Chloe stared gloomily at her neat arrangement of brand new textbooks. How she longed to still be able to upend them and to endorse in their volumes of knowledge. Alas, she could no longer do that. She dejectedly stuffed her last t-shirt into her suitcase and then struggled to zip it up.
There were no more reasons for her to remain here. Sure, Paris had been a great experience, but she had failed ultimately in her much desired task of succeeding here. Her only option now was to leave- to leave and, apparently, never to come back, since it was highly unlikely that she, with her lowly origin would ever acquire such a grand opportunity again in her lifetime. Back to the United States, she thought, back where you belong. Isn’t that what you had known would happen all along anyways?
But despite these reality- inducing repeats in her head, Chloe was unable to daunt the feeling of shame and depression that was now slowly creeping up on her. It wasn’t her fault that her French invitation had arrived from someone who was gruesome and selfish. But it was certainly her fault that she had not been able to work around the repellent attitude radiating from him and his other companions in order to use his invitation for her own personal success.
And then there was that waiter- Renaldo. She had finally discovered his name. He had been a strange addition to her visit here in Paris. Under no circumstances did she blame him for anything that happened to her, but she did regret having to get him into trouble. She was pretty sure, now that she was sober, that those bottles of alcoholic beverages had indeed belonged to someone, and she was positive that Renaldo would now be held responsible for their disappearance, though she had not been privy to his fate. She did, however, in a way wish that she could glimpse him one last time, if only to say goodbye. After all, he had proved to be the only semi-kind person she had met here- the only one who was truly kind, not for money or for business but purely out of his own heart.

Far on the other side of the city, Renaldo was not in a much better mood. But whereas at least Chloe knew what her new life would bring, since it would not change much from the way it had been before, Renaldo did not know what to do with himself whatsoever. He had no idea what this newfound freedom from the chaos of the Maison de la Bête would bring upon him and his weary shoulders. On one hand, he felt as though he should be pleased to have some say in what he needs to do at any moment of any day. But in reality he was frightened of everything- unsure of his own decisions and very close to functioning in constant panic mode. The girl- Chloe was her name- she had been stunningly beautiful, and he admitted that he would indeed like to see her again. But his uncertain mind was holding him back, preventing him from even trying to assess his feelings further than that.