This is a horror podcast and as a result you may find the content too disturbing.

If so, just turn it off. It's cool, March 27th, 2020.

This week's story, Muse Muse by Sarah Gribble.

Hey folks, Alistair here.

Hope you're all doing okay.

This story first appeared in Tales of Blood and Squallerer and its author, Sarah Gribble, physically resides somewhere in Ohio, but where her mind resides depends on the day.

She writes sometimes, she bangs ahead against the wall other times. Her short stories have been

featured in a variety of online and print publications, most recently crescendo of

darkness, Mirror Dance, and the best-selling The Edge infinite darkness.

Your reader for this week is the truly fantastic SK Nash.

And so, without further ado, aside from a warning that this story goes to some pretty dark places, we have a story for you,

and I promise you it's true. Muse by Sarah Gribble, narrated by S.K. Nash.

I noticed him on a Saturday morning. He was fingering tomato plants across the square,

nodding every so often at whatever the stall operator was saying. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, but too much like he'd read the

cliche about smiles not meeting eyes too many times and decided to reverse the idea. His

never quite reached his mouth. He didn't buy a tomato plant. I followed

him the rest of the morning. He didn't buy anything. Whether or not I had been drinking that morning is of no importance. What is important

is when I returned to my dilapidated two bedroom ranch, I wrote more than I had in months.

I've been called more than I had in months.

I've been called many things in my life, alcoholic, mooch, one-hit wonder.

My ex-husband nicknamed me Peter Pan before he got lawyers involved.

What I saw as waiting for inspiration to strike, he saw as a refusal to act like an adult and get a real job. I got the house though so I can't complain too much.

...