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

lay the doll in a shoe box and sealed it with wax. Balthazar was meditating as he stoked a small fire burning in the fireplace. Casting the box into the fire Mona chanted the words scribbled onto a piece of card: "Hear my words and hear them well, Take your curse and rot in hell!"
    Before they left the house, Balthazar gave Mona a jar filled with ashes from the fire. "Let them cool down," he explained, "then take them outside and blow them into the air. Among the ashes you will see a vision of where your ring can be found. "
    Sadly for Mona, she didn't check which direction the wind was blowing in. As she released the ashes, they blew straight back into her face and down her throat.
    When Margie discovered that her friend had choked to death, she marched back to Balthazar's like a woman possessed and demanded every penny back. It was, however, little consolation. Her best friend was gone and she was once again on her own.
    *****
    "Poor Mona," cried The Giant.
    Margie shook her head. "How can I be the Collector? None of it makes sense. The memories that I'm having are not the memories of someone who appears to people like an angel of death."
    "That's not for you to decide," said Spider Beast. "Now put on plenty of coats. It’s cold outside. And I need you to be invisible. You understand?"
    Margie nodded and took a pile of coats from The Giant’s arm.
    Margie was both excited and apprehensive at the prospect of leaving the Emporium and seeing the city close up for the first time. She had heard so many frightening things about Limbuss and how dangerous it had become. But the Emporium had started to feel like a prison and she longed to have some fresh air in her lungs.
    For obvious reasons they were unable to take the Gravitonius. So, wrapped up tightly against the bitter cold, the three of them made their way through the murky streets of Limbuss, Margie pushing up against The Giant for warmth. Spider Beast's cage still hung from The Giant's belt, a fact that neither Spider Beast nor The Giant relished.
    The streets of Limbuss were fairly empty. Once or twice they passed someone scurrying to or from somewhere, but both parties kept their heads down, eyes to the floor. No one had time to stop and chat, it was too dangerous. Rumours abounded of people just being plucked from the streets, disappearing, never to be found and the likely cause was the city’s general, The Great Torquere. The Great Torquere and his henchmen had swarmed the city one night, out of the blue, like a plague of locusts. At first Limbuss was a vibrant bustling city filled with the heady aroma of promise. The next thing we knew, it was stripped of its colour and life – the city was suddenly run like a prison camp, no one could come or go without permission. The Great Torquere wanted to know everything. He put ears everywhere. It was like a great shadow had descended and blocked out the sun. And it wasn’t long after his arrival that the Dog Beasts – his foot soldiers that patrolled the streets – were created and the people started to disappear.
    "Look," said Spider Beast, referring at a poster. "That’s the seventh one I’ve seen in the past ten minutes."
    Margie and The Giant stopped and looked at the poster which displayed the headline:
    Déjà vu Epidemic Sweeps City: information needed .
    "What do you suppose it means?" asked Margie.
    "I ain't got a clue," said The Giant, "I don't even know what deva ju is."
    "It’s déjà vu," said Spider Beast. "It’s just a feeling. Like when you visit somewhere for the first time and find it eerily familiar or when you’ve been having a conversation with a friend and you suddenly get the feeling you’ve had the exact same conversation before even though you know you haven’t. That’s déjà vu. It means ‘already seen'. It's not contagious."
    "Why is there an epidemic if it’s not contagious?" asked Margie.
    Spider Beast looked weary. "I don’t know," he said, "but I don’t like the sound of it.