Shane chuckled, watching him take another long drag from his smoke.

“Those things will kill you”, she considered, and he laughed.

“Yeah, that’s what Alice says…”.

“Are there others?”, she asked then, “Others like you?”.

Dante sighed.

“Yeah, they’re out there. You see them, but most of the time you just walk on by. Nobody likes to think of the old life. You know, what they gave up”.

“Then why’d you do it?”.

Dante extracted his wallet, and showed her a few crumpled photographs.

“This is my wife, Alice… you already met her… She’s the love of my life. And they’re my kids… Ruth, Petie and Hanna…”, he murmured lovingly.

Shane smiled, then looked up at him, concerning clear on her face.

“Did you… tell her who you were?”, she asked, under her breath.

He put the wallet back into his pocket and shrugged.

“I started to try once or twice. Then I thought, ‘Why do that to her’?”.

“Do what?”.

“It’s too much for them”, Dante considered, shaking his head, “People don’t believe in us anymore”.

They both remained silent for a long time, just staring at the reddening sky.

“Do they still gather together at sunrise?”, Dante asked after a while.

“And sunset, yes”, Shane confirmed with a nod.

His eyes turned mischievous.

“Take me there”.

”…Dressed in black again…”

***

On the beach, Shane watched the blood-red sun and then glanced at the people in black that were walking on the sand, unseen and unheard.

“Can you hear it?”, she asked Dante.

He shook his head, his face bittersweet. He knew what Shane was talking about. It was the music. The melody that they would hear every time.

“No…”, he whispered, “…I can’t hear that”.

Then, he started undressing and in ten seconds he was completely naked. Shane watched him mouth agape as he started running toward the waves.

“What are you doing? Dan!”, she called him out.

He laughed and didn’t stop running.

“I can’t hear that but you can’t feel this!”, he shouted, jumping into the water and starting to swim voluptuously.

“Dante!”, Shane yelled from the shore, “You have to go back!”.

He was laughing heartily.

“Not until I catch the big wave!”.

Shane scoffed and ran to the waves, too. Weighed down by her clothes, completely soaked, and still feeling nothing, she reached for Dante’s shoulder and grabbed it, trying to pull him back. The last thing she needed was a dead Dante on the shore.