1
It had been years since I last spoke to Giulia. Her name flashing on the screen of my ringing phone was unexpected to say the least. We had not parted amicably. Well, I still considered her a friend, but there were reasons why I had left and we weren’t in contact anymore. Mostly selfish reasons on my side if I was being honest. Since then I had settled into a new life. Similarly to how I had first met her actually. But this time I hadn’t made friends. Not true friends anyway.
It was the middle of the night and I was just leaving the dingy back alley bar I frequented with a big wad of cash in my pocket. I pulled my hood deep into my face to protect me from the icy rain and started walking home. Giulia’s name kept flashing on the screen as I stared at it, unable to decide whether to answer the call or not.
We’d been best friends. She knew me better than anyone ever did. That still applied today, but I had no clue what was happening in her life anymore. I could guess though, considering she was as much a creature of habit as I was. It was most likely, that little had changed. In all these years she had never called me. She had texted me two or three times and after she was faced with my silence, she gave up. That last text was from two years ago. How time had flown past! If she was calling me now, it must have been something important.
My thumb hovered over the green answer button for a long moment. Cold drops splattered on the screen, blurring her name. I hesitated a moment longer. Just as I was about to answer, the ringing stopped. Instead a notification popped onto my screen, telling me I had a missed call. I swiped it away with a sigh. Maybe it wasn’t important.
My flat wasn’t too far from the bar. The fifteen minute walk felt like an hour in the cold rain though. I stopped around the corner of the large building to pop into Lou’s pizza place. It smelled like grease, cheese, and pepperoni. Since it was late, nobody else was here and Joanne, one of the waitresses, was resting with her head in her crossed arms on the counter. When I entered, she shot up, rubbing her eyes and yawning. A lazy smiled showed on her face, when she recognised me.
“Kara, the usual?”
I nodded, “Yes, please.”
“Pretty disgusting out there, isn’t it? Feels like proper winter now,” she chatted while she sent my usual order to the back.
“Kara here?” Lou’s deep voice bellowed from the back.
“Yup, she’s here,” Joanne shouted back.
I rolled my eyes at their little ritual. This is how it happened every single time I came here. No matter how many people there were in the place.
“My daughter keeps bringing all kinds of snot back home,” Joanne yawned, “Always bloody sick that child.”
“Hopefully just around this time of year?” I ask friendly.
“Yeah, nothing to worry about,” Joanne shrugged.
Lou’s large frame appeared in the door, holding a large pizza in his hands. Lou was a huge man, built like a barrel. He had a grey stubble and brown friendly eyes. Everything was big about this man. He was tall, huge hands that dwarfed even the largest pizza, and a big round head. I knew he had no hair, only because I saw him adjust his cap in the kitchen once. He always wore one of those baseball caps. Every couple of days or so, he switched it out for another one. I didn’t recognise any of the teams or brands they sported. Though I noticed, several of them had Italian written on them.
“Come here, give me a hug,” he grinned widely. He set the pizza on the counter, wiping his hands on the black apron that barely fit around him, and stretched out his arms for me.
I stepped around to the side and gave him a hug. His huge arms almost squished me like a tomato, before he let go.
“How are you? Beat up anyone?” He asked as he grabbed a chair from a nearby table and sat on it in reverse.
“Nothing special,” I shrugged.
He laughed, “Of course.”
I grabbed the pizza and handed Joanne the money for it before I sat at the table Lou had just stolen a chair from. Lou rambled about all the gossip he’d picked up since he’d last seen me. If there was anything this man was good at, then that was gossiping. He was a queen at it. Even though he was almost constantly at the back, he somehow managed to pick up more gossip -and of course always the juiciest- than Joanne or any of the other waitresses.
Just as I ate the last slice, my phone rang again. Lou gave me a curious look. He’d never seen me on my phone before. Whether it was texting or calls. I simply didn’t have many or rather any contacts outside of Lou’s place and the bar. Once again, Giulia’s name was flashing on the screen.
“Take it,” Lou nodded encouragingly at me.
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. Then again, this was Giulia calling. After three years of silence. Well, two if we counted the unanswered texts. It was twice now, so it wasn’t by accident that she was calling me. And she called, didn’t text.
“Pick it up, darling, it seems important,” Lou said and stood from his chair. “We’ll leave you to it,” he said and waved Joanne to follow him to the back. Even with him in the back, I knew he would somehow pick up everything that happened here. I trusted him though.
I picked up the phone.
For a moment, I just heard breathing. Uneven and shallow like she was having an anxiety attack. I knew that quite well myself. Then, she gasped.
“Kara? Are you there?” Her voice wavered, unsure. She sounded like she had been crying. There were no other sounds in the background, just her uneven restless breathing. “Kara,” she whispered afraid.
“I’m here,” I finally answered.
A sob. “Gods, I’m so glad you answered.” A breath of relief. “I’m sorry to have called you, I just didn’t know who else to ask.”
I didn’t reply. I wasn’t sure what I could say. After so many years, I didn’t feel confident to console her anymore. Something that used to be easy between us, suddenly felt foreign. Her voice was the same, her speech patterns as well. Even her damn sob sounded exactly like it had so long ago. Every bit of her felt like home and familiarity.
“Did you eat pizza yet?” She suddenly asked. Her voice sounded a bit firmer again, more confident. She still knew me too well. Though I guess that was on me, considering that I had not changed by patterns at all.
“Yeah,” I said quietly.
She chuckled. But it was a sad sound now. “I went to our old place,” she said, and I could hear the tears she was holding back. “I needed something to comfort me.” The admission made my heart hurt. We were still each other’s rock. No matter how much we had tried to run away from it. “I need your help,” she said. And then she added, in a whisper, “Even though I know you will hate me for it.”
I gulped, unsure what to expect. “What is it?” I felt tears in my eyes. After all, I knew deep down that I could not turn her down. No matter how much I wanted to, needed to. But if she had called me for this, I was her last resort, that last effort before everything was lost.
She cleared her throat and her breath evened out as she took deep breaths in and out, before she spoke. “We’re disappearing. No violence, no indication where to. But every couple of days, sometimes weeks, someone disappears, never to be seen again. We’ve searched everywhere, tried every warding, every protection possible, but it isn’t working. It’s the same in the kingdom. They don’t know what’s happening either. We need to find them, Sunny.”
Her old nickname for me sent shivers down my spine. Her words left goosebumps all over my body. This was indeed serious.
“You’re,” she hesitated, “You’re the best tracker out there. Please help me. If not the others, please help me. Two days ago, my brother disappeared too.” I could hear the tears rising in her again. “I have this bad feeling they will take Blake too. Whoever they are.” Blake, her partner, was one of the most dangerous warriors out there. If he was going to be taken, they didn’t stand a chance to protect themselves anymore.
“The kingdom has trackers,” I suggested. But I knew it was a weak protest at best. It was true though. Just like it was true that I was the best. Or used to be anyway.
“They are useless and haven’t found anything,” she sighed. “I know what I’m asking of you. I wouldn’t if it wasn’t this bad.”
“I don’t have the money to travel right now,” I admitted. “I can make it next week at the earliest.”
“I can send you money,” she simply said. I knew she had more than enough and could easily afford it but it didn’t sit right with me. “See it as me employing you, if it helps,” she suggested, already anticipating my hesitation.
“Fine,” I sighed, “Just send me the tickets.”
“Thank you, Kara,” she whispered full of emotion before she hung up.
I stared at my empty plate, lost in thought. The hum of the bright lights were the only noise in the place. After a while, Lou appeared from the back. He slowly stepped towards me and took a seat opposite me. He didn’t say anything, just sat there, watching me for a while in silence.
Finally, I stood, shoving my hands in my pockets.
“Thanks,” I nodded at Lou.
He smiled with tight lips. “If you need anything, Kara,” he started and trailed off. He’d said it often enough. “The past catching up?” He asked instead of continuing his sentence.
I nodded.
“You’re not the only one with secrets, darling. When you need my help, you know how to find me,” he said and got up. Without another word or look he walked back into the kitchen, leaving me alone.
I didn’t know how to interpret his words but somehow I felt like he knew more about me than he had let on in the past year that I had been here.
I didn’t stay any longer and walked back out into the cold rain. The wind had picked up and I had to hold the hood of my coat down that it wasn’t torn off my head while I walked around the corner and to my building’s front door.
