Sinners Circle by Karina Sims Read Free Book Online Page A

each other like we do, I
wonder what that one would say, and
how the hell the other ones peeking around in the park for bread crumbs and
French fries, how they would
interpret the story.”
    I pinch her arm back. “No idea.”
    She’s quiet for a minute. I check my watch; my shift starts
again in five minutes. “Well, I gotta go back in. Pay
the bills. You know.”
    She smiles, leans in and kisses me. “And
what about my bills, Amanda?”
    I feel her waist, her tight stomach. I think of her pussy
when I kiss her and I think of the dead girl still in my basement and why I
can’t bring Lilly back home with me tonight. “You’re richer than I am.” I pinch
her nose. “Quit blowing it all up here.”
    She laughs, “You wanna line? A line
before you head back to work?”
    “ Naw , I’m good. Thanks.”
    “Oh, come on!”
    She pounds her little fist against my heart. “ One !”
    “Yeah, OK fine.” I take her to my car, snort a line and eat
her out. Her pussy tastes like condoms but I don’t care. Before I go back in
the store I try and give her thirty bucks but she won’t take it. “Save it. Buy
some groceries and make me dinner sometime.”
    I pinch her ass and walk back in fifteen minutes late. Harry
is in his office and there’s no one in the store. I sit there at the till
watching cars go by, looking for any that turn in to the side to pick Lilly up.
I think about spaghetti, big fat meatballs; I wonder if Marcy has a recipe book
for Italian food upstairs. I think about that red dress I bought last autumn
and my cute black Mary Jane flats; I think about wearing them for Lilly. I
think of all these things until I see a car turn into the alley beside the store. A
minute later I see the car pulling out onto the highway in front, I see Lilly
looking in her purse and the person behind the wheel is just a figure,
blanketed by shadow.
    I try and think about what drink would go good with pasta. I
think about wine selections—but the wine turns to blood. The spaghetti morphs
into intestines, and the meat balls—just wads of
rolled human muscle tooth-picked together and burnt to a crisp. I’m not wearing
my red dress anymore, just the dark rush of approximately 5.6 litres no longer
pumping through his or her or my body. Whoever’s blood it is, I don’t care, it
doesn’t matter. Because we’re all so
goddamn evil, none of us deserve to live.

IX
    “ Attention customers, this week’s discount is on all product
price tags marked red. Do you have a special someone in your life you would
like to show a little extra love to? Browse the wide selection of discount
items in the women’s section of the store. This includes beauty, apparel...”
The buzzing voice of the female announcer coughs loud into the microphone.
“...makeup...no wait. All these wonderful products marked down to affordable
price...marked as affordable and made
even more afford...cheaper than before.
Prices going way down as much as ninety percent on some brand name...”
    I pick up a bag of chips, stare
at the cheetah standing on its hind legs, wearing sun shades and grinning a mouth full of perfect teeth. I heard on TV once
that lions hunting gazelle will always go for the sickly one. The lionesses
will run down the slowest weakest gazelle and then chew its back until it
drops. Even before its dead, the sick gazelle is devoured by a group of giant
starving kitty cats.
    The announcer coughs loud into
the microphone, feeding distortion through the speakers, popping our eardrums,
making us grind our teeth with the buzz shock scrambling through our ear
canals. “Mothers will be glad to hear that children’s grape flavored liquid
Tylenol is now thirty percent off as well as no name chewable vitamins D, C
and...” Another loud cough, I almost bite my tongue.
    The bag of chips crunches in my hand, I try
and puff it back up to look normal but I’m stuck looking at the grinning
cheetah with its black glasses and shiny set of perfect choppers again.