Ah, the sweet smell of ‘inspiration’ in the morning.

Scene 1. Dawn

“MIMI! Argh!”

I bolt up, sitting in my bed, still seeing Mimi's alien smile and feeling the pain of electrocution. As the room comes into focus, my vision of Mimi fades along with my pain.

Gasping, I stopped screaming as I ran out of air, still shaking, gradually relaxing as the pain of electrocution receded. My vision comes into full focus and I look at my messy bedroom, illuminated by the sunrise from my window. I speak out to the room.

“Wow! I'm back in bed. What happened?”

Sitting in my bed, as I was when writing on my pad last night, the covers are kicked off. My writing pad has been thrown across the room, lying upside down against the far wall. I felt a stabbing pain in my butt from my uncapped blue Bic pen, reaching down to retrieve my pen with a splitting headache radiating out from the center of my forehead. As I reach up to rub my forehead, I feel a hot spot, a raised welt. The welt is the size of a dime, in the shape of a teardrop, in the center of my forehead. Suddenly angry, I shout out my complaint to no one.

“Mimi! You darned demon, you ‘branded’ me! Am I now your ‘possession’, your ‘cow’?”

I sink back into bed with a frown.

It wasn’t a dream. I am pretty certain that I know the answer to my question.

Still dizzy from the memory of the convulsive pain, shaking as I stand, wobbling, gazing at my reflection in my dresser mirror, there is a small dark shape in the center of my forehead.

Is this Mimi’s ‘brand’? What is this brand, a ‘half-moon’ shape? I have been marked by a demon, so is this mark the sign of our ‘contract’? Does she ‘own’ me now? What does this mean?

I’ll have to get some make-up to cover up that mark for when I go out.

I stagger out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, not surprised that nothing has been disturbed from the time I went to bed the night before, except there is still smell a slight smell of sulfur and incense. Calling out for her again.

“Mimi! Where are you? Are you here?”

I half expected to hear her answer, there was no answer. I listen to the sounds outside as the city comes to life with the morning sun rise. There is no evidence that I ever left my bed last night, even less that I hosted Mimi or any other visitors.

I only dreamed that Mimi visited me? But man, what a dream. It’s a good story, though, I need to write it all down before I forget it. I’ll include Mimi’s story in my short story anthology volume, someday.

I gradually become aware that my inner mind is filled with flashing colored lights. The flashing lights morph into seething swarms of disconnected words and dramatic visions. My inner vision then fills with swirling colors that condense into narratives of: past; present; future; contemporary; historical; fantasy; science fiction; action; adventure. I shouted.

“This is what I wished for! Thank you, Mimi.

I forgive you, kind of…

Wherever you are…”

I quickly glance around the room.

Where is my pad? I must write down my new visions and my encounters with Mimi.

I let myself fall backwards, planting my robed butt on the couch, seizing my pad and blue Bic pen from the end table, quickly scribbling, and hearing the distant echo of Mimi’s iconic bleating laughter.

“Bah-haw-haw. Bah-haw-haw. My Author…”

Scene 2. Repossessed

Over the following days, I scribble the story of my encounter with Mimi, also scribbling as much as I am able of the fantastic narratives I see in my new mind.

My ‘dream of Mimi’ story is too outlandish. No one is going to read that. But my ‘writer's block’ seems to be gone for now.

I scribble out pages for my new stories, with no shortage of ideas, pleased with the adventures that I put to my characters. I look at the stack of tablet pages on my end table.

Someone is going to have to transcribe all of that.

Then I remembered that Mimi said that she sometimes worked as a proofreader, typist, and editor for her clients. I lay out a few pages and start transcribing on my old Remington typewriter.

I’ll leave these pages out. Mimi might come back to see if I survived her ‘treatment’.

If she goes to work for me, I’ll buy her a personal computer for this and the other office work.

She can’t have my soul for free…

Then I hear a faint knock,

“Tap tap tap, tap tap tap,”

at my front door. I walked to the front door, looked out the peephole, and saw Mimi. She is standing, staring at my door once again, as if she can see through it.

Mimi is in her human ‘glamour’, her form looking much as she did in the bookstore, only this time she is covered in a long coat for the cold morning.

As I open the front door, Mimi springs from the doorway and into the center of the living room, as if it is hers, not asking for permission this time. Mimi twirls around to face me, smiling.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I, bah?”

As she looks around to see if I already have ‘company’, although it is clear she does not care.

In the morning sunlight, I get a good look at her humanoid form. She flips off her long coat to expose a light-violet sports top and a matching short skirt, revealing her bare black midriff abdominal muscles.

Although Mimi is petite, she is muscular and athletic.

Mimi notices my staring at her in her gymnasium outfit. She smiles, trying to look modest.

“Stop staring at me. You really do need to get out more…”

“Are you also a gym teacher or a physical trainer? In addition to your offering ‘encouragement’ to artists?”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“One of my artist clients composes while he exercises. He insists that I join him in his workout while I take notes. I don't mind, I need to stay in shape to drag you artists around.”

Mimi frowns as she reaches down and touches her chest.

“I’m yucky from the workout, though, could I trouble you for your shower, bah?”

“Yes, you may use the shower, I’ll bring you clean towels.”

Mimi presses a clasp on her chest, shedding her clothes into a pile at the center of the living room floor, also shedding her ‘glamour’. I check to see that the front door is closed and locked. I wish to avoid any embarrassing interruptions by my snoopy neighbors.

Mimi has mostly morphed back into her naked true form: a black furry, half-human, half-goat. She slyly smiles as she fakes shyness, drawing her fore-limbs up to partially cover her modest chest with her tail swinging back and forth.

“If you find me so interesting, why don’t you join me in the shower? I'll let you wash my wings. I still have some surprises for you, bah.”

I briskly shake my head, ‘no’, turning to the hall closet where I keep clean towels for guests.

“And risk getting another paralyzing shock? No, thank you.

By the way, what did you do to me last night?

I felt like I was being electrocuted.”

Mimi brays her laugh, “bah-haw-haw-haw-haw.”

“Is there any question about what I did with you last night?

I ‘bonded’ to your soul. Remember, you said ‘anything’.

I apologize for shocking you, but you wouldn’t have sex with me, so you left me no choice.

I had to get that piece of your soul somehow, before you changed your mind.

So, you’ll never be rid of me for the rest of your life, bah.”

After returning from the hall closet with the towels, I reached out to hand the towels to her from a few feet away, fearing that she was still 'radioactive'.

“And what is this thing you put on my forehead?”

“I can make that mark a different color if you like, green, blue.

Don’t worry, only you and I can see the mark of the pact ‘between us’. It isn’t anyone else’s business.”

Mimi claps the towels with the odd two-toes of her fore-hooves. She draws up the towels as a covering, broadens her smile, bats her eyelashes, swishes her spade tail, turns, and proceeds to the bathroom to shower off. I hear shower sounds, then humming, then singing.

Wow, Mimi has an unusual, but nice, singing voice.

Enchanting, even with those odd bleats.

Scene 3. Date

Mimi emerges from the bathroom, still toweling off, naked. I cannot help but stare at her strange, otherworldly form. Mimi smiles as she wiggles, unsuccessful at drying her thick black fur.

“Okay. You called me again. What is it this time, bah.”

“I presume that you can go out in the daylight and into town.

Are there things that you cannot do? Places you cannot go?”

“I don’t look so good in the daylight. You saw me in the bookstore. I am not that adapt with my 'glamour', bah.”

As Mimi is still shaking off, I retrieve an electric hair dryer from the hall closet, carefully handing it to her from a distance, as Mimi performs a naked, furry black blow-dry show for my benefit.

“So, Mimi,” “You can eat human food, right?”

“Yes, I can eat human food. I love food, but I usually avoid socializing with my victims, bah, clients, bah”.

Victims?

“But you said that you liked your job because you could get to know your clients, right?”

“But I am so sad when they die, I mean, when we 'part ways', bah.”

Die?

“Mimi, would you let me take you out to lunch tomorrow? We’ll meet at the coffee shop next to the bookstore. Is noon okay? Keep a little more time afterward open, so we can go shopping too.”

It takes a lot to surprise a demon. Mimi bolts up straight, with her eyes wide, dropping her towel.

“Are you asking me for a 'date'? A 'date' with me? A demon? But My looks! My glamour! Bah-haw-haw.”

“Here, Mimi, put on one of my shirts while I wash your clothes.”

I carefully hand her a shirt for her to cover up and stop distracting me, as I gather her clothes and towels from the floor to launder.

“Well, a lunch date isn't as much as what you were asking from me. Your ‘glamour’, such as you had in the bookstore, will work fine for a coffee shop lunch visit. Your exotic human look is cute, actually. I think you know that you can pass for human well enough, if it is not too much of a strain on you. You know human society, so wear conservative office-work clothes. We’ll go to lunch disguised as two typical office coworker friends”.

“But I’m black. My ‘glamour’ cannot change that. It can’t close my ‘hare-lip’ either, bah.”

I chuckle at Mimi’s sudden shyness.

“I don’t know if you have noticed, many people around here are black. There is a lot of everyone from everywhere living and working around here. It’s a diverse and ‘artsy’ neighborhood. That’s why I live here.

I am quite pleased to have an attractive young woman, with her unique look, a charming foreign accent with a bleat, accompanying me.”

“Other people can see you, can’t they, Mimi?”

Mimi is over her shyness and is smiling, looking forward to an adventure in the city with her new ‘ward’. Mimi nods.

“I can only be seen by animals, children and the ‘mentally challenged’… Bah.”

Scene 4. Café

Mimi emerges from the bookstore when she sees me drive into the parking lot, walking over to meet me in front of the café. Mimi is dressed as she was in the bookstore at our first meeting, but without the rabbit-ear styled hair buns that she used to attract my attention.

As she approaches, Mimi reaches out toward me with her odd gloves. I recoil, remembering my electrocution the last time she touched me.

Mimi pulls back from me and frowns, then she makes an earnest request.

“Please take my glove, as a symbol that you want me for a real 'date'. I promise not to shock you this time. I want this, please, as I cannot recall the last time I was asked out on a 'date'…”

I smiled as I slowly reached out to her and took her glove in my hand, surprised at Mimi’s sudden and genuine sentimentality. Her odd gloved digits firmly squeezed my fingers.

“You changed your hair. For me? You still look like a grammar-school teacher in that outfit. We’ll buy you some new clothes, for work and traveling.”

We enter the café, smiling as two teenagers out on their first 'date'.

I hope that this 'date' works out. If Mimi is working for me, I want us to get used to traveling and doing things together, in public.

The formally dressed café hostess walks out from behind the reservation counter, greeting us with a smile.

“Welcome to the Café Parisian. Have you been here before?”

I nod, “Yes, I have, but this is her first time.”

The hostess continues, nodding to Mimi, “The 'dessert of the day' is complementary with any lunch order, my lady.”

I glance towards Mimi. Her eyes are wide, appearing to be overwhelmed by the sights, the noisy sounds and rich smells of the small restaurant.

“Dessert!”

Mimi, and you tell me that I don’t get out enough…

I motioned to the back of the seating area, asking the hostess.

“Please seat us in the back, where it is a little quieter. We need to discuss business. I hope this is okay as the staff will have to walk a little further.”

The hostess waves toward a booth against the back wall.

“Is this alright with you? I’m sorry, but this place is busy and noisy at lunchtime.”

Mimi slides into the booth seat on one side and I on the other, facing each other. I am pleased that the thick leather upholstery of the booth muffles the sounds from the room.

This location is good as no one should hear us talking either.

“This is fine. Thank you.”

The hostess sets menus on the table and departs. I look up at Mimi, who is giving me a hungry stare.

“No, no, Mimi, I am not 'the lunch', please order food from the menu.”

We both laugh. I am pleased that we both seem to be able to relax with each other here. I know our work will be very intense. Being able to relax out in the world like this will be important, if we are not to drive each other insane.

“Mimi, I am so glad that you agreed to this ‘date’ with me.

I really would like to get to know you better, as you seem to already know everything about me.

Can you, or will you, tell me where you are from originally?

Can you, or will you, tell me how you became a 'muse'?

I know I am prying, and your guild might not allow you to say.”

Mimi sits back, relaxes and gently smiles at me, no longer glaring.

“Why are you so interested in me? You are the one with the stories that you want to tell everyone.”

“Maybe I'll write your story, Mimi…”

A waitress appears at our table and curtsies. The waitress is wearing a cute French maid costume, of course. Mimi beams at the waitress.

“Your dress is so cute. I love it. I want one.”

Mimi is trying to suppress excited braying, and is only partially successful, emitting squeaks through her tightly closed lips. I try to help by changing the focus back to lunch.

“Mimi, have you decided what you would like for lunch?”

End of Chapter 5. Muse – Part 3, Repossessed.