chapter 11: paris
"DO YOU SWEAR THAT once we get to the top you won't push me off?"
Kai's face had morphed into one of disappointment, internally wondering why they were climbing the Eiffel Tower if he wasn't allowed to have any fun at the top of it. He agreed reluctantly, though resorting to mumbling complaints under his breath.
For the past few months they had been travelling. They'd took Kai's approach and stayed in a place till they felt they'd explored and seen every crevice, path and clearing the country had to offer. In Hawaii they'd roamed the seabeds, dying more times than they could count after their oxygen tanks ran out, just to swim a little further than the last time. India had been a culture shock and a half for them, everything from the tea plantations (they felt like they were breathing in new air) to the old temples, adorned with ancient gods, set in gold and vibrant colour. Kai and Roma died in ruins of ancient Indian civilisations, for no particular reason other than to die in the tombs of long gone emperors (there was some great irony in two immortal beings unsuccessfully dying where a king who thought he was infallible lay buried as bones). Or maybe for the two of them, joining the ghosts, brief as it was, was some solace from the loneliness.
It is was no secret that dying was an intimate thing. It hurt and it would always hurt, no matter how many times they had done it before. However, it got easier to die. By the tenth time you were pushed off a mountain, you begin to stop dreading the fall. Your evolutionary behaviour that taught you to feel fear when facing threatening situations because fear keeps you alive, stops working after you stop being alive a couple of times. This doesn't stop you shattering when you feel the impact of the fall.
This is why death was so intimate, because it was painful, not because it was frightening. Roma had held onto Kai tightly, placing his head into her lap and stroking his hair softly as he bled out on the cold stone floors of dilapidated castles, shortly after she had stuck the knife into his stomach. There was nothing more human than a boy, in the hands of a girl, hurting.
Kai had done the same for her, running his hands through her wet hair after hauling her out of hidden rivers, waiting expectantly for her to resuscitate and clear the freshwater from her lungs. There was always some fear in the brief few minutes that the other wouldn't return, not this time. This time, some old, bitter god would cruelly yank the other into the void and the forsaken one would be left, waiting.
It almost seemed like they were using dying as a way of flirting; a little twisted, but to be expected considering the circumstances. However, Roma had ruled this out immediately. She even refused to consider the fact that they were possibly, maybe, almost friends.
But this kind of life wasn't enough for either of them. They both knew that. Sometimes it was sickening just to hear the other's voice, and they were always hypervigilant, always looking for a way out. In fact, it was almost comedic- Kai would first sneak out at night to explore the new cities and search for any helpful tools in any of the remnants of covens, and then Roma would sneak into his room searching for her knife and the ascendant. Neither found anything but they kept on hopelessly searching.
However, that had changed when they got to Paris. Kai wasn't exactly sure why Roma didn't want to be pushed off the top of the Eiffel tower. It seemed like a mild death compared to the other ways he had killed her, quite pleasant even, if he dared push it that far. But Roma, aside from doing the usual tourist-y thing, had a purpose for climbing up the tower. You see, she had had an epiphany on the flight over to France. She was dreaming about what she expected it to be like when she started analysing the root of her schemas about the country. And then her mind drifted to Sebastian.
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.