Goodbye, Mr. Regret

Chapter 108

Timothy stared at the message on his phone, his dark eyes fixed on the glowing

screen for a long while.

[Do you like it?]

He typed a reply.

[Yeah, just like Happy and Lucky.]

He pressed his lips together, thinking.

If Sheila liked them, there was no harm in giving her one too.

There were twenty-two left.

He bought them all, though he only intended to keep one.

The rest, he'd throw away.

It was just an excuse to set one aside for Sheila.

[If you like it, keep it.]

Capital City.

Jessica was too afraid to sleep. She huddled in the corner of the hotel room, knees pulled to her chest, shivering so hard her fingernails nearly broke the skin of her palms.

Every clap of thunder struck like a hammer against her heart.

out the power, plunging the room into total darkness. Only when lightning ripped across the sky did the world briefly flicker into view. The wind howled, rain hammered the windows with a relentless drone, and Jessica felt her courage drain away, fear flooding

memories crashed

the sky was heavy and gray, rain threatening at any

a twenty, told her to run to the corner store for a bottle of soy sauce, and said she could buy

picking out candy, even choosing a piece of cake

groceries, when she reached the foot of her

a sickening

When she finally looked, she saw it was

wide and unseeing, blood spreading from the

dark, snaking

ears. Her skin was as white as

shouted that a

surrounded her

ground.

out, to

lips parted, but no sound

the thunder

in their apartment, and followed the ambulance to

her mother's broken body played on a loop

never stopped, battering her

never understood why her

body, the time she'd wasted picking out

home earlier, maybe

teeth, hands shaking as

the screen was blinding

Her lips trembled.

thunder nearly made

panic, breath coming in ragged gasps,