Page 64 of Sinners' Appetite
Moments later, she appears in the doorway with an uncomfortable look on her face, her eyes pointed down at her phone.
“Um… They found Justin’s body,” she whispers, lifting her phone up so I can see the screen.
Sure enough, a post from the city police reads “Body discovered behind dumpster at well-known club.”
“It’s a wonder it took this long. Doesn’t the owner take his garbage out?” I ask, fumbling through a box of shirts.
“He does, but he usually tosses them in from a distance.”
“The smell should have given it away. It’s been hot and humid lately.”
“He’s oblivious. I bet it wasn’t even him that made the discovery.”
“Well—at least they found him before he started to really rot.” I shift over to another box, opening it to see if the rest of my pants are in it.
“I should text Jessica,” she suggests.
“I wouldn’t. She’s probably still a little shaken up from the other night. Even if her brothers were complete garbage—losing two in just a few days, might be too much for her to handle. They’ll let her know one way or another.”
She sighs. “I can’t imagine being the only sane one in my family. Their mother was—odd.”
“Oh?”
“I stayed over one night when Jessica and I were younger and her mother got so high that she locked herself in the bathroom. She kept screaming that worms were eating her flesh. We tried to get in, but she had the door barricaded with what we later found out was the vanity that she ripped off the wall.”
“Fuck. No wonder Justin and Nolan were so fucked in the head. Jessica got lucky.”
“I wouldn’t call it lucky. She just had a better head on her shoulders. She refused to be like her mother.”
“What happened to her? You spoke of her in past tense…”
Nikki lowers her head. “She killed herself. Jessica and I found her, actually. That’s how I met Nolan. Being the older brother, he had to come home and make the funeral arrangements.”
I toss a few pairs of pants into the suitcase, along with several undergarments and a hoodie, just in case it gets cold at night near the lake.
Just then, my doorbell rings.
“That must be Sammi and Jeremy!” Nikki announces, spinning on her heel to practically skip out of my room.
I hear the two girls shriek in unison as soon as the door creaks open. Grabbing my suitcase off the bed, I zip it closed the rest of the way and wheel it out of the room behind me.
“Good morning!” Sammi greets me as soon as I make my way into the living room.
“How are you feeling?” I ask, dropping my suitcase off by the door.
“I think I slept a little better last night,” she replies. “Jeremy read a book to me for a while.”
“Which one?”
“Dark Notes by Pam Godwin.”
Nikki clears her throat. “I told you that one was good.”
“Jeremy is quite the narrator—aren’t you babe?”
He smirks. “Only for you, baby.”
I take a quick glance at my phone. “Should we get on the road? It’ll take us a good ten or more hours to get there.”
