Maven & the Monster
Written By: Nicki Holcomb
Narrated By: Eliza Helm
A jaded young woman pursues a secret romance with the corpse she brought to life.
Collection Three: “Monster Mash”: Stories about Creatures, Chaos & the Supernatural
Episode #: Three
Release Date: Tuesday, November 12th
Est. Runtime: » 25 Min
Standout Lines:
"He had been dead and gone, an eternal black nothingness, and she had pulled him back into the world of sound and color."""Hesitantly, Susie went on: “But wasn’t he… dead?” “He was,” Maven agreed, then smiled shyly. “But now… I think he might be the one.”""She had manifested him! She had literally given him the breath of life! But even that no longer seemed sexy to Maven; it had started to feel gross. Instagram therapists had warned her about letting men parentify her. She had wanted to be his lover, not his mother.""But Maven didn't hesitate; she climbed on top of him, pinning his arms with her knees as she smashed the paddle into his face again and again, wood crashing into bone and glitter raining down around her, until there was a satisfying crunch that sent blood spraying into her eyes."From the Author:
I’ve had the seed of this story in the back of my mind for years. It started as a metaphor for having an avoidant attachment style -- a curse I myself have suffered from all my life. The question was, what if you could create your perfect partner? What would that relationship look like? And, importantly, who would do that? An avoidant person, that’s who.
In my mind, I was incredibly tickled by the idea of an avoidant person figuring out how to literally create their perfect partner -- maybe as a robot, maybe as AI, it didn’t matter how -- but ultimately realizing that even this perfect partner, made just for them, could not measure up in the face of their own avoidance. When I received the prompt for this collection -- Monster Mash -- my mind came back to this kernel of an idea. I thought, what if I could infuse this idea with the creepiness of Frankenstein? What if, instead of a robot, it was a spell and a corpse? I could instantly picture the contrast I was dying to put into words: The purple-pink world of a sorority girl, juxtaposed against the ghastliness of a living corpse. The irony of any attempt at romance in these circumstances. Images came flooding into my mind, amusing the hell out of me and making me genuinely giddy to write this.
Ultimately, writing this story reminded me that there can be delight and even healing in writing about the parts of ourselves we’re ashamed of. And more importantly, it reminded me that writing can and should be fun as hell.
— Nicki
The Creatives:
Eliza Helm Nicki Holcomb
@elizahelm @icki_nicki
