You Shouldn’t Have Looked

YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE LOOKED

An Anthology of Short Horror Stories

by Max Nolten

Curiosity is never harmless.

In You Shouldn’t Have Looked, ordinary moments become points of no return. A late-night chat window. A walk through the woods. A quiet house. A familiar voice asking the wrong question. Each story follows people who do something small and human—who look closer, listen longer, stay when they should leave.

And pay for it.

These stories explore the horror of being noticed: by strangers, by systems, by killers, by things that wear human shapes and speak in careful words. Some victims are hunted. Some are studied. Some are simply chosen. There are no heroes here, no rescues, no clean endings—only the slow realization that once attention is given, it cannot be taken back.

Blending psychological dread, grounded violence, and modern existential fear, You Shouldn’t Have Looked is a collection about inevitability, consent, and the moment when fear becomes certainty.

Because nothing here comes out of nowhere.

You opened the door.

You stayed.

You looked.

Great collection of stories!

All different stories that feel like they belong together! Some were better than others! I really liked What the Field Needed and Man In The Dark!