The Jackson’s Grove Police Department was a one-story red-brick structure surrounded by bare trees and bordered by a large swath of undeveloped land. Ackerman watched Marcus and the others pull off Route 50 and into the parking lot of the small police precinct. An enormous radio tower jutted into the air over the building, and the lobby and entranceway running through the center of the structure was encased all in glass on its front and ceiling. It reminded him more of something you’d see at a shopping mall. A blue and beige sign announced Jackson’s Grove Village Center. Squad cars lined the parking lot.
As he drove past, the killer thought of how destiny, by the hand of some higher power, had led him to this place. He had once believed that everyone was just wandering through the darkness alone. No God, no devil, just men. He had thought of human beings as nothing more than animals that had deluded themselves with the concepts of religion and life after death.
But now, as he looked back on the events of his life, he no longer saw merely random chaos, pain, and death. He saw purpose. He saw meaning. All of that pain had been to mold him, to sharpen him into a finely crafted weapon, an instrument of fate. And it was still molding him, shaping him, changing him. All people were the sum of their collected experiences, and his suffering had made him strong. Just as the events of Marcus’s life had shaped him.
And soon Marcus would truly understand the inner workings of fate. The puzzle pieces would snap into place, and all would become clear. Marcus would look at the world through different eyes. And fate had chosen Ackerman to be the catalyst of this epiphany, just as Marcus had been for him.
He was reminded of a quote he had absorbed somewhere along the way: A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
That was Marcus. He would try to fight fate at every twist and turn, but the destination would still be the same. Fate would win in the end.
Ackerman twisted the blade of his fifteen-inch survival knife and watched the light reflect off the stainless steel. As he admired the weapon, he wondered if he’d first have to remove some of the distractions in Marcus’s life before he could realize his true potential.