The Signora [..."A heroic death, yes a lovely explosive death. War finally came and offered her that prospect. Combat and war, she was surrounded by its smell, a smell of powder, of screaming cadavers, of lightning, [...] All of it made her secretly cheer like a spectator in the bloodiest arena of all. Gore! Now it was the human turn to be butchered, stabbed underneath brilliant red cloth that is held, waved, and danced by strong, graceful arms"...]
The Stench [..."A dead rat lay at the bottom of the stairs. You could barely see it standing here at the top of the flight, but you could definitely smell it. Oh, you could smell its sickening sweet stench from the end of the street! Well, almost. The electricity was out. It won’t be back until noon. But the loading dock at the other end was open, and it let some light in. Light that barely made its way to this side here, but ah well, it was enough to make out the fuzzy little outline of the decaying rodent below."...]
