Free The Eyeball Collector by F E Higgins

walls, securing loose floorboards, levelling the chairs. I saw hardly a soul in my time there, but above the sound of my lathe and hammer I often heard Lord Mandible and his two cats at the harpsichord.
    ‘One evening, just after the clock struck ten, I heard a great commotion from elsewhere in the building. I am as curious as the next man so I laid down my tools and followed the noise to the entrance hall where I saw a most peculiar sight. A party of men, huntsmen by their garb, was standing over a creature of some sort laid out on the marble floor. It was large and dark-haired with four limbs – what I would consider both legs and arms in the manner of an ape – and an enormous skull. Its smell was pungent, of rotting meat, as if it was already dead. But as I watched I saw its chest rise and fall. It moved suddenly and a huntsman stuck a dagger up to the hilt in its side. It moaned and turned its head and I swear it looked straight into my eyes. Even now I cannot describe to you how it made me feel.
    ‘I gathered from the conversation that the creature had been captured in the nearby oak forest. At first the men thought they were trailing a Hairy-Backed Hog. It was only when they shot and injured it that they realized they had something quite different. I wanted to step forward, to offer the creature some comfort, but then Bovrik and Lady Mandible suddenly appeared.
    ‘“It could be of scientific interest,” said one huntsman.
    ‘“We should keep it alive,” said another, “and send it to the City for examination.”
    ‘“Sell it to a freak show,” suggested a third.
    ‘Lady Mandible’s expression seemed to indicate that she thought little of these suggestions. “If it was captured in the forest, then it belongs to me,” she said, “so I will decide its fate.” And something about the tone of her voice and the way Bovrik’s lips curled into a sneering smile made my skin crawl. I crept away before I was discovered.
    ‘I finished the job as fast as I could. I desired now only to leave, and a week later I collected my money and departed. As I walked away down the hill a large cart came towards me, on the back of which was a wooden crate. The cart hit a pothole, narrowly avoiding overturning, but the crate slid sharply forward and one side few open. The driver, cursing loudly, jumped down to secure the load.
    ‘“For the Hall?” I asked as I went to help.
    ‘“Aye,” he replied. “And Lady Mandible will be right furious if it is damaged.”
    ‘With what I had heard and seen of the lady I was intrigued as to the crate’s contents so I pulled away the broken side to look within. Had I known what I was to see I would never have done so.
    ‘At first glance I saw only a chair. But I realized quickly that this was no ordinary chair.
    ‘It was the curious beast fashioned into a chair.
    ‘The arms of the chair were the beast’s arms, its hands – for they were not paws – curled over the ends. The chair legs were the beast’s forelegs and its feet – complete with toes – the chair’s feet. The creature’s skin was stretched over the seat and up the back and down again on the other side. The black fur was glossy and brushed all in the same direction. And, if I was still in any doubt, it was dispelled when I saw across the taut skin the scar of the huntsman’s dagger. Hardly able to breathe from shock and revulsion, I silently thanked the Lord there was no head, for my heaving stomach could not have borne that. I learned later that it had been mounted as a trophy.
    ‘I shall never forget the way that creature looked at me as he lay dying on the floor. For although it was not the face of a human I looked upon, I swear neither was its gaze that of a beast.’

 
      Part the Second      
The Hairy-Backed Forest Hog
    The Hairy-Backed Forest Hog was given its name on account of the ridge of coarse black fur that runs the length of its spine. The legend goes that the Devil came up