A Baccano Love Story

It Starts With A Party

December 1930, New Year's Eve. New York.

Charlie sighed as she stood in the alley behind Alveare.

She watched quietly as her breath floated up towards the heavens, where the stars were struggling to compete with the bright lights of the city. A feeling of melancholy had begun to seep into her bones along with the cold.

It had been about a month since she became immortal, along with the executives of the Martillo family and the three Gandor brothers. She had been waiting, expecting to feel... well, she didn't know what she expected, but it had been a whole month, and she still didn't feel any different from how she had before her body unknowingly underwent such an amazing change with a single glass of liquor.

Though she had asked Firo and Maiza to explain it to her, she was sure there were still some things she didn't completely understand. But sometimes, when she was alone at night, the thought of a future that now seemed to stretch on endlessly before her scared her a little.

"You're going to miss the celebration if you stay out here."

Charlie lowered her gaze and glanced behind her when Ronny spoke. He was leaning casually against the wall while lighting a cigarette.

"Oh. I keep forgetting my watch is broken..." she said, raising her wrist as if to check it. The watch seemed to be stuck wavering between one and two minutes after five o'clock.

Tick-tick

Tick-tick

She continued to stare at it, watching as the minute hand flicked continuously back and forth, stuck repeatedly going back to a fixed point in time. Just like them.

Charlie wondered if she would ever see her mother again...

"Have no fear, Charlie," the ever mysterious chiamatore said, straightening up to come stand beside her.

"Should you ever tire of this endless existence, and feel as though you've 'done your best' for long enough and wish to join your mother... well, no matter. As one who gives immortality, I can also take it away. Should you ever grow weary of this eternal life, I can end it for you."

He followed up the solemn promise with a small, reassuring smile as he placed his left hand on top of her head. Upon hearing those words, Charlie's eyes widened. She suddenly remembered something she hadn't thought about in years.

"I can sense that your mind is preoccupied with many questions concerning life and death. But, unlike these three, you do not seem to be interested in an immortality elixir... why is that?"

The question was asked by the large shadow looming over her in a darkened room of the sporting house where she had once lived with her mother. The older girls who had performed the summoning ritual called it a "demon," but the shadow itself had claimed to be something else entirely.

"'Cause it won't do me any good. My momma's alweady dead,"

Charlie had replied sadly, lowering her head a bit as she glanced down at the floor.

"So if I can't die, then how'm I ever gonna see her again? Madam says that if I'm a good girl, then I'll be able to see her again when I go to heaven."

"You want to die?"

The shadow sounded genuinely surprised.

Charlie shook her head.

"No, not yet. My momma said we all gotta die someday, but 'til then, she wants me to keep smilin' and enjoyin' life... She made me promise to do my best at it, even if it get's tough, so that's what I'm gonna do."