The pale carnation pressed against his heart like a promise.
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-
From his coat pocket, he pulled the pale carnation he’d taken from the parlor last night. Its petals were already bruising at the edges, brown creeping inward like decay remembering its purpose. He’d been inside the Velvet Thorn again—not as a customer, never as that—but as muscle. As the thing the madam called when a gentleman forgot that no meant no, or when a working girl tried to run. He’d never hurt the girls. That was the joke of it. He’d hurt the men who hurt them, and somehow that made him a monster too. The pale carnation pressed against his heart like a promise
“That’s you,” Jeff muttered to himself. “Mutt Jeff.” He didn’t mind
He crushed the cigarette under his heel and tucked the carnation back into his pocket. The stray dog had moved on, disappearing into the mouth of a storm drain. Jeff wondered if it had found a place to curl up, or if it was still running, still looking for something it couldn’t name.
