The Dawn of Sin

by Grassetti, Valentino

  She was a young lady with pale complexion, pink-stained cheeks, a lapis lazy dress made of light cloth just moved by the wind, a loving hand clutched to that of the other figure. The one just sketched.

  The unhappy had brought beauty to life. Satisfied with the oil paint, he dipped the bristles of his brushes in thinner and took a cloth to clean them patiently. Then, he grabbed the black stick and finished with nervous strokes and grey, sometimes rough, sometimes delicate shades, the other figure to paint. When I recognized her, I made the sign of the cross before I ran away.

  He was drawing Satan.

  Guido felt his heart beating fast on his sternum. Frater Paolous had probably described Beauty and Damnation, Melchiorri's lost masterpiece.

  The translation ended there.

  Suddenly, he felt a tapping on the windows, as if he were hailing.

  Filippa woke up on top of herself. She looked around sleepy, surprised not to be in his bedroom bed. Guido approached the window. After a few seconds, the noise stopped completely. A light layer of black dust had settled on the windows. Guido placed his fingers on a strip of soot and followed it with his fingertip, as if he wanted to scratch it away. He felt an unusual anxiety rise. He thought he saw

  pieces of charcoal beating on the window panes, but he must have imagined it.

  The next moment, he heard a terrifying roar. A red glow illuminated the tip of a bell tower on the horizon. A cloud of thick, black smoke rose above the dark outline of the houses.

  The phone rang after not even a minute. It was Leo.

  "What happened?" asked Guido.

  "An accident. Here, under my house. Come immediately."

  10

  The room was crossed by the pale glow of the moon. The shadows of the branches danced nervously on the wall. Adriano opened his eyes and gasped until he almost suffocated. He didn't want the door of the room to open.

  He grabbed the blanket to cover his face. He wanted to disappear.

  He didn't want to know. In the room, the grey cat blew showing its small, sharp teeth. Animals know more than men. Like him, he felt the threat of the invisible.

  He heard the hasty footsteps, Sandra's anxiety, the unusual anger with which she grabbed the handle to open the door.

  "Adriano, get dressed now" said his mother. "There has been an accident. Your sister is..." Sandra interrupted, remarking a harsh expression, full of contempt for her family's fate that once again lashed out against her family.

  "...is at the hospital. Get ready and let's go" she exclaimed harshly, without frills.

  ʺNo. It's not just a car crashʺ Adriano said to himself.

  The police had cordoned off the road.

  Guido Gobbi parked his car under the walls of the Duomo district, two hundred metres from the accident. He climbed the wide steps of a side alley to avoid the roadblock. A curly girl, strutting around in a fluorescent civil defence corset, tried to stop him, only to reluctantly pass him as he threw his journalist's badge in her face. Beyond the Porta Duomo archway was an overturned car on its side, completely burned by flames. The fire fighters hadn't arrived yet, and people in the neighbourhood admirably tried to put out the fire by passing a row of buckets full of water from hand to hand. An ambulance was standing by the side of the road. The blue lights revolved silently to illuminate the facades of the buildings, the open hatches ready to receive a stretcher pushed by the emergency room paramedics.

  Guido gave up taking a picture of a man lying on the couch, the oxygen mask on his face completely covered in blood. A nurse shaken his hand, inciting him with reassuring words.

  Guido approached a policeman asking if there were any other wounded.

  The policeman checked the card, even though there was no need for it. He knew exactly who the boy was, because in Castelmuso, everyone knew each other. He explained that there was definitely a dead man, and that a girl had been taken away for a few minutes, but it was not known in what condition she was in. As if that wasn't enough, a junkie had been found overdosed on the stairs of the church and a paramedic was bringing him first aid.

  "Guido, it's a disaster!" exclaimed Leo, running towards him in his blackened pyjamas, completely felted by the heat, his hands holding a fire extinguisher with a foamy beak.

  Leonardo Fratesi lived in the middle of the accident site, and had been one of the first responders.

  "There was a death" confirmed Leo, pale and visibly rehearsed.

  "They're pulling him out of the van. You know him. It's Giovanni. Giovanni Bravi."

  Guido closed his eyes with a grimace. "Oh, no! Oh, Shit. Not him" he said, pierced with a sharp pain.

  The fire department fire engine arrived. A justifiable delay, as the fire station was about 20 kilometres from the scene of the accident.

  Another stretcher arrived, pushed by two paramedics. The first one showed an air of obvious annoyance, as if the man lying on the gurney was nothing more than a nuisance. The unfortunate man with a cannula in his nose, and his arms covered in bluish bruises, was barely conscious, and could go into a coma at any moment. The nurse urged him not to close his eyes and stay awake. Guido saw him parading in front of him.

  It was Alberto the Larvone.

  "I saw it. I have seen it..." the junkie exclaimed with a whisper.

  "It was burning. He was burning above the flames of hell. She died and..."

  "This time this one's going to shit” the paramedic was alarmed when he closed the ambulance door.

  Guido Gobbi watched the rescue vehicle back up and start with the sirens going off. He felt shaken and exhausted, but he had to do his job. He pulled out his notebook to take notes. Filippa, who remained in the newsroom, was waiting for the piece to be included in the Union's online edition.

  Guido wanted to ask Leo exactly what happened, to better understand the dynamics of the incident, but he was held back by his friend's gloomy gaze.

  "There is one thing..." Leo said, scratching veils of dry, white skin from his neck "before you ask me about the girl. That's it. I was far away, and I was trying to put out the fire. I didn't see anything, but..." he stopped as if he didn't want to go on. He looked at the flakes of scratched leather, rubbed his fingertips together and threw them on the floor. Useless gestures to take time before saying something important. He scratched himself again without speaking.

  "I don't know how to tell you” he sighed.

  The Santa Veronica Hospital in Castelmuso had been there for at least five hundred years. In the past it was a cloistered convent, a dormitory for wayfarers, a sanatorium, and finally a real hospital. The region was now dismantling it because of the monstrous national public debt. All that was left was the emergency room and the long-stay ward. Guido parked the old Civic by the gates of the hospital. He recognized the car of Sandra Magnoli, Daisy's mother. It was parked in front of the secondary entrance, the one leading to the hospital.

  Guido stepped out of the car with a firm grip on his heart.

  A group of people were standing in front of the door, presumably the relatives of those involved in the accident. Guido walked into the door, reluctant to walk through the hallways that smelled of death. He threw a glance into the first mortuary, where a wrinkled, wax-faced old woman lay in a mahogany coffin, polished brass handles on either side, and a rosary held in cold, white hands.

  Two middle-aged women, most likely the elderly woman's daughters, spoke to each other as they may not have in years.

  As Guido pulled straight through the middle of the air, he began to wince with a sudden, desperate scream. Halfway

  down the hallway, he collided with a tall boy, clouded with tears. Guido recognized him. He was the youngest son of Giovanni, the man who died in the accident. The boy rushed into a secluded room with metal doors that were inaccessible to everyone, where a couple of doctors were arranging the body of his father. Guido threw a glimpse into the gloomy space. He saw John's son rushing over the body. The boy hugged and kissed the parent lying on a steel bed.

>   Guido, shocked by the unbearable screams of that young man, continued on to the end of the hall, where the corridor was closed by a heavy door with two doors. Through the round slits like a ship's portholes, he could see the stairs to the upper floors. Above was the emergency room, offices, and patients' rooms. Beyond the windows of the door he saw Adriano Magnoli walking back and forth, as if driven by unbridled torment.

  Guido pushed the handle and opened the door wide. Daisy's brother raised his dark eyes, two black holes piercing a sick, yellowish face.

  "Where is Daisy?" Guido asked, feeling himself dying inside, but amazed at the firmness of his own voice.

  "She, she..." stammered Adriano, staring at Guido as if he couldn't see him.

  "She's not there. She is not..."

  "Go on, go on. She what? What do you mean?" asked Guido with a moan.

  "She's not there. She's gone."

  "What do you mean? Be clear!" Guido raised his voice with impatience. He felt exasperated, not so much by Adriano as by his inability to bear the news he never wanted to hear.

  "Guido Gobbi!" said Sandra Magnoli peremptorily, "please calm down" she rebuked him severely. The woman came down the stairs, her low heels ringing heavy on the steps. She was nervous, like everyone that night, but not particularly desperate.

  "Adriano, what are you doing down here? What did you tell him?"

  Adriano didn't answer, and Sandra sighed impatiently. She took her son under her arm, forcing him to go up the stairs.

  Guido apologized for being so impulsive. Sandra nodded and then said hurriedly: "You're here for her, aren't you? Then come if you really want to see her."

  Guido did not repeat it twice and followed Sandra to the first floor corridors without having the courage to ask her about Daisy.

  The lights were low, the rooms silent.

  They walked past an office enlivened by the cold light of a row of neon lights. A doctor, the crumpled expression of someone who had just been thrown out of bed, was exchanging jokes with a radiologist, who was also quite sleepy. They were talking about the taxi driver driving the car that was on fire. For what little Guido could hear, he heard that the man had fractured his pelvis, had a large hematoma somewhere, but was not risking his life.

  At the end of the hallway, the walls were painted aquamarine. Guido recognized the radiology department. A thick metal door opened and a man with a shaggy beard came out wearing a green coat. He was pushing a stretcher. Above, pale and confused, was Daisy.

  "Guido. What... what are you doing here?" she asked in a whisper, her lips open, reminding Guido of a stolen old kiss. A kiss that perfumed his life despite the torments of a love that never fully blossomed.

  "What am I doing here? I... I don't know", he replied with a low voice.

  "All I know is that I'm glad to see that you..." A lump on his throat was keeping him from moving on. Guido was overwhelmed by a pungent joy, so acute that he felt his chest burn under his shirt. For a moment he thought Daisy was dead. A junkie had claimed to have seen her burn alive, and

  Adriano himself seemed to confirm that macabre hypothesis. But now, fear had given way to an unexpected happiness. Daisy was alive, and she was fine.

  "Guido. My Guido...”

  She reached out her hand to the boy.

  He held her hand and kissed her, struggling to hold back the tears.

  "She's under sedation" the doctor exclaimed, "it's been a very hard night for everyone. The girl arrived in shock and has no memory of the incident. We did an MRI and some X-rays. Thank God it's nothing serious."

  "Yes. It's been a very hard night” Sandra exclaimed as she watched Guido hold his daughter's hand as tears came down from under her glasses.

  "Hold this" said Sandra, handing him a Kleenex.

  "Thank you, ma'am" he said, rubbing his flushed eyes.

  "You're a good boy, Guido."

  Sandra had always considered the old flirtation between the two boys a lost opportunity for both of them.

  "Go to sleep now. And do me a favour. Take Adriano home. Adry, do you feel like getting back with Guido?"

  Adriano didn't answer. His mother took it as a yes, while Guido thought the opposite.

  Guido Gobbi left the hospital with Adriano. Before he got in the car, he took a look at his mobile phone. The Union was already publishing the online edition. There was talk of a wounded man and a dead man, without mentioning Daisy. Leo sent him a worried message: "Guido, I don't know anything about Daisy. I don't know if she's hurt. Better not mention her name. I know it could be a scoop, given her reputation. But we're her friends. Not jackals. We don't say anything. Do you agree?”

  “I totally agree, Leo. Daisy's got nothing anyway. She's just confused and scared.”

  Leo merely responded to her friend's message with a series of smiley faces with raised expressions.

  Guido now had to talk to the head physician. He would make arrangements with him to keep Daisy's name from coming out. Leo, however, had reassured Guido. In the excitement of the incident, no one recognized her.

  Adriano lived just four corners away. The boys came out of the hospital car park and turned down the descent to the Magnoli's cottage. On the strip of sea at the horizon, dense purple colors absorbed the black of the night. Dawn was on the way, and the sparrows were already chirping from the branches.

  Adriano got out of the car and closed the door, but he didn't leave immediately. He stared into the driveway without deciding whether or not to enter the house. Suddenly, he turned towards Guido, making a rabid groan, then he clenched his fists and hit the bonnet, leaving two drafts on the profile of the sheet metal.

  Guido barely held back his anger. He knew how sick his mind was, and to tell him or, even worse, to put his hands on him would have been completely useless. The only thing to do was to leave. He was about to engage reverse when, in Adriano's gaze, he noticed the twinkling of two bad pupils.

  ‘Remember’, he heard Daisy's brother with a voice that Guido couldn't recognize. ‘Only I see what no one sees.’ Then followed a moment of silence, when Adriano looked around and nodded with satisfaction, as if someone had approved of what he was saying. He laughed loudly, his teeth glittering like a wolf howling at the moon.

  ‘He is afraid’ Adriano continued, becoming unusually eloquent.

  ‘After all, madness and fear are nothing more than water drawn from the same well.’

  Adriano reclined his head on one shoulder and cracked the vertebrae of his neck. After a strange pause where he looked

  around as if he didn't quite understand where he was, he pointed his palms at the hood and watched the car's wide windshield. Guido had the feeling that she was not talking to him, but with his reflection.

  ‘Remember. No one can separate us. No one can.’

  The boy's words sounded full of unusual exaltation.

  ‘To separate us would be like removing the roots of a tree that is growing inside you. You know exactly why I'm here, even if you pretend to ignore it.’

  Guido listened astonished, not knowing exactly how to behave. In front of him, Adriano had changed his expression. From his face, the unusual wickedness seemed to have disappeared. The fire in his eyes had burned out and he had lowered his eyelids, while his arms, resigned and tired, had fallen down his hips.

  "Adriano, are you okay?" asked Guido, who felt a shiver down his spine. Adriano answered shaking his head, as if to say that no, he was not at all well.

  "I can't get it out of my mind" he exclaimed as he walked down the driveway, disappearing a moment later through the front door.

  Guido sat in the car for a while longer, undecided what to do. He didn't know whether to get out, leave, or wait. Sandra had taken him into her care, and she felt responsible for her son. But everything in the house seemed quiet. It was dawning, and Guido had been on his feet for over twenty hours. He started the car. He stepped out of the driveway in a thin fog that rose above the dew-covered meadows.

  Secret file n.4 />
  The editorial staff has received the recorded documentation.

  To interview the witness is (omissis)

  THE REGISTRATION IS COMPLETE

  "Hi."

  "Hi. Where do we start?"

  "Where we finished. The writing on the wall."

  "Yeah. That writing. They kept me in jail almost a year. Just long enough to do an appraisal. They found out the handwriting wasn't mine. I came out of prison innocent, but full of mud. And in Castelmuso they built houses harder than stone with that mud. Houses that will stand a thousand years."

  "I see. Unfortunately, some people will always think you're involved. Even if you’re innocent."

  "It wasn't murder. But I don't have to say that. Otherwise they'll insist that I pretend to be crazy. I'm still seeing a psychiatrist, you know? But only to please the judge. Dr. Buccelli is fantastic. He's the only one who says I'm not completely insane."

  "I tried to interview him. He refused under the guise of Professional secret."

  "Ah, secrets! Always telling secrets, man. They're always bartered with those who have the most to offer. By the way, I didn't offer you anything. Do you want a Pepsi?"

  "Maybe later. What have you been doing this past year?"

  "When I was in jail, you say? I reacted by throwing myself into the study. I took four tests. The last ones I had left before I left the university. I was 22 when I dropped out of sociology faculty. My husband was it was part of the Catholic Communion and Liberation movement like me. He would have wanted me to be a mother. And if I had to study, there was always the Bible. For a long time, my life was pretty faded. Then my son died. My husband filed for divorce as soon as I was arrested. What else can I tell you? Ah, I tattooed my neck and back. Look, an angel with wings closed at the hips, as you can see, has a gleaming golden halo, a chest full of black hair, goat's feet and a hairless tail with a tuft at the end. It's a combination of good and evil. Not a very original concept, but the tattoo came out well. But that's not what you're here to find out. You're interested in that paranormal shit that happened at Madame Geneve's. Right?"