Shadow of punishment

Chapter 1 - 1

Rosa's words had tormented him for the whole day. Echoing in his skull like cries in the night, they had hit him below the belt. He had spent the afternoon trying to calm his uncontrollable rage, but nothing could help him. Franco realized that the only way to stop it was by doing something, so without wasting any more time, he ran out of his house, jumped in his car and in a few moments was driving into the evening traffic.

Rosa lived on the other side of the city so it took him almost an hour to reach her place. An hour during which his anxiety swallowed him completely. The flow of cars that had initially flooded the street slowly disappeared in front of his eyes and by the time he arrived at his destination the streets were almost deserted. Only the lights of his ramshackle Beetle illuminated the area.

Wrapped in the silence of the night, unsure whether she would let him in, he felt bad thoughts besieging him from every direction, until an old man coming out of the building managed to break through his thoughts. Letting all of his doubts go and without worrying about the fact that his car was actually double-parked, he ran towards the front door of the building but, by the time he got there, it had already been swung shut. "Damn it!" he yelled, feeling his rage rising once again.

He would have liked to kick that door down. He raised a fist as if to punch it but that man was still there, not far from him, staring straight at him. So he restrained himself, clenching his teeth and tensing his neck and arm muscles. In his fist he could feel all the tension that was reverberating through his soul. To push it away from him he further tightened his hand.

He finally remembered that he had in fact lived in that building for a whole year. He had broken up with Rosa some months ago but he hadn't got rid of the keys yet. He took them out of his pocket and opened the door.

Before entering, he directed his gaze to the apartment intercom panel. He noticed that apartment number five had a label with the writing "Franco Mezzana – Rosa Fogliani" on it. Surprised to see that his name was still there, he wondered why Rosa hadn't taken it upon herself to remove it. Not that it was a bad thing. Not at all. She had explicitly said she wanted to remove him completely from her life, and to read his name next to hers seemed to leave space for a glimmer of hope. Anyway, that thought faded fast. It only took a second to remember why he was there. He was there looking for the truth and he was going to find it, whatever it took. So he let the front door close behind him and went upstairs.

Everything was how he had left it. The lighting in the entrance hall was still out of order. The same for the lights in the landings that now only served as decorations.

Franco continued unconcerned, up to the second floor. Once he reached the door, he felt his anxiety increasing rapidly. A soft noise behind him was enough to make him jump. He had the strange sensation of being observed and he turned to scrutinize the obscurity shrouding the entire floor, but he couldn't see or hear anything so he took the key for the apartment and tried to insert it in the keyhole. Seeing it didn't enter, he realized that Rosa must have changed the lock. In turn, this made him realize that his name on the intercom panel was only a secondary matter and, filled with anger, he started knocking on the door violently.

"Rosa!" he screamed furiously, "Open up!"

When the door opened, his eyes, which had become accustomed to the dim light in the hall, were blasted. Dazzled by the light coming from inside, he instinctively raised an arm to protect himself. Then, before he was able to say or do anything, he felt a hand grabbing him and pulling him inside.

"What an idiot! Are you crazy?" Rosa said. "Do you want to wake everybody up?"

***