The wait is over…

With no shortage of real-world villains in our modern era, there was comfort in the opportunity to delve deeply into your fictional ones. The variety of villainy, from classic and fairytale baddies to more abstract evildoers to uniquely strange forms of malevolence, made for a fiercely competitive contest. These stories made us think, made our skin crawl, and offered doses of both hard truths and escapism. Hats off to all who participated!

We had a strong international turnout for this one. We read work from writers stationed in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, UAE, UK, and USA.

But you’ve got plans for world domination to sort out, so let’s cut to the chase.

The following writers had stories that made it through several rounds of cuts, but didn’t quite squeak into the Top 10.

Close-but-no-cigar shortlist shout-outs go to:

Rachell Abalos
Nicholas Barner
Michael Carter
Jiksun Cheung
Benjamin Cooper
Andrea DeAngelis
Amanda Dawson
R.G. Evans
Donna L. Greenwood
Wiebo Grobler
Natalie Harris-Spencer
Bryan Harvey
Alyssa Jordan
Marc Littman
Chris Milam
Alexandra O’Neil
Daniel Scamell
Jeff Shermack
Josh Sippie
Alex Sobel
Isadora Spangler
Diana Spechler
Roni Stinger
Royal Teller
Rae Theodore
Nicholas Timm
MacEagon Voyce
Philip Webb Gregg
Alpheus Williams
Stephanie Yu

The Top 10 that you’ll find below will be published in our forthcoming Flash Villain mega-issue, which will drop later this week. They will also be included in a future Prize Winners Anthology print issue.

10th – “Chuckles” by Abi Hennig

9th  – “The Rot” by Jamie Murphy

8th – “The World’s Greatest Wide Receiver” by John Waterfall

7th – “The Fruits of Our Anger” by Axellandra Lazuli

6th – “Fairest Snow and Scalpel” by Marilee Dahlman

5th – “Trapped Within” by Andrea Goyan

4th – “Mantles” by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

And now for the three stories that were really in the zone…

3rd Prize ($100)

“Snuffed Too Soon”
by Chary

2nd Prize ($200)

“Notes on a Stepmother”
by Addie Schweiss

1st Prize ($300)

“Reveals the Wicked”
by Chris Panatier

Congrats to the winners and a huge thanks to everyone who participated in our Flash Villain contest! 

Check back later this week for the Flash Villain mega-issue.