Horror Stories from Horrified - Volume One (2)

this. Le?Ap is in debt to us for a ver y lar ge consider ation. One w hose size w ould be
quite unseemly to disclose. The ar r angement of the dead is ver y Lucky indeed. It is
one that br ought you to us, r ather than w e to you. The fly w ithin you. It was mor e
than a fly. It was a par t of me. It is something fr om beyond. A small piece of death.
Now ther e is no fly, ther e is only death. A death that waits w ithin you. The fly
dissolved easily, quite some time ago. Now only death r emains.?
?In w hich case, as it has been no hindr ance to you, the dead, then for the living
death should pr esent far less of an obstacle,? Denholm r eplied stiffly, r esolved to his
cour se.? As I so please, so I w ill do. I w ill indeed go back dow n this mountain, and I
will build hotels and mor e. The dead have had their day, M?sieu Cyanquille. The
living all have death w ithin them and I for one can live w ith that.?
?I am afr aid you still misunder stand. You have been ver y r ight about so many
things, and such a mar vellous player to shar e this pr oject w ith. But you have not
yet under stood all. Death comes in many ways. For that fly, now dissolved and
contained in each and ever y cell of your body, its melting came as a
metamor phosis, to enable it to become... a catalyst. On its ow n, it is har mless and
completely natur al. You have lived w ith it for so long now. It has affected you no
mor e than, say, a passing cloud. And yet, my fr iend, ther e ar e clouds, and ther e ar e
clouds at the top of this mountain. Some that w e have met each other in have been
filled w ith some r ather nasty spor es. Again, they ar e quite natur al on their ow n.
Completely har mless. How ever , should those spor es (w hich you have been
br eathing in now for many months her e, Mr Denholm), have the misfor tune to
become mixed w ith an admittedly r ar e, but quite natur al catalyst of the r ight sor t,
under the r ight conditions, then ther e is a r ather unfor tunate and somew hat nasty
consequence...?
?The Infection Muer tas...? Denholm guessed aloud.
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