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"Of course." Guido's eyes twinkled mischievously. "That's why I made sure you thought I was the murderer and chased me here."

"Why?" Giacinto frowned.

"To keep us alive," Alessandro said, "This reaper must have known we were investigating. If we had come too close to finding out about him, he would have killed us."

"Obviously," Giacinto rolled his eyes, "Dead men tell no tales. Just slit their throat and it's all like 'so sorry, can't hear you over the sound of you choking on your own blood'", he laughed.

"That's ... really not very funny," Alessandro frowned.

"To you," said Giacinto.

"To everyone."

"First of all, how would you know that, second of all, you're just envying my humor. Because you don't have any." Giacinto jabbed his finger at Alessandro.

"Your humor is inappropriate."

"You're inappropriate."

"How am I inappropriate?"This tiny, provocative, little Greek was really irking him. Like a mosquito in his room when he wanted to sleep, making a high buzzing noise right next to his ear. And when he would wave it away, it'd be silent for one second of hope only to return the next.

"I don't know, but," Giacinto grimaced, "you totally are. on top of not being funny. Man, your future looks dim ..."

Alessandro opened his mouth, only to be cut of by Guido.

"Guys? Maybe you can move the bickering to some time better than this? There are lives at stake," Guido said.

"There are always lives at stake," Giacinto shrugged.

Alessandro suppressed the urge to drag him out of the room. "You are right, it won't happen again," he paused, scratching the back of his neck, "Where were we?"

"You were explaining why I led you here. Which I will do instead, because the moment you say something Giacinto will start an argument." Guido sighed. "Why do I feel so old, I'm like half your age. Anyways, Alessandro is right. Now the reaper will believe you are on the wrong track and hopefully not kill you."

"Hopefully?" asked Giacinto.

Guido shrugged. "Probably. To raise the chances of you getting out alive--"

"-- I would appreciate that," Giacinto cut in.

"-- Alessandro will arrest me for the murders of both Alvino and Iacobo. I won't live to be executed anyways." He shrugged, but Alessandro noticed the unsure  flicker in his eyes.

Guido paused for a moment, hiding the hand that had now gone limp completely under the table. "They'll think they've successfully tricked you and you know nothing about the whole conspiracy thing."

Alessandro frowned. "Alvino's death has been reported as an accident. If I suddenly arrest a boy claiming he's his killer --"

"You wanted to avoid causing panic among the people when they'd hear there is a masterful assassin at loose, "said Guido, "So you hid the true nature of the artists' deaths and secretly investigated. There, you're a hero."

"I wanted to say he'll pretend he was too blind to see obvious evidence and now that I helped him we caught the killer, but, yours works to," Giacinto grinned.

There was a deep crease between Alessandro's eyebrows when he sighed. They would accompany a child to his death. Just a boy, not much older than his little brother. "I assume we have no other choice."

Guido's eyes softened when he looked at the rigid officer. "I know you don't like this ... but it's the only way. You have to turn me in, " he said slowly, "even if it's against everything you believe in. Because if you don't, you die."

Alessandro shifted uneasily. He didn't like the look in the other's eyes. Pity.

"And you mustn't die. You can save all those innocent people out there. What's one life against thousands? And I die anyways."

"This isn't right." Alessandro's chest tightened.

"But it's what we'll do. Because I'm not going to die just so you can feel righteous," Giacinto sheathed his dagger. "Let's go."

Alessandro's hand clenched into a fist.

"One more thing," Guido coughed. His face had turned an ashen white.

Alessandro looked up from his boots, having stared at the tiny scratch in the polished leather with a newfound fascination. It was better than looking at those big blue eyes and freckled button nose -- trying to keep the torn expression from his face and the pity to himself.

"Trust each other. You can. And you have to."

"I don't have to do anything. Also, I'm not trusting a giant who could accidentally step on me." Giacinto looked as if Guido had expected him to stick his head into a lion's waiting jaw." Or arrest me when he's once again convinced I committed some random crime. Or both."

"If you haven't committed a crime, I'm the last person who would arrest you. Even if you do have a lot of suspicious insight on corpses." And, with the Greek raising his eyebrows like that, he couldn't not add: "You can't blame the crushing part on me. I can't see you down there between my feet."

"Oh, so now we're back to reminding me of my height? I'm not short, I'm travel sized!" Giacinto spat. Somehow he managed to look absolutely serious.

Alessandro snorted. He quickly covered up the laughter with a cough. Intentionally or not, the man was quite amusing. God forbid he ever finds out.

Giacinto shot him a dark look.

"I'm kind of dying over here," Guido sighed. "We actually investigated both of you after you got involved with Alvino's death. So I can assure you, you can trust the other. We haven't found anything bad about Giacinto, so you can stop being suspicious, Alessandro. Actually, we didn't really find anything about him, he is literally as evasive as the reaper, but we had someone follow him and he seems alright."

"You want me to trust someone a spy could find no information about," Alessandro crossed his arms. "Because you say they seem alright. Which he doesn't, by the way."

"Rude," said Giacinto. "If I wanted to kill you I could have stabbed you in those dark alleys. Which I didn't, by the way," he imitated Alessandro.

"We haven't found nothing, just not that much. You need someone to watch your back in these times. You only have each other. You don't have to hug and be all nice, but work together and don't kill each other. Because if I die for this city, and I will, and you ruin everything I worked for, I'll come back to haunt your bickering asses. A storm is coming. Don't face it alone."

There was silence after that. The candles flickered nervously and the light seemed to try and flee from the moving shadows. The atmosphere had something strangely final to it.

"Now, doesn't that sound dramatic," Giacinto rolled his eyes.

Guido grinned lopsidedly up at the blond. "I don't think I could run from you, so this is your chance, officer," he coughed.

Alessandro hesitated.

"Giant, do it – he can't die here." Despite his dismissive words, Giacinto carefully monitored every single shallow breath the loyal spy took.

"I – yes." Alessandro straightened his shoulders, taking a deep breath.

Guido offered his wrists to the shackles with a sorry smile. The click of metal was like a judges hammer coming down at an imposed sentence.

Bizarre, how the dying boy smiled sadly at the officer putting him in shackles for crimes he never committed. It should be the other way around.

Alessandro pulled the boy upright – a lot more gentle than he would handle a criminal.

"You gotta ... be a bit more convincing. Drag me, I can't walk properly anyways." Guido winced.

Even Giacinto grimaced when the officer had to keep the pale boy upright. Guido wobbled more than he walked to the door, taking unsteady steps like a newborn foal, a nauseous color spreading over his cheeks, eyes half closed as they glazed over with a feverish lack of focus.

Alessandro was conflicted. His jaw hurt from being clenched for so long, taut muscles working in an inner fight. His brows furrowed in the helpless anger of the powerless.

It took them ages to get to the door to the dark alleyway. It was a staggering and stumbling down the stairs, the seconds crawled and Alessandro's insides churned in anxious expectation. Dark forebodings seeming to creep from the shadows in the corners.

Then they stepped outside and with the click of Giacinto pulling the door closed, the act began.

The dark alleyway greeted them with its narrow embrace of claustrophobic inner turmoil. The strangely unfitting warm light from inside the house was shut out, and cool, wet, stinking darkness surrounded them.

Alessandro felt an invisible weight dropping from his shoulders when they reached the street. The dirt and murky canal water filled the air with a smell of algae. Yet, it seemed a great liberation from the walls wanting to squash them like bothersome flies.

His grip had turned rough, twisting a limp arm behind the boy's back. He wasn't sure if Guido was able to feel it in his half paralyzed limbs. The only sign the spy was still alive were the carefully firm steps. Guido was trying hard to hide his state from potential watchers.

If one   didn't know about vicious poison slowly robbing the control of his body, one might think he tried to retain some pride while being arrested. One might mistake the slow steps for reserved dignity.

Their walk was slow. A death parade.

A play for a single man hiding somewhere out there, watching.

The streets of Venice changed around them. The narrow, dark streets transformed into broad, even streets in bright daylight.

The noise of a crowd going about their business was like a song of life compared to the hollow echo of steps in the shadows. The people turned when they walked past. Everyone knew Alessandro Steno was investigating two strange deaths in noble families. And as much as word had spread both were an accident, as much as the pale boy being shoved through the streets might just be a thief, a nothing, everyone speculated.  Whispers hushed around and quick glances tried to catch some insight. Some even followed them.

Disgusting. Alessandro's nostrils flared in a sharp breath. He mustn't ruin this in a fit of angry justice. Guido's death mustn't be in vain.

Giacinto ripped him out of his thoughts. "If you even think about defending Guido, I swear to god, I will cut your throat," he hissed.

"I could arrest you for that." Alessandro wasn't looking at him, hard eyes glancing somewhere far away.

"But you won't – trust, remember?" the Greek grinned.

"This boy is innocent," Alessandro pressed through gritted teeth. He was whispering, but the harsh muscles working on his jaw gave away how close he was to protecting the spy.

"He is also dying."

"That we can't change, but he doesn't have to go down as the villain! He is no murderer, he's just a boy. That is not right – " 

"This," Giacinto snapped, "this was never about right! A dead man doesn't care about what people think he was. If we do the right thing, then we let him go and he dies and that changes nothing. Or you put him into a cell and say he is the murderer. He dies – "

"And that changes nothing as well."

"That changes everything!"

"Not for him."

"But for Venice! That's what mattered to him. That's what should matter to you." There was a dangerous glint flashing in his eyes, an eerie fire gleaming unnaturally, but there was no heat in it. Only a chilly cold,  like a gust of wind making you shiver. "Only if whoever is watching us  thinks we think we have that case solved and arrested the wrong man, when they think they are safe we can continue trying to get this city out of a war!"

"I know."

"Then act like it," Giacinto spat.

"I am. Otherwise I wouldn't chain up a dying boy. But I don't have to like it." Alessandro squared his shoulders and turned his gaze somewhere else.

They walked in silence after that. They reached the gate of the police headquarter in silence. They shared a strange look in silence.

Alessandro stepped in – and questioning voices broke the silence with their formality. Alessandro lead Guido away wordlessly, down into the cells. The voices followed, but they did not reach the silence in their hearts.

Alessandro sat beside an innocent boy in silence.

Guido turned more and more paralyzed in silence. Whispered a 'thank you' into the cold silence of stone walls and iron bars. His breathing grew labored and broke the silence.

His eyes flew open wide and turned panicked when he found he couldn't breath anymore. He stared horrified into the silence.

Alessandro closed his eyes in pain. His strong hand on a motionless shoulder tried to be an anchor in the deep silence. He had never seen such fear, such immobile struggle only visible in bright blue eyes rolling.

Like a trapped animal.

Alessandro hoped his eyes could speak the apology that wouldn't leave his tight throat.

There was only silence.

It wouldn't be long now.

Guido's lips were a blueish purple. Baby eyes were screaming now. Then they too, turned silent when the fear went away.

Guido had died in silence.

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Thoughts on Guido?

What  do you think about Alessandro's and Giacinto's relationship? And what  about how Guido admitted there's close to nothing they could find out  about Giacinto  – like 'il mietitore' ? What is he hiding ... and is he a good person? He did seem to have a surprisingly soft heart for the boy.

Thank you for reading!

Avis