Somewhere only we know

Chapter 11 <3

“What else happened?” Sarah asked James, as they both sat down in the hotel room's antique upholstery.

“Well, the guards showed me around and brought me to the spot where the other guards disappeared. But then there was something unusual. At the spot, there was an marked column. At the base, it said DIII, which is the Roman numeral for 503. All the other columns were unmarked and made of fine marble. This one was made out of some kind of plaster... It was hallow.”

Sarah's heart pounded.

503.503.503.

“It's not a coincidence,” she said. “503 is the Enlightened Number.”

“What?!”

“Really? I thought it was-”

“It's not 666. No, it's not. Jay-Z got it all wrong. It's 503. I remember my grandmother telling me something about 503. It's significant because 5 is the number of brotherhood because it forms the prominent points of a star and 3 is cubed, so it's the number of power.”

Michaelle walked into the room now. She plopped herself onto the love seat.

“It's also 503 because numerical wise, 4 is between 5 and 3. And the scientists during that time adored the number 4 because of the belief of the 4 elements. That, and the fact that the papacy number stopped at 502, DII.”

James' face lit up. He started shaking Sarah, and yelled in triumph,

“Wait! Didn't Galileo write 3 books within the span of his imprisonment? Dialogo, Discorsi, and Diagramma? DDD. DIII. 503?”

Michaelle grinned.

Sarah smiled. James only needs to get her approval.

“Very good, James. Very good.”

There, Sarah thought. He finally got it.

...

Michaelle's stomach growled.

The pizzeria was crowded, naturally. Sarah was at the counter waiting.

It was all because of that Raoule, who wanted a jumbo pizza-pasta extreme.

When they finally got their food, James was all business.

“This is what I propose. We'll ask the Vatican authorities to let us into the archives-”

“-James, the authorities aren't stupid,” Michaelle interrupted.

Everyone was silent. Then Valentino smiled.

“There IS a way. Mind you, you'll be breaking about a hundred policies.”

“Breaking rules is what we're all about,” Michaelle smirked.

Valentino's phone vibrated.

“Oh,” he flushed a deep shade of rosy red. “I'm sorry. Will you excuse me? I have to take this. You can wait for me by the obelisk.”

The answer hit Michaelle. Hard.

Michaelle got up and yelled in excitement, “OF COURSE! THE OBELISKS! There's like a billion in ROME!”

“Uhh... yeah I guess.”

She turned to Valentino.

“Thank you.”

Then she kissed him. It was a soft, simple, virtuous one, but Michaelle could still feel the warmth, the love, the bliss, and-alas- the taste of sweet Nutella :)..... <3