Lovino flipped the page of the album and pointed to the second picture on the new page. "Remember this? This was… last summer, right?" He tapped the photo of an old man grinning happily, splashing water on his grandchild who was laughing with just as jolly a look on his face. The ocean was glistening under the warm rays of the sun, the sky was light blue without a single cloud anywhere to be seen, and the two men in the photograph were both slightly tanned thanks to having spent the whole day under the bright summer sun.
Feliciano sniffled and nodded.
"Si… that's from when Nonno took us to the beach", he said and laid his finger gingerly on the photo, right on Romulus' cheek. "We had so much fun there…"
Lovino turned the page again, seeing yet more photos taken on the same day, each of them featuring either happy looking Feliciano and Romulus or himself looking as grumpy as ever. He remembered how his face had gotten sunburnt and how, when they had gotten back, Antonio had called him "my tomato" again. Despite that, he had to agree it had been fun, even though he hadn't seen it in quite that way back then.
Photo albums were scattered all over the brothers who sat on the living room carpet, some of the albums still open on random pages. A photo of two little boys in black tuxedos that made them look like miniature penguins and violins on their hands, one smiling and the other blushing as the old man in between them held a hand on each of their shoulders and grinned. A photo of a child resting on his grandfather's arms, the older man smiling gently as he looked at him. A photo of a boy in an Italian restaurant, sporting an annoyed expression as he tried to stop his grandfather from feeding him a slice of pizza. And then again, two young men in smart black outfits, alongside an older man with almost as smart a suit. Suddenly Lovino noticed a photo that caught his interest, and reached to take the album it was in to his hands.
"When was this taken?" he asked, showing his younger brother a photo of Romulus and a blonde girl with a black ribbon hair band, both making the weirdest faces right in front of the camera. Feliciano looked at the photo and smiled a bit.
"Oh! I think that's from Nonno's birthday! Was it… two or three years ago?" he received the album from Lovino and looked more carefully at his grandfather's silly face. "Bella and Nonno were fooling about the whole day… and the cake Francis made for Nonno was delicious!"
Lovino nodded and let out a small sound of consent even though he wasn't really listening, and browsed lazily another album that was laying close by. Now that he thought of it, there were a plenty of other photos with Bella in them. It wasn't really a surprise, though, they had been friends since childhood, after all. And Bella had always gotten along great with Romulus, too. Lovino tried to remember when he had last seen the girl. It had been a while, probably when she had had that concert of hers a couple of weeks ago. Lovino didn't really like seeing her these days. Bella and Feliciano still got along great, but Lovino thought that as Bella had become more talented with the violin, talented enough to rival Feli in fact, she had gotten a bit stuck up. Feliciano said he hadn't noticed that, but Lovino was sure she had. And besides… there had always been some things in Bella that he had never learnt to like.
Bella was a sweet girl, everyone said that. She had been talented in music ever since a child, much like Feliciano. Lovino was the one out of the three of them who had to work for his skills, when the other two were just playing around. Lovino had to admit, though, that back then he had had a crush on the cute Belgium girl; but once time went by, he found himself slightly jealous of Bella's attractiveness. Not that it was the girl's fault, of course, Lovi knew that, but what actually was her fault was that she seemed to treat Lovino like air thanks to her being more talented than him.
"Fratello? Fratello?"
Lovino blinked and looked at his brother, who was staring at him with wide eyes.
"What is it, Feli?" he asked, masking his embarrassment for zoning out like that with an irritated tone. Feliciano gave a tiny bittersweet smile.
"We should probably tell Bella about Nonno", he said quietly. "They were good friends. She needs to know he's gone now…" Feli gulped, and blinked more often than what is natural. Lovino noticed his brother was about to cry again, so he thought it was better to distract him with something to make him feel better.
"Yeah… We'd better go over to her place today. And when we get back, let's go get some gelato."
Feliciano's face brightened like a little child's upon hearing he was going to get something good, and he nodded.
"Um! Let's put these albums away and go right away!"
Lovino sighed, feeling a slightly too lethargic to do that, but he figured he'd have to do that sooner or later in any case, why not just get it over with. With that, he started helping Feli pile up the photo albums and stuff them back to the bookshelf.
"We haven't visited Bella in a while, have we?" Feliciano asked as they walked down the quiet street. Lovino heard a bird somewhere nearby sing beautifully, but the song ended abruptly, and he turned his gaze to see if the bird had flown away. Instead of a flying bird he saw a cat on the ground, its white face dirtied with blood and a couple of feathers sticking from his mouth, enjoying his kill. Lovino shuddered and turned his eyes back to Feli.
"Yeah, it's been a while", he said quickly, and to make sure Feli wouldn't have to see the poor little bird getting eaten, he pointed at a group of cats on the other side of the street. "Look, Feli! Kitties." He didn't feel the slightest remorse for treating his brother like a mere child as the boy looked at the cats with sparkling eyes.
"I wonder why there are so many cats in here!" the younger boy wondered aloud while looking at the animals, but Lovino decided it was perhaps better not to answer that question.
Bella's house looked as well taken care of as always. Or perhaps saying "always" wasn't quite correct; the yard would probably be this clean only when his brother Lars wasn't around, and Lovino had heard the older man had gone for a trip of some sort for a couple of weeks.
Feliciano knocked on the door, but even after a long wait no one came to open the door.
"I wonder if she's out?" Feliciano pondered aloud, but Lovino just snorted.
"She probably just didn't hear your knock. Let me do it." he pushed Feli aside and knocked on the door. "Bella? Are you in there?" he laid his hand on the door handle, and to his surprise the door opened. "It wasn't locked…" he said, surprised, and pushed the door open properly. The brothers stepped in, both calling for Bella.
"Bella? Are you home? You left the door unlocked…"
They walked through the kitchen, noticing the girl had to be somewhere close by as she had left a carton of milk on the table. They proceeded to walk to the living room, but as soon as they stepped in they both froze as if time had suddenly stopped.
Feliciano let out a squeak and hid his face against Lovino's shoulder. Lovino find himself unable to look away. In his hazed mind, he thought this had to be what people experienced when they saw a train wreck; it was horrible, and you knew you weren't supposed to look, you knew it would just hurt yourself if you kept on looking, but you just couldn't bring yourself to look away.
The girl hanging from a rope on the ceiling was barely identifiable as Bella, and about the only things that made it clear it was actually her was her blonde hair, the hairband on it, and the fact that it was indeed her house. Her face was in an almost unrecognizable: it was half hidden with dried blood from long, thin scratches that continued down to her bare arms. The arms, to Lovino's shock, ended to wrists; down on the floor under Bella laid a pair of hands in a large puddle of blood. Lovino shuddered violently, and started to slowly back towards the kitchen.
"We need to call Ludwig", he whispered with a trembling voice, feeling tears of fear and shock on the corners of his eyes.
[-]
Ludwig put a shawl on Lovino's shoulders and hugged Feliciano.
"I know it's a shock to the both of you. We'll be sure to find out her killer, don't worry", he said and ruffled Feliciano's hair. "Try not to think about it too much."
Lovino bit his lip. How could Ludwig even think he could just forget about something like that? He could still see her, hanging from the rope, blood all over her. Lovino shuddered and shot up from the couch.
"Where are you going?" Feliciano asked, his voice sounding weak.
"I need some time alone", Lovino muttered and walked down to the cellar. He ran his fingers on the cool wooden texture of his violin and started to feel a bit better. But it was only after he drew the calming notes of the first part of the Devil's Trill that he started to feel like he might forget about the incident for a moment.
