Chapter 90 The Calm Before

• Dawn crept into the motel room like a thief, pale and tentative, its light diluted by the neon sign flickering outside.
• *Sunset Inn*, it buzzed, the ‘S’ sputtering in a relentless cycle of death and rebirth.
• Each pulse stained the walls a sickly pink, washing over the stained carpet, the cracked mirror, the weapons laid out on the bed. I stood at the window, the curtain’s edge pinched between my fingers, and watched the parking lot bleed from black to gray.