15 SETTEMBRE 2000, 19:13
MILANO, ITALIA
BAR RUSTICO
"She's got a smile that it seems to me / Reminds me of childhood memory-ies / Where everything was as fresh as the bright blue sky-y…"
Rafael engrossed himself in listening to GNR's Sweet Child O' Mine as it came on over the bar's jukebox, whistling along to various parts and even singing along a bit as he manned the cash register.
"'Whoa, oh, o-oh, Sweet child o' mi-ine,'" Rafael belted out. "'Whoa, oh, oh, oh, sweet love of-'"
He broke off, staring at Sergio as he walked inside, looking like a bedraggled cat for the lack of a better comparison. His dark, curly hair was all over the place, and his shirt was covered in sweat.
"What the hell happened to you?" Rafael queried.
Sergio groaned. "Don't ask." He clocked in, walking behind the counter. Rafael glanced back, noticing Alessandra emerge from the kitchen. She took one look at Sergio, smirking. "You look like shit."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Sergio retorted, stretching.
"So, what was it anyway?" Rafael asked, letting his curiosity get the better of him.
Sergio gave him a fulminating look. "What part of 'don't ask' do you not understand?"
"The part where I don't want you stinking up my car when I drive the both of you home tonight, that's what," Rafael retorted back.
"AC's always an option," Sergio muttered. "Fine. If you must know, some idiot with a Stand beat me up on the way here."
"Did you win?" Alessandra asked.
"Yeah, but I had help," Sergio confessed.
"Good enough for me," Rafael responded. "I'm still driving with the windows down, though."
"Whatever."
The customers started coming by the counter a couple of minutes later, forcing the three baristas to break off their banter and actually get to work.
15 SETTEMBRE 2000, 23:55
MILANO, ITALIA
BAR RUSTICO
"You three are done for the night," Lorenzo informed them. It was a particularly slow night, so the manager had decided to let everyone out early and close at midnight.
Alessandra nodded, but something was bothering her. "Do you need anyone to stand guard over it?" she asked, gesturing to the Stone Mask.
"I've been having Andrea keep an eye on it in addition to his bouncer duties," Lorenzo reassured her. "If anyone tries to steal it again, he'll know about it."
"That's good to hear," Rafael responded.
Sergio stretched. "Salve, Lorenzo. Be careful with that thing."
Their manager nodded. The three bartenders exited the establishment, walking over to Rafael's car.
"So, where to, since we've got some extra time to kill?" the blond asked.
Alessandra bit her lip. Something told her that what she had in mind was a seriously bad idea, but she brought it up anyway. "I want to go to where...where it happened. Where I lost my brother."
Rafael and Sergio exchanged glances, nodding. "Do you know where?" Sergio asked.
Alessandra told them the block, making sure to mention the alley. The three entered the sedan, Alessandra in shotgun while Rafael sat in the driver's seat. Sergio took the back seat directly behind his flatmate. They shut their respective doors, buckling in.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rafael asked, cautious.
Alessandra took a deep breath, steeling herself. Like it or not, she had to move forward. She couldn't keep letting her grief consume her. "Yes," she responded. "I'm sure."
The blond nodded, starting the car. True to his words from earlier, he used the drivers' door controls to roll the windows down before they actually got moving.
The three drove, silent save for the Madonna album playing on the CD player. They got to their destination while the singer was belting out the final verse of Like a Virgin, and Rafael waited until the song finished before shutting down the engines.
"You ready?" Sergio asked.
"Yeah," Alessandra responded, voice solemn. This was the first time she'd returned to this particular alley in two weeks, after Guido had unexpectedly tried to kill her. She'd used her Stand to defend herself, though it was evident that the Neapolitan teenager she'd befriended a couple of years ago also had a colony Stand of his own, if the six tiny, sentient (and, admittedly, violently adorable) entities floating around him were anything to go by.
I hope he made it back okay. I wonder what it was that caused him to go berserk like that.
Alessandra hadn't stopped to think about it that night; she'd fled to her vehicle after pepper-spraying the gunslinger, more concerned about her survival than about attempting to calm Guido down. She still had two dents in her metal arm from where his bullets had shot two units of her Stand.
As for Marco…
She'd held a private funeral for him, Galilea, and Simone on the evening of 5 September. The only attendees besides herself had been Simone and Galilea's families and the entire drumline section of the three's high school marching band. It had been their senior year, and Galilea had been serving as drumline captain that season, marching on the tenor drums. Marco had marched snare, and Simone was on the largest marching bass drum the school had-Bass 6, Marco had said once. Alessandra had been unable to get in touch with her parents, mainly because her family's phone plan didn't work outside of the EU: Her mom was in Sydney on one business trip, while her dad was in Dubai for another. Either way, Alessandra would have to face the music upon their return to Milan on 29 September and tell them that she had to bury her little brother and his best friends while they were gone.
Alessandra was really not looking forward to having that conversation.
The three exited the sedan, walking in silence down the godforsaken alleyway. Alessandra walked in the middle, holding Rafael's hand with her metal appendage and Sergio's hand with her flesh one. Neither of the guys had objected to it; they were the only emotional support she had at the moment.
It's strange what life can do sometimes. I lost one part of my family, yet I gained a new one from people I barely knew or hardly even wanted to get to know. I honestly don't know what Sergio sees in me; I'm just a hot mess right now. One with a Stand that sometimes makes me feel like I'm a monster.
Alessandra had felt no revulsion when she blew those vampires' heads off. Maybe it was because such an exhaustive and gruesome use of her Stand had been in the middle of taking its toll on her, but it was much more than that. That night, she'd unleashed all of her pent-up fury, anger, and self-loathing, and lashed out against those vampires. Her Stand's fatal screams personified her inner pain, and she had been screaming along with those doves during the attack. She'd faced the prospect of losing someone she worked with (and someone whom she'd found to be quite annoying at the time, to be frank) and snapped.
She couldn't let someone else die on her watch again.
Marco had said once that he could see Alessandra's birds, praising them as both bizarre and beautiful. Now, given what she knew about Stands and Stand users, Alessandra wondered what Marco's Stand would have been like had he lived long enough to fully awaken it. Would it have been like her own, or would it have been completely different?
Either way, she would never know. That heartbreaking realisation alone brought sobs to her throat. Her breath hitched, but she did her best to hold back on outright crying in front of the guys. She didn't want to look weak and helpless, especially not since they had returned to the place where Marco, Galilea, and Simone were-
She felt tears slide down her face as the three walked deeper into the alley. Sergio paused, looking down at her with concern. "Are you…?"
"I'm fine," Alessandra spat, but it was very obvious that she was not fine.
Sergio didn't seem to buy it. Neither did Rafael, for that matter.
"It's okay not to be," Sergio said gently. "Rafael and I are here for you."
"Yeah," Rafael confirmed. "We're not going anywhere." The blond blinked. "Want a hug?"
Something within her broke after hearing that question. She nodded, finding herself engulfed in a group hug. More tears fell, and the ginger leaned into both Sergio and Rafael as ugly crying took over, sobs loud enough to echo off the walls and bottled-up emotions shattering psychological walls of self-blame and self-hatred that had come about after Marco's death.
It's okay not to be okay.
Rafael and I are here for you, Sergio had said.
Suddenly, Alessandra didn't feel so alone.
It was a few minutes before the sobbing finally stopped. She eased herself out of the guys' embrace, taking a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiping her face. She placed it back inside the pocket, making a mental note to wash it later. "Let's go."
The three moved forward several metres. Even with electric torches out, the alley seemed spookier than ever.
"Guys," Rafael said nervously, waving his own torch around, "Is there a Stand nearby? It feels like we're being watched, but I can't see anybody."
"No idea," Sergio admitted, calling forth Blue Lamp. The luminescent Stand took the lead, bathing the bartenders in blue light. Alessandra summoned her birds as well, though she had no intention of attacking unless it was absolutely necessary. There wasn't enough ear protection to go around, and she didn't particularly want a repeat of the blowing-vampires-heads-off incident.
The sound of something growling caused all three of them to stop dead in their tracks. Alessandra turned, eyes widening.
A Stand resembling a massive wolf blocked their path. It was silver, with a black nose on its long snout, and had six green eyes on each side of its face. The entity was about a metre-and-a-half tall and almost two metres long, not including the large and bushy tail extending behind it. Either way, it was huge.
"No. Sudden. Moves," Sergio warned.
"Stand?" Rafael asked.
"Yeah," Sergio said hoarsely. "One that looks like a gigantic wolf with twelve eyes."
"Twelve?!"
"Mhm."
The three stood rock still, waiting to see what the entity's next move would be.
"Sorella maggiore," the wolf Stand said, approaching Alessandra.
Huh? Big sister?
The Stand's voice was deep and masculine, but it sounded like-
Holy shit. It can't be.
"Marco?" she whispered, voice hoarse. "No-his Stand?"
"Sì," the wolf responded.
Alessandra's eyes went even wider, and her metal hand came up in front of her mouth. "Oh my God."
"What?" Rafael asked sharply. "Alessandra, what is it?"
Alessandra felt a bunch of emotions bubbling within her. Grief. Pain. Hope. Joy. Melancholiness. "It's his Stand," she said, an amalgam of all those emotions making her way into her voice. "THAT'S MY BROTHER'S STAND!"
Sergio raised an eyebrow. "How is that even possible? Your brother died, Alessandra."
"I know. I don't know how," she admitted. "But it's his; it's definitely his." Tears renewed themselves, rolling down her face. "He must have manifested it for the first time not long before he died. That's the most logical explanation."
Marco's Stand sniffed the three baristas, tilting its head Alessandra's way. "No weapons," it noted. "Good. Weapons are bad. Guns especially are bad."
Sergio glanced down at it nervously. "What would have happened to us if we did have weapons?"
The wolf's nostrils flared. "I attack. Sometimes I possess. If people want weapons so badly, they can become the things they use to hurt others-though not in the way they want or expect."
Guido.
Alessandra's mind flashed back to that night two weeks earlier. Guido hadn't seemed himself, even going so far as having a weird possessed look in his eyes. Even most of his colony Stand had been affected. Was that what Marco's Stand meant?
"It was you, wasn't it?" Alessandra realised. "It was you who made Guido go berserk."
"Correct," the Stand responded.
Alessandra relaxed slightly. At least I know he didn't pull that shit on me on purpose. I'll have to let him know at some point.
"Did Marco ever name you, before he died?" Sergio asked gently.
The wolf Stand shook its head.
Alessandra gave Sergio a quizzical look. "What do you mean, name him?"
"People usually name their Stands," Sergio explained. "It's a reflection of the soul, so it should be meaningful. For example, I named mine 'Blue Lamp' because of the blue light he creates. But don't force it; a name should come to mind eventually."
Alessandra's brow furrowed. "What, you want me to name his Stand?"
"He's your brother."
"Fair." Alessandra glanced at the wolf Stand, thinking for a moment. She came to her decision, more tears running down her face.
"The Ghost of You," she christened. "Your name is The Ghost of You."
The wolf Stand seemed to approve of that answer, moving to the side. "You may pass."
The baristas continued down the alleyway. A quick look backwards told Alessandra that The Ghost of You was following them. Probably to make sure none of us do anything stupid, she assumed. The ginger withdrew her Stand, though she noticed that Sergio kept his out.
They approached the corpses that she and Guido had discovered two weeks earlier, only moments before shit had hit the fan. Alessandra was, quite frankly, surprised that no one had come by to collect them yet.
"Look. I don't care who these bastards were," Rafael said darkly. "A dark alley is not a resting place anyone deserves."
"Agreed," Sergio said. "Our best bet right now is to burn the corpses before anybody else finds out about them."
"Is there a lighter in the car?" Alessandra asked, directing that question towards Rafael.
"Yeah," the blond confirmed. "I keep it with me for emergencies. It's not like I smoke or anything; that's bad for your health." Rafael glanced down, brow furrowing. "Is that a mobile?"
Blue Lamp walked over, illuminating the area in question. "Yeah," Alessandra responded, seeing a Nokia in one of the dead guys' pockets. "It is."
"We'll remove them before we burn the bodies," Sergio decided.
Rafael recoiled, disgusted. "You want us to loot six decomposing corpses?"
Sergio rolled his eyes. "Don't be daft; that's just nasty. I'm having my Stand loot six decomposing corpses. That way we won't have to worry about being exposed to any underlying pathogens."
"What about the mobiles?" Alessandra queried.
"I'm sure they'll be fine."
She nodded, watching as Blue Lamp removed all six phones from the corpses. "What are you planning on doing with them?" she asked.
"Making sure the right people find it," Sergio responded.
"How are you gonna do that?"
Sergio stretched. "I'm gonna call someone, obviously. Don't worry about it." He glanced at Rafael and Alessandra. "I'm gonna be a few minutes."
"I'll stay here with her," Rafael said. "You just go do what you need to do."
Sergio nodded, walking towards the mouth of the alley alongside his Stand. Alessandra looked at The Ghost of You, sobbing once again as she realised that her younger brother was, in a way, still with her.
But he was never coming home.
THE GHOST OF YOU
User: Marco Udinesi
Stats
I. Destructive Power: D
II. Speed: B
III. Range: A (Kilometres)
IV: Persistence: Infinite
V: Precision: D
VI: Development Potential: Null
Notes
I. The Ghost of You is an automatic posthumous Stand, first awakened by Marco Udinesi only a few minutes before his untimely death. Its ability and appearance are very similar to the Stand that possessed and manipulated Bruno Bucciarati in Club Galassia, but a key difference is that The Ghost of You manifests into a wolflike entity that mainly guards the street block where its user and his friends were murdered.
II. This Stand despises weapons, guns in particular, and will automatically attack and/or possess anyone who draws a weapon out into the open.