Family

"What's wrong?"

"We have a problem at the association. We need..."

"Busy. Call someone else."

"... you," the voice was silent for a moment, her mind already searching for another alternative, but her heart willing to bother. "When can you come?"

Alice smiled, she could feel the Italian accent and the smile under his beard. Both light as a feather.

"Very, very busy!... Call someone else," it was a shame she didn't have time for that.

"I can't, my angel," the voice, noble as an aged wine, insisted.

"I don't take orders from you and I can't either," his eyes wandered to the side.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he watched the city in the distance. Not at all concerned with the infernal noise of the airport. Alice knew that, with his hearing, he was having a hard time.

"I have to go," she sighed.

"What's wrong, is this guy rushing you? He used to be more patient, from what I remember..."

"The connection is bad," Alice remembered her childhood.

"You can't take a vacation whenever you want, you know."

"Deduct it from my salary," she also knew how to be childish.

He laughed loudly and melodiously. The memory of her childhood deepened. Two children sitting on the same bench, a man returning with snacks. A slight smile moved the corner of his lips, his gaze lost in a time he could not have.

"That tiny little thing? She'll disappear at this rate... Ah! These kids nowadays. They don't even show their faces before kidnapping other people's daughters."

"Bye."

Nero turned his eyes to her. Alice refrained from tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. The sun, orange and full of morning vitality, was in front of her, blocking her vision and illuminating her face, but his gaze was the only disconcerting thing.

"So? Let's go."

...

"The old man hasn't changed, has he?"

Once inside the car, he took off his headphones. Alice silently admired him. His self-control, his posture, his lips...

She just didn't realize who was doing what. Her brain and heart seemed to be competing in shifts to do the same task.

"He let his beard grow and..." She would never admit to the discomfort. She had no idea cars were so cramped. "He got stronger and braver, I think... More childish too."

"No, he's always been that."

Alice smiled. The children on the bench came back to her memory.

A little girl leaning over, too close, with her neck bare, white as porcelain, the back of her head showing and a cascade of hair falling over someone's lap. A book in both of their hands, lots of smiles, sadness and sweets connecting them.

'I think I've gotten more of a coward', her thought was born along with her held breath.

"Where do you think we should start?" She fell silent.

Alice's eyes finally smiled at her.

On the other side, Nero fidgeted a little.

"You don't know? Detective..."

"Huuf... You have that, don't you?"

"Of course you do, my dear Wattson."

Low and nostalgic, their laughter filled the car, putting a smile on the driver's lips.

"Let's see. I think I have some contacts."

....

...

..

The sound of their nails gently passing page after page. For some reason beyond reason, that sound excited him.

It was like music to his ears.

The silence signifying that his work was well appreciated. He couldn't ask for anything more from his queen.

"Does my brother know about this?" Her voice was soft but dry, devoid of any emotion almost like a crow cawing at what it hears.

Claude corrected his posture without a second thought.

"Not really, I sent a messenger just now. Subtly, of course."

...

Her eyebrow moved. His breathing quieted as she lowered the report.

'By what authority?' he imagined being asked such a question, in a tone of menace and authority. It excited him too.

"Good work."

But hearing those words was too much for his poor heart.

The sound of the chair scraping made him shiver. With a presence that filled the entire office, she stood up, picking up one of the writings on the table.

Her slender fingers still touching the paper like an old friend. Their skin seemed to share the color.

"Should I send someone to follow them?"

She walked to the window. Like a winter wind the curtains moved, revealing the trees. The room was filled with a pine scent, a sweet perfume and a smell of lavender.

Claude closed his eyes. Her imagination kept to itself. Just like the whispers her heart endured.

In the end, she decided to listen to them.

"Remove all influence from my brother. Do not undermine his power, but ask them to stay away from him. Move cordially...", leaning on the railing, not at all worried about breaking his expectations, she dismissed him.

Her eyes did not leave the garden where a group of flowers caught her attention. Her sister was among them.

Her thoughts, as always, were immobile. Her genius wasted on delusions and distant desires.

Even though she had everything, she could not do the simplest thing.

Appreciate those flowers without thinking about him.

Observe the intensity of that blue sky and those red roses, without remembering those eyes that went from emptiness to wholeness, and filled her with a feeling of self-loathing.

She barely noticed her own expression frowning.

Her eyebrows only softened when the wind ruffled her hair and lifted the girl's dress in the courtyard.

A smile showing sharp fangs, that was what her sister caught a glimpse of when she looked around embarrassed.

With pale skin, even more rosy and healthy than her own. Wavy hair, long as streams and a doll-like expression on her face. In a way, they were very similar.

Lilian was just stunning and charming in another way.

"What are you looking at?!"

Elizabeth's expression softened.

"I think I saw a little bird over there. Pink with frills... I mean with feathers."

If that could be called a joke she didn't know, but it still hit the mark.

The young woman snorted, returning to the flowers, this time crouching down with her hand over her dress. A bird protecting her chastity.

Elizabeth sighed.

'Should I?', the thought came as fierce as the wind. As if the spirits resented anyone hindering love.

'But what about me?', resentment and malice quickly dissolved into an announcement, soft and still spreading through the wind:

'He's reappeared.'

The sweet eyes tormented by thirst rose to her.

They read her soul. They found the void.

Suddenly, she was running to the building.

Elizabeth shook her head, turning to the door, she leaned on it and waited.

The door opened then, fierce as if competing with the wind at her back.

She received the disrespectful act with joy. Her sister had returned from the dead.

'In return, it seems that I'm going to lose a brother, huh... It's complicated', her face flushed with prominent cheeks and lively eyes, Lilian looked like a teenager in love.

'But maybe I'll gain a son-in-law, right?', she thought, asking the void.

'...Or perhaps a lover,' and the abyss replied.