DEAREST

PART 3: IRREALITY, Ch. 2

2

The city we chose for this event is Vadena, the capital city of this federal state. It's the big city closest to Bachassau, and when I say closest, I actually mean a hundred kilometers away.

It used to be a taciturn pre-industrial coastal town with no buildings, but now it's just another twenty-first-century city, full of noise and crowded streets. Its point of advantage is that there are probably more buildings and skyscrapers than detached houses, so an attack would be very delimited and contained, which is exactly what I need in order to use Luciana's skills as well as possible. The enemy would only fight hand-to-hand, and I'm sure Luciana would be happy to do so.

Luciana is staying in the room of a small, hidden hotel, apart from view between two large buildings. I've never been in a place like that, so I find every aspect of it charming. The faint smell of cigar smoke, the silence of the narrow corridors and the impersonality of the place brings a strange kind of sentimentality. It seems like the kind of place where you would take your lover to a quick and secret date.

Even when I'm walking down this dark corridor in search of the right door, and although I know that so little time has passed since we last saw each other, I'm eager to see her, as if the span of time had been longer. I want to see her and assure myself that it wasn't a problem to separate.

In a quick and agile movement, Luciana opens the door for the first time, leaving a space as wide as an eye, verifies that the person on the other side is the one she's waiting for, removes the chain lock and then opens the door a second time, fully this time so that I can enter.

I carry a heavy bag with the weapons we selected earlier. The room is small, dark, and has a double bed, a single sofa, a small round table with two chairs and a CRT television. There is a faint smell of dust and the light that comes through the square window is pale and grayish. The bed is made, and the wooden frame screeches when I leave the bag on top of the mattress.

After leaving the bag on the bed, I realize that my pulse is fast, and when I turn to look at Luciana, she is already looking at me.

"Is everything alright? Did you have any problems to come in?" she asks. The serious expression I saw when she opened the door disappeared, and now her eyes are kinder. I distinguish a faint glow in them that also transforms the general area of the eyes with an attractive radiance, and I wonder if that is something like the soul of the things that one remembers later, over time, when the details vanish, but it's that certain something that remains.

"Yes, and no. What about you?"

Even though we are not in the castle or the villa, she carries a somewhat formal outfit. It's nice to look at her in formal clothes. A turtle-neck sweater, a blazer and pants, all black. She looks effortlessly sophisticated and too much for this room.

As she responds, she turns around and begins to rumble absentmindedly between the papers and the other objects on the table.

"No, no problem. No demon presence."

"The air is quite clean," I say jokingly, turning to the bed. I grab the bag by the handles and bring it closer to me.

Luciana helps me with this task. I just have to open the zipper of the bag, and she comes closer, staying next to each other while she gets the treasure from inside. When she leans toward the bag, her clean and warm aroma reaches my nose.

She checks each weapon in silence and in complete concentration. I look up to look around the room, and my perception begins to adjust to the general image of this dark-looking room. I can see, for example, the dark stains on the wood of the walls, the dust stuck on the window glass, and I discover that the dusty smell probably comes from the sheets. In addition, the open door next to the bed leads to a small bathroom. There are water stains and heat marks on the bedside table.

"You know, I've been here once," she says in a quiet voice, almost like a whisper.

Her casual confession brings me back to reality, and my eyes jump from the bedside table to her face. She has a tiny half smile on her lips, and is frowning due to her concentration as she manipulates the gun.

"Oh."

"I played football in boarding school. My team and I came here for a friendly match. We won."

"Really? Were you good?"

"Of course," she says, shrugging nonchalantly. "Otherwise, I wouldn't be telling you."

This confession has caught me off guard. It happened in this city, but I can't help wondering why, of all things, she would say something like this at this time, when we are concentrating on something else.

Also, I begin to feel deeply interested in her. Since she appeared that night, I can't believe the fact that someone who is not from our family wants to have something to do with me. And she seems to assimilate everything so naturally! Our work, our residence, even the clothes she wears... Before we met, she could have had the most normal life anyone had ever had, even so, I would find her charming.

"Maybe you had a lot of fun back then," I say.

"Mmm."

Yes and no, this is what she means. The usual.

"How old were you when you came here?"

"Sixteen."

"Not so long ago."

"To me it seems a long time."

And then, changing the subject, she extends a hand towards me, offering me her palm. In the other hand she holds a handgun, so I assume she wants me to hold it. I place my hand on hers, palm up, and then she poses the handgun on top. Her fingers are firm as they grip around my wrist.

The gun weighs more than I imagine, and I look at it with fear.

"Master, you'll have to hold a gun, eventually," she says. "Can you shoot?"

"Yes."

"Weapons are not for everyone, but you should carry one of these just in case. Don't worry," she reassures me immediately when she sees me open my lips to reject the proposal. "it's not loaded."

She opens her eyes and raises her eyebrows in an expression that seems to ask for my agreement.

As soon as I nod, she looks at my attire.

"Where will you carry it?"

I nod again, and unbutton my coat, allowing a glimpse of the gun carrier snug around the shoulder. I realize in the act that there is some intimacy in our proximity.

"Well, keep it there," she says, looking away from my body as soon as she can.