Elbows perched on my knees, I rested my chin against my forearm, my gaze fixed on the small house across the porch where I sat. The houses here in this village all looked the same. All small, quiet and unremarkable. It would've looked even more normal, if it weren't for the lack of street lamps and porch lights.
Sometimes, with the quiet streets and the neatly kept houses like these, it was easy to forget that the world had already ended centuries ago. Easy to pretend that this was place was safe.
It certainly didn't take much reminder when I was living on the other side of the border. Where crumbling buildings decorated the city, the streets were more hollow and the stench of death clouding the alleys.
That reality certainly would never let me forget.
"How are you feeling?" Angelo's voice cut through the silence, as he stepped onto the porch, settling in beside me.
