Page 286 of Sweet Nightmare

forty

. . .

Chasing Winter

“Some people spend their lives running toward the sun. I never realized I was always meant to fall in love with the snow.” — K

By the time I exit the studio, I’m grinning like a motherfucker.

I finished the songs.

I finished the damn album.

And the best fucking part?

I love every single fucking song.

Because every single one is her.

She inspired it all.

Mrs. Han appears in front of me, a sad look on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

She reaches into the pocket of her apron and pulls out a folded piece of paper.

“Artemis asked me to give you this.”

Everything in me goes quiet and my body stops paying attention to anything that isn’t the note in her hand.

“She left it before she went to the airport,” Mrs. Han adds. “For the fashion show.”

Fashion show?

The fuck.

She left?

Crack.

Something inside fractures.

“She said she tried knocking on your studio door, but you didn’t answer.”

Shit.

I didn’t hear.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I take the note and unfold the paper.

A tiny jellyfish stares back at me, perfectly sketched, with a round little head and flowing tentacles. Two furious eyes and a mouth that looks personally inconvenienced by everything.

I laugh through the ache in my chest.

Only Artemis could make a jellyfish look annoyed with existence.