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.

across the sky did the world briefly flicker into view. The wind howled, rain hammered the

memories crashed over

and gray,

a twenty, told her to run to the corner store for a bottle of soy

out candy, even choosing

her bag of groceries, when she reached the

a

finally looked, she

and

in dark, snaking rivulets across the

from her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Her skin was as white as

a woman

surrounded

the ground. She pushed through

to call out, to scream for her

lips parted, but no

the thunder and

home, locked Jessica alone in their apartment, and followed the ambulance to the

the image of her mother's broken body played on

rolling thunder outside never stopped, battering

understood why

body, the time she'd wasted picking

earlier, maybe her mother

hands shaking as she pulled

the screen was blinding in the pitch-black

Her lips trembled.

of thunder nearly made her drop the

panic, breath coming in ragged gasps, as if she