Page 23 of Body Tox

The moose fell out of my pocket onto the ground below me.

My Little Wraith’s father’s blood dripped down onto the stuffed piece of shit, but I reached down to pick it up. It hung in my grip, the blood seeping deeper into the matted fur. It tookeverything I had to ignore it and keep walking. My Little Wraith would want this final trophy from a father she would mourn.

Blood for blood.

I was doing this woman a favor, and I sure wished someone had been there to put a bullet in my head before I’d gotten to this point. Maybe she would be safe from me then to live in her fake ass existence.

Maybe we both would.

Snot ran down my face, and the cold hardened it. My makeup already made me look like a two-bit whore, but I didn’t give a fuck. Using the back of my sleeve, I tried to see the frosty view in front of me.

My eyesight was blurring through my tears.

The street turned into a warped, wavering tilt a whirl until the unshed tears spilled over. At least it would keep the creeps away from me.

It was raining, and the fucking chill in the air made each droplet feel like an icy dagger on my exposed skin.

I didn’t think much about my escape, and I still had on house slippers, my PJ pants, and a shitty white crop top. I still smelled like Cali’s perfume. She smelled like wild roses.

More tears fell. Fucking hell, Cali.

Why did she have to get caught up with me anyway? Peering over, I took a peek at the street sign. I was on Geer Street. She was close, sitting in a damn box awaiting her date with the vulture morticians. They were just going to pick her beautiful body apart.

My hand itched for my golden dagger. In my haste to free myself from my prison, I left it and my mask at home.

I am too exposed to the elements and people’s glaring eyes dressed like this. Pausing, I spun around…fucking, fuck it. I don’t care.

My house shoes were soaked, and the Alaskan night air wasn’t helping me warm up. So, feeling literally numb, it was. Well, at least my outside would match how I felt inside. Besides, stupid things were making me trip as I ran down the line of the streets, getting closer and closer to the morgue.

“And fuck these stupid ass shoes!” I kicked the useless things off my feet and ran at a dead sprint to the morgue. Stupid house slippers were weighing me down.

The rocks embedded into the pavement instantly cut my feet, but I ignored the pain, letting it fuel my rage to run even faster.

Finally, after meandering around the buildings, I found the entrance to the small building tucked in the corner, hardly ever used, as opposed to the hearse constantly going back-and-forth.

The way I burst through the door could have been in a movie, and the startled squeak of the receptionist was equally iconic. I knew I probably looked like a bat right outta hell, but I used that to my advantage.

“Uh…do you have an appointment or a viewing?” she said.

Rallying all my energy, I smiled as sweetly as I could, probably more or less resembling a cracked-out clown than a model citizen, but again, I didn’t give a flying fuck.

“Cali Grace…” I said slowly.

The pain of her name felt like a knife. The frail woman blinked, looking down at some papers on her desk. I spied a pen in her hand, thinking of the eighteen ways I could kill her with it. The vulnerable spots on her body ran like a slideshow through my head.

Coronary arteries: Heart. Carotid arteries: Brain, head, face, and neck. Vertebral arteries: Brain and spine. Iliac arteries: Pelvis.

“I see. Yes. Cali Grace was identified an hour ago by her father…are you here to?—”

The slide show stopped, my vision clearing on her face. “I need to see her.”

The lady blinked again, leaning over her desk and looking at my bleeding bare feet, my chaotic snow-white hair drenched in water dripping on her tiled floor in front of her, and the last thread of sanity lingering in my eyes.

Something scared her because she cleared her throat and pressed a button on the desk.

A buzzer sounded, and the door behind her opened with a mechanical whirl.

Plastering my smile back on my face, happy that I didn’t need to waste time murdering her, I walked through the door without another word.

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