They left a few minutes later, informing me they were exhausted from their travels but that we would meet up together before they left to go home.

I was in a weird mood after Axel’s parents left. With Luna already gone to get ready for her sister’s party and Axel busy at work until going to dinner with his family, I decided to stick around a little later than usual. I let Milo go home early, doing clean-up duties before heading upstairs to my place to relax.

As I walked up the stairs to my unit, my phone buzzed in my purse. I looked down at my watch to see it was Axel calling. My hands were full of the bags Luna had given me earlier, so I decided to call him back after I dropped everything off on my table.

After I topped the stairs and stepped into my small dining space, I went to set the bags down on my kitchen table. However, the vase full of flowers Axel had gotten me was sitting there, and when the bags hit it, it toppled and shattered across the tile floor.

“What the hell?” I said out loud to myself.

I didn’t remember the vase being there. I swore I had put it up on the counter near the sink when I brought it up earlier.

I sighed in frustration but moved to the kitchen to grab some paper towels and a small plastic bag to put the flowers and glass in, the incoming call from Axel momentarily forgotten.

I was crouched down, scooping up the glass into my little dustpan, when the hallway floor creaked behind me.

I turned toward the noise, and when I did, I came face-to-face with a gun. A gun that Milo was pointing at my face.