Her eyes scanned the horizon for the promised sunrise, looked upon the black skeletons of the bare trees in the park, and descended lower to the stone wall that separated the park from Windflower Gardens property. She gasped when she caught sight of a figure in black running away from a freshly graffitied wall. She scrutinized the artwork, unable to blink; tears formed in her eyes from staring so hard. She ran to her bedroom to grab her jacket and cell phone. As she descended in the elevator, all Bay could think of was to examine the graffiti, take a picture of it, and decipher the message that was certainly meant for her. The outside air bit into her face, making her cry from its iciness. She ran across the courtyard to face the wall. She clicked a widescreen shot, then individual close shots that broke the artwork into sections.

Spray paint cans had been left behind. The artist was probably wearing gloves, and the paint could be easily purchased anywhere. Among the colorful waves and splats, a large hand mirror stood front and center on the right half of the design. An Egyptian eye occupied the center of the mirror, indicating watchfulness, or so Bay supposed. Her Egyptian mythology was rusty. On the left side of the work, the head of Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, had been painted on a backdrop of feathers with a set of scales beside him. The jackal-headed god had green eyes narrowed in a hard stare, and a scarab of blood red was the centerpiece of his headdress. An arc of black letters formed the word “vengeance” as a bridge between the two halves. Carried along by the colorful waves of the graffiti, Bay’s eyes began to swim. They landed on one upper corner where a large letter A was emblazoned in dark red. The revelation made her eyes travel to the lower corner where the letter I lay on its side, a jagged black knife. In the opposite lower corner, a chunky R squatted, its elongated foot stretched out to trip an innocent bystander. The top left corner revealed a decorative S sporting a snake’s head.