Chapter 39 · No Curtain Call

The first bell rang before Maeve reached the door.

It did not sound like metal. It sounded like a rib snapping somewhere inside the walls.

The lighting room shuddered. Dust sifted from the ceiling. Every bulb above the control board flared white, then went dark except for one red lamp at the far end of the panel. Beneath it, a single switch clicked up by itself.

NORA BELL — FINAL SCENE.

Maeve stopped with her hand inches from the exit.

On the black script, Nora’s photograph had changed. Her sleeping face filled the page, cheek pressed against the vinyl armrest in the Saint Agnes Memorial Hospital break room. The time stamp in the corner read 2:13 a.m.

Maeve’s stomach dropped.

The theater clock above the stage had no hands, but somewhere beyond the walls, a digital clock chimed twice.

2:13.

“No,” Maeve said.

The word came out thin. The room swallowed it.

Beside her, Eli dragged himself upright against the console. Blood had soaked through the bandage at his ribs and darkened the front of his shirt. His face had gone gray, but his eyes stayed fixed on the page.

“Maeve.”

“I’m going back.”

“You can’t.”

She turned on him.