We’re back in Venice for our second chapter in the Black Night.
Reaching his casa, Pietro greeted his wife with a kiss before being hurriedly ushered into the bedroom to put on a set of his finest clothes for the theatre.
The evening had arrived and the sun was setting quickly in the chill winter sky, though nights in Venice and wider world had changed forever since the Rent had scarred the sky. Venice at night glowed, sometimes an eerie green, others a translucent silver; even without torches the people of Venice could easily find their way around with no difficulty. It was in this light that Pietro and Julietta walked to the Teatro San Samuele, located near the Ponte dell’Accademia in the San Marco district of Venice.
“Are you looking forward to the show tonight?” Julietta asked in high spirits, “I’ve been waiting to see this play since it arrived here in Venice.”
“Yes I know you have, my love. I’m looking forward to it now that I’m all ready – you rushed me out the door almost as soon as I came in!” Pietro laughed.
“Well what do you expect when you run late?” Julietta chuckled and gently squeezed her husband’s arm, “We’re here by the looks of it, look at the crowd! I told you we should have left earlier.”
Pietro and his wife joined several other smaller parties as they funnelled over the bridge approaching the theatre. Without warning, the Rent began to pulsate, the green glow illuminating Venice in brilliant flashes of green lightning. Hardly out of the ordinary, but it still caused people to stop and look up.
Then a loud rumbling shook the city as the Rent flashed bright before fading, waning to the point where it barely could be seen in the night sky.
For the first time in six months, Venice was dark.