Free The Collector of Remarkable Stories by E. B. Huffer

"Does that mean I finally get to leave the Butchery and explore the city?"
    "Leave the Butchery, yes. Explore the city, no. If I had my way we wouldn't leave here at all, but we have no choice. We need to find out what's wrong with your back. I've never come across anything like it before and it's making me nervous."
    "Are there any zoos in Limbuss?" asked The Giant hopefully.
    Almost inaudibly, Spider Beast growled.
    "Who is the person we're going to see?" asked Margie.
    "He's someone very important. Someone who …" he lowered his voice, "… someone who probably holds more power than The Great Torquere."
    "You can't say that," gasped The Giant scanning the room.
    "Who is this Great Torquere?" asked Margie. "Why are people so frightened of him?"
    "The Great Torquere? He’s the most devastating thing that ever happened to Limbuss. He just appeared out of nowhere and took over the job of running the city. All of a sudden he had eyes and ears everywhere. Limbuss used to be like any other city filled with an eclectic assortment of people. Now, if you are different, or if you possess a quality he wants, he will take you to his laboratory and remove it by force."
    "What kind of qualities?" asked Margie.
    "Anything. It could be the power of forgiveness. The power of physical strength. The ability to do maths problems in a fraction of a second and …" He stopped.
    "And what?" enquired Margie.
    "Well," said Spider Beast. "Your power, your ability to hear what other people can’t is a power that he would most definitely want to possess. Add to that the power to freeze anything on contact. There’s no doubt in my mind that he will be watching you and waiting for the perfect opportunity to …"
    The Giant drew his hand across his throat dramatically to emphasize the point Spider Beast was making.
    "Giant!" hissed Spider Beast."Do you really have to?"
    "I’m okay," said Margie. "I’m not afraid of anyone."
    Spider Beast made a weird mechanical whirring sound followed by a few clicks. "We really ought to get moving," he said, "if we want to get to Bellamy La Bouche’s before midday."
    "Who’s Bellamy La Bouche?" asked Margie.
    "I ain't never heard of him," shrugged The Giant.
    "Bellamy La Bouche," replied Spider Beast, "just so happens to be one of the world’s greatest magicians."
    *****
    The word magician hit Margie like bullet in the chest and, in a flash, she was thrown back to a time when she had just left Brookland’s House for Wayward Girls.
    Whereas most of the girls were held prisoner for decades, Margie had been expelled at sixteen. Believing that she was cursed by the Devil and unable to pray, scrub or beat it out of her, Mother Superior simply washed her hands of the infernal child, swallowed her pride and gave her the boot.
    Left to wander the streets with nothing to her name, she was taken in by an old friend of hers from Brookland's, a young woman by the name of Mona Malone.
    Friendly, funny and slightly mad, she was also the world’s luckiest woman (hence being the only person ever to have escaped the prison-like conditions of the home.) Everything she turned her hand to was a success. If she baked a cake, it wouldn’t just rise, it would raise the roof. If she entered a competition, the other contestants simply dropped out because they didn’t stand a chance. If Mona put a bet on a horse, people descended on the betting shop like locusts on a field of crops to place exactly the same bet. Door to door sales people didn't even bother knocking because everyone knew that Mona Malone was far too lucky to be bothered with life insurance policies.
    But then, quite suddenly and quite out of the blue, something strange started to happen. Mona Malone’s luck ran out.
    First her hair fell out. Then no one would employ her. Then her boyfriend ran away with the milk man. Then she developed impetigo and simply couldn’t stop scratching. Then she developed a nervous tick that made her bark like a dog whenever someone