Wow, gang. This was a brief read. There were eight submissions (well, seven, really). On the upside, there were some really good reads in here, with a lot of effective prose and tension.

Here’s your link to the results. I’m not sure why I haven’t always done it that way. It’s a hell of a lot easier than adding HTML for boldface and italics.

Hey, look, a triple gold! Placements are changing. Odds are changing. The one constant is that I continue to bathe Joshua Longman in golden showers (that’s how you say this, right?).

Your next challenge:

“The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”
Written by Rod Serling
Directed by Ron Winston
Originally broadcast March 4, 1960

Maple Street is just another bucolic, tree-lined setting, until the town’s lights and power go out. Strange electrical outbursts fuel panic, fear and recrimination among the street’s residents. Talk of alien invasion, at first deemed crackpot, now take on urgency in the darkness, as neighbor turns against neighbor.

The most dangerous enemy of mankind is, obviously, mankind’s irrational fear. And, as the real alien forces behind the blackout remind us: “The world is full of Maple Streets.”

In your story, characters must question other characters out of mounting paranoia. Let me be clear: this is paranoia, so the looming threat must not actually be real. I’ll admit I’m worried about some sameness from this prompt, but every time I say that, writers hit it out of the park.

These are due January 1st at 9pm Central. Cheers, Prosers.