Pale Carnations -ch.4 Up.5- -mutt Jeff- | PRO - 2026 |

He turned his collar up and walked toward the river. Somewhere down there, a woman he’d once loved was probably dead. Somewhere down there, the man who’d made her that way was still breathing. And Jeff—Mutt Jeff, the dog with no master and no leash—was going to find him.

The carnation had been left on the bar. A message, maybe. A taunt. Someone knew he’d been there. Someone wanted him to remember that even the flowers in that place were bred for one purpose: to look beautiful while they rotted. Pale Carnations -Ch.4 Up.5- -Mutt Jeff-

“Yeah,” he said to the empty street. “Same.” He turned his collar up and walked toward the river

The rain had stopped sometime before dawn, but the streets of the Bottoms still glistened like something slick and unwholesome had been washed to the surface. Jeff stood outside the chain-link fence of the old rail yard, watching a stray dog worry a piece of discarded leather. The animal’s ribs showed through its patchy coat, but its eyes were bright—feral and undefeated. And Jeff—Mutt Jeff, the dog with no master