MR. BORN TO LOSE

6 - Knocking on Heaven's Door

Sam and Donnie traverse the streets of Florence, taking in the familiar smells and sounds they've grown accustomed to. They enjoy the sweet feeling of privacy despite being in the middle of a crowd. The sweet feeling of not being stared at, not being x-rayed through their bodies to find any means of mistake. Violins of street performers make for a great decoration as they walk in silence among each other. Strings of ballad echo through the city, bouncing off every building wall it encounters.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Donnie asks the lad, his washed out brown hair dangling over his eyes.

"Remember that team who researched the lost text?" Sam inquires. "..yes? You've told me about them." Donnie answers.

"Yeah, we're going to their library, I think. If my map is telling the truth." Sam pulls out his phone to open an icon of a street map, colored in greens and blues. He shows Donnie the small red dot indicating their destination. The library was a secluded spot in the corner of the city, leather could be smelled festooning the surroundings, leaving glimpses of them hanging in the air.

Sam had originally planned a meeting with the team, so he quietly passed through the small hallways of the library, their bodies quietly marching through the various colors sitting in dust on the bookshelf. Honey liquor burns in the air, the smells carried to them from a door by a strong wind. Sam raises a knuckle and knocks three times on the red surface, almost like velvet. Someone who seems to be a crew member of the team swings the door open, her face lit up with gladness as they stood before her.

"We've been waiting for you!" She exclaims in an energetic manner. Sam had been lucky enough that like Marco and his grandma, the team also spoke English very fluently, and Donnie did not have to translate everything for him.

They follow her inside, warm heights of organized books tower them all, reaching the ceiling. A chandelier garnishes the large room, it wasn't a fair play to compare it with the rooms before.

"So, I've heard you would like to learn about Leonard Sylas?" The lady pulls two chairs out of the circular table. Two people sat on the opposite arc, letting go of their buried faces from bleached books.

"Yes, I hope for you all to assist me in the making of my thesis." Sam smiles at the three people now opposite of him, his hands signals Donnie to sit as well. "I'd say you've come to the right people." The boy next to the lady rests his elbows on the table. His expressions are reminiscent of a baby kitten playing with a toy rat for the very first time.

"So, where do you wanna start?" The last girl finally puts on her glasses again, assembling her hair to look more professional.

"Well, I feel like we'd be better off starting with an introduction." Sam chuckles softly against the air. Donnie observes his lips. "I'm Samuel Clifton, you can call me Sam. I'm here to ask some questions, basically interviewing, regarding Leonard Sylas. First of all before we enter the questions, I would like to say my gratitudes to all of you, since your posts were the one that drove my motivation to work on my thesis!" Sam chuckles yet again, the people opposite to them show vulnerability and comfort in their eyes, to think that people actually like what they did, let alone admit it was a lot for them.

"And what about this gentleman next to you?" The lady diverts all of their gazes onto Donnie.

"O-Oh, no. I'm only here to accompany Sam." Donnie nods his head to excuse himself. "Well then, shall we introduce ourselves now?" The lady looked over to the two bookworms on her right. "I'm Cheridel, Cher for short." She smiles. The boy next to her fixes his posture and begins to speak,

"My name's Isaiah, she's Zeha. We're twin siblings." Isaiah glances at the girl beside him. Though both of them looked quite far from each other, if Sam looked closely he could just see the similarities between them.