On a chill evening in early December, Daniel Leonardo stepped into his empty home to the dim light from outside. He sat his coat on a rack inside the wooden door in the opening hallway, shivering a little as he stripped it off of his torso. Walking closer to the thermostat, he tapped the white buttons on the greenly-glowing console to bring the tempurature up to a nice 70 degrees. The old man rubbed his face with his rough hands before walking into the kitchen and turning on the light above the stove. He looked around the lonely house somewhat disgruntled, unsure of what to do.

    Stepping into the nearby living room, Dan looked down at the busy kitchen table. Out of his large back pocket, he took out a wad of envelopes and advertisements he had gotten from his mailbox not too long ago. Setting them on the rest of the massive stack, he squekaly sat down in a wooden chair that overlooked the round table. He picked up a stack of the envelopes and sifted through them, making smaller piles based on the date and the contents of the papers. In the end, he had a few nice stacks of bills, family letters, and magazines. Dan picked up the top letter in the bills pile, putting on his reading glasses to see what it had to say.

    "$200 dollars for a month I wasn't even here..." Dan sighed and put it in a new stack next to the others. He went through them one by one until he caught something. "'The cafe you once owned has been bought out by a previous buyer interested in the property. Althrough any and all damages were paid for by the landlord's insurance, the building you once owned has been re-constructed into a...' A nick-nack shop?!" He flipped the card over to see a number on the back, grabbing phone soon after.

    "Hello, is this the owner of the building o-"

    "Oh, you must be Dan," a young woman said from the phone. "I'm actually so glad you called, I've been trying to get in contact with you to see if we could clear some things up with the insurance and integrety of the place."

    "Are you the young lady that stole my store," Dan bitterly asked with gritted teeth. The only response he got was a muffled little chuckle that rang through his ear. "Damn kids... How'd you even pay for the place anyway? It should still be under contract with me!"

    "Oh yeah, sorry about that." The woman settled her breathing slightly. "You see, I actually managed to negotiate with your landlord and score a sweet deal on this property. I mean, right at a major intersection with a pizza parlor and a bar? Not to mention, it can be accessed from inside and outside of the major downtown area."

    Dan grimmiced at his phone. "I know the damn building, lady, but that doesn't answer my question! How the hell did you manage to get that building in the first place?"

    "Tell ya what, Dan," the woman said sweetly, "How about you come on down and we'll settle the details soon. Say... Friday?"

    As Dan stuttered and struggled to respond, the phone hung up and went silent. The old man looked around his empty living room, scowling down at his phone before throwing it onto his long, olive couch. With a slight wimper, he wiped his hand over his mouth and looked longingly over to his bedroom on the other side of the kitchen. He walked in, heading for the small bathroom that sat in the corner of his room. He took one of the many orange pill bottles and choked down a few pellets before calming down.

    Taking a deep breath, Dan looked in the mirror hanging over his sink. He brushed his teeth quickly before crawling into bed and pulling the covers over his body. After a few more deep breaths, he quietly fell asleep in his black room with only the flashing of his clock past the foot of his bed.

    When the time came to confront his problems, Dan woke up early. He throuraly shaved his face for the first time in what felt like months, taking the blade slow across his chisled chin. He gathered the clothes he would wear, putting on a light blue button up shirt and plain kacki pants that he attatched with a leather belt. Walking out the door, he adjusted his silver hair with a comb to make it look neater.

    The old man drove downtown, parking behind the front of what was once his cafe. He walked under the iron pavilion to the little entrance at the back of the building. Opening the door, he saw nothing that looked like his cafe. The tables were gone, the chairs by the counter stripped. His confused astonishment turned even more grim from looking at the shelves around the interior, the pastey white walls, the blaring lights overhead. Nothing was kept the same as it once was.

    "Oh Dan, you made it," the woman from the phone said as she gestured her hands around the place. She seemed to be in her mid-to-late thirties with glasses on a little chain around her neck. Her blonde hair almost twinkled in the lights as she walked closer to Dan. "Welcome to my shop. My name's Sabrina-"

    "What the hell'd you do to my cafe?" Dan pointed up at the ceiling lights. "This color, this shabbiness... Why'd you do it? And how?"

    "Now now," Sabrina said as she held onto Dan's frigid hands. "We'll go discuss those terms now if it'll put your mind at ease. Just follow me." The two walked up to the second floor of the building, which opened into an office space with the same drab colors as the store below. The woman walked to her desk and sat in the swivel chair. Crossing her legs, she motioned Dan to sit across from her. "Okay, so I bet you're wondering how I bought this little guy at the edge of a major part of downtown..."

    "You're a prophet," Dan sighed. He put his elbows on the wooden desk, scooching his chair closer as well. "Yes, I do want to know how you bought this building without my knowledge."

    "Well, Mr. Leonardo," Sabrina clasped her hands and put them under her face as her elbows also landed on her desk, "it's pretty simple. If you somehow didn't know, you've only been renting the floor below." She pulled a piece of paper with a stamped "vetoed" over it. "This is the contract that you placed with the original owners of the building, your landlord, and the city itself. This whole folder, actually..."

    She pulled out a thick beige journal that housed dozens of papers in it. "This folder right here is the letters we've found over the past two years, including your original bank statement in 2019, that tell how much you could make for that moment. This document made it to where you wouldn't have to pay the rent as long as the bank supported it. However, there is a notable dent, that being the insurance not being able to cover the expenses of the explosion on March 31st of this year and the hospital bills that covered those costs. Since your care only allows for one of these at a time, the money being paid rent for the cafe went into your hospital bills, allowing you to recover. Also, since I've been looking into this property for a bit myself, I requested a meeting with the landlord and sorted everything out. Any questions?"

    Dan sat across from Sabrina dumbfounded, his gaping mouth showing his pure confusion on what he heard. He put his hands to his face before holding them out at her. "Yes, what was all of what you just said? But ten times slower. My ears are still ringing from when this place BLEW TO THE SKY."

    "Okay, basically, I bought you out with this-" Sabrina held up a paper. "With this-" Then another. "And then with this-" Another with a big, red X on it. "Then finally this-" She held up the deed to the building before quickly pulling them away like the rest of the papers. "Now, I'm sorry I have to cut this chat short, but I have a business to run." Sabrina slightly shoved a stuttering Dan out of the office door. "If you have any other questions, let me know and I'll happily bring a representative to help you out. Bye now."

    The door slammed behind Dan, who stammered a bit before walking down the stairs and back to his car. He scrunched his tired eyes and weakly pinched them as he turned the key. Exiting the parking lot, he decided to drive a bit through downtown, looking at the various businesses dotting the streets. Turning one last time, he saw what was once his cafe leave his line of sight. Turning back to the road, he just shook his head.

    "What a load of bullshit."