Read Online Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley - Free Book Online

across the front of her party dress and above her upper lip. I politely tried not to stare.
    “Not much,” I said, feigning calmness. “I’m just here to stick this meat in the freezer. We’ll never get to it before it turns.”
    “No!” she said, and held out her hand, but I had already yanked the freezer door open.
    That was my second mistake.
    I shrieked and slammed the heavy door down again, but it was too late. I had already seen bits and pieces of random people tossed casually inside.
    “Was that the creepy guy from the video store?” I turned to Jill, but all I saw was the subtle shine as something came swinging my way.
     
    —
    She clocked me with the flat of the axe. Just like that. I woke up to find myself sitting ingloriously on my butt, my back against the freezer and my arms chained awkwardly.
    “Feeling better?” Jill asked me with genuine concern.
    “Sure, thanks.”
    “No problem.”
    Jill was still hacking away at the cat lady. She seemed to be having a hard time pulling the joints apart. Something kept sticking.
    “Is that tendon?” I asked her, curious.
    “I’m not sure. It’s something, though.” She started using the axe like a crowbar, and threw her weight against it. I bit my lip.
    “It’s not coming apart very neatly, is it?”
    “Stop criticizing me!” Jill leaned on the axe and glared at me.
    “I’m not criticizing, Jilly! I’m just trying to be...” I dunno. Helpful. My mama had taught me right.
    “The others weren’t this much trouble,” she confided, and popped her back. Her beautiful blonde hair was falling out of its careful chignon.
    Some girls have all the luck. And apparently that girl wasn’t me.
    “I’m going to have to kill you now,” Jill told me.
    “Why?” I fairly wailed. I couldn’t help it. She was really wrecking my day.
    “Well, now you know. That I kill people. Mostly on the weekends, originally, but now I’ve learned how to fit it into my schedule better. Organization is such a pain.”
    This was totally absurd. I mean, she couldn’t shake season salt on raw chicken , for crying out loud, but she could manage to dismember people? And more to the point, she could manage to dismember me ?
    “I thought we were friends,” I burbled. Tears were squeezing themselves out of my eyes. And my skirt was riding up, big time. I was wearing yellow monkey underwear, and this was how they were going to find me. I tried to wipe my nose on my shoulder.
    “Man, you’re pathetic,” she said. This really ticked me off.
    “What, somehow you’d manage to be all stoic? You’re one sick puppy, Jill, do you know that?” I lunged toward her a few times, but the chains held fast.
    “I’m sorry about this,” she said. “I really am. I like you.” Jill shrugged. “But you know how it goes.”
    I struggled against the chains again. “No, I do not know how it goes! Jeez, Jill! Let me go.”
    Jill shook her head. “I can’t. You’ll get me in trouble, and my mom would kill me. Goodbye college fund, goodbye new car.”
    I couldn’t help it. I goggled. “You are so selfish.”
    Oops. Wrong thing to say. Jill’s brown eyes narrowed.
    “You were always such a brat. I could have killed you a million times over by now.” She took a mighty swing with her axe and the cat lady’s legs severed neatly from her hips. “Finally. It’s about time something goes my way.”
    Her phone rang. Jill automatically reached for it, but her eyes clashed with mine.
    “I’ll get this upstairs,” she said, and scurried up and out of the basement. I heard the door slam above me.
    This was my chance. I tried to ignore the decapitated heads and sloppily butchered body parts that littered the cellar. I couldn’t believe that girl! Making me slice and stuff all of the pork chops because they felt slimy to her. What about that head over there? Didn’t that freak her out? I wriggled and shimmied and tried to extricate myself from the chains that were holding me to the