Hello, Little Sparrow by Jordan Jones (the reading list .TXT) 📕

but wasn’t nearly as scalding hot as he preferred. The blood made a dramatic trail from the edge of the sink, disappearing down the drain. Brooks knew it was symbolic of him turning his life around.

He didn’t need to kill anymore. The detectives showing up at his house did enough to rattle his cage, and he could still win if he could kill six people and get away with it.

Besides, four of them were pedophiles and that’s a lot more than the average citizen.

Brooks felt good about it. It was a new beginning…a fresh start.

He’d never had one of those before.

He finished drying off his face and placed a small piece of tissue on his neck to absorb the blood. The blood would spill no more, he thought. He gave himself one last look in the mirror and smiled.

Though no one else was around, he had a quick conversation with his sister about how he was looking forward to going out with Mae, and how stunning she was last night. He laughed when his sister brought up how the alcohol could’ve played a part in her looks, but he dismissed it.

She was just jealous that he finally had a date, and she was still single. They had fun sibling banter all the time.

His red Chevy Malibu came alive and he pulled out of his driveway, waving to his family as he did. A jogger slapped the back of his car in a near miss and yelled a few choice words.

Brooks grabbed for his buck knife and immediately placed his hand on his door handle, but stopped himself and smiled again, knowing full well he had control.

“It’s not going to be different, you know,” said the small voice from the back seat.

Brooks’ eyes widened and he shuddered, but pressed the gas and headed towards the address Mae gave him. He ignored Madison the best he could.

“You will be right back to where you were,” she said. “There is still a lot of work to do.”

“No,” Brooks replied to the nothingness in his backseat. “That’s not me. I don’t do that anymore. I did my part. Go pick someone else.”

“But, you aren’t just supposed to do your part,” she said, popping her neck to the side. She moved up closer to the mirror where Brooks could only see her face. “You are to do everyone’s part.”

“No…no, no, no.” Brooks gripped the steering wheel tighter and pressed down on the gas. The GPS rang out directions to turn and he took them without checking blind spots.

“There won’t be any way out of this, Brooks,” she said. It was the first time she used his name, and it sounded different than he’d imagined. “You remember why I chose you, don’t you?”

He could feel sweat form under his shirt as he pressed the gas down farther.

“Well?”

“Because I am…was the only one that could do it.”

“You are the only one that can do it,” she said, repositioning herself in her seat. “But, you’re starting to fade back to your old ways of forgiveness, and we don’t forgive.”

“I’m not forgiving them!” Brooks narrowed his brows as he screamed at the child behind him. “I’m forgetting them!”

“That’s just as bad,” she said, calmly. “You start forgetting them and the next thing you know, they’ll be out doing the same thing all over again. No one to punish them like they deserve.”

“I almost got caught because of you!” Brooks turned down the road Mae lived on. Finally.

“You almost got caught because you were sloppy…not because of me. You stabbed your own cousin whom you visited in prison just before. Of course you’re going to be a suspect. I’ve made it all better now. They don’t know it’s you and closed the case. Unsolved homicide.”

“I don’t believe you,” Brooks responded. “Those cops were in my house talking to me, not you!”

Madison kept quiet as Brooks crept closer to Mae’s apartment complex. Brooks could feel the tension in the car, but had to keep moving forward.

After parking, Brooks sent Mae a text.

“It’s not going to last,” Madison finally said. “But know this: I’ll be here when you’re ready. We can finish this thing…together.”

Brooks turned up his radio and pretended he enjoyed the loud rock music as people walked in front of his car. He was a mess, sweating from head to toe. Killing had ceased and he felt better, though he found it a hard feeling to shake.

The feeling when Geoff Burnley was shot in the back of the head.

Satisfaction and comfort in every syllable of the word. But, he couldn’t go down that road any longer.

“I want you gone,” he said, angling his rearview mirror to her again, but she had already left.

He grinned again, thinking it was over.

A knock at his window startled him back to reality and Mae gleamed a smile at him and they exchanged pleasantries.

“Are you ready to go?” she asked.

“I’m ready for anything,” he replied.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I didn’t sleep well that night or morning, so I decided to go into the office the next afternoon. I couldn’t remember her name, but she dropped me back off at the parking garage of my apartment complex. Without saying a word, she drove off, leaving nothing but a forgettable memory in her wake.

I wasn’t quite sure how everyone would respond after Abraham’s death, but going to work for me should be no different than going to work for anyone else.

DeAngelo Abraham was close to all of us.

Harlow had her coffee at her desk and didn’t look up as I sat down. A thick air of tension filled the room, as if everyone had been talking about me right before I entered.

It was a Sunday and most of the desks were cleared off,