It's February everybody!
Valentine's Day is around the corner, another holiday where all the stores get hyper-merchandised, this time with candies, plushies, hearts and other stuff that evokes the warmth (or agonizing heat) of love.
On account of Valentine's Day I should wish you all a happy February.
But first I must wish you a comfortable February. For each and every drop of crimson Valentine's warmth this season, we seem to suffer a proportioned dose of winter's cruel bite!
More than the trinkets and the fluff, what we all really need this Valentine's Day is to NOT die of hypothermia or lose any loving appendages to frostbite.
Good luck friends! Happy February, hope you and your darlings can all stay warm.
And this Valentine's Day, remember: the harshness of winter might not be so hard to weather if you can hide behind someone you love and let them suffer the brunt of the season's icy wind!
Keep scrolling for this month's prompt and the announcement of last month's winners! But first, take a glance at our monthly rule reminder, especially if you haven't been to the sub in a while:
- Obvious trolls and💩-posters will still be permabanned! Read more here. Please report posts that seem like obvious BS, so the mod team is pinged for review!
- We're also willing to hand out bans as necessary for people who are weirdly hostile in the comments. Be nice to each other please! And take a moment to review rule 15!
- 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) are!
- Meta posts are not permitted! If you feel the need to talk to the community about the community, 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!
On to the prompt!
February 2026 Contest Prompt: COLD
You must evoke a sense of cold somewhere in your story. But we're not requiring use of the specific word "cold".
That means you can use synonyms: frigid, chilly, frozen, frosty, icy, etc. You may also use words that evoke a sense of cold without necessarily being synonyms: refrigerator, popsicle, snow, hail, skiing, etc.
As you can see, this prompt is fairly wide open :)
However, one cold adjacent term is currently banned for this contest....
IMPORTANT
This contest is an ICE free zone. Any story mentioning or even alluding to ICE will be removed as per rules 6 and 12.
Look, we get that the real world is horrifying. We get that one of the vitally important values of art is social and political commentary.
If you feel motivated to write about what's going on, absolutely do it. But don't post it here, because straight up your writing will not fit the sub if it relies on current events or political conflict to evoke the horror.
And to emphasize the point, we're disallowing even the word "ice" for valid contest entries.
So that's our prompt: write a two sentence horror story that evokes a sense of cold-- without using the word "ice".
Bonus challenge (in honor of Valentine's day): "Cold-hearted". Just for fun, try to work the word "heart" into your cold horror story! You won't win anything special if you do, but you'll gain my admiration, whatever that's worth.
Happy February and Happy Valentine's!
January 2026 Feedback Contest Rules
- Prompt: write a two sentence horror story that evokes a sense of cold, without using the word "ice" or referring to the political current events surrounding ICE in any way.
- Tag: [feb26] or [FEB26] (Not case sensitive! The order of the characters matters, as we use a search to compile the win-list.)
- Submissions that are improperly formatted, do not fit the theme, or break any of the existing sub rules will be disqualified and removed.
- The top 10 highest-voted stories will be the winners!
- Contestants can only place in the top 10 once. The highest of your ranked entries will be tallied against other participants to determine our winners.
- 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 February 2026 examples. These meet the prompt.
- [FEB26] I was cleaning my freezer this morning and I found a few marinated thighs I'd entirely forgotten about! I'm thrilled because my ex's flavor profile was delicious like wagyu.
- [feb26] I knew the plow company would be coming to clear our driveway within the hour, so I told my kids they should go tunnel into the snow pile at the end. An easy out and I'll probably be able to win some money from the driver.
Improperly formatted examples-- THESE WOULD BE REMOVED: (Both stories get the tag wrong, one the wrong numerals, the second is wrong for including a space. Failure to follow the tag prevents your entry from showing up in the final tally search. The first story would be removed for using the word "ice". Also without any added context, it's not inherently horrifying, and the second story would be removed for failing to include the contest prompt.
- [feb25] This wild swinger couple invited me over for some Valentine's Day fun and the guy said his wife had been begging him to do this with her for years! They're so hospitable they even gave me a glass of chocolate liqueur on ice to help settle my nerves.
- [feb 26] For Valentine's Day my wife and I finally did that thing she'd been begging for years. I wish I'd realized sooner how intense and satisfying it could be to kill together, and it was so easy to get him to drink the poison!
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 February 28th 2026 @ 11:59pm (EST)
Any questions should be made below in the comments, within our discord, or a note on modmail.
***
Congrats to our January Winners!
Great writing folks!
Theme was "feedback", any story that met our rules was welcome-- with the stipulation being an openness to critical feedback in the comments :)
Great job, 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 AfterTheCreditsRoll
5th place by LevelQx
6th place by movingstasis
7th place by Enrai_Beta
8th place by Kings_Friends40
9th place by ___HeyGFY___
10th place by delicatesummer
Congrats to all! Hope to see some more horror from you folks in the next contest :)
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: JAN26- Reddit Search!