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I recall a short story I read around 1990-1998, probably in some collection like The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, that ends with the townspeople forming a circle around one of the townies, and collectively channeling hatred at the townie so hard that he/she starts to bleed (perhaps out of the nose and ears?), collapses, and dies.

There's also a chance I'm conflating The Lottery with a beat from some other short story, however.

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  • 1
    This sounds very familiar, but I'm not placing it.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Nov 6 at 18:28
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    Yes, this has come up before. If there isn't a dupe on here, then I saw it on another forum like sffchronicles.
    – Cassfrank
    Commented Nov 6 at 19:28
  • Thanks—this helped me find it right away!
    – Horse Brain
    Commented Nov 6 at 19:56

1 Answer 1

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Found it, thanks to @cassfrank, via https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/580816/!

It's "The Public Hating" by Steve Allen: https://paperbackdesign.com/the-public-hating-by-steve-allen/

Thank you!

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    Don't forget to accept in two days!
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Nov 6 at 20:24

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