Fireproof [João Félix]

E I G H T E E N

Reaching the end of the street, we run faster and luckily spot a focused Alexander standing on a chair by his front door, biting his lip in confusion at the sight of the security camera. The moment he turns to pick up a tool, his eye catches our hurried state and his eyebrows draw together.

"You missed me that much you're coming back already?" Now that we are near him, he drops the screwdriver and gets off his chair while João and I stand panting in front of him. Hands on our knees, we try to regulate our breathing. I wave a hand in the air to dismiss his assumption. Sorry.

"It's not that, but-"

"Have you fixed the camera yet?" asks João, who immediately gets to the point while looking at the scene in front of him. A wooden chair Alexander was standing on just a few minutes ago and some tools to dismantle the security camera. Alexander sighs and runs a hand through his tousled hair. 

It's already late and I'm starting to doubt whether we shouldn't have waited until tomorrow, but tomorrow João is going to his hotel to train for his upcoming match, so we'd better ask now.

"You too?" he scoffs "My mother hasn't shut up about it, but yes I think everything is fine now." His lips curl into an amused grin as he looks us up and down. "Did you run all the way to ask me that question? I didn't know you doubted my skills that much."

"Alexander" I say with a more serious look plastered on my face. His eyebrows return to a frown and he doesn't know why we are being so serious.

"Is there any way we can see footage from a long time ago?"

"Depends how long, but why do you ask? I'm not following" he says while his face is a mixture of exhaustion and confusion. I sigh and João and I make eye contact.

"I think we can see who stole the packages"

── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆──

"Guys we have been going through this for ages, maybe we should continue tomorrow or maybe not? Maybe we won't find anything?" remarks Alexanders, sighs and then runs a distressed hand through his hair. We sit behind his laptop where footage is stored from days, months and even years ago, but it's hard to know when the thief struck.We know the date, it was in João's delivery email, but with this system we have to scroll each time with one click, so we can't scroll at once.

"I know we're here a long time, but we're almost there and my gut tells me something positive is going to happen" I reassure a sleepy Alexander. I feel a little bad for keeping him awake for so long, but this is really important. João, who is now clicking instead of one of us, sighs and keeps tapping.

I watch through my sleepy eyes as João clicks, clicks and clicks-

"Stop!" I yell and João jumps backwards, as Alexander shoots out of his chair.

"Look" I point to the laptop and move a little closer. "Can you zoom in? There" João sees the figure in the darkness and zooms in. Alexander looks on with worried eyes. 

"Shit, this just further confirms that it really is sabotage." João mutters and I feel chills run down my spine as we silently watch a male figure walk up my front porch and take the package and the arrived letters in the middle of that night.

"Holy shit," I whisper. This is for real, someone tried to harass us." We continue watching, but then the video stops just as the figure wants to turn around. "What?" I shout and then turn to Alexander. 

"Why isn't it playing?" I ask and João also looks frustrated, a sleepy Alexander moves closer to the laptop and shrugs. "I don't know, maybe there was a problem with the footage or something?" he suggests, but I frown. Just when the culprit wanted to show his face, the screen goes black.