Halloween 2014: Goosebumps author RL Stine live tweets scary short story

New 14-tweet tale 'What's In My Sandwich?' is nothing short of terrifying

Goosebumps author RL Stine at a book signing (Getty Images)

Readers who grew up with those scary Goosebumps books in the Nineties are in for a Halloween treat.

US author RL Stine shared a short horror story live on Twitter earlier this week, much to the delight of his 137,000 followers.

Ominously entitled "What's In My Sandwich?", Stine's 14 tweets are…disturbing.

They tell of the bizarre discovery of a "new life form" while eating an egg salad sandwich but the science ends there, as the "fat beetle" creatures end up "biting holes" in the stomach of the writer's son and leaving him "screaming in agony".

But why not read it for yourself?

Stine has sold more than 350 million of his Goosebumps novellas since the first, Welcome to Dead House, was released in July 1992.

The books feature different child characters who find themselves in unexpectedly terrifying situations.

They often include twist endings and are jam-packed with strange, surreal horror, but there are no deaths, drugs or incidents of serious violence.

Stine recently revived his popular Fear Street series with new release Party Games after a Twitter campaign went viral.

He has tweeted stories before, once in February 2012 about a haunted kitchen and another for Halloween the same year about an evil farmer.