to hear if someone was on the other side, but couldn’t make out any sort of sound. Slowly and quietly she turned the door knob and pushed the door open. The white Christmas lights she had hung up on her walls were on, the roses were now just petals in the middle of the floor, and there was a man sitting on the edge of her bed facing the door.

The excited, child-like face he had worn changed instantly to confusion and fear as he saw Shelly with her gun. The bouquet of roses in his hands, newspaper tied up with a shoelace, was held tightly in his grasp.

“What is this? I thought we were going on a date.” The man mumbled, his dark green eyes looked around the room like a rabbit looking for an escape from a fox.

“Date? You’re mistaken. I never . . . How...

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