.
The story of the fortune teller and the doomed sailor is quite famous. A sailor visited a fortune teller before his voyage. The fortune teller told him that his ship would sink and he would drown. The sailor was a brave man and decided to go anyway. However, during the voyage, a terrible storm hit. The ship started to sink. As the sailor was going down with the ship, he remembered the fortune teller's words, and it added to the horror of his final moments.
There was a story where a young man went to a fortune teller. The fortune teller looked at his palm and with a solemn face said that he was cursed and all his loved ones would abandon him. As days passed, strange things started to happen. His friends slowly distanced themselves, and his family seemed cold. In the end, he was left alone, haunted by the fortune teller's words, not knowing if it was just coincidence or something more sinister.
One scary fortune teller story is about a young woman who visited a fortune teller in a dimly lit alley. The fortune teller told her she would die within a week. Terrified, she tried to stay indoors all the time. But on the seventh day, she heard a strange noise outside. When she opened the door to check, a loose roof tile fell and hit her on the head, just as the fortune teller predicted.