Fleeting Mortality
A/N: Edited: I've felt the need to write something for Louis in IWTV... I'm not sure if it's any good but I figured I'd post it. This is just something that came off the top of my head. Please give some feedback. There will be a part 2.
Dedicated to @sirxlla from my main account @stitchattacks
I sat curled up on the couch in another part of the penthouse with my headphones on and my computer in my lap, I was typing out some notes from the interview and going through some emails for Danny. The sounds of Linkin Park drowned out the silence that settled into the penthouse like saran wrap, suffocating and confined.
I almost didn’t notice the hand in my peripheral setting a cup on the coffee table onto a coaster. I looked up and smiled at Rashid genuinely and reached up to pull my headphones down to wrap around my neck. “Thank you, I appreciate it.” I spoke softly.
Rashid’s stoic facade broke slightly to give a tiny twitch of a smile back. “You’re very welcome. It’s some hibiscus tea with some honey.”
I smiled wider as I reached forward and gently picked up the mug to sip at it. It was refreshing, making me close my eyes in comfort. “This is delicious, thank you again.”
“I’ve never seen someone so genuinely thankful for things... at least not for a long time anyway.”
I turned and saw Louis there standing with his hands behind his back. He observed the little comfort I made myself on his couch and coffee table. With the blanket I brought from home and my demeanor of content. He stared curiously at me while I smiled softly.
“I used to work retail... Customer service jobs are a bitch.” I said with a grin. “I try to be as genuine as possible with people, especially when they bring me things I didn’t ask for out of kindness.”
Louis grinned softly and looked down before looking back at me. He gestured to the chair next to the couch and I smiled, nodding. He moved to sit down as I moved my laptop to the coffee table. I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Rashid moving to the chair behind him with his iPad, I could tell he was very attentive and listening.
“Could I ask you some questions?” He asked as he crossed his legs, smooth and elegant.
I tilted my head. “Sure, feel free to do so.”
“You’re nothing like Daniel... how do you work with him?” He tilted his head back at me, making me smile.
“Tediously.” I told him, making a small smile come across his lips. “But mostly because he gave me a chance when no one else did. I was just out of college when I met him; his publisher had recommended he get an assistant, and he resisted, quite heavily before he told them he gave me a week. I had applied for the off chance that they might consider me, but I wasn’t hopeful. I had applied at multiple different firms and mostly they just wanted an errand girl, someone to get coffee orders, make copies; that kind of thing. None of them wanted to actually allow me to work or help with projects. They assigned me to Danny and at first, he was combative, until I did something in an article he was writing. This was around the time when he was starting to become complacent and just writing for the hell of it, not really giving genuine projects a thought. He made the article wordy and hard to read. I kind of got ahead of myself and rewrote it to make it easier to read and more flow to the piece.”
I grinned guilty at Louis who raised an eyebrow at me. “You completely rewrote it? I’m surprised he didn’t complain about it.”
“Oh, he did. Every day the week after the article was posted... acting like he didn’t post the article with my changes.” I grinned around the rim of the cup as Louis smirked.
There was a beat of silence.
“You’re unafraid.”
I looked at him, locking eyes. I tried to find what kind of answer he wanted from his statement. “No... No, I'm not afraid.” I told him.
“Why? You should be.” He looked at me curiously. I saw Rashid’s head peak up from over Louis’ shoulder in interest.
“Because if you wanted me dead already... I would be.”
“I could still kill you.” He said bluntly.
I nodded. “Of course you could... A lot of things could kill me. If I live in fear each day of death, then that is no way of living. I’ve already accepted that death is inevitable in life. I came to that conclusion a long time ago. If I die, I die.” I shrug nonchalantly.
Louis’ eyes narrowed at me in thought. “You are a strange bred of human.” He hummed softly, making me smile.
“Thank you.”
He grinned. “Don’t take this wrong way, but I enjoy your line of thought.”
I smile wider, causing my eyes to close. “I’m glad then”
“You don’t find it odd.” He posed it as a statement rather than a question. I’m assuming about the reading minds part.
I looked at him to see he was watching me curiously, his eyes tracing my facial features, like he was looking for something that contradicted what I was saying. “I’ve always been a little more open minded than most.” I let the sentence hang, tilting my head at Louis. I glance behind him to see Rashid watching us, not able to read his face as he looked at Louis and I.
I didn’t notice Louis glance down to my stash of papers and books on the coffee table and when I looked back, he was looking at me with intrigue. “Tuck Everlasting...”
I looked confused for a moment before my mouth opened in realization. I looked down at the coffee table and saw my copy of Tuck Everlasting. I smiled and leaned forward to pick it up gently. “Yeah, I was re-reading it when Daniel told me about coming to Dubai.”
I looked at Louis with a gentle smile and he raised his eyebrow. “Do you think about immortality?”
My gaze grew unfocused as I thought about how to answer the question. “I think, almost every human has thought about it at some point, whether in deep contemplation or just a fleeting thought.”
Louis grinned softly. “I asked if you thought about it.”
I grinned and looked down at the book. “I have before. Just not seriously.”
The was a beat of silence.
I looked up at him from under my lashes.
“What are your thoughts on all of this?” He asks quietly.
I sigh through my nose and purse my lips before speaking. “You want my honesty?”
He nods, staring me down with an intense gaze. His green eyes reflect beautifully in the low light of the room, making goosebumps form on my arms as I repressed a shiver. “I think you’ve lived a long life and still don’t know where you belong.” He frowned. I continued. “Don’t get me wrong, you’ve seemed to belong more now than from what I’ve learned from the sessions back then. But I feel like you still struggle to accept yourself and just continue existing. I feel like you continue living for other people and not yourself. You continue to torture yourself mentally because you feel guilty. For everything. You feel guilty about your old family; you feel guilty for letting Claudia go off on her own.”
I stare at him as I see him swallow, barely noticing Rashid stand up behind him.
“You just do what you know best, you continue going on as you’ve always done. You’re in a constant cycle of guilt and depression and anger.” I whispered out.
The room grew tense as silence fell into the room. Louis sat there; his face had fallen into an expression mixed between quiet anger and sullen thought.
He clenched his eyes shut before sighing and standing up. He looked at me with a stoic gaze, mask falling over his eyes again. “I think I'll go to the Tree Room.” His softspoken voice spoke out before walking calmly out of the room.
Rashid and I stared after him.
Rashid turned to me and I looked at him before I took a sip of my tea.
-
I sat in the chairs next to the big bay windows as Daniel continued the interview with Louis, Rashid sat in another chair nearby with is iPad again, making me smile softly.
I had my laptop on the small table in front of the chair and was typing some notes and making some annotations.
I paused as I heard Louis start talking about the Mardi Gras Ball; his voice had a soft strain as he was telling the events of Claudia gathering the poison, and the how they planned on poisoning Lestat. I looked up at Louis and could see the turmoil on his face as he explained how he was second guessing himself, the dance with Lestat. The people they picked to “gain eternal life,” how they tricked them. What followed made me sit up and listen more closely.
Antoinette, the switch of the poison, Louis’ decision to slice Lestat’s throat.
Louis’ eyes were unfocused as he told the store, his voice getting choked up as he kept going.
Louis still feels the guilt and pain from doing this to the man he loved. His eyes were becoming shiny and lined with red as tears started to build.
I clenched my jaw as I felt my eyes start to cloud with my own tears as I watched this strong man bare his emotions out for all to see.
“Mets-moi dans mon cercueil, Louis...” Daniel read from Claudia’s diary. He looked concerned at Louis, who was barely holding on as it was.
Rashid translated, “Put me in my coffin, Louis.” I looked over at Rashid and noticed he was tense.
“His irises rolled to the top of his head; the whites of his eyes went dim... This horror that had been Lestat... I stared helplessly.” Louis barely got out as his chin trembled. “The thing lay still... there was no point in lingering. The house on Rue Royale would soon become the focus of all too many questions. For the last time in New Orleans, we followed our training and cleaned up the evidence of our most elaborate kill... well... Almost.”
Louis took a deep breath as he swallowed, attempting to seem unbothered, but his jaw was too tense.
“It was as if we’d expected Lestat to disappear in a puff of smoke or get sucked into hell.” Louis continued as he threaded his fingers together.
Daniel narrowed his eyes. “So, what did you do with it?”
Louis’ face went stoic as he answered. “We wrapped him in a carpet; we threw him in a trunk and left him out with the garbage. We got in our car and drove away, headed straight for the port.”
“The boat for Havana?” Daniel asked.
“Another boat, a merchant vessel, newly christened and head for Europe.” Louis told him.
Danile looked at him in realization. “The boat you bought Anderson. A shipload of coffins for cargo.”
Louis nodded. “Plenty of cover for a couple of stowaways, read to begin the adventure of their lives.”
Daniel sat back and stared at him, “Well, isn’t that neat and tidy?” he said almost sarcastically.
Louis looked at him seriously. “There was a ship, we did get on it.”
I watched the scene unfold as I crossed my legs and wrapped my arms around myself. The air was growing tense and uncomfortable, but I needed to stay. The tension was stifling as Rashid was growing tenser as the conversation continued.
Daniel nodded. “Yeah, I read that... the first 50 pages. Not exactly the, uh, adventure of our lives feeling I’m feeling.” Daniel pushed.
Louis almost seemed offensive. “It was a traumatic escape.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t say that explicitly, I mean maybe in some of the pages that got torn out. Well, not torn out exactly. More like with a ruler.” Daniel was poking something he shouldn’t be. Daniel looked down at some of the books and papers. “But um... there’s a feeling that she hated your guts there for a while...” Daniel looked up at Louis. “Why is that?”
Louis’ face grew tight as he started to defend himself. “I was haunted by my brother’s death, by the abandonment of my sister, by the murder of Lestat, I -”
Daniel’s brow scrunched together. “Murder? What murder?” Louis looked at him in confusion. “It was an act of mercy” Louis looked more confused as Daniel continued to press the discrepancy. “You didn’t kill Lestat, you spared him. Out of some fucked up idea you had about love.”
Louis shook his head while scoffing a sarcastic breath. “Love? I bled him like a pig and waited for the death rattle.” He emphasized.
Daniel shook his head and sat forward. “You were shot point blank by an Alderman. You were dropped a thousand feet and survived.” Louis barely twitched at the mention. “You torched Antoinette just to make sure.”
There was a beat of silence. Daniel grew serious. “Where does the trash go, Louis?”
I tensed up more as the wound was exposed. Louis was silent.
“You take the trash down to the street and some guys show up in a truck and they throw it in the back and then they drive it out to the middle of nowhere, right?” Daniel asked rhetorically. “No, they take the trash to the dump.” Daniel tilted his head as I started to feel like the room was enclosing on me.
“And having lived 2 blocks away from the dump just outside of Fishkill, New York, with my first wife. I can state, with authority, what else you’ll find there. Rats. Big fucking rats, the size of Kevin Durant’s sneakers. Enough blood in them to bring back the dead. Especially one in a trunk with locks on the inside.”
Louis didn’t answer, his breathing was picking up as I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over to see Rashid stand up.
Daniel started to smile a smug grin. “You knew it, Louis. You had to.” Louis stared at him down as he picked his skin around his fingernails. “The biggest rat-eater of them all.”
Rashid moved to stand at Louis’ shoulder. “This session is over.” Not realizing that’s invited Daniel to pick on him now.
I stayed silent, not wanting to get involved. Daniel sat up to look at Rashid. “How many days in the Islamic Year? How many names are there for Allah?”
Rashid stared him down. “355 and 99.”
Daniel continued. “Why does a 200-pound bouncer pass out after he sucks him off” he gestured to Louis, “and you, a wet t-shirt away from 130, doesn’t even blink?”
Louis was growing more distressed.
I started to pick at my fingernails, growing nervous at the situation. I lifted a hand to my mouth as my jaw tensed and unclenched in anxiety.
Louis shook his head. “I couldn’t burn him.”
Daniel looked back at Louis. “But Claudia could.”
Louis instantly denied. “No, she couldn’t”
Daniel leaned forward. “She stuck a pen in his neck. She recorded his last words in his own blood.” He picked up a notebook and held it out to Louis. “The girl did not have a fucking problem tossing him on the grill, okay?”
Louis’ eyes zoned out as he thought over the memory. Clenching his jaw, he rushed from the couch and speed walked into the room with Daniel following. Rashid following close behind.
“Was it raining, Louis?” Daniel taunted. I rushed to stand up and follow, seeing them walk into the Tree Room.














