𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄, damiano david

━━𝟒𝟔.𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞

It was already late at night when Damiano and I left. Rosa and Daniele bid us a fond farewell and reminded us that Rosa was celebrating her birthday in two weeks, and both we and the rest of the band and Sophia were invited.

Although I drank wine with Alice and Rosa I was not drunk. 

In Damiano's car I put in a cassette, the oldtimer had no Bluetooth, and immediately the familiar sounds of Nights in White Satin, an old rock song by The Moody Blues, rang out.

The quiet music suited the dark and silent surroundings perfectly. I stared out the window and observed the familiar places one more time.

We passed a road leading to our old school and I smiled, "We used to sneak smokes here, remember?", I laughed and Damiano nodded, "Didn't you get into a fight with that guy back there?", I then asked and he nodded again, "Because he made a pass at you", Damiano added.

"I don't even remember his name," I said.
"Giulio," Damiano said between clenched teeth and I smirked, "Oh yeah, that's right...", I laughed.

We were silent for a while as the song slowly faded away and the next one started, "Can we go by my old house?", I then asked abruptly and my gaze shot to Damiano's face to watch his reaction.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," he said thoughtfully and I continued to fixate on him, "I just want to see it once, from the outside," I almost pleaded.
"Alright," Damiano sighed, "But only because I know you'll go alone otherwise."
He knew me too well.

At the next crossroads, Damiano turned onto a dimly lit street. Small houses with shabby facades stood at the edge and I remembered the street where I had reluctantly walked alone at night.

"Crazy, nothing has changed here at all," I muttered as we drove through the whole street and turned right at the end. After a few minutes we came to a slightly better residential area of the district and I recognised the houses I had passed every day on my way to school on my bike.

Tension built up in me as we turned into the street where my father's house was. My former home, even though it had never felt like one.

"Are you sure you want to?" Damiano asked again and I nodded silently, then the bright yellow façade of the run-down house appeared in front of me.

My breath caught in my throat as Damiano stopped the car and I could see the smashed windows on the ground floor through the window.

"What happened here?" I asked in shock. "The house has been empty for three years now, it belongs to your father, he doesn't sell or rent it and that's why people are always vandalising it."

I opened the car door, mesmerised by the sight of the house, "Cora- you said you were only looking from the outside," Damiano said immediately in alarm.

"I just want to get a little closer so I can see better," I said quickly and walked towards the house.
The front garden was a wild meadow, a lot of weeds grew between the paving stones that led to the veranda.

I heard Damiano's door slam behind me and the next moment I felt him behind me, but I didn't really notice it, the house seemed to draw all my attention.

I looked at the stairs leading up to the veranda, the wooden banisters that looked like they had been used many times.

How many times as a child I had jumped down the stairs, with swinging steps, because I could finally escape the house. How many times had I dragged myself up with a crushing feeling in my stomach, knowing what was coming when I returned home.

I walked over the cobblestones to the stairs and put my first foot on them, the wood giving way under my steps and creaking softly.

The white-painted front door was closed, but it looked as if it had been broken open before.The whole house was in a bad state, it seemed to reflect me, who had a broken soul after all the years of abuse.

From the veranda I could get a better look at the front garden and spotted a patch of grass that had been trampled flat. I looked closer and saw the handlebars of a bicycle.

My hands went to my mouth and I gasped for air, I stumbled down the steps and ran towards the bike which was not really visible in the middle of the lawn.

It was lying on the ground, carelessly thrown down by a girl who had returned home from a party at night with the plan to disappear forever.

"That's my bike," I said in Damiano's direction and picked it up, the green bike was rusty, but it was lying exactly where I had left it.

"It's been lying here all this time, it hasn't moved an inch since I left," I was surprised but it made sense that no one had stolen it. Even then the bike had not been in good condition, sometimes I had been afraid it would collapse at any moment. My father didn't want to spend money on a new one, so I stole this from the junkyard. I was happy to find the bike here, as strange as it sounded.

Damiano came to me and I saw his smile in the darkness, "It was obvious that this old piece of junk survived," he murmured.

"Hey, don't be cheeky," I admonished him a little amused and he reached for my hand.

"It's weird being here," he said and I looked up, "After you disappeared I was only here once, the day after. I wanted to talk to you and persuade you to stay, or offer to accompany you and Sophia. Your bike was here, the door was open and the house was deserted, you were already gone. Your father came back, he was completely out of control and threatened me, I went home and didn't know what to do," he sounded serious, "After that I never came back here. The house lost its last shine with your disappearance."

I had the urge to go inside through the door, to see if there was any old furniture left in the house, but I knew Damiano wouldn't like that, so I didn't mention it.

Damiano lit a cigarette and handed it to me, I took a few puffs before handing it back to him, we stood in front of the house for a while looking at it, he had hugged me from behind and I his presence reassured me.

"It's not what I thought. I remember everything but the house looks completely different from the outside, it's not that bad," I murmured at some point.

"That's good," Damiano stated, relief sounding in his voice. He had probably suspected that I would break down.

I looked again at the front door, which I had slammed behind me thousands of times when I left the house.

"What's that?" I asked then, breaking free from Damiano's embrace, I walked back to the front of the veranda and stopped on the bottom step.

"What the hell-", I muttered.

A camera hung above the door, it was small and inconspicuous, but the small red light flashing at long intervals had given it away.

"There's a camera here!" I called to Damiano who had stopped further away. "Really?" he asked confusedly and came over to me, he looked at the camera.

"He can't be serious-", Damiano said.
"Apparently he is, as if he cares if any teenagers come here, the windows are already smashed," I said annoyed.

"I don't think he set up the camera because of the teenagers," Damiano said thoughtfully.
"You mean because of me?" I asked, confused, and he nodded, "To see if I came here?"
"Yes, I guess so. Let's get out of here," Damiano said decisively and held out his hand for me to take. 

Our fingers intertwined and he led me back to the car, I kept turning back to the house, the queasy feeling in my stomach was getting stronger, I wondered what my father wanted to do by setting up a camera and seeing if I visited the house.

This was totally strange, "I think my father is a bigger problem than we thought...", I mumbled as we sat in the car again.
"I said from the beginning on that you should do something against him", Damiano said.

I turned in my seat and watched the house slowly move away from us. The queasy feeling grew stronger.