Halloween is almost upon us, so it's time to get a little spoooooooooky with one of my favourite genres: gothic. Well shit, what does that mean?

We're talking about peeling back the wallpaper and getting a good look at the rot underneath. Monsters are often metaphors for various human sins, or simply bring out the worst in the story's human characters. Gothic literature is often regional: while British novels are often set in barren whistling moors, American authors liked to set them in crumbling mansions in the bayou.

There's been some discussion online recently about what California Gothic would look like, or Australian Gothic, or Argentinian Gothic, and that's where we're going this week: I want you to write ____________ gothic, where the blank space is wherever you come from. Think about the nastiness lurking beneath your hometown, and write a story that rips away the mask to show us the rotten teeth and jaundiced skin beneath.

There are two flash rules, and any number of people may claim them. Please indicate whether you're taking one when you sign up.

Flash #1: Halloween is a time of year when the walls between worlds are thinner. Write a story about somebody who stumbles across another world that is only a breath away.
Flash #2 (THE WISE BLOOD INSANITY CHALLENGE): no supernatural elements, no horror - find another way to get the elements of the genre across.