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

ears but no matter how hard she pressed she just couldn’t drown out the torturous din. The noise, she decided, was coming from the metal sphere which she had just kicked. Assuming she had activated something when she'd kicked it, she stumbled forward, praying that it would be easy to deactivate.
    Then just as quickly as the noise had started it stopped.
    Margie breathed a sigh of relief. Already kneeling beside the strange little ball, she decided to look at it just in case. No harm in making sure it was switched off, whatever it was. As soon as Margie’s hands touched the ball however, it suddenly exploded to life, unfurling itself and scuttling across the floor at speed until it was backed into a corner and could go no further.
    Margie screamed. The toy which had just sprung to life looked very much like a spider. A very large spider. Its body, the size of a clenched fist, was assembled from an array of cogs and fine mechanisms, whilst the legs (all eight of them) from instruments that resembled mathematical compasses. As she scrambled across a mountain of old broken things in a desperate bid to escape the creature, she frantically tried to figure out how she would get out of the room with that creature between her and the door. Oh the horror. And worse still, what if she couldn’t see it when she finally did turn around and look. What then? What if it was hiding in a dark corner ready to run across her feet as she made her way to safety?
    Pretty quickly Margie found herself unable to climb any higher. Sitting atop a mountain of broken chairs, all piled high in a jumble of legs, she felt relatively safe. With a full 360 degree view there was no way Spider Beast would get close to her without her seeing it first. Not that she needed to worry right now. It was exactly where it had stopped moments earlier, sitting silently alongside some old books.
    For a few short seconds she wondered if she’d been a bit hasty.
    "You fool," she thought. "Spider Beast could just as easily have been a clockwork toy. A sudden bang could have released a jammed mechanism."
    Still, she wasn’t prepared to take any chances. Not yet. Not until her breathing had returned to normal and her hands had stopped shaking.
    Several minutes passed and Margie wondered if she ought to climb down from the chair mountain and investigate whether Spider Beast was in fact a toy. Her body was aching from sitting at odd angles amid the jumble of wooden posts, and every time she rested her head against one part of the chair or other, she was plagued by visions and voices belonging to all manner of previous owners.
    However, it would seem Spider Beast lost patience before Margie lost all sensation.
    "I’m guessing you’re afraid of spiders!"
    Margie jumped so violently that a number of chairs dislodged and tumbled down the mountain.
    "I’m sorry to have frightened you. I’m sure Auguste would have made me in the form of something more cuddly if he’d known."
    Spider Beast spoke with a calm, solemn and authoritative voice which instantly and almost magically put Margie at ease.
    "Who are you?" asked Margie wondering if it was in fact Spider Beast talking, or something else hiding in the room. "How do you know Auguste?"
    "I have no name. I am Auguste's assistant. He built me years ago to help him run the Emporium. Since Auguste has disappeared it's now my job to assist you."
    Margie’s mind was swimming with questions. How was it possible to be having a conversation with a mechanical spider? Was this some kind of trap? Something to do with the lobster man that had visited her rather ominously several weeks earlier?
    "Why did Auguste never talk about you?" she asked warily.
    "I was his assistant. His subordinate. It doesn't surprise me that he didn't talk about me."
    "What happened to him? Why did he disappear."
    "I can only assume he is in hiding. Or he has been captured. There are a lot of people looking for him. Either way, I think he knew as he prepared me