Chapter 1
Death is a natural process, everyone and everything dies at some point. Louis had grown up around death, watching his father carefully reconstruct the husk of a corpse to appear as close to their living appearance as possible. His siblings had as well but they didn’t have the same ability to compartmentalize their emotions around bodies that Louis had. His father had died just over a year ago. Louis had immediately taken over the funeral business after his death while his sister just threw herself further into the preparation of her wedding (maybe just to distract herself). His brother Paul however, had always been special. He was their mother’s favorite and seemed to always have something different about him, he took their father’s death the worst. He had finally gotten to a point recently where he thought that Paul was finished grieving when the incident had happened. It had been replaying in Louis' mind for the past three days like a terrible nightmare he couldn’t wake up from.
They were on the roof, a strong storm had just passed by and they were watching the eerily clear sky. That entire day had felt odd but Louis passed it off as overactive nerves because of a recent fight with his mother. He sipped on a glass of some miscellaneous spirit while enjoying the silent company of Paul who just seemed to be pacing the roof. He continued to drown any anxiety with the liquor when he heard the soft thump of two shoes being tossed to the side. He barely had time to react. The glass cup he was holding shattered as Louis lurched forward to try to grab onto Paul. He remembered his lips parting to say something-
“These are our casket sprays, you mentioned he liked blue?” a soft french voice crooned, snapping Louis back to reality. He let go of the table he didn’t realize he was gripping and looked up to meet the piercing gaze of the florist who was sitting across from him at the table. He had done this with so many families he had created a formula of sorts. The process was always the same; greet the family with a smile..but not too wide or it would come off as predatory, show them the different caskets and gently guide them to one of the more expensive options with subtle manipulation (it wasn’t very hard with mourners), then quickly shove the bill in their faces before they could realize that they had just spend thousands of dollars to put a lifeless body into a pit. Some nights the guilt would eat him alive, he could vividly imagine the way the body would decompose inside of the solid oak boxes lined with the finest silk, embalming fluid staining the pure white fabric. Though the guilt wasn’t strong enough to stop him from taking the money, that was the difference between him and Paul, greed. “Yes, that was his favorite color” he responded after a period of silence that was slightly too long for normal conversation.
Louis took a small sip from the bottle of water in front of him, trying to push down the bile forming in his throat. “I’m leaning towards this one, I haven’t seen blue lilies before and I think they would go well with his final outfit” he barely had time to point out the arrangement before the blond disagreed. “well..I would recommend this one more, the flowers will last longer and look better at the viewing” Lestat pointed to one of the most expensive arrangements “I think your poor brother deserves the best and this is the arrangement I recommend” he gave a small smile, Louis had seen it dozens of times, hell he had perfected it himself. It was the smile of someone taking advantage of a grieving family disguised as sympathy.
“No, I believe I’m going to stick with this one” Louis replied though it was shut down, Lestat seemingly getting more irritated with him.
“I understand if your family can’t afford the flowers outright but we do have payment plans and I can help you set one up’
“No. this is the spray Paul is getting, he was a modest man and didn’t want much”
“Well I’m sure the funeral director of this fine establishment would agree with me that this option would be smarter in the long ru-”
Louis finally had enough and snapped on Lestat, “I am the funeral director. Paul is going to get the spray that I pick out and nobody else.” he spoke in a tone just below a shout. Normally he would be more patient than this but it seemed like grief and potentially the french accent had made him more easily irritated.
He expected Lestat to shout back or look embarrassed that he got caught trying to take advantage of a person who had just lost someone close to them. Instead he just looked proud and slightly turned on? Tension filled the air, Lestat taking a moment before resuming their conversation “well my apologies and condolences for your loss, for you, I’m willing to cut down the price of this arrangement since you also work in the industry” Louis was completely taken aback by the audacity of Lestat to still try to convince him to buy that arrangement despite his refusal several times. He had encountered his fair share of salesmen who didn’t hide their greed but having one continue after being called out was a first in his book. Honestly he didn’t know what else to do besides try to politely guide the male out the door.
“I think that’s all I wanted to discuss with you today Mr. Lioncourt” he finally shut down the conversation and closed the magazine that contained the various different styles of arrangements. Lestat snickered and placed the collection of papers back in his bag. Normally he knew better than to push so heavily for the expensive option but seeing Louis slightly frustrated early had him wanting to confirm some internal thoughts and this situation had done exactly that. He pushed himself up from the table to speak with the same charming smile, pretending like Louis didn’t look like he was about to tear the male limb from limb.
“Well thank you for graciously inviting me to come look at some options today, I’ll be back in the next few days to confirm your order or edit it”
Louis didn’t have anything to say, he just watched silently as Lestat exited the ancient funeral home with a satisfied grin on his face. He took fifteen minutes to compose himself and leave the parlor to go visit his brother. Stepping down the steep staircase and into the crisp white room, Louis walked towards the back wall with various handles. It only took him a moment to grasp the cold handle, no need to look at the name tag, he would always know where his brother was.
Taking a shaky breath; unzipping the top part of the body bag, Louis was then faced with the slightly discolored face of his brother. Paul normally wore a disturbed expression while he shouted bible quotes to anyone who would listen. For once it was completely silent, his expression was…unexplainable. Not quite peaceful but also not upset. It was the face of death that Louis had seen countless times throughout his life but it was a completely new universe seeing it on his brother. When Paul was born; Louis had promised that he would protect him and Grace from any harm the world could bring. That promise had crumbled in his hands and no matter what he tried to do from now on, it would haunt him. Why did he even let Paul on the roof to begin with? He knew it was dangerous and then added with alcohol he should’ve known that it was going to end with some sort of tragedy. Their mother wouldn’t even look at Louis, she saw him as the grim reaper who took away her precious child, he couldn’t even argue with her views on him as he thought the same things when looking in the mirror. He was a sinful man who seemed to love his liquor more than he loved his family at that moment and it was going to stick with him forever. Paul’s trusting soul might forgive him in the afterlife but Louis didn’t deserve that; he treated the staring contest with Paul as a form of confession. He couldn’t go to the family church as he had been banned several years ago after he embalmed a queer couple together. Something about him not upholding the church’s values. Of course Paul still went to the church after that. He was akin to a pure lamb unable to be tainted by whatever Louis; or at least he thought that he was unable to be tainted until the incident. Louis’s theory is that the evil within his soul had simply built up to a point where he couldn’t handle it anymore. It sounded stupid and outlandish but this entire situation already didn’t make sense.
He let out a final huff before pulling his brother’s drawer out completely so he could transfer him onto one of the gurneys. Louis tried to ignore the fact that if you squinted, the drawers oddly resembled the bottom bunk of the bed that he used to share with his dear baby brother. He needed to have him completely embalmed by the next morning for the family viewing. Starting now was a bit overkill but Louis knew he was going to need a lot longer than usual in order to get things done. He was already dreading the fact that he was going to have to put those catheters in his arteries to drain his blood, had those tubes always been so large? He hadn’t realized how brutal the embalming process was until he had to do it to someone he loved. His hands shook as he moved Paul over to the embalming table, the scalpel in his hand. He pressed the blade in the now cold skin and held back tears when he saw the cold blood, it was thick from the lack of flow and he tried not to think too deeply as he pushed the tube into the artery and began the process of draining him in order to fill his body with embalming fluid. The embalming room was a holy place; normally he would play some soft classical music or jazz but today he was oddly content with the silence of the room. If anything it would feel rude to play music during such a sacred time. Paul was better than anybody he had ever embalmed and he was going to treat him as such.
It took him almost six hours to completely embalm Paul and add makeup to bring a faux sort of life back to his face. Applying a dark rouge onto his cheeks to give him the soft glow that he had when he was alive. He wanted to try to show his mother that he did truly care for Paul and he wasn’t just going to treat him as he treated the others. The conversation with Lestat from earlier today was almost gone from his stream of consciousness but he couldn’t get those piercing gray eyes out of his mind. The way his coy smile upturned whenever Louis squirmed uncomfortably in his seat, in such a grim time the last thing he should be thinking about is the fuck ass grin of a french florist but it simply lingered there. He simply shook his head and put the finishing touches on Paul’s body. He moved him into the casket, it was rather simple with a soft white trim. The male wore an unassuming black suit, his shoes were the same tap shoes he used to dance in with Louis back when they would dance on the streets for extra pocket change. Finally seeing Paul in his final resting place overwhelmed Louis with emotion and he almost felt like he should join him. Maybe later but for now he had to complete his job as a funeral director no matter what.