Baguette Rhymes with Dead || ONC 2024 | ✔

Chapter 13: All That Time (But You Still Had A Heart)

I didn't understand this. At all. My throat went dry, thoughts racing as I tried in vain to determine if I should be worried or not. Though I'd rather run into Luc and Béatrice than Abelard and Heloise, I struggled to make sense of it. Why hadn't Luc left the necropolis as he said he would? Where had he found Béatrice? What were they doing here together?

Had Béatrice truly been someone we could trust?

I'd been giving her the benefit of the doubt for hours, but the fear we'd been wrong began creeping into my soul.

"Luc? Béatrice? What's the meaning of this?" I didn't bother masking how baffled I really was.

Béatrice said nothing. She looked stiff and tense, awkwardly wringing her hands together. Her eyes darted to Luc, which taught me the question's answer would be coming from him. Luc himself didn't seem so relaxed, either, though he tried to appear that way, leaning back slightly with his hands in his pockets. But he still stood too straight, his fingers dug too deep into the fabric of his jeans, and he was too close to Béatrice for comfort.

"Hi, Nick. So good to see you." There was an unprecedented intensity in his gaze when he locked eyes with me, though it was filled with uncertainty, too. Tension. Stress. Something conflicted I couldn't place.

"I know I said I'd go back, and I was planning on it," Luc went on, the corner of his mouth twitching. "But then I happened to run into Béatrice. We talked for a while, and because her car is faster than public transport, we decided together that we'd do well to pick you up. So we came here and waited for you. Come to the car with us and we'll be in Père-Lachaise before you can blink."

Something was off. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but this didn't feel right. There was something missing in Luc's voice; a certain cadence I'd gotten used to in the short time I'd known him had been replaced by something flat. And though the story was plausible enough, would he really have taken that risk after being so shaken and determined to make it home for his family?

I turned to Béatrice, desperate to find clarification and support. "Did you manage to lose Friedrich? How'd you find us again?"

Béatrice's hands trembled. "I–"

"We don't need to discuss this while we're loitering here, do we?" Luc's words came out on edge, razor-sharp. "There will be plenty of time to get into this in the car. Are you coming already?"

I'd still been half-focused on Béatrice, and from the corner of my eye, I saw her give me a slight headshake. She mouthed a word as if in warning, but I didn't know how to read lips and couldn't be certain what exactly she was trying to say. The anxious expression on her face, though, indicated it couldn't be anything reassuring.

This was getting fishier and fishier by the second.

"Why so tense, Luc?" I asked. "You said yourself we still have time."

Luc took a step in my direction. How close to me he was now made my heart beat faster. For all the wrong reasons this time.

"I'm not that tense. I am just ready to get out of here." He took my hand, but his skin was cold as ice. "I need to get back to my... my family... and I have to piss on Uncle Richard's grave. So let's go."

He smiled, and my uneasy feeling turned into a hair-raising revelation.

On top of all the other red flags, Luc's smile wasn't his. It wasn't bright enough and too lopsided, as if he was using his facial muscles differently.

The way he talked, the things he said, the coldness of his hands. Béatrice's warning...

"You're not Luc," I said, freezing in place. "You're pretending to be him. You're Heloise."