Pale Carnations -ch.4 Up.5- -mutt Jeff- -

Chapter 4, Up.5, ends.

He lit a cigarette with trembling fingers. The smoke tasted like the inside of a hospital tent. He didn’t mind. Pale Carnations -Ch.4 Up.5- -Mutt Jeff-

The rain had stopped sometime before dawn, but the streets of the Bottoms still glistened like something slick and unwholesome had been washed to the surface. Jeff stood outside the chain-link fence of the old rail yard, watching a stray dog worry a piece of discarded leather. The animal’s ribs showed through its patchy coat, but its eyes were bright—feral and undefeated. Chapter 4, Up

“That’s you,” Jeff muttered to himself. “Mutt Jeff.” He didn’t mind

The carnation had been left on the bar. A message, maybe. A taunt. Someone knew he’d been there. Someone wanted him to remember that even the flowers in that place were bred for one purpose: to look beautiful while they rotted.