Then I have much longer ones like this one, where I did a voice-to-text 'note to self.' This is a story in progress, but this was the note I sent myself. It was something that had been bouncing around my head for a while, so I went into more detail.
I'm thinking about writing an "existential horror' novel. I'm thinking my main character (I'm not sure if it will be a male or a female yet, but I'm leaning to a female) moves into an old house she and her husband have just bought. At one time, the house was a stunning mansion, but years of neglect have caused it to get 'old.' She decides to stay in the 95-year-old two-story house on a Friday afternoon alone until her husband can return on Monday afternoon.
FOR the first few hours, all is well... but as it gets dark, odd things begin to happen. Doors seem to open or close without being touched. THERE are no breezes in the house, but the doors are responding to something, as are the curtains. The house is oddly quiet... at first. IN THE bathroom, she hears a faint whisper she can't make out, but the tone of the voice makes her nervous.
A SECOND trip to the bathroom finds a slight breeze coming from nowhere, causing the tub/shower curtain to slightly ripple. WHEN she pulls the curtain back to examine the tub, she sees a flash of a woman's body there, with two to three inches of blood in the tub. She screams and steps back. WHEN she works up the courage to look again, there is nothing in the tub.
SHE WANTS to call her husband, but there is no telephone in the house, and her cell phone says 'No service.'
For an hour, she sits on the old majestic porch in an old porch swing, watching the road, which has suddenly gone from a busy highway to no traffic. HER NERVES are settling down, and then she realizes someone else is rocking the swing. IT IS nice and easy for a minute, but then it picks up speed, causing the old chains holding the swing to squeak and object to the task of swinging. She thinks she is hearing someone laugh at her fear, but there is no one around her or in the house.
SEVERAL more small things begin to happen, but they only last for a few moments. A few years ago, she had seen a scary movie where the film company had an ad where people watching it tell themselves, 'IT'S ONLY A MOVIE!' and she began to say to herself that the things that she was seeing and hearing were only her imagination. (IT'S JUST MY IMAGINATION!)
After coming inside and making herself a cup of tea, she decides to go to bed. As she gets into the bedroom, she begins to hear the whispering again. She gets up and turns the room light back on and tries to go to sleep, but the whisperings of a dozen or more 'voices' laughing at her, touching her face with fingers that aren't visible... or there. NEEDLESS TO say, sleep eludes her.
Little does she know THAT things are just getting rolling. Friday was a party compared to what began to happen late morning SATURDAY.
I've got a list of 'spooky things' that begin to happen... and by MONDAY, HER husband finds her in the corner of the kitchen, holding a sharp knife, alternately giggling, screaming, and crying.