The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Blind Auction  
by Alex Grehy

Blind Auction

You’ve seen the TV programmes, chancers bidding for the contents of found or abandoned storage containers – sight unseen. The principle’s sound – some they lose, inevitably, 

but they win enough to turn a profit. The trick is to cast your trader’s net wide. Everything has a value to someone.

Having said that, I like to trade in small body parts. Kidneys are always in demand, along with eyeballs. Hearts are manageable but livers are more bulky than you’d imagine. Fingers, toes, hands, feet all sell. 

Sure, scientists and necromancers always need bigger bits, torsos and limbs, but their mad obsessions make them indiscreet, and discretion is important – you won’t see this auction on the television. 

Taxidermists tend to want more complete bodies – their art is all about the pose, but they’re fussy about the quality of the skin. They often do their own bidding, hoping that the trunks will hold a juicy corpse. I’ll say this for the organisers, the produce is always clean and the vintage cases hide properly cooled storage units. The auction is so much more sanitary than grave robbing, but I get more cash for spare parts than a whole body, without all the heavy hauling.

There’s plenty of clues for a canny trader, like the size of the baggage. I mean, a little vanity case is not going to hold a leg, is it? Then there’s my special gift. My rivals call it instinct. I like that. No-one needs to know about my covert x-ray scanner, which is banned technology, obviously. 

I’m early to today’s auction – I have a very rich buyer who’ll take as many kidneys as I can get, desperate for a match. He’s playing the odds, a fool’s game. I have the advantage, a quick scan of the small bags should reveal which contain bones and which have the offal. 

But, what the hell? There’s a new barrier, patrolled by goons. I can’t get close to the merchandise. I see my fellow traders shifting uncomfortably, we’d heard rumours that the auction was going ‘corporate’, but this? The auctioneer on the podium bangs his gavel and grins. “Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats for this truly blind auction. Mr Big, as he likes to be called, has heard that some bidders have been taking advantage of his good nature, cheating, even, and we all know that’s not good business. From now on the cases are the same size, lined with x-ray resistant mesh just in case someone sneaks in a naughty scanner, which you know makes Mr Big very unhappy.”

I see some traders leaving. The goons follow them quietly. I guess they’ll be up for sale in the next auction. I take my seat, I have no choice. Maybe I’ll get the kidneys my client needs, maybe I’ll make a profit. I’ll have to play the odds like any other sucker, it’s not as if I can complain to the authorities.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Alex Grehy:

Last Species Standing

Alex Grehy (she/her) enjoys writing quirky, thought-provoking horror and is a regular contributor to The Sirens Call and Ladies of Horror Flash Project. Her fiction and essays on being a lady of horror have featured in a range of publications, including Spread: Tales of Deadly Flora. Alex’s first poetry collection, Last Species Standing, which explores mankind’s relationship with nature and technology, is available on Amazon.

Available on Amazon!