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.

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,

crashed over

evening, the sky was heavy and gray, rain threatening at any

run to the corner store

spent ages picking out candy, even choosing a piece of cake

her bag of groceries, when she reached the foot of her apartment building-and someone fell from

was a

looked,

wide and

dark, snaking rivulets

eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Her skin

a woman

surrounded

groceries crashed to the ground. She pushed through

call out, to

parted, but no sound

thunder and

their apartment, and followed the

out. In the darkness, the image of her mother's broken body played

thunder outside never stopped, battering her small world with each

why

every fiber in her body, the time she'd wasted picking out

she had come home earlier, maybe her mother wouldn't

hands shaking as she pulled out her

of the screen was blinding in the

Her lips trembled.

of thunder nearly made

coming in ragged gasps, as