ghost [k. parker]

• CHAPTER 11 •

Sebastian was the man who had given her the devorantis blade. She had met him whilst she was scouring the continent for Joshua Parker and he had took a liking to her. They'd spent a few weeks together in which Sebastian had told her how he had carried out his revenge arc with the help of the blade and had now settled down in his home town, looking for a way to be mortal again. Both had found the perfect solution: Roma needed the magic to take on Parker and Sebastian finally wanted to rid himself of immortality. He was 122 and everyone he once knew had died; he'd watched from a distance as his family and friends were buried and he had to move on. He told her that he'd travelled a lot, as you would if you had the time. If he carried the grief around with him, he hoped it would weigh a little less in a new town.

In the time that they'd spent together, Roma clearly remembered him telling her that he lived in Paris in the 1990s. With some wile and trickery, he'd gotten himself a penthouse with one of the closest views of the Eiffel tower. He'd commented that the view was average but that wasn't why he wanted the apartment. There was just something so calming about walking to the window at an unreasonable hour and seeing people, crazy, stupid, ordinary people awake and being alive, being a tourist and finding happiness in the silliest of pleasures. As an immortal man, that was a sight that took his breath away.

This is why Roma wanted to study the view she had. If she died, she wouldn't have the energy to come all the way back up. She was leant over the railing, eyes squinted and analytic as she tried to remember every detail of the stories Sebastian had told her. She was going to find where Sebastian lived and she was going to find answers.

Unbeknownst to her, Kai had been watching her after he'd gotten bored of the view. He'd even taken a picture or two of her on his disposable camera yet she still hadn't torn her eyes away from whatever she was looking at.

"We've been here for ages. Come on, I want to do something fun," he whined, dragging himself along the railing till he was closer to her.

Ignoring him, Roma raised her hand and pointed to what looked like a stretch of apartment buildings to the left of the grassy field stretched below. "What street is that?"

Kai shrugged, confused by the relevance of the question. "How am I supposed to know?"

She gave him a light slap on the shoulder whilst rolling her eyes.

"Look at the map, dumbass."

He fumbled with getting out the map he'd scrunched into his pocket, holding it out upside down. Roma let out a sigh of frustration and snatched it from him- Kai surrendering it with his hands raised- inspecting it herself. She nodded when she was certain and tugged on Kai's arm.

"Let's go," she said, flying down the steps and leaving Kai unsure of what she was thinking. He knew that they weren't the best at communication but that whole interaction was a little strange.

"You know there's an elevator, right?" He called after her, but shaking his head and following suit when he realised she hasn't heard.

_____

LE TAUREAU. The letters were peeling off the café sign and the view through the grease-smudged glass plane was no better; the cheap black-and-white linoleum flooring wasn't pleasant to look at and neither were the tattered orange armchairs that looked as if they'd had their holes stitched up one too many times. Nevertheless, Roma looked at the place with glistening eyes, a small smile resting on her face. It was a sight that Malachai Parker was not used to seeing- but sure could get used to. He'd been sauntering behind her as she had ran ahead excitedly and approached the building with a look of disgust. He casually propped his arm on her shoulder (which she immediately shook off, of course) and tried his hardest to find what she was so excited by.

"What are we looking at?"

"The best café in Paris." This subjective statement was clearly not Roma's own statement; they were stolen words from Sebastian. This was the reason for her glee, as she remembered how he told her that nearly every morning he would come and get a pastry from here, this cafe that was just around the corner from his home.

"You have got to be kidding me," Kai muttered, his distaste clear. "I can't believe this shit-hole of a shop was even allowed on a street in central Paris. I mean, I know that the Louvre Pyramid is said to be a scar on the face of Paris, but this place takes the fucking cake. Roma, we're not stepping foot in there unless you want to contract a skin disease. Then, by all means, be my guest."

"We're not eating in there, you idiot," Roma scoffed, finally turning to face him.

"Then please enlighten me as to what we're doing here?"

Roma tensed for a second, trying to think of a lie that Kai would believe- she couldn't tell him her true intentions. What she came up with, she was quite impressed with. "Er, Yelp. Yelp said it was the best cafe in Paris. It doesn't look like this in the future, obviously. It's- it's magestic now, yeah, chandeliers and gold and all. Apparently, though, because I've never been- but Yelp said it was."

Kai formed the word with his mouth hesitantly before he sounded it out loud, "Yelp?"

Roma nodded with certainty. "Yeah, it's a future thing. A future internet thing." And before he could continue to ask more questions she grabbed his hand and pulled him around the corner, dragging him to Sebastian's former apartment building. "I'm getting tired, let's find a place to stay."

She dropped his hand soon enough.