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“I won't live like this!” Claudia snarls, throwing herself on Madeleine's couch, "Had a six foot blonde millstone around my neck back in the states, and now after travelin’ halfway around the world I've another one!”
Madeleine cozies in beside her, lacing their fingers together and she sighs. “What about this coven leader, Armand? Can't you tell him to get Santiago out of our hair? Really, he doesn't have anything better to do?”
Claudia just stares ahead, fuming. Madeleine has been a vampire for only a few weeks and already Claudia can feel eyes from les theatres following their every move.
Madeleine giggles, “You look like a teapot with steam coming out your ears! What if we move to another section of the city?”
Claudia turns to her with a grave expression. “It won't be far enough. Maddy, I'm really worried. They've done awful, unspeakable things to other vampires. I'm afraid of what they'll do to us.’
“Does Louis know? Have you spoken to him about it?” Madeleine wonders.
“No point. Only thing in his head now is Armand. If he can't read it or fuck it, he doesn't care.”
Madeleine grows quiet with deepening concern. “Maybe I'll speak with him, remember we're double dating with them tomorrow evening..you're still wearing your yellow dress, right?”
Scanning outside after hearing suspicious noises through the open window, Claudia's face is a myriad of emotions before she sits up and informs, “No. We need to leave now.”
“Wh-at? Now? Mais pourquoi(but why)?” Madeleine asks, just now registering the gravity of Claudia's concern.
Claudia takes her hands and gazes into her soul. “I need you to listen to me, lord knows no one else does. They're plotting something, and if we don't leave now I'm scared we'll find that we can't, and who knows what'll happen then. Get only what you need to survive, I can buy us more later. Make it look like you've prepared a picnic for us. We'll make a few stops, then leave.”
Madeleine's expression becomes severe, “My shop..I saved my entire life for it-”
“I'll get you a new one, a bigger one with more modern equipment, but I'm serious..we need to leave as soon as you get packed. Tell me what you need and I'll grab it!”
Speaking in quiet whispers, they swiftly prepare to make their escape. Claudia warns her to keep her thoughts solely on the topic they happen to be discussing while she collects Madeleine's toiletries and cherished family heirlooms.
Clothing is selected and laid flat at the bottom of the basket and before they lock up her apartment, Madeleine pauses, realizing she won't be returning for anything left behind. Her life is summed up in this basket, and will be changing forever when closing her apartment door behind her.
Warm, loving hands cradle her face and wipe away a few blood tears she hadn't been aware were falling.
“When I left home, it was under similar circumstances. Had my life in just a few bags and we ran for ‘something better’. Here I am, standing in front of my ‘something better’. I love you and we're gonna get through this.”
Madeleine nods and sighs. Claudia leans forwards, taking the basket from her, and brushes a gentle kiss across her quivering lips.
~*~*~
They walk out of the building like this is any other date night, speaking about current films or records they've been enjoying as of late.
They continue on towards Louis’ apartment for some time, until Claudia announces, “Forgot my change purse upstairs. Be right down, then we can have our ‘picnic’ by the Seine.”
Claudia's only slipping a goodbye letter under the apartment door for Louis, explaining their disappearance. She's neither asking for permission, nor apologizing for moving on to live her life elsewhere, out from under the constant threat of Santiago and his merry band of psychotic misfits.
The tragic notion occurs to her that Louis is possibly so entrenched in life with Armand, he may not find the letter until several days from now, none the wiser she's even left. Despite it crushing her heart in sorrow that she's obviously not enough, like Louis promised, she acknowledges it's all the more reason not to linger.
Linking her arm around Madeleine in the building's lobby, she begins a conversation about Èdith Piaf's latest tour dates. They continue discussing their favorite musicians along the way to the Seine. Once there, Claudia spies a beautiful little, unattended black and blue Motobécane 350 which she hot wires and in no time, they're on the A13 heading out of Paris towards the port city of Le Havre in Normandy.
It's nearly two in the morning when they arrive in Le Havre port, with the intention of stowing away on a cargo ship bound across the English channel to Portsmouth in the morning. From there, they can easily secure more safe and practical passage back to the states.
Claudia scans the environment and assesses, “Le Trappist.. it's a bar still open near the port. Let's get some drinks and sit a while.”
Madeleine nods, still in shock at the situation, but cooperatively follows Claudia's lead. The bar is lively, with a quaint ambience due to the combined presence of jovial locales and port regulars. To their surprise, they blend in alarmingly well, conversing undisturbed over a couple of pints.
“Do you think we were followed?” Madeleine nervously wonders.
“Not by Santiago at least. That buffoon would’ve made himself known by now.”
“What makes you say that?”
Leaning in, Claudia lays down some truth. “Because his dramatic, reactionary ass would've had me against that back wall by the throat already if he were in earshot of what I just said.”
That, at least, earns a weak smile. “I wish I could hold your hand right now.”
Since they're in a corner booth of the bar, Claudia moves so they're a mere ninety degrees away from each other and rests her hand on Madeleine's lap.
Watching a degree of calm soften her face, Claudia attempts to distract her by turning a frown upside down. “We can go anywhere. See anything. Ever wanted to go to California?”
“Hollywood?” Madeleine brightens at the prospect.
“Clark Cable. Rita Hayworth. Jane Mansfield…you name it. We can go to the beaches, I hear even by moonlight they're beautiful.”
“I'd like that. As long as I'm with you, I can manage, mon petite choux,” Madeleine offers, attempting to peer over the wall of gloom into the brighter side of the situation.
Her reverie is interrupted by two men stumbling into the bar with both their sleeves rolled up, drunkenly celebrating their new ink. Claudia tosses a maniacal look at Madeleine, who is picking up what she's laying down with growing enthusiasm.
“It must be close by, they can hardly walk without falling,” Madeleine observes, grabbing her purse to follow an already leaving Claudia.
They step into the night, listening for sounds indicating the direction in which the nearby establishment is located. Left, not even a block down. In seconds, they're waltzing in the door and explaining to the artist what they'd like.
“Two hearts, sort of melding into each other,” Claudia describes.
The man sets up right away. Dipping the pen in the ink, he begins with Claudia first. She doesn't flinch in the slightest; in fact, she struggles to keep from giggling because the needle tickles, even though it seems the man has to press extra hard to pierce her skin. It takes fifteen minutes to complete the simple instructions she gives him, and roughly the same for Madeleine.
Before leaving, they hand him a wad of cash. It's far too much, but they don't mind in the slightest. They're leaving for a new life in a matter of hours. Holding hands, they zig and zag to the shipyards, scanning for the best way to sneak in and find a corner in which to stow away across the Channel. By the time they're safely nestled in their hidey hole, the sun outside is rising.
*~*~*
Eleven hours later the following evening, they're pulling into Portsmouth just as the sun is slipping below the horizon. It's then they breathe in free air and begin believing they have a shot at their own petite slice of happily ever after.
Madeleine is waiting under a lamp post while Claudia gathers information about their surroundings, and where they might find lodgings for a few days until they can leave on a proper passenger boat. Just as she arrives with welcome news, Madeleine glances at her shoulder, registering that something is missing.
“Claudia, where did your tattoo go? You got inked just like me, I watched…”
Claudia pulls the strap of her dress aside, verifying her shoulder has indeed healed…as in, there's not a single trace she ever had a tattoo. Madeleine quickly checks hers to find the same, gone.
“How did..I don't understand,” she huffs in confusion.
Claudia growls and rolls her eyes. “It heals because most anything that harms us can be healed. Put to rights. I just wasn't thinking right, what with possibly a loose cannon Santiago on us like a hound dog on a hamburger.”
“What a shame. I was going to happily wear it forever as a badge of honor.”
Claudia lifts her sinking chin once more, “That ink is real to me. It's a mark that won't ever fade, because I got it with you. You'll always be my something better, tattoo or not. It's still in me and on my heart forever.“
She places a modest kiss upon Claudia's lips, and links their pinky fingers together. “You're the same for me, always.”