15 Greatest Stephen King Short Stories Of All Time

Of all of the stories on this list, and of all the wonderful, scary and downright devastating tales that Stephen King has ever written, The Last Rung on the Ladder has to be his most powerful and brilliantly heartbreaking.

Larry, the narrator, relays to the reader a game he used to play with his now-estranged sister, Katrina. When their parents weren't around, they'd climb a ladder in their barn and jump from the loft and into a thick pile of hay. He recalls how one day he saved his sister, as the ladder broke before she reached the loft and he had to work quickly to pile up the hay and save her from the fall. It worked, and Katrina survived.

Now though, Larry is all grown-up, and hasn't seen his sister in a good long while, struggling to keep up a correspondence with her. In the tale's final moments, Larry reveals what happened to his sister all these years later, and his guilt over what occurred.

The Last Rung on the Ladder showcases King's ability to write about the joys (and hardships) of childhood, and the resulting story is sure to break your heart and leave you reeling.