The Muse by Christopher Lee Scoville | Read By Justine Leah Hince - #FlashFiction #Horror #AudioBook
Channel: Cornucopia Radio
Date: 2023-10-15

Are you looking for creative inspiration? A way to turn an empty page into a story for the ages? Then you’ll need to connect with your  own “Muse”, but that creature of beauty and horror will need much more from you. Are you prepared to give it?

The Muse Written By Christopher Lee Scoville
https://www.facebook.com/CLScoville

Performed By Justine Leah Hince
https://justineleahva.com

Music: A Dragons Lullaby by Scott Buckley  - Via a Creative Commons License
https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/a-dragons-lullabye

Video and Audio Edited By Peter Beeston
http://www.cornucopia-radio.co.uk/short-video-fiction

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This is the first of our new ‘Cornucopia Radio’ collection of #Halloween #Horror themed #FlashFiction pieces to be released this month. Tales to unnerve, get under your skin and leave a mark! We’ve got more to come over the next few weeks, so keep an eye on this page.

You can download this video, the mp3 version or subscribe to the podcast to get these pieces automatically via our website: http://www.cornucopia-radio.co.uk/short-video-fiction

Also let us know what you thought of this production and the story. I know how hard Christopher and Justine worked to bring it to you, and they would love to read your comments.
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On nights when writing ideas swell and circle with the silent fervor of hungry evening bats, yet the mind still cannot focus, fatigue and emotions are normally to blame. Curtis knew this well, but the knowledge teased him one night as the soft, unfettered breeze drifted in through his window and draped itself about his room like a guest, or better a host who was determined to cast sheets over the bothersome desk and papers as if to put them into storage while singing him to sleep. No, something besides energy was missing. He was scouring his innermost thoughts, determined to find the nagging hole, and so she wasn’t surprised when he jumped, startled as she hastily flapped into the room. Curtis was ashamed the instant she lighted upon his left shoulder, her poking, jagged wings cradling around the back of his neck and shoulders like the descending, fossilized pages of an unearthed grimoire. How could he have forgotten? And of course, now that he had forgotten, there would be no hiding this from her. She leaned forward on her haunches, eager to see what Curtis had come up with so far.

“Not a single page,” she mewed, her voice crackling like wildfire, high-pitched but also deep, and then growled, “You’ve got more in you.”

Her claws sank into Curtis’ shoulder and the side of his neck, causing him to exhale sharply and shudder in frightened fascination. Goosebumps crawled all over him. This was her favourite way to appear – when he least expected it, teasing, picking, pulling him along by the ear.

“My eyes are so tried,” Curtis all but whimpered. “I can just work on it more tom-”

The Muse caught him by the chin and cheek, her paw like a tight, leathery, claw-tipped baseball mitt. One of her curved, exposed claws scraped away a patch of his beard. It was then their eyes met and Curtis beheld all the muse’s beauty and breathtaking horror. Eyes rock-like, solid, olivine, opaque as if fogged yet so bright against her dark hair and colorless skin, shriveled but tantalizing, her figure frail-seeming, which was her greatest deception of all.

With a sphinx’s judging posture and gargoyle ears that fell in a bovine droop and bore the faintest rainbow sheen, she firmly guided Curtis’ eyes and face back onto the page. Then she whispered sweet somethings, furiously at first then gradually calming and settling into a lilting chat, as if recounting stories from ages long lost to the haunted, cosmic eons. Catching the fear in his cowering eyes, she snorted with satisfaction, knowing all too well that inspiration can – no – must bring forth a measure of horror with its share of truth, with its dose of coveted unreality.