Grandinano Mary, piena della tolleranza, il signore è con il thee. È benedetto il thou fra le donne e benedetto essere la frutta del womb , Jesus. Mary santa, base del dio, ora prega per noi i sinners ed all' ora della nostra morte. Amen.
Rufiana Marconi crossed herself, standing up from the kneeling position she had taken in the room she and Guiliana shared in Little Italy. She brushed off her ragged pants, slipping her delicate rosary into her pocket. It had been a long day, and Verona was exhausted. She didn't know where Venice was, but she didn't particularly care all that much. Her own unkempt bed looked incredibly tempting. With a soft groan, she collapsed into bed, still fully clothed. Her eyes, already heavily lidded with need for sleep, drooped as she blew out the candle at her bedside. The flame flickered with her breath, dancing nimbly before snuffing out. Rufiana kicked off her shoes, her head resting on the pillow, eyes closed.
The house was still raucous from the girls downstairs carrying on. Generally, Verona would be with them, but her day had been long and hard and she wasn't feeling up to staying awake any longer then necessary. First she had woken up late. Because of this, she had gotten her papers late and therefore didn't have a starting advantage. The headlines gave her nothing to work with, and she sold just short of half of her newspapers. Her lack of money had only afforded her a cup of coffee for lunch, and no dinner. She had very nearly gotten into a fight on her way back to the lodging house because of her inability to keep her mouth shut. All in all, her day had gone to hell.
Unable to get comfortable, she turned over on her side, facing the closed door. The room was dark enough that Rufiana couldn't see the outline of her hand. She sighed, shifting again. The still candle remained on her night table, extinguished. Rufiana grumbled, standing, and changed into her nightgown in the dark, dropping her rosary down beside the candle. The wick glowed gently in the dark of the room before sputtering into a small, golden flame. The girl froze, staring at her candle in shock. When she pulled her eyes away from the candle that had been lit by some unseen hand, she could just faintly make out the outline of a young man's transparent figure against the wall watching her. The figure flickered as the candle had done before vanishing.
