Neghentropia

(Neghentropy, also called negative entropy, or syntropy, indicates the organization of physical or human and social elements that opposes the natural tendency to disorder, ie entropy. Negentropy therefore changes a system from disordered to ordered).

It is 8 in the morning, the sun shines on Viterbo. The city is coming to life, the honking and shouting makes it clear that many have already started the classic routine, the kids are already going to school, while others are just getting up. One of the latter is Sofia, who is wasting her time choosing the right outfit.

"Come on Sofia, put on yesterday's shirt, hurry up you're late!" Says Eva, the mother, from the lower floor.

"Don't worry mom, the lesson starts at nine today! I think ..."Sofia immediately looks at the diary to make sure she has actually entered the second hour, even though she had checked several times last night. Reassured of this, she goes down to breakfast. Eva prepared a hearty breakfast for her daughter and tell her to eat everything. Sofia eats in a certain hurry to be ready to go out.

"Mom, there's no need to put me in another agitation! Come on, I'm in time ... I also have to wait for Lia who is late today because the parents are about to leave!"

"Look, I get angry if you are late because of her, stay at her comfort since you were little! When are you going to part with her?"Sofia does not answer her, greets her mother and leaves the house to wait for Lia, checking the time on her mobile several times.

Lia greets the parents who are putting their bags in the car at the door."Please take care of the house and of Frufru!" Says Lia's father.

"Yes, don't worry, it's not the first time! Have a good trip".Lia returns to the house to feed the little dog Frufru. Look at the clock that says 08:50. Hurriedly, she throws the treats into the dog's bowl, then goes to retrieve her backpack in the room. As she is about to leave the house she hears the moans of the little dog and comes back. He is suffocating, Lia is panicked. She runs up to him, raises his head and tries to make him spit out those treats. She fails: the dog has now stopped breathing and she cries.

In a confused state she feels like an innate instinct to save the puppy, so with her right hand she crosses the dog's neck as if it were liquid, takes the treats and takes them out. Frufru recovers, showing no scars, but Lia is shocked and confused to see the treats in her hand.

"Well ... it will be another of my daydreams" she thinks, as she runs away from home to go to Sofia.Sofia finally sees Lia, the girls say goodbye and set off.

Sofia thinks she should scold Lia for being late, but she can't do it: she's too happy to be with her again. She looks at her face several times and thinks she doesn't have her usual pretty smile.

"Hey, what do you look like, did you see a ghost, huh?", Sofia starts joking with Lia who, however, does not feel serene to answer the joke."Let's hurry up instead, you fool!" Lia exclaims.

Sofia tries to entertain Lia as much as she can, not only with jokes but also with nudges. But she is afraid of exaggerating, in fact she turns red and bows her head fearing to see Lia annoyed.

"Come on Sofia, stop it! Rather, the project for the newspaper article has to be presented to the class today!"

"No come on ... we still have a lot to investigate ..."

"You know that since I started getting interested in paranormal events for the project, I started to ..."

"... We have to meet at your house today, as agreed, so we can have a nice afternoon!" Sofia interrupts her with enthusiasm without realizing it.

"Ok, then you promise me will you expose yourself to the class?" Lia looks at Sofia and smiles at her with her eyes. Sofia can't help but laugh and stares at her friend without realizing it. It's happening to her again: She can't control herself when Lia jokes with her, she would like those laughter to continue forever. Once she comes to her senses she replies: "We'll see ... if you'll be good!".

So, continuing to joke, they arrive at the Lyceum courtyard.There, they notice various groups of students chatting about the latest disappearances in the city, involving dogs, cats and other objects. Lia and Sofia approach their usual group of friends. While Michele comforts Eugenio who has lost his cat, Angelo and Lia discuss how to organize the newspaper page. The three friends convince them to devote the entire front page on these mysterious disappearances and to put up a section where they can contact the owners of the missing animals, including Eugenio. The bell rings and they all enter. Leaving school, Lia and Sofia separate and confirm the appointment at Lia's house for the afternoon.Lia walks to her house, meanwhile she can't help but think about how vivid the morning dream was. Arriving in front of the house she sees in the distance, on the horizon, silhouettes that remember her parents. She is surprised and thinks it is impossible to be them since they have not even warned her of a possible return. She goes to meet him curiously, still with the house keys in her hand, but suddenly those shapes collapse to the ground until they disappear. Frightened, she returns to her house, locks and looks out the window: No sign of what she witnessed. He goes to his room and lies down on the bed with Frufru in his arms. Get some rest.She has a nightmare where she dreams that she looks in the mirror in his room and sees her parents melt, she tries to grab them by holding out her hand. Suddenly she wakes up, her heart beats fast, picks up the phone and scrolls through the phone book. She calls her mother who answers immediately, Lia anxiously asks her how she is. The mother tells of having just escaped, together with her father, a fatal accident: the car fell from a bridge into the water and the doors did not open; they were drowning. Suddenly, as if to eat, they opened and managed to emerge from the water. Now Lia is almost convinced that she really has powers. She needs to confide in someone, so she calls Sofia telling her to anticipate the meeting.

Sofia accepts the request and goes to Lia. When she enters the house she is red and her heart beats fast. Sofia notices that Lia is nervous and sweating, worried she asks her how she is: is she afraid of being alone at home? Lia replies amazed that no, that's not it. It's great to be alone at home because you can do whatever you want without having your parents' eyes on you. Sofia then asks to eat sweets and watch TV until they are free, but Lia reminds her that they are there to work. Still stressed out, Lia feels she is confessing to Sofia and tells her that she has discovered something interesting, but about herself.

She takes her hands and says: "Sofia I have to reveal to you something very important, please pay attention to what I am about to tell you ...".

Sofia then thinks that Lia is about to declare herself, so she blushes.

"Listen Sofia, you are my best friend, I can tell you about it ... You see, something unusual is happening to me and I made you come earlier because I need to confide in me"Intrigued Sofia says:"Sure, don't worry, you can tell me everything, you know."

Lia declares to have supernatural perceptions, tells her about Frufru and also about the nightmare just made.Sofia doesn't believe her, she has heard so many versions of these strange events from her friends. Furthermore, Lia usually jokes a lot to put her at ease. She gives her a bewildered look and tells her she wants to continue working on the newspaper, but Lia insists that what she is telling is important. Then Sofia, irritated, says: "Stop making up absurd stories for the newspaper, come on! What then of all the people, with the" magical powers "was it really you? You're not taking the question seriously ...".

She gets up to leave. Lia is very upset and says that maybe she is right, it is better to stop thinking about the paranormal and that each go back to their own lives. Once home, her mother Eva notices that Sofia is sad and bitter, so she asks what happens.

Sofia cannot resist telling everything: "I had a fight with Lia! I ruined everything ... she wanted to tell me something important but I thought only of me". So Sofia also confides her feelings for Lia and Eva consoles her by saying that she has suspected for some time. After that she cooks her favorite dish to cheer her up. At the end of the dinner, instead of watching the usual program with her mother, Sofia goes back to her room, lies down on the bed, thinks back to the discussion with Lia and sleeps with tears in her eyes. The next morning, at the Lyceum, Lia greets Sofia, who is red with embarrassment and wants to apologize, but their three classmates, Angelo, Michele and Eugenio, stop her talking about a very important video for the newspaper. One of the guys shows on the phone a last-minute video where a single building suddenly collapses. Sofia is frightened, she fears that there really is an inexplicable danger. Lia, on the other hand, is more interested than usual: for her that video shows the truth about the existence of the paranormal and thinks it proves that her powers are true.In that instant the high school trembles, the alarm sounds and everyone runs away from the class in terror.

Before going down the stairs, however, Lia freezes, she can no longer move. Her eyes are wide open, not from the tragedy that is happening around her, but from an infinite mass of visions. Among all of them she clearly sees herself with her chest open, from which a ray of light comes out. Sofia turns, sees her and goes to her. Yells to move, takes courage and starts pulling her by the arm.

"LIA! What are you doing? Why don't you move ... I can't move You."Everything is now collapsing. Angelo, Michele, Eugenio and other guys do not have time to reach the exit that are crushed by the walls that collapse on them. The ceiling collapses on the two:

"... Lia I can't lose you! You are all my courage, without you I am lost!" Sofia screams at the top of her voice with new tears streaming down her face, like the night before, Lia hugs her and whispers: "Don't worry Sofia, your courage will never fade". Under the rubble, between the blood and the screams of several people, Sofia is barely alive. Lia, on the other hand, feels like she has been reborn, nothing has been done, but she cannot bear the vision of her friend in agony, so she decides to blindly trust her premonition and instinct, so she opens her chest with her hands, takes the her heart and sticks it in Sofia's chest, placing it under her friend's heart without leaving scars on both, as if the chest were liquid.Hours go by, the sirens of the firefighters and ambulance are heard muffled in the debris. Voices are getting clearer as the rubble is moved. Rescuers find Sofia holding Lia's lifeless body in her arms. Without tears, without emotion, without expression, Sofia gets up, leaves her friend's inanimate body and is taken to an ambulance.In the hospital various doctors visit her physically and mentally, they notice that she has no wound, but she does not show any signs of speaking or changing expression. Eva arrives in a hurry and talks to the doctors who warn her of a possible trauma but she has no injury, no problem. So she remains under observation for a couple of days. After a week, the funeral of Lia and the other victims of the high school are celebrated. Sofia doesn't want to go there. Her mother checks how she is.

"I'm not sick, I don't feel anything. Don't worry ... There is actually something wrong with me. I can't remember the events of the collapse."

"Quiet it's normal after what happened."

"No! What happened is not normal ... I don't know how to explain it but I can't feel any more. I lost my love for Lia!"

"You have suffered a trauma. What you have lost will return. I have no doubts!" The mother smiles at her and hugs her daughter.In the evening Sofia is in her room and feels a pain in her chest. She feels as if there is a presence in the room with her. Exhausted, she decides not to care too much and goes to sleep. She fears she has gone mad or, worse, fears that those "supernatural forces" that everyone, including Lia, had talked about are true.She has a nightmare concerning a painting, where a flock of crows comes out attacking her. Fright forces her to wake up. She first sits down on the bed, then goes to her desk, turns on the light and, intrigued, retrieves a series of books on the occult and the interpretation of dreams from the shelf; classic books that the mother collects. She discovers that Ravens are mouthpieces of the unconscious and force us to remember repressed experiences.Sofia needs to go to the bathroom to wash her face. She hears noises from the kitchen. Goes out to check. Entering the room feels wet on the ground. She turns on the lights, sees a lot of blood on the floor. She sees her mother's head on the table. Sofia is strangely not shaken. She wonders why, but suddenly notices that her shadow begins to lengthen until it takes on a humanoid shape. This shadow begins to emanate a sound, one of the sharpest Sofia has ever heard. All the windows in the house shatter and the earth trembles. Sofia has time to escape from the collapse of the house. On the street are heard alarms, sirens and neighbors fleeing in terror.Sofia is still confused by what happened but stops to mull over what Lia said about the strange disappearances and her "unnatural powers". She turns and sees the rubble of her house. It is not fiction, nor a dream: What she sees is real. She decides to get as far away as she can from that horror. As she walks, memories come to her mind: among the various memories she discovers that she had Lia's pure heart as a gift at the time of the accident at the Lyceum. The memories become clearer, now Sofia touches her chest and still feels Lia's presence inside her.

Returning by the way to the Lyceum, she feels a little tired, sits on the ground and looks at the rubble. Slowly she recalls all the moments of Lia; she also begins to feel the feelings, emotions, disturbances, trepidations that Lia felt. Feelings denied too. She finally manages to cry like she used to. She cries for a long time for her newly lost mother and thinks she couldn't do anything to save her. She rediscovers her love for Lia, who is now more alive than ever. She then decides to do the impossible: to bring Lia back to life, she just needs to give her heart back to its original owner.By now, she runs to the cemetery to unearth Lia's coffin. She opens it and remains motionless to look at it. Sofia knows very well that she has changed and fears that Lia will no longer recognize her, but she is determined to bring her love back to life. She tries everything, puts both hands on his chest, tears it open and tries to grab the heart given to her by Lia to put it back inside her body. She is afraid of dying, but her love pushes her to continue. Eventually she succeeds and discovers that she is still alive.Once the wounds are closed, Lia opens her eyes again. Look at Sofia. Now she fears that she has made an unprecedented mistake, maybe now she will have to die. Has already cheated death once. In fact she feels weak, she feels has also lost her powers. But she doesn't care, now Lia is alive. Lia cries and exclaims:

"Sofia ... but what? What is happening?"I gave you back your life Lia!"

"Life ?! What are You..." Lia then senses that Sofia has obtained not only the heart but also the powers."Why ... why did you bring me back to life? You were selfish!" Lia exclaims furiously.

"Selfish me? You should thank me!" Sofia retorts.

"Admit it, you only resurrected me because you like me! True? You played with your life and abandoned who knows how many people besides Eva just to have me with you! Remember that you are not God ..."

"You! It was you who first stole me from death! I don't know what you are, you can also be the Devil as far as I'm concerned!"

"I saved you ... I was wrong it's true."

"Maybe the deaths of all those living beings are your fault!".

Both cry, Sofia kneels. They still look each other in the eye.

"What will happen to us now?" Asks Sofia.

"I don't know. For now we are alive, this is enough. What we have done must not happen again. We must no longer interfere with the lives of others."

"What do you mean?"

"Since I was a child I have had constant dreams where I saved the lives of animals or people. I did not save them directly but ... in short, it is as if I started a domino effect. I later discovered that I really saved it for them. Then the nightmares began. In nightmares an undefined figure would take the life of the same number of living beings that I had saved. This is not a gift you understand?! It's a curse! Promise Sofia to never use such a power again for any reason! "

Sofia smiles at her, hugs her and says: "I promise you".

5 years pass. Sofia and Lia now live in a new house together, in Milan. They totally changed their lives. Of those strange shadows, disappearances, we no longer hear about. Everything is now back to normal. In these new days Sofia together with her girlfriend has opened a place that she named "Eva" in honor of her mother and is considering going to live with her. Instead Lia teaches music in a convent. The only time Lia and Sofia talk to each other is during dinner. Their friendship matured. They will never forget their past but now they live in the present.