Pale Carnations -ch. 4 Update 4- -mutt - Jeff- ...

“Both.”

“She’s asking about the fourth round,” I said. “The private exhibition. The one not on the club’s books.”

He tilted his head, and a grin cracked his face like dry earth. “You here to threaten me, or to ask me how I train ‘em for that round?” Pale Carnations -Ch. 4 Update 4- -Mutt Jeff- ...

I picked up the photograph and slid it back into my pocket. “The club wants her ready for the main event. No more ‘private exhibitions.’”

“Your little blonde,” Jeff continued, tapping the photograph with a yellowed nail, “she crawled. Fastest I’ve ever seen. Didn’t even make her beg. She just… folded. Like a paper hat in the rain.” His eyes flicked up to mine, and for a moment, the showman’s mask slipped. Beneath it was something hollow. Hungry. “That’s the part they never put in the contracts. The folding.” “Both

“The kind that gets a venue shut down,” I replied.

He held out the deck of cards to me. “Pick one.” “You here to threaten me, or to ask

I reached out, slow, and drew from the middle. The Queen of Hearts. Her painted smile was the same as the girl’s in the photograph. The same hollow fold.

End of Scene.