Chapter Text
PARIS
Many a night had I walked the empty dark streets of Paris, the only being under the faint gas lamps wondering aimlessly through the city, admiring the quiet beauty of the buildings reflected in the delicate waves of the waters, my footsteps taking over the air. The Seine, my only vivid companion alongside the pavement, had reflected the spectral shape of the moon as a constant reminder of my nocturnal life, my eternal roam.
Often, I find myself looking back on those early days, many decades ago, when Paris was my hunting ground. I owned the city, its streets and rooftops, the sound of my shoe soles echoing through the Quartier Latin, quiet in its regular lethargy. I would walk past the Île St. Louis, custodian of my pain forever, and I would sit on a bench overlooking the apse, absorbed in the monstrosity of the gargoyles that mocked my own.
It was during these night strolls through Paris that I felt the most powerful creature in this earth, not because I would have been able to ruin all that was alive in it but because I completely had it for myself. No other animal or human being could experience this loneliness as completion. Not other vampire could esteem the immense beauty that I possessed every night. No other creature, but you.
You would have showed me the light in your eyes, growing shinier with every turn that revealed a new sensation unfamiliar to you yet. You would have kissed me out of emotion witnessing the magnificence of the Opera, a vague reminder of your distant home. You would have overlooked every weakness in me because I would have been able to guide you in this labyrinthine city whose beauty and grandeur can only begin to be matched by those of others. You would have loved me, because Paris was beautiful, and I was beautiful, and I belonged to it.
Of all the things that you robbed me of, not allowing me to show you Paris was the one that hurt the most. Of all the things that you took away from me, not being able to hold your hand through her streets was the most indelible. Of all your aggressions, letting another accompany you through Paris was the irredeemable betrayal.