Scary Stories for Sleepovers

A good sleepover story should make everyone squeal, then laugh, then keep the lights on for five minutes longer than usual. These three are written to be read aloud, with a pause and a jump at the end of each.

How to tell them

• Turn the lights down and use one flashlight.
• Read slowly, and slow down more near the end.
• Whisper the last line, then say the final word loudly. That’s your jump.
• Check the room. If anyone is getting genuinely upset, switch to a funny story.

The Extra Sleeping Bag

There were six of us at Maya’s sleepover, and six sleeping bags lined up on the living room floor. We counted them before the movie: six.

When the movie ended, we switched off the lights and wriggled into our bags. Maya counted us in the dark, like a teacher on a field trip. “One, two, three, four, five, six.”

Then a small voice at the end of the row said, “Seven.”

Nobody breathed. Maya grabbed the flashlight and swept it along the floor. Six faces squinted back. Six sleeping bags. Nobody else.

“Very funny,” Maya said. Everybody swore it wasn’t them.

We laughed about it. We settled down. And just as I was falling asleep, I felt someone at the end of the row gently tug my sleeping bag, and whisper, “Can I have a turn?”

MAYA! I screamed. She was already asleep. She always sleeps with her mouth open. It definitely wasn’t her.

The Midnight Pizza

At midnight, the doorbell rang. We hadn’t ordered anything. Leo’s mom was asleep upstairs.

Through the window, we could see a delivery bag on the doorstep, steam rising from it into the cold air. No car. No driver. No footprints in the frost.

Leo opened the door a crack and pulled the bag inside. It was a pizza, still hot, with our favorite toppings. On the lid, someone had written in marker: For the kids who are still awake.

We ate it, obviously.

At breakfast, Leo’s mom laughed so hard she cried. She’d ordered it from her phone, then snuck back to bed. “You should have seen your faces through the window,” she said.

Which was strange, because the window she was talking about faces the backyard, and her bedroom is at the front of the house.

Sardines

Sardines is hide-and-seek backwards: one person hides, and everyone who finds them squeezes into the hiding place too, until the last seeker is alone.

Ava hid first. One by one, we found her in the big closet under the stairs, giggling and squashed together in the dark: four of us, then five, then six.

Only Jamie was left searching. We could hear him wandering, calling our names.

“Shh,” Ava whispered, “he’s coming.”

The closet door opened, and Jamie shone his flashlight in. He frowned. “There’s only five of you,” he said. “Where’s Ava?”

We all turned to look at the space where Ava had been.

From the other side of the house, far away, we heard her yell: “Did anyone even look for me?”

Then, from the back of the closet, right beside us, someone giggled. BOO!

More ideas for the night

Between stories, play a round of silly questions from WhiteFool’s funny would you rather questions to reset the mood. For younger guests, pick from our scary stories for kids, and for bigger kids who want more, try short scary stories to read at night.

Frequently asked questions

Are these stories too scary for 10-year-olds?

They’re designed to be spooky, with twists that make everyone jump and then laugh. Nothing gory happens.

How can I make the endings scarier?

Slow down, drop your voice for the final lines, then say the last word loudly.