The tip of the civen blade hovered above my loathsome face for only a moment before shattering it. In the same moment, the pressure within me burst. Again and again, I stabbed my proxy monitor in a frenzy that opened a flower of blackness within the frame. My senses dimmed, and I pitched forward into that dark blossom.
Read it now
The museum director faced the crowd. “Everyone, raise a glass for this evening’s brilliant artist. To Helen!”
“Helen!” Voices thundered in unison as afficionados lifted their wine goblets, then sipped the crimson nectar.
Helen drank in the praise, her gaze focused on the lone glass that remained lifted. The vessel lowered, revealing the frank blue eyes of its beholder.
Richard Mohr stood outside his sister’s room for a full minute, eyes shut tight, not wanting to enter. Then, taking a deep breath, he plunged in.
“You’re late, you little stink.”
Kimberly-Anne’s eyes were somehow sharper than her words: a scowling blue, like chips cleaved off a glacier.
“Five minutes.”
I cleared pizza boxes and take-out bags from the sofa so I could sit, peeled off my socks, and tossed them on the floor, too. I hadn’t brushed my teeth, answered Mom’s texts, or checked the bank messages I’d been ignoring for days.
Read it now
“You have so much beautiful art here, Dorian,” she said between kisses, running her fingers through his golden hair. “It must have taken you a long time to acquire it all.”
If you only knew. He pressed his lips against hers again. “A long time and a lot of money. But none of it is as beautiful as you, Victoria.”
“Too far.”
Bang. Bang. Bang.
I sped up to the portrait gallery.
“Nope.” Victor muttered to himself as he raised the hammer.
Bang. Bang—
I snatched the tool from his grasp.
He spun, his expression shifting from annoyance to welcome. “Jean-Luc!”
I glowered back. “Why, pray tell, are you banging holes in my walls?”
“I’m hanging a portrait!”
“I can’t believe you hacked the store’s security cameras,” Sophie said in awe. The laptop screen illuminated Caleb’s dark apartment. In the bottom right corner, a tiny display read 12:57.
“Child’s play.” Caleb puffed his chest out. “In fact, I hacked everything. I can run the whole show from this laptop. Of course, it helps that management actually trusts me.”
“Come on, man!” Damon protested. “I asked off for tomorrow night!”
“I know, but Zach was supposed to be your fill-in, and nobody’s seen him for two days. Like he fell off the face of the earth. Surprised he lasted this long.” Mr. Corman smirked, his eyes inscrutable behind thick spectacles.
Father Gary eyed me as if I had asked him to rob a bank. I didn’t understand why. My question was simple. He had the power and the tools to help me, so what was the problem?
The priest folded his hands. “Edwin, let’s discuss this before I consider your request.”
Fair enough.
I cruise the upscale neighborhood looking for parking. Finding nothing near the estate sale, I settle for a space a block over.
Great, I’ll have to carry Craig’s junk all this way. My pace slows as I round the block. Pulling out my phone, I choose a filter and take a selfie in front
The people here have always thought me peculiar.
Me and my family. A tyrannical, penny-pinching father. A harsh stepmother. And, of course, cold, forbidding spinster sisters.
It’s the rumors about me that make me laugh the hardest. To the people of this fair city, I’m also a kleptomaniac who’s stolen from her own family.
I was but a fresh-faced eighteen-year-old, the summer I worked grounds crew at Camp Sand Lake.
Sand was a given, being smack in the Mojave Desert, and it would’ve been omitted altogether in an alternate universe where “Camp Lake” made good branding. The eponymous lake, however, was a mystery. How deep was it?
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