A bell jangles when it opens. A small hallway leads to the main area of the gallery. There, his heart free-falls. It isn’t a grisly scene with the man with the axe. She’s standing behind a counter. Looking radiant. She’s frozen staring back at him. The silence holds for what feels like a lifetime. “Dodge?” Her tone is threaded with hope and disbelief. And something else, he realizes: fear. That’s confirmed when a tear rolls down her cheek and she mouths a single word to him. Run.
