Goodbye, Mr. Regret

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.

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 every corner

memories crashed

evening, the sky was heavy and gray,

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

spent ages picking out candy, even choosing a piece of

home, swinging her bag of groceries, when she reached the foot of her

a sickening

When she finally looked, she saw it was her

stared wide and unseeing,

her head in dark, snaking rivulets across the

her eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Her skin was

that a woman had

surrounded

ground. She pushed through the

to scream for

parted, but no

the thunder and

father rushed home, locked Jessica alone in their apartment,

of her mother's broken body played on a

keening wind and rolling thunder outside never stopped, battering her small world

why her mother had

her body,

come home earlier, maybe

shaking as

glow of the screen was blinding in

Her lips trembled.

nearly