Ten Days of Madness

By Chris Allinotte

The Madness is Back!

The third annual "Days of Madness" short story anthology is back with eighteen new short-short tales that explore the extremes of the human condition, and beyond!

Ride shotgun with a distraught father as he floors it down the highway in pursuit of justice.

Answer the "Babysitters wanted" ad in your local paper, but be ready for the game of your life.

When frogs scream like crickets and mermaids become reality, you've in for a wild ride through ten days of madness.

Features new stories from the pens of: Richard Godwin, Anthony Cowin, Angel Zapata, J.J. Steinfeld, L.W. Salinas, Matthew Wilson, Jack Horne, Donald J. Uitvlugt, and Chris Allinotte.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chris Allinotte
• Release date: Apr 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301290246

Chris Allinotte

Chris Allinotte lives in Toronto with his wife and two sons. In 2008, his story The Dirt on Ronnie Wilkins won first place in the Toronto Star Short Story Contest. As a result of winning the contest, Chris got to attend the prestigious George Brown College Writer’s course, where he studied for eight months with author Tim Wynne Jones. Chris is the creator and editor of the Eight Days of Madness, and Nine Days of Madness anthologies. He is currently working on his first novel.

Book preview

10 Days of Madness: Frantic Flash Fiction

Edited by Chris Allinotte

Published at Smashwords.

Copyright © 2013 Chris Allinotte

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

All contained stories are copyright the individual contributors. None of these works may be copied or redistributed without the express written permission of the individual author.

All stories are works of fiction. Any similarity to persons, places or events in the past or present is strictly coincidental.

Introduction

What makes it Madness, anyway?

This is the third book that’s been spawned from a yearly blog event on my website, The Leaky Pencil. The origin of the event is simple: I wanted something to do to break up the monotony of March – and I’m not a sports person.

On the other hand, I’m very much a horror story person, and in particular, I find great joy in those stories that manage to stay within the realm of possibility, yet still manage to give the reader the creeps. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good monster story; but the tales I’ve chosen to be part of the Days of Madness books all manage to show that, beyond a doubt, that vampires, werewolves, and zombies can’t get close to the atrocities we simple mortals are capable of.

However…

Since the first event and ebook, which was published as Eight Days of Madness, there’s been a disturbing nagging at my conscience, that focusing the event’s theme on madness could somehow be construed as an insensitivity to mental illness, or worse – a mockery.

No, I would say that, for the most part, the characters and situations in these stories are joyfully, maniacally sane. What these tales represent is that sanity pushed to its breaking point. Whether it’s the tale of a scientist who pushes himself to the limits of his creative hubris, or a father driven by the single thought of revenge for his lost love, these are people who represent any one of us, confronted with the extremes of the human condition. It’s a fine distinction, one might argue, but I stand behind the work which, as it always should, stands on its own merits.

The results are here for your enjoyment. There are twenty finely crafted works of horror in this volume, and each one has something sinister in store for you.

Note: if you have come into this collection without having any previous knowledge of the event, the Days referenced by the title and in the table of contents correspond to ten actual days in March 2013, when these stories were published online in a web event by the same title.

As always, I am indebted to the hard work of the writers whose work is represented in these pages.

Until next year!

Chris Allinotte

April 25, 2013

Table of Contents

Introduction

Day 1

EVP: Benjamin Sobieck

The Frantic and the Dead: Angel Zapata

Day 2

Saturation Point: Richard Godwin

Day 3

Late Freeze: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

At the Scene of the Crime: J.J. Steinfeld

Day 4

By the Sea: L.W. Salinas

Reflections In Shallow Water: Matthew Wilson

Day 5

Trick or Treat: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

Mythical and Astonishing Woman: J. J. Steinfeld

The Thief of Hunger: Anthony Cowin

Day 6

2:35 a.m.: L.W. Salinas

Reflections in Shallow Water: Matthew Wilson

Day 7

The Comings and Goings of Ordinariness: J. J. Steinfeld

Open the Door: Benjamin Sobieck

Day 8

Summer Games: Donald Jacob Uitvlugt

I’m Ready for My Close-up: Chris Allinotte

Day 9

Let’s Play Games: Anthony Cowin

The Mark of Servitude: Angel Zapata

Day 10

B27: Jack