SCENE THREE: THE BACKSTREETS
Establishing Photograph: A dark alley
(LESTAT storms through the back streets filled with anger, fear and desperation.)
[Lestat:]
He cannot! He's too weak. He would never survive.
(He comes upon a beggar. He grabs him angrily.)
[Lestat:]
He cannot leave me!
(He pulls him into the shadows and bites him. LESTAT experiences THE SWOON and receives images of the beggar's life. He lets the body drop and moves on. Fired up for even more blood, he comes upon a prostitute who approaches him seductively. He grabs her up off her feet, staring down into her dumbstruck face.)
[Lestat:]
Why do they all leave me?
(He bites her… experiences THE SWOON, receiving fast fleeting images and lets her body fall. He moves on, passing a young girl, weeping over the body of her mother. Caught up in his tumultuous thoughts, he barely glances up as he passes. But as he moves on, his steps slow and then stop. He stands for a long moment, listening to the girl's cries. A terrible idea forms. He turns slowly and moves back toward her. He stops, looming over her. She looks up. Her face stained with dirt and tears.)
[Claudia:]
Please… my mother's sick… you have to help her… please!
(LESTAT holds out his hand to the girl.)
[Lestat:]
Take my hand.
(The girl reaches up and takes his hand. She gasps and draws back.)
[Claudia:]
Cold. Like mother's.
[Lestat:]
Come with me now.
[Claudia:]
Are you an angel?
(LESTAT hesitates. He glances around as if for witnesses to his lie.)
[Lestat:]
Yes.
(She willingly takes his hand. LESTAT pulls her into the shadows. We see the silhouette as he bites her neck. LESTAT experiences THE SWOON as he drinks from CLAUDIA. Her brief life: the dark hold of a ship, children crying, the docks, the small crowded dwelling, her mother's gaunt face… The images stop abruptly as the scene transforms to the townhouse.)