horrors2

Anonymous.In_the_Mir.tex

 1\chapauth{Anonymous}
 2\chapter{In the Mirror}
 3% The author asked to remain anonymous.  Their explanation:
 4%
 5%    My username is really dumb. That's about it.
 6%
 7% Weird.  They also released this story into the public domain.
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10Out of the darkness came Rothard Mavalero. Grunting and thumping,
11he was the city undertaker. It was not a job many would like but he
12had kept it for fifty years. Some people thought that was unnatural
13but they did not know the half of it. And if they knew the whole of
14it they would have run in terror. Bodies interested him. He liked
15the way they looked. He liked the way they felt. But most of all he
16liked the way they tasted.
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20Today it was Mavalero's favorite kind of body. A floater from the
21river. It was still fresh, like a recently caught fish. The coroner
22wasn't at work yet. Nobody would know what he was doing. He dragged
23the bloated corpse and looked into its eyes. Suddenly, he began to
24pry the eyeball from its socket. A sweet ``snap'' sound happened as
25the elastic snapped. He licked the slimy eyeball, savoring the
26salty taste. Then, as the deceased's other eye seemed to watch him,
27he bit into the juicy retina. It tasted chewy and meaty, just like
28he had expected.
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32Mavalero looked down at the body tauntingly. Blood was oozing from
33the empty socket. He liked that it was helpless. He stabbed at the
34face to make more blood come out, then dipped his finger into the
35blood-filled socket and tested the quality of the victim. When he
36was done with the little game, he started to pry at the other eye.
37This one did not come out so easily. It felt like it was glued into
38the socket, and he had to tug and tug. But finally, with the help
39of his pocket knife, it came loose. The eye stared Mavalero in the
40face. He did not care. Rothard Mavalero was a very bad man. He
41downed the second eye with pride, smacking his lips as he smiled in
42his conquest.
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46But as he began to ponder what he would eat next he saw something
47in the corner of his eye. He didn't know what it was. His heart
48raced like a galloping horse. He turned slowly towards what he had
49seen. Then he sighed with relief, because it was just the mirror.
50He had seen his own reflection.
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54{\em {\ldots}or did he?}
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58He looked at the reflection, but his face looked unfamiliar. He
59turned his head, and his mirror self seemed to delay a little bit
60before copying him. With a piercing, inhuman scream, Rothard
61Mavalero realized what he was seeing. It was not a mirror, but a
62window into a room that had been cleverly copied to resemble his
63evil laboratory in every respect. The man was not his reflection,
64but the young but hardened detective Luke Bavarius in disguise.
65Bavarius had seen everything: the body, the eye eating, the
66blood.
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70He felt a nervousness arise in his throat. He struggled to hold his
71posture as he waited for his certain death at the hands of the
72private eye. Vomitus dribbled out the mouth of Rothard Mavalero.
73Then, as he watched, Bavarius reached through the glass and
74strangled him alive. 
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