Ooh, that was creepy. Neat idea and nicely executed right there on the line between fantasy and insanity.

Yeah very creepy, worthy of the month of october! Great details; the book tasting like rotten flesh, the amorphous eyed creatures, the asylum, and the punchline! Awesome delivery!

Thanks guys! My friend sent me a link to a Lovecraft-writing contest that ended up being 5 years gone, but I figured I’d do something in that vein just for fun.

This reminded me of several of Ambrose Bierce’s short stories. Very creepy and macabre.

That eating bit was “borrowed” from Red Dragon. It’s an homage, yeah, that’s it… Seriously, it seemed like a good desperation option for total destruction next to burning.

Hey There’s this interesting store just opened….

Great story, very well written and paced. would have been nicer with a few tentacles though :)

S.J.

It was actually quite hard to keep the focus so narrow in this. I’ve written much longer stuff in the Lovecraft mythos that traced the path from sanity to mental breakdown, but here I just wanted to show that final breakdown. No tentacles allowed!

Everything is so neatly done. Kudos.

Nice little short, Cthulu would be proud. Particularly like the closing line- I get the feeling that you started with that outcome in mind and moved towards it!

I think the outcome came to me about halfway through writing it, actually. I knew I needed some reason for the authorities to be coming after him, and murder seemed as likely as any, but what would be his reason? Lovecraft had established the possession idea so bam! The end was born.

Wow, hits all the points on the Lovecraft pastiche list! =) Fun stuff, though it could perhaps be a little more implied…