Freak of Time, History's Game ( I Medici Masters Of Florence)

Chapter 3

"Where's the resemblance with me?" Asked Elena to break that odd silence.

The echo made it really creepy.
She shivered and blamed the cold heavy air in there.

Actually she was about to panick. It wasn't like seeing herself in a mirror. It was looking at someone who had taken her self, her personality. It was like finding a secret twin when you loved your being unique.

Vincenzo came next to her moving his eyes from her to the portrait. He was the only one who seemed immune to the weird situation "Isn't it great? Maybe she was your grand-grand-grand-grandmother. I don't know how many 'grand' I should say".
He laughed, but nobody echoed him.

Elena's voice was husky, like she didn't breath for hours "So is that her? Vittoria de Benedetti?".

"On the frame there's the name of Vittoria de Medici. So it's almost sure that's her. There's no record of other Vittorias".

She watched closely the frame to see the target with the name and two years. 1435-1470.
She was just 35.
Vittoria gasped and asked to the archeologist "And what about Riccardo? No portraits of him?".

"We're gradually finding new hidden chambers. We can say we're following the water. This room was half full of dirty water when we opened it. We're busy with drying these places. Today we found this. Tomorrow we may find some other treasures".
He went back to work with his mates and the world seemed back as it had always been.

Marco approached her putting an arm around her shoulders.
"How do you feel?".
"So strange. It's like someone stole my face" her voice was low. She didn't want to hear her echo again.

"Damn her. You're prettier than her. She... She is so old style" he talked like was commenting a dress.
"She looks older" she said being objective "I can't even say she looks like my mom. But she died so young. She was just thirty five".

Marco tightened the hug and kissed her forehead "You know, at that time, it was already a good age. She's not you. Just remember this. This is just a freak of nature".

She gave a last look at the portrait and murmured "It is".