Wild Horses

Moody Blues does the thing

Bucciarati, Fugo, Narancia, Mista, Abbacchio, and Lira stood staring at the old brick building from the narrow sidewalk that separated it from the canal.

"Unngh, we could have just stayed in the boat all the way here," Narancia whined. "My feet hurt!"

"Wear better shoes," Abbacchio sneered.

"This place," Lira paused. "Looks kind of familiar, I guess." She looked down and twisted the toe of her shoe into the sidewalk.

"It looks abandoned now," Abbacchio said.

"I'm on it," Narancia said. Lira turned towards him and saw that he was already looking through Aerosmith's sensor. "Yea, it's empty," Narancia confirmed. "There's some small things here and there. Rats, probably."

"Good work, Narancia," Bucciarati said. Sticky Fingers appeared and slapped a large zipper on the decaying brick wall. Everyone walked through the zipper into the building - except for Mista, who tried the door handle. He scoffed as he pulled the door wide open. "It's unlocked," he said as he stepped in. Bucciarati glared at him before turning to Abbacchio.

"All right, Abbacchio, what's next?" the tall leader asked.

Lira zoned out as Abbacchio began talking. Bits of memory floated through her mind as she observed the foyer. The front desk, the accent chairs, the large painting on the wall of a gondola on the canal - it was eerily unchanged. Sure, the place was messy and unkempt and there was dust everywhere, and it smelled incredibly musty - but it was without a doubt her childhood home. She began to wander as the guys debated amongst themselves.

"I think you should set Moody Blues up in the bedroom! He was definitely in there at some point!" Narancia said.

"Gross, dude!" Mista interjected. "Do you wanna see Lira's dad naked or something? What if Moody Blues transforms and he's like, fuckin the air? I mean, Lira's mom would have been there, but it will just look like he's fucking air and... OH MY GOD WOULD WE SEE HIS DICK EVEN IF IT WAS INSI..."

Fugo interrupted Mista by smacking the back of his head. "What the fuck is wrong with you!" Fugo shouted with a growl.

"What was that for?!" Mista shouted back. "We were all thinking it!"

"No, we really weren't," Bucciarati said sternly, his arms crossed.

"She wrote in the diary that she saw him enter the parlor," Abbacchio stated. "We're already in the right room. Moody Blues!" The tall and slender purple stand appeared next to Abbacchio. Moody Blues let out its staticky, dial-up noise as it went to work. The timer on its forehead began spinning.

"Lira, are you ready to see..." Bucciarati turned towards the seamstress, only to find that she had vanished. "Lira!" he let out a quick, panicked gasp. His eyes shot towards the ceiling as he heard the wooden floorboards above them creak with pressure. "I'll get her," he said before swiftly darting down the hall towards the stairs. He sprang himself up three steps at a time as he rushed to get her back in his sight. His body relaxed when he reached the top and saw that she was fine.

The hallway on the second floor had three bedroom doors on each side of it and a window at the end that looked out onto the canal. Lira stood in a doorway near the end, leaning her side against the frame.

"Amore," Bucciarati said softly as he approached her. He pulled her into his embrace and studied the bedroom she had been looking at. An old, bare mattress was on the floor with a small table next to it. The room was empty aside from that.

"Our room," Lira said. Her voice was surprisingly strong. "I remember, I would come out into the hall and stand on a chair that used to be here and look out of this window and watch the boats go by."