The Hours of Creeping Night - a Collection of Dark Speculative Short Fiction (6 page)

They’ve been brought over to his world too. Their image will spread. First we are only in his mind, his bad thoughts alone, and then he converts us to his canvas bringing us into his material world. Once the others see us, we’ll live in their minds too. And our images will spawn more bad thoughts.

He takes a step back and admires his work.

“What do you think?” he asks me, looking through the window of his mind and directly into my eyes.

I say nothing and slide beneath the window, bringing my knees up, shrinking into the shadows.

The artist puts down his paintbrush and looks back to his painting. He nods with satisfaction.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my beta readers, who provided critical encouragement and editorial advice on this collection: Hilary Standing, Kristina Heaney, Eamonn Doran, Annabel Banks, Sally Skinner and Kerrick Newstead. Your expert knowledge on the craft of creative writing and your objective scrutiny has been a crucial part of editing this project, and I am so grateful for your generosity.

Notes

'Bad Thoughts' originally published in
Thirteen
magazine, 2005.

'The Fallen Safat' originally published in
Mytholog
magazine, 2007.

About
the Author

Sophie Playle studied English Literature with Creative Writing at UEA and has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway, University of London. She worked full time in the publishing industry before becoming a freelance writer and editor. Being passionate about writing and publishing, she is the creator and editor of
Inkspill Magazine
.

You can find out more about Sophie via her website, where she blogs about the writing life, musings on publishing, and thoughts on living creatively.

www.sophieplayle.com

Twitter:
@sophieplayle