Page 12 of Belle

He takes me into a cold room, in the basement. There’s a table in the middle of the room––that I assume has my sister on it. There’s a white sheet draped over the top of her.

Sheriff Johnston pulls the sheet from her face and Mindy’s cold dead eyes are staring back at me.

“That’s her.” I turn my head in the other direction.

I start to leave the room and I feel his greasy hands grab my wrist. “If you think of anything I might need to know, call me.” I look from my wrist to his face, and he grins. His finger is rubbing up and down across my hand, and my stomach is churning.

“Sure thing.” I yank my arm away and leave the room as quickly as possible. The men in this town are disgusting.

I sigh and sit down on the steps of my new house. After that gross encounter with the Sheriff, I went about trying to find out what happened to my sister. They ruled it an OD pretty quickly after they found her body, but I’ve never believed that was the case.

I always thought it was weird that her body was found in the same place we dumped that body all those years ago.

I run my hands up and down my arms, shivering. I need to get some lights outside of this house. It gives me the creeps.

I glance over towards my neighbor and watch him climb out of his car. He turns and stares in my direction. I know he can’t see me because it’s pitch-black outside, but it turns me on to know he’s looking for me.

I almost get up and walk in his direction, but instead, I choose to sit and stare. I like that he doesn’t know I’m out here.

I lean back against the steps and watch him pull a bag from his car and toss it on his porch. Next, he peels his shirt off his body and wipes his chest off.

My breathing picks up and I let my hand travel down my own body. I don’t know what this guy is doing to me.

What is he doing?

I watch him take his pants off, and even though it’s completely dark, I can see that he’s naked from the light of the moon.

My fingers have made their way into my shorts and my head falls back as I play with myself.

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter.

I watch him walk towards the back of his house, in the direction of the creek. It occurs to me that he must be rinsing himself off. His bathroom is probably as much of a shit hole as mine is.

Disappointed that he’s gone, and the image is out of my head, I pull my hand from my pants. I’m definitely going to have to get another round from him.

I can’t follow him down to that creek, it brings back too many memories, so instead, I head inside.

Sighing, I lean against the orange couch that came with the house. It’s disgusting, but it’s also free.

Destiny: Where are you? Where’s your stuff?

My phone vibrates in my pocket, and of course, it’s Destiny. She must have tried to break into my room if she’s noticing my stuff has gone.

Belle: I moved out.

Destiny: Like hell you did. I need help with rent.

Belle: Fuck off, Destiny.

Destiny: You’ve always been an ungrateful little bitch.

I toss the phone on the couch next to me and stand up to plug in the one lamp I brought with me. It doesn’t do much, but it does give a soft orange glow to the room.

Working at the club has my sleep schedule out of whack. I can sleep a couple of hours here and there, but that’s it.

I open up one of the four boxes that my stuff is in and start putting things away.

The house is small. There’s one bedroom, the living room is connected to the kitchen, and there’s a small bathroom with a shower. I’m going to have to replace the flooring in the whole place, buy some furniture, and work on the plumbing.

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