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Just click the link in the show description to support now. From the blackest corners of your mind, they call, pulling you deep into shadow, twisting your senses,

keeping you from sleep.

It's time to face your darkest fears.

This is Tales to Terrify. Good evening, children of the night, and welcome.

As promised, we have something a little different for you this week.

At long last, we have the winners of our second flash fiction contest, which took place earlier this year.

The muse for our contest was an unsettling piece of artwork, a painting by Polish painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Gusto Gwoste Gwashedeki.

I can try to describe it to you, to jog your memory, but as with any artwork, is probably best to

see it for yourself, which you can do at talesteter terrify.com slash flash contest.

From an inky black canvas looms the deeply shadowed face of a young man.

In the gloom, his eyes are nothing more than two dark pools

that seem to stare straight into your face, deep into your soul.

Unsettling? For sure. Inspirational? Apparently. We had a fantastic turnout for this contest,

and I'm excited to share the fruits of that labor with you

here tonight. It was an extremely tough decision to narrow it down as much as we did,

and we've still ended up with four runners-up and a winner. Before we dive in, though, I just want to point out that,

aside from our winner, the order you'll hear them in this evening is by no means hierarchical,

a runner's up will be presented in more or less random order.

Each of these bite-sized tails has very much earned the chance to worm its way into your ears,

...