Bill awoke to the sounds of Beatrix moving about the room. It was early...too goddamn early. He didn't have the energy to roll over and look at the clock, but the still dark dawn light, spilling across the room told him it was earlier than he wanted it to be. "What time is it?" he croaked, attempting to get up with little success.
"Five o'clock," Beatrix replied in a voice that sounded much more awake than Bill's. She had been up for a total of thirty minutes and was already rummaging through the drawers to pick out her clothes for the day. She had had a hard time getting out of bed. She was so warm and safe beneath the blankets. She actually had planned to get up at four but she spent a half an hour inching to the edge of the bed until she finally rolled out.
Once she was out of bed and ran a warm shower she felt much more refreshed and awake. "Today," she began in a slightly jubilant tone of voice that was masked over with remaining grogginess. "We are sight seeing at two direct locations." This was a classic demand as she walked past the round table near the balcony doors and grabbed up a small pamphlet. As Bill was still lying in bed the tall blonde sauntered back over to him, clad in a bathrobe, and plopped down beside him. She idly opened the pamphlet and began reading a loud which could have been thought as cute if she wasn't so fucking tired the contents inside, "The Catacombs. Built in 1785, visitors will find themselves sixty five feet underground at this disturbing attraction. They will be working their way along corridors stacked with…bones. The tunnels were used by Resistance during WWII as a headquarters." Basically this was a 'cool' cemetery. "And," she added lightly. "Those over sixty can get in free." She playfully hit his shoulder with the back of her hand. "Damn, you're one year too young."
Bill watched her read, his cranky and groggy expression lessoning somewhat at the description of the creepy but fascinating sounding attraction. Beatrix had done a great job in picking something that both killers would find fascinating, and Bill had to admit he was suddenly quite looking forward to the day. If he could just get up. But he frowned at her little quip about his age, "That's two years...my dear...." he smirked, "...Give me my dues..." He kicked her off of the edge of the bed playfully, as he managed to sit up. He wrapped one of the bed's many afghans around himself and padded across the room, hair sticking out rather comically in all directions. He went over to his set of dresser drawers and began sifting through his clothing, "These catacombs sound cool," he said, as he picked out whatever he felt was appropriate, "And your paying for me right?" He sneered over his shoulder as he disappeared into the bathroom. If she ended up using up all the hot water...he was not going to be pleased.
Luckily, that was not the case and he emerged about fifteen minutes later fully dressed in jeans and a typical button up shirt, hair tied back and in it's brief wet state returned to it's full dark brown color...which was always a slightly strange sight. He sat on the edge of the bed, putting his shoes, watching her finish getting ready with a small smile on his face. "Alright, Miss Tour Guide...," he stood up, "...I'm following your lead."
One the way to the metro Beatrix and Bill stopped by a local café to grab some well needed coffee and they shared a pastry. Neither was that hungry from last nights extensive array of food and the light breakfast sufficed perfectly. This time they didn't get lost and had effectively arrived on the bus into the inners of Paris by seven o'clock in the morning. The bus was moderately crowded with those tourists just as willing to sight see as the rest. Beatrix had gotten up early enough to miss the early morning crowds as was suggested by the bell hop of the hotel.
They were seated towards the back of the bus and Beatrix was idly picking at the remains of the pastry that Bill didn't eat. Blue eyes were staring out the window for some time watching the scenery pass by in silence. She finally snapped away from the window and turned to Bill. He had his head turned away from her so she only viewed the back of it and his posture was slouched. The tall blonde narrowed her eyes on him and she harshly poked his side with a single digit. "It's rude to ignore someone after you've just slept with them," she muttered softly. Of course she was just playing around. Her mood was too pleasant to get irate over little things.
Bill turned towards her with a playful smirk, "You're right....that's rude of me," with that he suddenly wrapped her up in a smothering hug, attacking her face and neck with a few seconds of sarcastic kisses until she shoved him away somewhat violently. He chuckled, looking extremely amused, which only made her shove him again. This nearly caused both of them to drop their coffees in the process.
A couple kids who had been sitting on the seat across the isle from them were giggling at this sight. Bill turned and flashed the youngsters a smile before turning back to Beatrix.
He quickly toned down the sarcasm, and wrapped a genuine arm around her shoulders, looking out the window at her side. It was difficult to tell exactly where they were going without knowing Paris better, but everything they passed looked quite old.
He rested his head against hers, eyes still focused on the scenery flying by, content and looking forward to whatever morbid spectacle they were about to witness. "Where'd you find out about these Catacombs?" he murmured.
Beatrix shrugged her shoulders gently and raised her coffee cup to her lips. "When you were napping the other day," she said and cut off herself by taking an intermission to slug down a portion of her coffee. "I went down to the reception desk and asked for information on things we don't want to miss." She let the coffee cup settle on her lap as her gaze focused on the window, her head still touching his. A small smirk curved into her smile. "I think he thought I would like the creepy stuff because he immediately suggested this place. And he also gave us coupons." She turned her head to him, blue eyes beaming. "It's almost like I'm paying for you to get in for free."
Bill smiled, "Oh, so you are paying for me.....even if you aren't..." He laughed, "Hrm..if only I was two years older..." This 'old' joke was becoming a continuous bit of humor between the two of them. "The man at reception probably thought you looked sadistic...thinking to himself...'now here's a woman who would love spending her day looking at skeletons underneath the ground with some old guy'," he gave her a scary look, which...was actually pretty scary, "Very sexy..." He gave her shoulders a squeeze, finishing off his coffee...which was exceptionally strong...especially with none of that sugary crap Beatrix liked added to it.
The bus ride continued pleasantly enough. The loud children across the isle were starting to get on Bill's nerves, but he did his best to watch the scenery and chat idly with Beatrix. Eventually the bus arrived at its destination. Luckily the groups of children were getting off at the next stop leaving Beatrix and Bill to step out alone. The surrounding area wasn't much to look at. There was a large building which was the information and sign up center, a few ancient looking pieces of architect that was beginning to chisel with age, and a few scattered buildings. Basically the area was obsolete.
Beatrix tenderly led Bill inside. The building consisted of a front desk, a few chairs, posters on the walls, and off to the right was a promising looking souvenir shop. The tall blonde approached the counter were a young woman in a t-shirt that read 'Catacombs'. She was obviously of French origin but she spoke perfect English. "Welcome to the Catacombs, how may I help you?"
Since Bill had designated Beatrix to take care of the details on the sight seeing she spoke up putting on a pleasant smile. "Hello, we'd like to sign up for one of the tours."
"Wonderful!" The woman then began to ask various questions such as; name, methods of payment, the tour time they'd like to go on, and a few unimportant but daunting questions. Finally everything was set, "Now, your tour should be leaving in a minute. Got here just in time. Make sure you show your tour guide your tickets and have fun!"
Beatrix gave a polite thank you and walked with Bill over to the 'waiting' area. She handed him a ticket stub, a smirk evident on her face. Bill hadn't been too close by while she was paying for the tickets and now was the perfect time to start snickering. "You know, Bill, I only had to pay for one ticket." This caught his attention. She tilted her chin down and leaned up against the wall in a haughty manner. "The lady at the cashier's desk musta thought you were sixty when I pointed you out. I wasn't going to argue." The best part was, she hadn't even been trying to come off as sadistic with this turn of events, it just conveniently turned out that way.
Bill looked up at Beatrix with a obviously put on hurt look, "Ya know Kiddo.....your about to go down into a set of underground catacombs with a man who's been killing people for nearly forty years..it's an ideal location..." he raised an eyebrow, a smirk showing up in the process, giving away the humor intended, "...you'd better be nice to me...." he stood up, invading her personal space very aptly, "..or..I just might have to.." But he turned, at the sound of footsteps, as it appeared a couple more people had shown up to hang out in the waiting area until the tour guide showed up to lead them down into the tunnels. Bill gave the tall blonde a sidelong sneer, as he fell silent, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his hand wrapping around her neck in just the slightest threat of a choking gesture. Just for good measure, he then cast a glare across the waiting area at the reception desk and the peppy looking thing working behind it.
"I could go show her my ID," he whispered in Beatrix's ear. It was an alias ID, but the age was unchanged, "Then, you'd have to pay for me...and forget the coupons, I snatched those out of your pocket on the bus," he brought his own hand out of his jeans pocket, the folded coupons in between his fingers.
"I thought I might have needed the collateral..." He gave her a wise ass expression.
"Fucking bastard," the now irate tall blonde muttered between clenched teeth. Beatrix was still in a good mood but now she was mixed between good and bad. She raised a hand to try and make a grab for the coupons but Bill was quick to move them out of her reach. She couldn't exactly budge and retrieve them either seeing as Bill was keeping tight to her shoulder, almost so she could feel the blood pooling into a bruise and she shifted uncomfortably.
Okay, she got the message that he didn't want her fucking about this age anymore and she was inclined to cool down on the joke. But only cool down. She raised her own slender brows and blue eyes, now having dropped a few fifty degrees glared at him. "Ya know, Bill…" she mocked quietly. "The money I'm using to pay for all of this," she tilted her chin up and held a pretentious façade. "…Is the money you pay me with. The last thousand remains I have of my cut off pay." The last bit was hissed out. Usually she wasn't pissed about her depilated and held back salary but today it irked her. "You're loss baby."
Oh, now she was going to play this game. Bill's expression turned somewhat harder, as he continued to keep a firm grip on her shoulders, "My loss?" He murmured, sure to keep his voice low around the group of gathering tourists. "Shall I bring up why you aren't still getting paid, hrm? Do we really want to go back over that territory? That was a worthy attempt to throw at me, but I'm not going to give you pity when it comes to your little salary hold. You're not going to be forced to live on the street anytime soon just because you had to pay for an extra ticket...which, by the way, you aren't." He lowered his voice even more, leaning towards her ear, "You haven't heard me bring up how much anything has cost me now have you? Why? Because it's fucking irrelevant. But, if it's so important to you Kiddo, your first paycheck off suspension, which you will receive in no less than two weeks, will more than aptly pay for whatever my fucking ticket would have cost you....not to mention a good amount of this entire trip." With that, he let go of her shoulders, "I'm going to go use the little boy's room," he said flatly, and without another word to her, stalked off in the direction the restroom sign pointed to.
Obviously, Bill was no longer all that amused.
Beatrix scowled in his general direction as he departed to the restroom. She now stood there rubbing gingerly at her shoulder which didn't hurt as bad as she was over dramatizing it. The crowd around her was beginning to thicken. Beatrix stood there trying to appear nonchalant as her thoughts ran off.
She came to the quiet conclusion that had been their first 'fight' since they arrived in Paris. Counting that against how many 'fights' that had gotten in, in the past month showed a drastic change in status. As irked as she remained at Bill in those five minutes he used in the bathroom she was pleased that that had been the first and they had been in Paris for a solid three days already. She also drew on the fact that the 'fight' was fucking stupid. It was partially her fault for playing around with Bill's age when she knew if she continued she'd get burnt. This brought in the characteristic of being a risk taker.
Beatrix would admit to herself and only herself that this time around she had been wrong. She could let her thoughts run far enough away to begin to dawn on the reality of Bill but that wouldn't go over well. So, when Bill returned from his fling in the little boy's room she decided to go with the non-hostile approach.
She leaned into him when he came back up beside her and whispered, "Usually when couples fight, afterwards they kiss and makeup."
Bill returned with a completely neutral expression on his face. He was no stranger to relationships with women...he'd had quite a few of them in his life, granted...the longest they had ever lasted was eight months or so, but he was rather well practiced in the art of "Fighting With Thine Woman and Surviving" tactics. The escape to the men's room was a classic tactic...although it also wasn't a bad idea before going underground. Beatrix's warmer recpetion to him meant one of two things: she still thought he'd been a complete asshole about it but was willing to forgive him because the whole thing had been ridicuously stupid, or she realized she'd been wrong but wasn't going to tell him she'd been...on top of the whole thing being ridiculously stupid...or a combination of both. Well, either way...Bill knew the appropriate reaction.
Still looking neutral, he reached out and clasped her hand. He then turned his head and whispered in her ear, "Do you want me to kiss you now...in front of all these people? Or wait until we get underground and kiss you in front of a bunch of dead people?" A hint of a smirk played on his otherwise neutral face.
Beatrix muffled her laugh with a hand. The laugh successfully suppressed she let her hand drop to her side and blue eyes settled on her man. The man she was willing to forgive for the moment, or at least forgive herself and put past words and actions behind her. "Save it for the dead. They'll enjoy it more," she replied with a sly sparkle in her façade. Her gaze slowly drifted over to the single door in the building besides the entrance as a man walked out. He was of middle aged, French origin, he wore a pair of jeans and a black baggy t-shirt that was partially tucked in, he had the beginnings of a mustache giving him a gruff appearance, and he had greased up black hair that was ruffled into spikes and tarnishing bits of gray along his residing hair line. Not the greatest looking guy in the world but the wide toothy grin he held looked promising.
"Come, come," he beckoned the crowd in a worthy English accent. "We will be beginning the tour shortly, please give me your tickets as you walk through." The crowd of people began to shuffle to the doors upon request, each holding out a ticket.
Beatrix flicked out Bill's ticket beneath his nose and didn't say a word as tempted as she was. She did give him a look before joining the crowds to hand in their tickets.
"My name is Gilles and I will be your tour guide for today," said the man now known as Gilles as the 'tourists' stood in the middle of a tight entry way. "A few rules before we begin; photography is allowed, no eating or drinking inside the catacombs, throw your trash away, no smoking, and please do not wander off. If you wander off I will not be held responsible for what the…dead…will do to you." This received a mild chuckle throughout the crowd. Gilles continued, "If you have any questions feel free to ask. Now, let us begin."
Gilles lead the group consisting of a good fifteen people down a dimly lit corridor. The corridor soon opened up into an obvious cave entrance. Gilles stopped the group at the entrance. "The catacombs here in Paris were built mainly due to the fact the local cemeteries were being over crowded. The cemetery was so overcrowded that its soil was more than eight feet over the level of the street. In 1780, infiltrations caused some deadly accidents. The King decided, five years later, the transfer of bones in the quarries of "Mont-Rouge", at this time out of Paris and currently under the Denfert-Rochereau square. On April 7, 1786, the curate of the archbishop of Paris proceeded to the consecration of the catacombs. Now, as we continue into the catacomb you will come face to face with those that were not worthy to be buried in the local cemeteries or there families could not afford it. Some of the more…dangerous people…in the past centuries' skulls are displayed within these walls. Feel free to examine and touch the skulls…if you have the…guts. They will not bite." He wove a hand over his shoulder. "Come, come."
He led the group further into the catacomb. Finally they came to the main event. The room was circular and large enough to hold another ten tourist groups. The room was lit with oil lamps scattered along the walls, sending shadows to flicker and bounce in various directions. The sight to behold was the thousands upon thousands of human skulls embedded into the walls. They were old obviously ranging from being dead for hundreds of years and had a dirty appearance. "Look around, explore," Gilles said as people began to scatter.
Beatrix had already dragged Bill over to one of the walls and was examining the skulls with the utmost fascination. "This is very cool," she mused as a single digit traced along the decaying jaw line of some dead guy's skull. She glanced to Bill with a prominent look of bliss.
Bill had remained fairly stoic throughout all of these proceedings. Large amount of tourists annoyed him and he wasn't so sure about this Gilles guy. But, as they slowly descended further under the ground and Gilles provided some background history on the place, Bill became gradually more interested. These Catacombs had a very provocative history, and Bill liked provocative histories. He found it fascinating that so many people were considered unworthy or could simply not afford to be buried. Then again, at the time France had been a fairly corrupted monarchal society. He especially thought the bit about dangerous people being buried here to be particularly interesting, to Bill, dangerous people held the most interest.
When they entered the main chamber, any last vestiges of wariness or former crankiness instantly dissolved within Bill. This was wickedly cool. It was like some warped version of a mass grave. There were so many bones, it was impossible to even tell some of them apart in places. Bill had seen a lot of grosser things in his lifetime, but there was something so decayed and overwhelming about this place that made it really fascinating. He wasn't a spiritual person in even the most remote sense, but it was.....rather creepy in that sort of way. He loved it.
Bill was so busy looking up at one particular part of the towering wall, that he simply let Beatrix drag him around, his attention still on the wall. He forced himself to look down at Beatrix's words, "Hell yes....this is so cool..." he breathed, returning her smile. He looked over her shoulder at a group of skeletons embedded in the wall behind her, "Look at this..." he said enthusiastically, getting closer to the wall. His hand traced along a skull, "I bet this was a young child...probably a girl," it was a little scary how much Bill knew about such things. But it was useful to know such things when you were a killer, and besides, it didn't take too much training to be able to pinpoint basic skeletal features. There was another skull nearby that caught Bill's attention. "Look at this one Kiddo..." he placed a hand on it, "...look at the gash in it's frontal cranium....blunt head wound...you can tell because of the stress fractures spidering out from the hole. It took some real force to do that." He ran a hand along a femur.
The bones were so old, that they almost had a sanded down feel to them...like rocks on the beach that had been softened by constant erosion. Absorbed, Bill moved down the wall, "Check this out..." There was a rather strange assortment of bones that looked like the majority of a full set, but no head, "...poor bastard lost his head." He smiled at Beatrix with sadistic fascination.
Beatrix was pleased to know that Bill was enjoying the catacombs as much or more then she was. Arms were daintily crossed over her chest as she came over to Bill to inspect that decapitated set of bones engraved into the wall. It was all very fascinating and those blue eyes continued to remain wide in an awe effect.
She kept quiet for a few minutes as she followed Bill along the wall taking in the creepy sight before them. Beatrix was far from one to be creeped out by anything. There was that one time she saw someone disemboweled that hadn't sat too well with her but other then that her factors were slim. This was just plain cool and the tingling sensation running along her spine only made it more exciting.
"I think…" The tall blonde began as they stopped at a corner of the wall that displayed a totem of skulls, each holding a unique physical trait. "One of these guys might have been one of my targets." She smirked in Bill's general direction.
Bill laughed, which made a few people on the other side of the catacomb turn and briefly look at him. There wasn't a whole lot of laughing going on at the moment....except in Bill and Beatrix's cases. He came up beside her to gaze up at the skull totem..which frankly looked badass in Bill's mind. A small version of it would make a pretty damn cool sword handle actually. "That would explain the dismembered head," he chuckled, "Seeing as your so fond of that little trick." It also helped when you had a sword capable of cutting through cervical vertebrae. Bill continued to run his hands over random bones jutting out from the wall, he was a fairly tactile person and obviously had no problem with the dead.
He spotted a baby or perhaps small toddler skeleton, but decided not to point it out to Beatrix....she might find that a bit morbid, she'd probably find it on her own anyways. "There were a lot of shorter people back then," he murmured, examining a set of femurs. He almost made a snide comment about short French people, but decided against it. Something caught his eye and he crouched down, motioning Beatrix over, "Look....this man had six fingers...."
Beatrix made haste over to Bill and joined him in a similar crouched position. She steadied herself on her heels and settled hands on her thighs. She spotted the six fingered skeleton and stared. The idea of someone walking around with six fingers hundreds of years ago was humorous as it was cool. Her eyes traveled up a few inches and found each skull more peculiar then the other.
The tour went on for another twenty minutes as other people in the group were getting bored. There was only so long 'normal' people could stand around and idolize dead people. Beatrix and Bill could have stayed there all day inspecting each and every skull to its full integrity. But the tour came to an end and Gilles was beginning to usher everyone out of the catacombs. The two killers were hanging back obviously taking their time to get to the exit. They walked hand in hand, eyes still roaming the cavern walls but Beatrix spared a look at Bill and halted him quite suddenly. Slender brows raised a fraction as she stated lightly, "All of these dead people have been waiting very patiently..."
Bill wanted to stay there longer, but he realized that the rest of the group was getting antsy to get out of the spooky cavern and he and Beatrix were forced to resign to walk as slow as possible as they left. The rest of the group was already a good ten feet in front of them, being bustled out by Gilles.
Bill stared at Beatrix for a brief second with a quizzical look, but he quickly realized what she was talking about. Of course, she wouldn't forget. He gave her sly look, "That they have....we'd better make it worth they're while then...," with a chuckle he pulled her to him and placing his hands on the sides of her face, he leaned in and gave her one hell of a kiss. This was no small, short, peck of a kiss either. Bill imagined if this moment had been in a movie, it would be the ideal moment for the camera to pan over them with a long shot of them embracing in the end of a huge dim cavern of thousands of wall embedded skeletons. It would make for a really bizarre but oddly romantic moment.
As this rather lengthy kiss persisted, a middle aged woman near the back of the departing group happened to turn and around and spot them. "Oh my god...." she drawled in a proper British accent, looking utterly revolted. With a look of horror planted on her face, she quickly spun back around and began pushing through the people in front of her with her large purse as a sheild, so as to get out of there as quickly as possible.
After what seemed like a very blissful eternity, Bill pulled away from Beatrix..although, not that far away. He looked a little dazed, "Do you think the dead approve?" he said in a soft voice.
Beatrix had taken a long breath to retrieve the air she had lost during that kiss. Her face still inches from Bill's she had on a satisfied smile. Hell that had been one perfect kiss and she couldn't have picked a better atmosphere for it to acquire. She'd never get a kiss like that again. Blue eyes drifted over stoically to the array of skulls with their hallow eyes staring into the two killers. "Yes..." She replied but her words wavered on uncertainty.
She turned her head back to the man before her gazing fondly at him and pursed her lips. "I think the dead would like an encore," she whispered seductively. But this time she didn't wait for an answer and brought Bill in for another round. This kiss wasn't as good as the first, nothing compared to a first kiss in an eerie tomb but this one came pretty damn close. Hands resting against his face she pulled away and let her forehead linger against his. "Now," she breathed. "…they approve."
Bill stared back at her, eyes ablaze with wonderment. He didn't say anything for a few seconds, but simply gazed back into those large blue eyes lit under nothing but the surrounding oil lamps. That had been....wonderful...perfect...and he was desperately searching for a better word. This become of the most unexpectedly romantic moments in his life....which was almost laughable it's complete bizarreness. But, if there was anything that he'd learned, it was often the most unexpected things that became so important to you. He gave Beatrix a gentle smile, fingertips brushing strands of hair away from her face. God, he loved this woman....who else would have done that with him in a cavern full of skeletons and obviously enjoyed it just as much as himself? He opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly turned his head instinctually at the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Hello...? Yes...you two...please...we must get moving..." Gilles somewhat annoyed voice drifted into the cavern. The rest of the group had since moved on ahead and he'd obviously found two missing when he'd done a head count. It was hard to see his expression in the dim lighting, but he was no doubt probably a little weirded out at what he'd just walked into. Bill turned and gave Beatrix a somewhat regretful look, but quickly smiled and wrapped an arm around her waist, "Come on Kiddo....heaven forbid we stay down here any longer," he shot Gilles a glare, which the Frenchman either ignored or didn't see.
With that, Gilles led the two killers back to the rest of the group without another word to them. Bill kept glancing at Beatrix with an amused and contended smile. He hadn't quite recovered from that moment yet.