Hello, Little Sparrow by Jordan Jones (ebook audio reader txt) 📗

“Who are you?” Geoff asked, shaken to the core. His phone began to buzz again, and Brooks picked it up.

“Darlene?” Brooks asked. “You really should do the work people pay you to do.” Brooks then threw the phone against the car, shattering it into dozens of pieces.

“C’mon, man,” Geoff said, panicked. “Please just leave. I’ll have your work done as soon as I can. I’m backed up.”

Brooks put the barrel of the shotgun against his cheek, and he could feel the cold metal forcefully against his face. “Oh, it’s much more complicated than that.”

“I’ll give you your money back. My satisfaction is guaranteed, I swear, man!”

“Get up and open the door.” Geoff did as he was told and he led Brooks through the laundry room and into the kitchen, and a small dining area. “Take a seat.”

“I don’t know what you want from me!” Geoff said, starting to feel lightheaded. “I said I’ll finish the work, and I promise I will!”

“This isn’t about work. I never paid you. I never wanted to you to do anything, and I especially never wanted you to do what you already did.” Brooks placed the shotgun down on the kitchen counter facing Geoff eye level.

“Then what is this?”

Brooks turned on the dining room lamp. He knew Geoff was too scared to try anything, so he created distance between himself and the shotgun. Geoff stuttered when he spoke and his words began to run together, making more of a mumbling sound than coherent sentences.

His hyperventilating was throwing Brooks off, making him more erratic. Brooks slammed his fist against a curio cabinet, knocking it over. Hundreds of glass figurines smashed out of the glass casings and shattered onto the hardwood floor.

Once Geoff saw this, he tried to calm his breathing down as he was instantly scared for his life.

Brooks walked around Geoff stopped in front of him. He took out a folded piece of paper and put it on the dining room table behind Geoff. “Go ahead and look at that and tell me what you see.”

Geoff was reluctant, but knew he had no choice but to turn around.

The picture of was a five-year-old girl Geoff knew very well. Her name was Breanna Pilson, and she had the brightest blue eyes he’d ever seen.

Brooks took out another picture and laid it down beside the first one. Geoff didn’t recognize the woman in the second, but it looked like a mug shot and that she was on some heavy substances at the time. She was roughly mid-twenties, but years of abuse caused her to look much older.

“What are you doing, man?” Tears started dripping from Geoff’s eyes and onto the pictures. He couldn’t keep his eyes off either of them.

“The first one was the girl you violated,” Brooks said. “The act that sent you to prison for ten years. Does any of this ring a bell?”

Brooks’ calm demeanor sent chills down Geoff’s spine as he continued crying over pictures. “Yes, of course.”

Brooks held a knife to the picture of the woman. “Do you recognize this one?”

Geoff shook his head, unable to find words to escape his lips. His legs shook uncontrollably, tapping his feet on the ground. He was afraid this would further enrage his intruder.

“The second picture is of Breanna Pilson. It’s the same girl as the first. The second picture was a result of what you did to her.”

“Oh God…no,” Geoff cried. “I was stupid, man! I was just a kid at the time…Please, mister.”

“Your online profile on the registry had you pegged at twenty-two at the time,” Brooks said, coldly. “When I was twenty-two, I had just completed my master’s thesis on the effect of permafrost on soil composition. Frequent changes in nitrogen levels and DNA sequencing made life difficult for the few plants that live there. You know, things twenty-two year olds should be doing.”

Geoff took a gulp and cleared his shaky throat. “Please, I don’t know what I was doing at the time. I was high as a kite; you don’t understand…please…”

Brooks held up his buck knife to the man’s throat and brought his face up to his ear. His lips could taste the sweat off Geoff’s ears as he whispered, “If you say please one more time, I am going to dig this knife so deep into your neck, you won’t have time to beg.”

Geoff tried to control his shaking, but it was impossible. He knew his situation was grim, but he had to know if the man with the shotgun was a true psychopath. If he knew this much, maybe he could figure out a way out of it.

He took a chance and said, “Just go ahead and do what you’re going to do, man. I don’t care. My life is a wreck right now. Now this? Ever since I messed up, nothing has gone my way. You’d be doing me a favor.”

Brooks took a few steps back near the counter and studied the man.

“I’m serious,” Geoff said. “I’m probably better off dead, anyway.”

Brooks cocked his head to the side, intrigued by the sudden change of heart. Geoff was a pathetic waste of a human, yes, but what would Brooks be doing if he ended it all?

Would Geoff living somehow make penance for his horrible mistakes?

Brooks thought better of it.

“Glad I could oblige,” Brooks said and pulled the trigger of the shotgun, knocking Geoff to the floor. Blood immediately rushed out of his wounds and onto the hardwood floor. A neighbor’s dog barked in the distance and Brooks’ ears rang.

He calmly walked out into the garage and used his mag-light to find a staple gun on the workbench. He tested it a few times to make sure it was functional. He then returned to Geoff