This was a shiny globe with a personality. The thing would look at me from across the room and I knew what it was getting at. Everywhere I went, it was after me- it would roll through the subway doors just as they were closing. No one noticed it- or maybe they did but they didn’t let on- you know how they are on the subway, everyone avoiding eye contact.
The king always wore his largest fur coat, which was filthy because he wouldn’t let anyone else touch it and it dragged on the floor, even through the mud in the stables. He slept in it. It made him look like a wild animal himself, like a giant wolf, his unkempt hair and beard adding to this appearance. Lately he stayed out of the public eye, allowing his servants to make all the pronouncements for him, in front of the throngs. The king would only venture out into the public to watch a hanging or to order someone to be hung. The rest of the time he paced the halls or spent time throwing raw meat to his dogs.
These days, if you want to hire me for something it has to be really bad. I’ve already done all the torture, the rape, the brutal maiming, the senseless cruelty that surprises even the most desensitized victims.
Or, conversely, you have to hire me for something unbearably good. Everyone has the potential for charity or a nice word here or there but today only the most sickeningly sweet deeds catch my attention. Which is why, when I got your letter from your Hospital for Extemely Disfigured Children, it caught my interest. I thought, everyone has seen me do all the despicably horrific deeds, repeatedly. But devoting my life to helping those little cripples rivals some of my worst undertakings, only what interests me is that it’s on the opposite end of the spectrum.