Wow. It took me an hour to write all of these on the spot.

I had a bit of character development in this one as well. A line about John’s father in law being a douchebag, but I had to cut it for the character limit.

Perhaps not as heartwarming a resolution as I expected – the dark tone here maybe clashes a little with it’s predecessors, but it still tied everything together well and certainly shows how good deeds pay off!

Again, thanks for entering – MH :)

EDIT— I combined all my comments together:

I’m not sure if I edited it before you read it, but I re-worded the ending so that it was more clear who was dead. In the first run, it sounded like John was dead, because PRONOUNS are hard.

It was supposed to change tone a bit with the fall of night, to mirror the change in the town. It might have been a bit too sudden though, and I had to cut some description and exposition to fit the character limit.

Also, thanks! I tend to like stories that are a bit darker, but still have the bittersweet or heartwarming ending. The way it ends now though, it’s left open as to how the relationship between John and Jess continues. I may add a fourth part to expound on that, but I kind of like the open ending.