Contract

My entry into Grey Matters Press’ Flash Masters contest with the stipulation to utilize the five following words in the piece and it can’t exceed 100 words: sift, sidewalk, disgorge, agonize and gentle. 

Leroy sifted through targets. The homeless man he saw disgorge his own toenails on the sidewalk was too easy a target for Leroy. Children in the park were off-limits. Even he was too gentle for that.

Then, he saw the man in the suit, Bluetooth in his ear. Important man with an important life. A future. Moving fast, oblivious.

With the syringe brimming with his blood, the blood ravaged by HIV, he did not agonize.

Once close enough, Leroy swiveled and injected the syringe into the man’s neck.

Maybe he’d contract it. Maybe he wouldn’t. Waiting was the real killer.