Sunday Short: 'The Body Snatcher' by Robert Louis Stevenson

 He still stood in the middle of the rug, between the stair and doorway; and the great London physician, in order to escape, would be forced to step to one side. It was plain that he hesitated before the thought of this humiliation. White as he was, there was a dangerous glitter in his spectacles; but while he still paused uncertain, he became aware that the driver of his fly was peering in from the street at this unusual scene and caught a glimpse at the same time of our little body from the parlour, huddled by the corner of the bar. The presence of so many witnesses decided him at once to flee. He crouched together, brushing on the wainscot, and made a dart like a serpent, striking for the door. But his tribulation was not yet entirely at an end, for even as he was passing Fettes clutched him by the arm and these words came in a whisper, and yet painfully distinct, 'Have you seen it again?'

Immersive and compelling, there's something remarkably creepy about Robert Louis Stevenson's story about the responsibility and morality of science. As Fettes, an assistant professor finds himself facing a crucial moral quandary and a blackening of the soul in old London, it's hard not to think it'd be just as relevant and just as horrifying if it were set in modern times. Plus the world building is A+.

You can read 'The Body Snatchers' over at East of the Web.