A Study in Ugliness & Outras Histórias by H. Pueyo

He received the notice the following day, saying his application had been accepted, and his episodes were scheduled for the following week. Then, he had been peaceful, in a state of almost confidence, like a cow believing only other cattle end up in the slaughterhouse. Tonight, I’ll kill you.”īefore, when he wasn’t Three, when he was something else he could no longer remember, he applied to a show in hopes he would get the grand prize. “Tonight we won’t be playing cat and rat anymore. He had lost the jacket, the boots, and the pants along the way, and all he had were the collar, the shirt, and underwear. Three touched his neck, the steel collar constricting him. It invaded him like fingers, pushing and breaking skin, filling his ear canal with liquid, stuffing his mouth with sand. In a few hours, he would know if all there was to life was running and hiding, or if the world would unfold like an onion peeling its layers, revealing a secret core. In a few hours, they would drag him by the legs toward the coliseum, and Tarautas would be there, waiting for his prey. In a few hours, night would fall, and the animals would be released. It might have been all the world ever was, frozen in time, but tonight Three wanted to think there was more out there than a dot in an endless sea.Ī voice answered his thoughts, whispering directly inside his ear:

The fragmented stone, the marble columns and arches, the deserted shore, the empty woods, the arena.

The island had always been the same, from the worms under the earth to the Roman ruins covered in moss.

A Study in Ugliness & Outras Histórias by H. Pueyo