by MangaMoon

Hunt: Showdown

Remember… the Butcher’s pig head in Hunt: Showdown, and the taxidermist’s unfinished journal behind its origins? Fleeing an epidemic and hostile neighbors, Ari D’aunoy takes shelter in an abandoned slaughterhouse. While exploring the grounds, he discovers an enormous corpse: pale flesh, strange anatomy, and leeches embedded near its shoulder. Its head has not been severed. The creature appears to have existed without one. His horror gives way to excitement. Showmen might pay a fortune for such a specimen. He brings it into his workshop, removes its skin, and dries it. Then he stretches the hide over a framework, reinforcing it with wire and branches. His leather apron holds the construction together and conceals the incision across its torso. Finally, he attaches a pig’s head. Horrible noises disturb the nights, but Ari is already imagining his success. His final entry mentions a storm. Part of his sleeping quarters’ ceiling has collapsed. Tonight, he will sleep in the workshop beside his creation. The journal ends. Fishermen later discover his mutilated body, recognizable only by an artificial eye. Meanwhile, accounts describe a pig-headed creature carrying a burning hook. The missing night makes this story terrifying: we know how he assembled his exhibit, but never witness what happened when he slept beside it.

Material: wooden