Serial

By Brittany Lowe

Jason Voight is a man who has no regard for those around him. He despises people, hates their smiles and loathes their presence. After making an unthinkable New Year's Resolution to kill as many people as he can, Jason lands himself in trouble with the new detective in town, Mark Wilder. Will Jason escape the grips of this headstrong detective? Or will he fall apart and let Mark spoil his entire plan?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brittany Lowe
• Release date: Dec 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215365274

Book preview

Introduction

Jason Voight

Jason Voight is a twenty-year-old man with greasy black hair and hauntingly dark brown eyes who lives in a rundown apartment in a small town within Texas. His apartment is boring, and cheap. In his kitchen there is nothing but two empty, dust-covered counters, a sink with a faucet that doesn’t work, a broken microwave that hardly heats his meals, and a mini fridge occupying the last of the counterspace. He couldn’t afford an actual refrigerator, nor could he afford an oven or a stove. In his bedroom lies a twin-size mattress on the floor with a single blanket and worn-out pillow. There is a bathroom to the left of his room in which houses the only running sink there is in the apartment. There’s no counter space and there’s no shower or closet space. He finds himself throwing clean clothes and towels in one corner, and the dirty in the other.

He hates people. There is nothing about the people on the streets that makes him want to smile or play nice. When it comes to his neighbors, he tries to keep away. There is one, old man Steve, who wanders around the complex every morning begging for something or other. Two days ago, it was sugar for his coffee. Yesterday it was milk. Today? Who knows what it will be.

There is a reason as to why Jason hates people so much. When he was ten years old, he had a family. A mother, father and two older sisters. One night his mother tucked him into bed and kissed his forehead.

She smiled and said I love you, Jason. You are the light of my life.

It was clear to Jason how much he meant to his mother. His father would stand in the doorway, a bourbon bottle in his left hand, and a thick, nasty smelling cigar hanging from his mouth.

Get some sleep, son. We have a lot to do tomorrow.

Jason always dreaded his father saying this. It always meant one thing – he was going to be put to work in his father’s auto shop. Cleaning up after the dirty men he employed. If one thing was out of place, Jason would be smacked square on the back of his head. By the end of the days in the shop, he swore it’d be bruised.

Two days later, Jason awoke to the sound of glass shattering. He called for his mom and waited a moment.

Then he heard his father yelling, Who are you? Get out of my house!

Before he knew it, he heard three loud bangs and the terrified screams of his father and sisters. Without a clue as to what was going on, Jason ran from his room and into the living room where his family was. Just as he entered the room, he saw a dark blur of a figure before his eyes, holding a revolver. His mother was lying on the floor, bloodied and gurgling.

His father was holding his sisters’ hands and pleading for their life. The man looked at Jason for a minute without saying a word. He had on all black and a ski mask that only revealed the man’s blue eyes. Two more shots rattled around in Jason’s head and his four-year-old twin sisters fell to the floor. Jason didn’t scream. He didn’t cry. He didn’t beg for his life. He stared down at the bodies on the floor, blood staining the shag carpet. The man walked around him and began to take everything he found valuable while his father dropped to his knees, gathering the three girls together in his arms, crying over their lifeless bodies.

Good luck, kid. The man whispered before leaving the room.

Jason watched as the man lugged the duffle bag full of his family’s belongings out of the house and out of sight. He sat there on the couch and watched the blood slowly stop pooling around his family until he heard sirens outside of his home and police came rushing in.

One

Jason pulls his coffee mug out of the broken microwave and stirs in the Folgers instant coffee packet. As the microwave is busted and hardly heats anymore, most of the coffee doesn’t dissolve into the water. Jason sighs and takes a sip of the coffee and looks out of the window above his sink. He watches the passersby on the side of the road and shakes his head. Some smile at others and some even stop to talk to one another. It sickens him to watch. How could someone be so friendly to the random vermin on the street? Just then, it hits him. His New Year’s Resolution is to kill as many people as he can. Without being caught, of course. He has no reason why besides the fact that he hates people. Especially the ones that try to talk to him on the street.

Jason walks the short hallway to his bedroom. He looks at the cobwebs filled with spiders spinning their breakfast before making his way to the bathroom. He doesn’t mind that the spiders are there; he counts it as them giving him company. Jason digs through the clothes pile on the floor for something to wear. Once he is ready for the day, he grabs his keys and walks out of the house, being sure to lock the door behind him. He doesn’t see the point, though. Nobody would dare try to rob his place. Everyone knows he’s the poorest man in the complex; yet they wave at him on the streets anyway. It disgusts him. It’s like they pity him, and Jason doesn’t like being pitied.

He sighs and begins his trek down the sidewalks of the city, making his way towards the local university like he does every Tuesday and Thursday morning. The only reason he’s even able to pay for college is through student loans. He begins to think that maybe when he begins to work on his new year’s resolution, he can rob the people of their cash and valuables. Then he could potentially pay for his classes and maybe even a damn dresser for his clothes.

The next day, Jason yawns as he sits through yet another of his Intro to Psych lectures. He begins to wonder why he even puts himself through this. If he doesn’t like people, why is he a psych major? Maybe he could prey on the vulnerable when getting a job as a psychiatrist. He could kill his patients. Jason shakes his head. No, that doesn’t make sense. Too easy to put together that it was him killing his own patients off. He would likely be the only thing they had in common. But – maybe he could prey on the patients of his colleagues. The police would turn to them immediately. Jason grins, what a marvelous idea.

Once classes are over, Jason makes his way to the campus library.