As soon as Cardi opened the door to their new, but temporary, abode, Aline was surprised at how well the place had been kept up. She considered the outside appearance of this place but then remember the saying, "don't judge a book by its cover," and this was significant proof that whoever created that sentence was correct in every circumstance.

"Well... this is home sweet home for a while I guess." Cardi laughed slightly and moved into the room, and Aline followed. The room was dimly lit by a small kerosine lamp and the antique aesthetic fire covered the room completely making it seem like it was back in the eighteenth century.

     "It's cozy." Aline smiled at the decoration of the room and found it fitting. It looked a lot like some sort of holiday inn that you stay in during Christmas.

    "If this is what cozy is for you, you've got some bigger problems than Minka." I looked over at Cardi confused for his sudden outburst of anger.

    "And what is wrong with you all of a sudden?" Aline raised an eyebrow at him and walked inside and calling one of the black sleeping-bags her "bed". 

    "Nothing last time I checked," the man said as he set his stuff down beside the other sleeping-bag.

"Well, something is on your mind or you wouldn't be so upset." Aline spoke in a kind voice, keeping calm even though a storm was raging in Cardi's mind.

     "It's just memories are flooding back. It's been a while since I've been here." Cardi said as he walked to the small window in the room and opened it. Then he sat down inside the window pane and put his head against the frame.

      "Don't you know too much already...." Cardi began singing, and to Aline's surprise it was hypnotic.

      "I'll only hurt you if you let me. Call me friend but keep me closer. And I'll call you when the party's over." Aline stared at the sight, surprised that he had such a soft side to him. His hair was still too long and it fell into crazy positions but somehow it fit him perfectly. His red eyes were closed, eyelashes gracing his cheeks when he breathed. His lips moving along with the dark sky outside. It was like he belonged here.

    "Quiet when I'm coming home and I'm on my own." Aline shivered as passion poured from his last words. She knew those words meant something to him.

     "when the party's over by Billie Eilish. I listened to that song everyday in this very building. And every night I came home alone, the apartment was always quiet and bare." Aline made a questioning face in his direction as she had started to unpack her bags. She found bright red eyes staring back at her with a solemn look on his face. A face that had seen happy moments but had also seen the worst.

"My parents left me to live in this city years ago. It was after Minka had discovered me and they knew I was no longer the little boy they had raised, I was now a monster in their eyes. My brain was the same but my appearance was not... so they left me to fend for myself. They were disgusted in my desperate actions, and they told me that if I ever came close to them again that they would call the police on me." Aline watched him as he told his story, his face not being able to tell what it wanted to show. His expression changed every few words.

"I'm sorry that happened to you." Aline smiled sadly at him as she felt bad for him.

"It's not your fault so you shouldn't apologize. When I left them I came here. It was far away from Minka and, when I was here, it was beautiful. This place used to be the promise land of the country but look how everything decays with time. I watch as the time goes by and my face becomes less and less attractive than it was at one point in my life. My body is decaying slowly, my knees getting weak when I run. My eyes are failing me more and more. May I ask you a question?" Cardi found Aline's eyes once again as she nodded her head.

"Have you ever sat back and watched people change?" Cardi went back to his closed eyes as he ask her the question.

"What do you mean?"

"When you were young, did you ever notice how people changed? How they grew older as you did? How their physical and mental appearance changed? I look out the window everyday and remind myself of every time I've ever looked out the window in my lifetime. I remember just how beautiful things used to be and how I felt whenever I saw nature blooming into life. What I felt when I broke up with my first girlfriend. How I felt when I pulled out of my parents driveway, and when I looked back to see them with sad eyes waving at me. I wonder now if they regret giving their little boy away to the hateful truth of the world; if they regret not protecting me from harm." A loud sigh came from Cardi's lips and Aline was now sitting on her "bed" thinking about her life before she ran into hell.

     "I think about how I used to have such a storm inside my body all the time. I loved how passionate I was about everything, living my life to the fullest until I walked into that town. That's when my life fell to pieces and I've never been passionate since then. The storm is somewhere in my soul but it's too deep for me to dig up." Cardi's pained laugh echoed through the room.

"What did you feel when your parents told you to leave?" Aline ask him without looking at his eyes.

"Pain. Joy. Loneliness. Hatred. I felt every feeling all at the same time. They were the only ones I had. The last people who loved me gave me away for my mistake, and now I don't blame them. It was the smartest choice, and I think we all knew that it was the best choice. Sometimes I still think that they were selfish by protecting themselves and not me but I understand now. They were afraid. I wouldn't just hurt them but they were scared I would hurt myself as well. I know they didn't want to let me go; I could see it in their eyes, but we knew it was for the best. Even now I still feel the same feelings as I replay that memory over and over in my mind, wanting to smack myself across the face for thinking what I did was right."

     "What was it like to have parents?"  Aline's curiosity got the better of her.

"If I'm honest... I don't know what it was like. My real parents are dead. The parents I speak of were my foster parents even though they loved me as their own." Cardi spoke as if he had said those very sentences before, which Aline was sure he probably had.

    "Oh." Aline silenced herself afterwards and the room was only filled by the quiet flicker of a flame and the thick air that radiated emotion.