Page 5 of No Small Sin

I waited.

One beat.

Two.

He appeared again lugging a bag of trash in each hand. He clunked around to the back of the building to the dumpster and I made my way to his now open front door.

Luck was on my side, just as it always was on nights like this one. It was as if the universe knew I had a need that mustalwaysbe met.

Slipping inside, I listened.

Silence.

There was no one else here, at least for the time being. But I didn’t need long to do what I’d come to do.

I stepped into the shadow of the door, twisting the braided fishing line between my fingers. They ached to make quick work of the task ahead.

He re-entered the apartment, his back to me as he closed the door and slid the chain lock into place.

Before he had time to register what was happening, I twisted the line around his neck. He choked on his panic as I kicked his feet out from under him and drug his writhing body up the set of stairs that led from the bottom-level kitchen to the living area.

He clawed at the line tight around his throat.

“Wha- th-,” he rasped, recognition in his eyes as he took me in. I jerked the line tighter. Blood beaded along the indentation across the front of his neck and his eyes bulged.

I liked that.

“Did the woman you held down and fucked without her consent have the same look in her eyes as you do now?” He grunted, fighting uselessly against my grip. “Was shethisafraid?”He struggled against my hold. “Lucky for you, living every moment for the rest of your life with the memory of what I’m about to do to you will be minutes at most.A luxury she wasn’t afforded.” I lifted him up, inhaling deeply, the cord biting into the palm of my hand. The acrid scent of his cheap cologne burned my nostrils.

Disgusting.

The scent triggered something deep within the recesses of my mind.

It nearly splintered my resolve and obliterated my best intentions for Alexander’s end, but I needed this.

Most people have rituals and routines that get them through each day. This was no different.

This was my religion.

He mumbled incoherently. I tightened the cord.

I longed for the moment his body would fall limp in my grasp. No other end had the same effect.

I had always made a solid effort to remain in good physical shape. I was well-practiced in varying self-defense martial arts. Yet, my favorite method was this, requiring only the better part of five minutes and less exertion by my hand than the pounds of pressure needed to crack a fucking egg.

Life is funny like that.

He went lax and I inhaled an easier breath, exhaled a more settled one.

I released him, his body falling to the floor with a thud at the same moment the front door clamored open, only to be halted by the chain lock.

“Alex?” a female voice called. “I saw your car out front, and one I didn’t recognize. Open the fucking door, it’s cold!”

There was no mistaking that voice — the way it fucked me up inside. The few sentences I’d heard her speak were seared into my brain. Irremovable, because somehow she managed to affect me in a way that no one else ever had.

What the fuck was she doing here?

Impatiently, she shoved on the door again.

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