It was strange to find them here, still alive, with their shared bits of past that suddenly counted for nothing.

With a little effort, she could get up by herself

The scene was set. All that was required was an action, a cold start, instant and brutal as beginnings always are.

Separating them were two layers of brick, a few inches of plaster, and nine years of silence.

People took what they wanted, they clutched at coincidences, the few there were, and made a life from them. . . . Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains.

All Mattia saw was a shadow moving toward him. He instinctively closed his eyes and then felt Alice’s hot mouth on his, her tears on his cheek, or maybe they weren’t hers, and finally her hands, so light, holding his head still and catching all his thoughts and imprisoning them there, in the space that no longer existed between them.

In fact, they didn't talk much at all, but they spent time together, each in his own abyss, held safe and tight by the other's silence.