The Justice of a Body Snatcher
– a love story by renan goksin –
Episode Twelve: The Gentle Mare
Herman, unable to read the man’s intentions, evoked all his strength; the survival instinct kicked in, he sprang to his feet, and swung the spade across the stranger’s head once in one direction and once more in the other. The man collapsed; his neck held in place by the barest of flesh, while he still clung firmly to the pistol in his hand. He spurted blood in spasmodic gushes like a faulty fountain for as long as his heart continued to beat. Then it stopped. Herman did not pause to reflect. ‘I will fetch two corpses for Dr. Augustus,’ he muttered, half in dream, half in delirium.
His trials with the intruder were by no means over; now he had to secure his corpse onto the horse’s back, a task that proved to be almost as strenuous as the first phase of their struggle. ‘Two cadavers, two cadavers… The Great Herman has snatched two cadavers,’ he repeated as if to spur himself on. When he finally succeeded in hauling the corpse of the intruder onto the horse, he returned to his mission with Alphonsina.
The coffin had already been damaged while being retrieved from the pit. Herman quickly split it open and faced what was a customary sight for him, except for the protrusion of Alphonsina’s pregnancy underneath the winding sheet. As he lifted her in his arms and made towards the horse, the gentle mare jolted nervously, and the man’s corpse tumbled down with his head detaching from the rest of the body upon impact. Only then did Herman realise the stranger was a fashionably dressed young man with delicate good looks and still held the pistol in his stiff hand.
to be continued…
next episode: 13- An Auspicious Sign
