SCENE SEVEN: THE HOTEL GRAND HOMMES
Establishing Photograph: An elegant hotel on the Seine.
(Dusk. LESTAT hurries toward GABRIELLE'S room. NICOLAS waits in the hall.)
[Nicolas:]
You should have come sooner. She's in terrible pain, but she's holding on for you.
[Lestat:]
I came as soon as I could.
[Nicolas:]
The doctor told me it won't be long. She won't allow me to call a priest.
[Lestat:]
No, she wouldn't. Nicolas…
[Nicolas:]
[cold] Good-bye, Lestat.
(He leaves. LESTAT enters GABRIELLE 's room. She sits in a chair, but she's dying and suffering enormously. LESTAT is hit by her thoughts: fearful images of death. He sends her a calming image when she was young and radiant holding him in her lap. GABRIELLE releases a long sigh.)
[Lestat:]
Mother.
[Gabrielle:]
Lestat? I was just dreaming of you. Such a beautiful child. Come closer. I can't see you.
(LESTAT moves only a step closer.)
Why won't you come closer? I came to Paris to see you.
(She pulls herself to her feet despite the pain.)
[Lestat:]
Don't.
[Gabrielle:]
Please, son…
(She moves toward him with enormous effort. But she stumbles and starts to fall. He steps forward to catch her… holding her close.)
Lestat.
(She touches his face, gasps as if stung and staggers backwards.)
[Lestat:]
Mother…
(She steps forward again. Curiously and unafraid, she draws close to stare at his skin, his eyes. He doesn't pull away. She reaches up to touch his face again.)
[Gabrielle:]
[hushed] Not… alive.
[Lestat:]
No.
(During the following, LESTAT sends her images of what he has become: the ghostly figure in his room, the shattered window, MAGNUS, the exchange of blood.)
Song: Make Me As You Are
[Lestat:]
I cannot hide what I've become
It's clear a mother knows her son
And even though your sight grows dim
You see the pallor of my skin
The blood red eyes sunk in my face
You feel the chill in my embrace
The gothic legend of your youth
Stands here tonight as god's own truth
[Gabrielle:]
And from that truth I feel no fear
Two kinds of death are present here
Mine's the age old act of dying
But yours is like the phoenix rising
Your mother's frail and feeble husk
Will soon be nothing more than dust
So let's not dwell on wasted years
My time is short my choice is clear
Make me as you are
Tear the hand off clocks that tick away my final hours
I want to rage against the light and leave the sun behind
I want to feel the power of everlasting youth inside
Take me, give me new life and we'll live beneath the stars
Together and forever. I beg you, make me as you are
[Lestat:]
This cursed Gift with which I live
I know not if it's mine to give
The cold hard truth of what I am
Mocks the notion of this plan
[Gabrielle:]
The risk is mine and if we fail
I'll shake the demons by their tails
And spit into the devil's face
And say hell's no worse than this place
[Lestat:]
I'm still a fledgling in this frame
I've only killed when hunger reigned
And death was final in my wake
Is this a chance we dare to take
[Gabrielle:]
Oh blessed thoughts of sweet release
From nagging nurse and hovering priest
To rid myself of stoop and cane
To breathe without this burning pain
Make me as you are
Tear the wings off angels that would lift me from your heart
I want to dance beneath the moon and slip into the dark
I want to feel the night awaken when I leave my mark
Take me, give me new life and we'll live beneath the stars
Together and forever. I beg you, make me as you are
Make me as you are
[Gabrielle/Lestat:]
Tear the hands off clocks that tick away my/your final hours
We'll rage against the light and leave the sun behind
And feel the power of everlasting youth inside
[Lestat:]
I'll take you, give you new life
[Gabrielle/Lestat:]
And we'll live beneath the stars
Together and forever
[Gabrielle:]
I beg you, make me as you are
I beg you, make me as you are
(LESTAT holds his mother with his arm behind her back. He bites her. She gasps as her heart and mind split open to him. He sees images of her life: the barren stone rooms, the long table of loud drunken sons and a boorish husband, lazily brushing her long hair, the white frozen winter earth, a devastated LESTAT in his room, the last glimpse of him as he rode off to his new life. LESTAT groans and pushes her back… holding her away from him. Her eyes are open, seemingly blind as her life slips away. LESTAT can hear her calling his name from far away. Still holding her, he slashes his own wrist with his teeth and holds it to her lips.)
[Lestat:]
[frantically] Mother, drink.
(GABRIELLE drinks from him. LESTAT stifles a cry. Her hand grabs his wrist as her body takes in his blood, gathering strength, robbing it from him. Gradually, she's standing on her own two feet. LESTAT'S legs give out and now she is the one holding him up. Finally, he pushes her away and collapses in the chair. GABRIELLE begins to move, testing her renewed strength, fascinated by the smallest details of the room. She holds up a mirror. The image causes her to laugh. Her laughter rouses LESTAT.)
Shhh… your voice can shatter glass.
[Gabrielle:]
Then let me shatter it!
(She pulls him out of his chair. They twirl around, laughing.)
[Lestat:]
Gabrielle. Nothing can take you away from me now.
[Gabrielle:]
Wait, there's something I want to do.
(She goes to the dressing table, picks up a pair of scissors and cuts off her long hair.)
By this time, she would have been gone, your mother. Think how humiliating… to have strangers bathe her and lay her out… seeing her emaciated and defenseless. And one of them would have stolen a ring off the dead woman's hand.
(She's finished the job and she lays the scissors down with satisfaction.)
[Lestat:]
[grieving] Your hair.
[Gabrielle:]
Chains. Come, Lestat. We're in Paris and we're going to live forever.
(They go out into the night.)