Knock. The Worlds Shortest Horror Story.

Knock was written by Fredrick Brown and published in 1948. It goes as follows:

'The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.'

Even though the first line is by far the most famous the story actually comprises of a lot more where the first lines are fleshed out into more of a story. I won't spoil anything because it really is a great tale and worth reading.

I like this story so much as it tells the reader what it needs to know and leaves the rest of the plot to the imagination. It gives me shivers like no other story consisting of 17 words has ever managed, nor ever will.

At first I did believe this was an original story, however after a little research it appears that it was a play on another story written by Thomas Bailey Aldrich in 1870, which was based on even earlier versions of the same idea.

 "A woman is sitting alone in a house. She knows she is alone in the whole world; every other living thing is dead. The doorbell rings."

Despite this I prefer Brown's version as it's much simpler and more concise. No superfluity words just storytelling at its best.