White Shadows

Prologue - Skim Milk

Slumped in her seat in the waiting area at San Francisco General Hospital, Mattia Scagliotti couldn't believe the horrible turn her life had just taken. Not since the day her parents had driven her to run away from home after calling her out for the simple not-even-crime of engaging in premarital (and protected, even worse in the eyes of the devout Catholics who had raised her) sex with the boy she loved, had she felt so low and worthless. Since then, things seemed to have been going much better for her. After all, as was said in one of her and her little brothers' favorite childhood Disney cartoons, "When you hit bottom, the only place left to go is up."

That line may have been able to inspire the supremely adorkable hero of Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but in this moment, it had no effect on Mattia, even as the quote refused to stop chasing its own tail around her mind.

Almost two years had passed since that awful day in the summer of 2019, right before she'd turned eighteen. In those two years, she'd lived a happy life in a suburban apartment with her future rockstar of a boyfriend, Russell Gravely. She'd gotten a job at the local library in Pacific View, and was saving up to start taking classes at Mar Vista College. Then, Russell and his band, Toombs and Graves (so named based on the last names of its three members: lead guitarist and singer Andy Toombs; and the two Gravely brothers, Russell on bass and Seamus on drums), had been picked from a selection of almost a hundred local bands to open for Graviga at the San Francisco Fourth of July parade. Everything was looking up to the "great wide open, under them skies of white" (T+G loved covering that particular Tom Petty song).

But then, when Mattia and the boys were celebrating this great achievement at a San Francisco espresso bar (which Mattia had chosen because a quick Yelp search revealed that it was one of the few such places in the Bay Area that sold her grandmother's favorite drink, bicerin, and she hadn't had it since before she'd left home), everything had gone completely, absolutely, thoroughly to pear-shaped shit. After taking no more than one or two sips of his drink, Russell had an extreme seizure, completely out of nowhere. Convulsions, foaming at the mouth, the works. He'd been rushed to the hospital, but neither Mattia nor the other band members knew yet if he would live.

While they all sat and waited, Mattia kept sneaking peeks at Andy and Seamus. Both were trying to look as stoic as possible, but Seamus, in particular, kept showing cracks in his mask. Those cracks expanded when a doctor eventually approached them, his hands clasped together, to inform them that, unfortunately, they were unable to save Russell's life.

As Mattia comforted the guys, and they her, they were approached by another man. Compared to the doctor, this one was a younger, fairly average-looking angel. Thin but broad-shouldered, with square-framed black glasses. For some reason, Mattia couldn't help but think this guy looked strangely familiar.

Then it hit her. He'd been in the same café as them. And, because his first name was also Russell, he and her boyfriend had had a moment of confusion when the barista called for Russell to come pick up his drink. This Russell had ended up with that first drink - although the now-deceased Russell later said that he thought they'd still managed to get mixed up. He said that the drink he had in his hand was a decaf mocha with a single shot of espresso, something he never ordered - but he'd been willing to take the hand he'd been dealt anyway, metaphorically speaking.

Realizing now the grievous mistake Russell Gravely had made, Mattia rounded on this other Russell, a furious expression on her face. "YOU!"

"No, no, no, stop!" Other Russell cried as Mattia took him by surprise and pinned him to the wall. "Just...stop. Let me explain. This...this wasn't supposed to happen."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," scoffed Seamus.

"You guys don't understand," said Other Russell, whose glasses were now askew. "That coffee the other guy had - that was mine. I-I-I didn't realize that until after I got the other one - I normally get the extra espresso. The one I had didn't have that. And I think it was made with skim milk too..."