#FreakshowFriday

Chapter 6: The Electric Fence (1)

October 13, 2023

It's astonishing, Nathan thinks, how he spent the vast majority of his life never setting foot in a foreign country, only to be able to cross three of them off the bucket list he never knew he had in a single year. Truly remarkable. He actually quite loves travel.

Though maybe not the travel part of travel.

Flights lasting longer than ten hours, in Nathan's opinion, should be swiftly abolished in favour of teleportation machines the world's scientists should just hurry up and invent already (what else is he paying taxes for? Certainly not good medical care). Jet lag-inducing time zones can all fuck off and die in a hole. Landing in Germany only to have to rush to catch the connection to their final destination shouldn't be nearly as stressful as it is. He'd much rather do without all that annoying, exhausting bullshit.

But then, there's Venice, and maybe everything was worth the trouble after all.

Upon touching down at Aeroporto di Venezia Marco Polo, collecting their luggage and figuring out which bus to take to get to the city center, Nathan and Jamie finally get to relax. At least it's just the two of them for now; there are no family members capable of spoiling the fun present just yet, which Nathan considers something of a blessing. It's all courtesy of Jamie, who accidentally misread the departure time for the flight her family booked and got herself and Nathan on a plane leaving a few hours earlier.

Though judging by how easily she shrugged this error off (if we're all going to be spending two weeks in the same hotel, Nate, I'm sure we can survive not taking the same flights), Nathan suspects 'accidentally' was more like 'accidentally on purpose'.

In this case, it suits him just fine.

He soon doesn't have time to think about it anymore. On the ten-minute walk from the central bus station to their hotel, Nathan's far too busy admiring Venice—this ancient city full of visitors so different from what he's used to seeing. There aren't any cars to be found in the city's center, but a myriad of bridges span swaths of canals, the waterways around them sparkling in the warm light of the Mediterranean sun. Colourful, old buildings envelop broad, elegant streets. These occasionally give way to narrow alleys, time-worn and tainted by graffiti, the occasional pizza slices tossed away by careless tourists littering the ground. Every time Nathan thinks his eyes have captured everything there is to see, he finds himself surprised once more.

What a messy, wonderful place the world is.

And the same, Nathan realises as they reach the lively square they need to be at, goes for their hotel.

Mostly just the 'messy' part.

"Hotel Campo dei fiori," Jamie reads from her phone, eyeing the building in front of her with unbridled scepticism. "This... is the right hotel, isn't it?"

It seems to be the case, though Nathan's already wishing that wasn't true. Out of all the buildings ensquaring this square, the low-budget hotel sports the most ramshackle appearance, its... charming facade painted a truly eye-assaulting mustard yellow.

Campo dei Fiori doubles as a small restaurant in the evenings: the outdoor seating area seems cluttered and hastily put together, a style that wouldn't look out of place in Jamie's house back home in Morales. Wannabe-white parasols that could do with some cleaning provide shade for those few people unfortunate enough to call themselves 'guests'. The hotel's signboard, putting its name on display in a hideous shade of green, might as well have been cobbled together by a six-year-old.

Nathan imagines the gateway to Hell looks a slight bit like this.

"I'd like to remind you that you asked me to surprise you," he tells Jamie, dumbfounded. "And you're... definitely surprised right now, so at least there's that...?"