SCENE TWO: THE FRENCH QUARTER — TWO YEARS LATER
Establishing Photograph: A two-story townhouse
(An elegant townhouse with a second-story balcony, lavish furnishings and rich carpets. LOUIS stands at the French doors gazing out. The shadows of the intricate balcony ironwork fall across his silent face. LESTAT enters, clad elegantly in silk and velvet.)
[Lestat:]
Louis! I have just come from the French Opera where they are putting on the most excruciating version of «The Magic Flute». Torturous. Fortunately, the evening was saved by an exquisite dark-skinned beauty who turned out to be a whore and tried to kill me for the coins in my pocket…
(He trails off as he notices LOUIS standing motionless at the window. For a horrifying moment, LESTAT things LOUIS has become like NICOLAS.)
[Lestat:]
Louis?
(LOUIS turns at last. He is pale and sunken. He wears a permanently guilt-ridden expression.)
You look dreadful. You must drink! Come with me out into the streets. There are still a few hours before dawn.
[Louis:]
Are we damned, Lestat?
(LESTAT throws his arms up with frustration.)
[Lestat:]
This again!
[Louis:]
Are we from the devil?
[Lestat:]
[he sighs] And the evening had begun so well…
[Louis:]
If I am from the devil… then I must hate mortals. But I do not. I love them… more than I ever did in life. If I am not from the devil… what am I? I am to live until the end of the world and I do not even know what I am!
[Lestat:]
I will tell you what you are… morbid beyond description. You sit here night after night… staring for hours at the pattern in the carpet and moaning about being damned. Why did you become a vampire? Why did you let me take you that night?
[Louis:]
I wanted to die. I wanted to see hell.
(LESTAT opens his arms wide to take in the room.)
[Lestat:]
Here it is. A hell of your own making.
[Louis:]
Can I not return? Can I not go back?
(LESTAT gathers his patience. He bends down and takes LOUIS' hands gently.)
[Lestat:]
I have told you this pain will pass. This longing to be mortal again will ease with time.
[Louis:]
But it has not! It still consumes me! More so than the Thirst! Why did you come to me that night… of all the souls in the city… why come to me?
[Lestat:]
I was drawn to your tragic nature, I suppose. But you suffer needlessly, Louis. You are so consumed with looking back that you cannot see what lies before you.
[Louis:]
Oh I see it. An eternity of pain and death! You did not tell me I had to kill to live!
[Lestat:]
What do you think a vampire is? We are killers! You are a killer! But there is more to us than that. Only by standing outside of life, can we appreciate all that it is. In two years, you have not begun to understand the gift that I have given you.
[Louis:]
Gift? This is a gift?
Song: Embrace It
[Louis:]
Where is the glory in the new me?
Where is the feeling of achievement
In the shadows of the evening?
Where is the satisfaction in your killing creed?
Who am I now, I don't know
I must question my existence
And deal with your persistence
That somehow in some way you set me free
And I don't think that I can take another night
Of these instincts that I fight
This overwhelming dread
Of feeling damned inside
[Lestat:]
Oh god help us just look at you
Shrinking away from my point of view
Showering me with your pious blame
The gift that I give is exempt from shame
Embrace it, embrace it
Make no mistake these dismal traits
Are temporary ties
To everlasting life
Embrace it, embrace it
[Louis:]
You seek my trust after the lies
But in this superficial splendor
The decades will seem endless
And will the drudgery of torment be my bride
[Lestat:]
What lies are these of what you speak
Are you so blinded by contrition
That you sense in me ambitions
And the failure to practice what I preach
I don't think that I can take another night
Of your cowering effete fright
The wilted flower act
Who shuns the vampire's bite
[Louis:]
Oh god help me just look at you
Striding through hell with nothing to prove
A glorious ghost on infinity's fuse
Then if it's to be tell me what I should do
[Lestat:]
Embrace it, embrace it
Make no mistake these dismal traits
Are temporary ties
To everlasting life
Embrace it, embrace it.
So God help us to see it through
Two of Lucifer's angels are on the loose
Oh merciful and majestic boy
This gift I bestowed was to be enjoyed
Embrace it, embrace it
Make no mistake these dismal traits
Are temporary ties
To everlasting life
Embrace it, embrace it
(LESTAT throws, opens the door… an invitation to go out into the night. In answer, LOUIS sits down.)
[Louis:]
You chose your companion badly.
[Lestat:]
Yes, I seem to have a weakness there.
[Louis:]
I'm leaving you. I want you to know that now.
[Lestat:]
[alarmed] You don't have the courage!
[Louis:]
Not now. But soon. One night, you will wake up and I'll be gone.
(The words ring in LESTAT'S ears. He turns angrily and goes out.)