Thank you so much Verbal-D and everyone else who made this event possible. Without you, we would all be sleeping soundly in our beds, minds free of horror. Thank you for helping my insomnia, I haven't slept in days.

There are so many people who made this all possible for me. First off, I would like to thank Mr. Pabst. Without your Blue Ribbon Lager to fuel me into the wee hours, I would have never found the courage to enter this contest. Thank you!

Next, I would like to thank my mom. She always said "You ain't no good for book learnin', but the ideas runnin' through that sick head of yours would scare the pecker offa Freddy Kruger hisself!" So thank you, mom, for all of the long nights locked in the pantry. Without those endless hours of hate-fueled terror warping my impressionable young mind, I would have never found the inspiration for every single one of my stories. I will never stop thinking about you, mother. Never.

Finally, I would like to give an extra big thank you to Steemit and the whole Steemit community. It's great to finally find a community that appreciates me for who I am. Normally my ideas only materialize into restraining orders, but here my ideas are encouraged! It just feels so good to finally get some of the appreciation that I deserve, without all of the usual threats and violence required in the other communities. I've finally found a home now! Thank you!

In all seriousness, thank you very much @verbal-d for the contest, and @papa-pepper for helping to fund the reward. I saw the contest at about 2 am, as I was planning on going to sleep. I ended up spending another hour or two working on it before I went to bed. The idea for the story actually comes from the time when I went through a divorce, many years ago. I was driving through my own neighborhood and I realized that I was completely lost. In my own neighborhood.

Jordan Peterson has some really interesting ideas about this "underworld" that we all visit from time to time, when the mind experiences a big shock. Like a betrayal from a partner, or (I would assume) a murder. I wanted to see if I could squeeze a little bit of that feeling into my story. You can see Peterson's appearance on the Joe Rogan Experiece here.

In case my mom reads this (she recently signed up for Steemit), I should clarify that my mom never said the words quoted in this post. Nor did she lock me in the pantry. She's a lovely person. And I don't have any restraining orders.