Votre monde et le mien sont de couleur en noir et blanc...
Black and White
Paris had come to life after the end of the Great War, the air full of life and sounds of the automobile. An American invasion, the new world leaking into European life in every way it could manage, from the cigarette to the thumping sounds of American Jazz. Smoke-lounges lined the streets, full of women in flapper dresses, hair bobbed in a coy, boyish manner. Women no longer needed men to protect them, and the prudish ‘until marriage’ virtues were a thing of the social past.
France was a country seized by the idea that tomorrow was not a promised future, vivre dans l'instant.
Seize the day.
Percy watched as two barely clad women clung to the shoulders of a drunk soldier, cooing loudly in his ears about their darkest, seediest desires. Pleased with his catch he lead them away from the over packed, vibrant smoke-lounge, toward Rue Royale. The hum of automobiles mixed with pleased laughter as they passed the dark vampire, one chit sparing on the barest of glances before she curled into her current lover more.
“Vous n'avez pas l'air heureux, monsieur”, an amused voice said from the side, catching the lone vampire off guard as he snapped around to gaze at the speaker. “Je parle seulement comme un observateur extérieur, si.”
"Que doit me faire plaisir ou mécontent," he snapped in a growl, eyes narrowing as he regarded the main clothed in priestly garb.
"Oh, qui est-à-dire sauver notre Seigneur?" The man stepped a bit closer, a worn bible clasped in his hands, a soft smile on his lips. “Je suis le père Gagnon," he held out a hand for Percy to take.
When the vampire didn’t extend the same curtsey, however, the priest seemed to take no real offense. He only glanced back at his church a moment, before extending a hand in a gesture, as if inviting the damned into God’s arms unwittingly. "Je pensais un peu à manger, vous vous joindrez à moi ami?"
Paroisse Sainte Marie Madeleine. Percy could recall when the church had been the barest of bones, stone pliers that reached into the sky and grasped at the wind, masons that put as much sweat into building her, as the French government later would spend to bring the Catholic Church down.
Perhaps he spent too much time in France.
"Monsieur le Président, il me honneur…"
Slowly Percy nodded, and moved to follow. If nothing came out of his visit with the holy man, perhaps a meal would settle his unhappy mood. In the distance thunder cracked, the smell of fresh rain riding above the stench of the city.
"Qu'est-ce que votre nom, votre fils?" The priest prompted as they crossed the street toward the commanding presence of la Madeleine.
“William Percy,“ he answered finally, looking at the priest carefully.
“Ah, monsieur Percy, c'est un plaisir de faire votre connaissance. Vous avez été à Paris de temps? Votre français est bien realize”
"Oui."
Their conversation seemed to take no direction as they moved, Percy answering the questions leveled at him in simple, clipped words. Taking no real time to think upon them fully. He drifted behind the priest, as a leaf drifted upon a stream…as he drifted through his life, more so with each passing day. Nothing seemed to stir within him a reaction, no passion…no desire.
Dead.
Father Gagnon lead him into the church proper, the familiar sting of a holy temple burning across the vampire’s skin as he came to a halt just into the doors. His eyes froze on the scared sight of Jesus, the ceiling arching high with soothing light filtering down across the marbled floor.
“Je ne suis pas ici…” Percy said softly, his eyes lowering slowly, head bowed as something deep within him began to ache. As though a hand was reaching fruitlessly into the vacant air, wishing…dreaming.
The church was silent a moment, before the Father Gagnon’s steps brought him closer, and then the scrapping of a chair against the floor. ”Asseyez-vous, enfants… tous sont les bienvenus dans la maison du Christ.”
”Non, Père.” he paused a moment, looking up at the man, aged and yet so calm and content. ”Non damnés”
”Qu'est-ce qui vous rend si damnés?” The clear question of faith and religion beaming from his eyes, though he did not ask that.
”J'ai fait des choses cruelles… péchés commis morale. Né un bâtard, et possédé par Lucifer.” Looking at the priest, Percy smiled disparagingly, ”Je suis damnés de l'enfer, et j'ai donc refusé de prendre la mort moi. Je n'ai pas de salut, le père Gagnon, votre Dieu ne veut pas de moi.”
The man gazed at him with a look of disbelief, perhaps horror, as he seemed to weigh the words leveled at him. ”Cela ne peut pas être, Dieu pardonne vos péchés si vous cherché. ‘Cherchez et vous trouverez. Demandez de la porte doit être ouverte.’”
“’Repentez-vous, et être baptisé chacun d'entre vous au nom de Jésus-Christ pour le pardon de vos péchés et vous recevrez le don du Saint Esprit’” Percy laughed softly, ”Je sais que vos paroles, Père, j'ai été bien enseigné.”
Gagnon seemed to be at a loss, standing slowly as though age weighed heavy on his brittle bones. “Vous pensez que si sombre pour une compréhension qui a peut-être… si vous ne vous crois comprendre.“
”Votre Dieu ne veut pas de moi,” Percy assured him again, looking toward the alter, a sad gaze in his eyes.
”Que je ne peux pas croire.”
”Il est beaucoup plus que vous, votre monde et le mien sont de couleur en noir et blanc.”
The priest stopped again, gazing at Percy curiously, as if what was said seemed to lack in some amount of clarity. He mouthed the words, repeating them as if the ownership of such a statement would bring on enlightenment, and in enlightenment grant him some argument against the accusation.
”Dieu n'est pas noir ni blanc, il est seul Dieu.”
”Certaines choses sont tout simplement que, de son père, noir ou blanc…. Vous vues péchés au noir, blanc comme le pardon. Mes péchés Je ne peux pas se repentir, pour, en réalité, je trouver plaisir à eux, je survivre à travers eux. J'ai réside avec l'homme, et assassiné une femme et l'enfant. Leur sang de ma vie, et pour environ quatre cent ans, ont nié le droit de la mort et demande à Lucifer ce qui est la sienne.” Gagnon looked truly astounded as Percy’s lips parted slowly, ”Noir, le père Gagnon. Mon âme est noire, et aucune volonté de pardon réparer les péchés que j'ai fait.”
”Dieu mettra à côté de l'agneau, le lion, et le lion est apprivoiser.”
”Mais le lion ne souhaitez être apprivoisé?”
”Seul le lion mai savons.”
A silence fell between them, the soft patter of rain hitting the heavy doors as thunder rolled loudly over head.
Black and white.
”Je vais prier pour votre âme, William Percy.” The priest whispered softly, turning away as he made the sign of the cross, and pressed two fingers to his lips. ”Je vais prier pour votre âme, car vous ne.“
”Il ne m'a pas bon,” Percy warned.
“Je pense qu'il fera un peu…. Bonne nuit, Monsieur…. Je prie, bonne nuit.”
===
William Percy Hastings
OC
Word count: 1,224
1: “You do not seem pleased, sir”… “I speak only as an outside observer, though.”
2: “What should make me pleased or displeased”
3: “Oh, who is to say, save our Lord?”… “I am Father Gagnon”
4: “ I was thinking of a bit to eat, would you join me friend?”
5: “Sir, it would honor me…”
6: “What is your name, son?”
7: “Ah, Sir Percy, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You have been in Paris long? Your French is quite accomplished.”
8: “I do not belong here…”
9: “Sit, child…all are welcome in the home of Christ.”
10: “Not all, Father.” … “Not the damned.”
11: “What makes you so damned?”
12: “I have done cruel things…committed moral sins. Born a bastard, and possessed by Lucifer.” … “I am damned to hell, and so I have denied death to take me. I have no salvation, Father Gagnon, your God does not want me.”
13: “This cannot be, God would forgive your sins if you sought it. ‘Seek and you shall find. Ask of the door shall be opened.’”
14: “’Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” … “I know your words, Father, I was taught them well.”
15: “You think so darkly for one that has understanding…though perhaps you only believe you understand.”
16: “God does not want me,”
17: “That I cannot believe.”
18: “There is much you would not, your world and mine are colored in black and white.”
19: “God is not black nor white, he is only God.”
20: “Some things simply are that, father, black…or white. You views sins at black, forgiveness as white. My sins I cannot repent, for in truth I find pleasure in them, I survive through them. I have lain with man, and murdered woman and child. Their blood for my life, and for some four hundred years, have denied the right of death and Lucifer to claim what is his.” … “Black, Father Gagnon. My souls is black, and no amount of forgiveness will repair the sins I have done.”
21: “God will set the lamb beside the lion, and the lion shall be tame.”
22: “But does the lion wish to be tamed?”
23: “Only the lion may know that.”
24: “I will pray for your soul, William Percy.” … “I will pray for your soul, because you will not.”
25: “It will do me no good,”
26: “I think it will do some….Good night, Sir….I pray, good night.”
Paris had come to life after the end of the Great War, the air full of life and sounds of the automobile. An American invasion, the new world leaking into European life in every way it could manage, from the cigarette to the thumping sounds of American Jazz. Smoke-lounges lined the streets, full of women in flapper dresses, hair bobbed in a coy, boyish manner. Women no longer needed men to protect them, and the prudish ‘until marriage’ virtues were a thing of the social past.
France was a country seized by the idea that tomorrow was not a promised future, vivre dans l'instant.
Seize the day.
Percy watched as two barely clad women clung to the shoulders of a drunk soldier, cooing loudly in his ears about their darkest, seediest desires. Pleased with his catch he lead them away from the over packed, vibrant smoke-lounge, toward Rue Royale. The hum of automobiles mixed with pleased laughter as they passed the dark vampire, one chit sparing on the barest of glances before she curled into her current lover more.
“Vous n'avez pas l'air heureux, monsieur”, an amused voice said from the side, catching the lone vampire off guard as he snapped around to gaze at the speaker. “Je parle seulement comme un observateur extérieur, si.”
"Que doit me faire plaisir ou mécontent," he snapped in a growl, eyes narrowing as he regarded the main clothed in priestly garb.
"Oh, qui est-à-dire sauver notre Seigneur?" The man stepped a bit closer, a worn bible clasped in his hands, a soft smile on his lips. “Je suis le père Gagnon," he held out a hand for Percy to take.
When the vampire didn’t extend the same curtsey, however, the priest seemed to take no real offense. He only glanced back at his church a moment, before extending a hand in a gesture, as if inviting the damned into God’s arms unwittingly. "Je pensais un peu à manger, vous vous joindrez à moi ami?"
Paroisse Sainte Marie Madeleine. Percy could recall when the church had been the barest of bones, stone pliers that reached into the sky and grasped at the wind, masons that put as much sweat into building her, as the French government later would spend to bring the Catholic Church down.
Perhaps he spent too much time in France.
"Monsieur le Président, il me honneur…"
Slowly Percy nodded, and moved to follow. If nothing came out of his visit with the holy man, perhaps a meal would settle his unhappy mood. In the distance thunder cracked, the smell of fresh rain riding above the stench of the city.
"Qu'est-ce que votre nom, votre fils?" The priest prompted as they crossed the street toward the commanding presence of la Madeleine.
“William Percy,“ he answered finally, looking at the priest carefully.
“Ah, monsieur Percy, c'est un plaisir de faire votre connaissance. Vous avez été à Paris de temps? Votre français est bien realize”
"Oui."
Their conversation seemed to take no direction as they moved, Percy answering the questions leveled at him in simple, clipped words. Taking no real time to think upon them fully. He drifted behind the priest, as a leaf drifted upon a stream…as he drifted through his life, more so with each passing day. Nothing seemed to stir within him a reaction, no passion…no desire.
Dead.
Father Gagnon lead him into the church proper, the familiar sting of a holy temple burning across the vampire’s skin as he came to a halt just into the doors. His eyes froze on the scared sight of Jesus, the ceiling arching high with soothing light filtering down across the marbled floor.
“Je ne suis pas ici…” Percy said softly, his eyes lowering slowly, head bowed as something deep within him began to ache. As though a hand was reaching fruitlessly into the vacant air, wishing…dreaming.
The church was silent a moment, before the Father Gagnon’s steps brought him closer, and then the scrapping of a chair against the floor. ”Asseyez-vous, enfants… tous sont les bienvenus dans la maison du Christ.”
”Non, Père.” he paused a moment, looking up at the man, aged and yet so calm and content. ”Non damnés”
”Qu'est-ce qui vous rend si damnés?” The clear question of faith and religion beaming from his eyes, though he did not ask that.
”J'ai fait des choses cruelles… péchés commis morale. Né un bâtard, et possédé par Lucifer.” Looking at the priest, Percy smiled disparagingly, ”Je suis damnés de l'enfer, et j'ai donc refusé de prendre la mort moi. Je n'ai pas de salut, le père Gagnon, votre Dieu ne veut pas de moi.”
The man gazed at him with a look of disbelief, perhaps horror, as he seemed to weigh the words leveled at him. ”Cela ne peut pas être, Dieu pardonne vos péchés si vous cherché. ‘Cherchez et vous trouverez. Demandez de la porte doit être ouverte.’”
“’Repentez-vous, et être baptisé chacun d'entre vous au nom de Jésus-Christ pour le pardon de vos péchés et vous recevrez le don du Saint Esprit’” Percy laughed softly, ”Je sais que vos paroles, Père, j'ai été bien enseigné.”
Gagnon seemed to be at a loss, standing slowly as though age weighed heavy on his brittle bones. “Vous pensez que si sombre pour une compréhension qui a peut-être… si vous ne vous crois comprendre.“
”Votre Dieu ne veut pas de moi,” Percy assured him again, looking toward the alter, a sad gaze in his eyes.
”Que je ne peux pas croire.”
”Il est beaucoup plus que vous, votre monde et le mien sont de couleur en noir et blanc.”
The priest stopped again, gazing at Percy curiously, as if what was said seemed to lack in some amount of clarity. He mouthed the words, repeating them as if the ownership of such a statement would bring on enlightenment, and in enlightenment grant him some argument against the accusation.
”Dieu n'est pas noir ni blanc, il est seul Dieu.”
”Certaines choses sont tout simplement que, de son père, noir ou blanc…. Vous vues péchés au noir, blanc comme le pardon. Mes péchés Je ne peux pas se repentir, pour, en réalité, je trouver plaisir à eux, je survivre à travers eux. J'ai réside avec l'homme, et assassiné une femme et l'enfant. Leur sang de ma vie, et pour environ quatre cent ans, ont nié le droit de la mort et demande à Lucifer ce qui est la sienne.” Gagnon looked truly astounded as Percy’s lips parted slowly, ”Noir, le père Gagnon. Mon âme est noire, et aucune volonté de pardon réparer les péchés que j'ai fait.”
”Dieu mettra à côté de l'agneau, le lion, et le lion est apprivoiser.”
”Mais le lion ne souhaitez être apprivoisé?”
”Seul le lion mai savons.”
A silence fell between them, the soft patter of rain hitting the heavy doors as thunder rolled loudly over head.
Black and white.
”Je vais prier pour votre âme, William Percy.” The priest whispered softly, turning away as he made the sign of the cross, and pressed two fingers to his lips. ”Je vais prier pour votre âme, car vous ne.“
”Il ne m'a pas bon,” Percy warned.
“Je pense qu'il fera un peu…. Bonne nuit, Monsieur…. Je prie, bonne nuit.”
===
William Percy Hastings
OC
Word count: 1,224
1: “You do not seem pleased, sir”… “I speak only as an outside observer, though.”
2: “What should make me pleased or displeased”
3: “Oh, who is to say, save our Lord?”… “I am Father Gagnon”
4: “ I was thinking of a bit to eat, would you join me friend?”
5: “Sir, it would honor me…”
6: “What is your name, son?”
7: “Ah, Sir Percy, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. You have been in Paris long? Your French is quite accomplished.”
8: “I do not belong here…”
9: “Sit, child…all are welcome in the home of Christ.”
10: “Not all, Father.” … “Not the damned.”
11: “What makes you so damned?”
12: “I have done cruel things…committed moral sins. Born a bastard, and possessed by Lucifer.” … “I am damned to hell, and so I have denied death to take me. I have no salvation, Father Gagnon, your God does not want me.”
13: “This cannot be, God would forgive your sins if you sought it. ‘Seek and you shall find. Ask of the door shall be opened.’”
14: “’Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” … “I know your words, Father, I was taught them well.”
15: “You think so darkly for one that has understanding…though perhaps you only believe you understand.”
16: “God does not want me,”
17: “That I cannot believe.”
18: “There is much you would not, your world and mine are colored in black and white.”
19: “God is not black nor white, he is only God.”
20: “Some things simply are that, father, black…or white. You views sins at black, forgiveness as white. My sins I cannot repent, for in truth I find pleasure in them, I survive through them. I have lain with man, and murdered woman and child. Their blood for my life, and for some four hundred years, have denied the right of death and Lucifer to claim what is his.” … “Black, Father Gagnon. My souls is black, and no amount of forgiveness will repair the sins I have done.”
21: “God will set the lamb beside the lion, and the lion shall be tame.”
22: “But does the lion wish to be tamed?”
23: “Only the lion may know that.”
24: “I will pray for your soul, William Percy.” … “I will pray for your soul, because you will not.”
25: “It will do me no good,”
26: “I think it will do some….Good night, Sir….I pray, good night.”