Interview with the Vampire Page #10

EXT. ILE ST. LOUIS

Lestat on horseback rides over bridge behind Notre Dameand stops before a mansion, anxious, looking up at alighted window.

LOUIS (V.O.)

A companion! Where is this beingnow?

RETURN TO:

INN:

Lestat smiling sadly at Louis. Louis studies him, curious

yet patient.

LESTAT:

If only I knew.

RETURN TO:

ILE ST. LOUIS

Lestat dismounts, enters:

INT. MANSION

He rushes past attendants up stairs.

LESTAT (V.O.)

As I told you, my mother wasdying when I left her That

journey to Paris was the hardestthing I'd ever done.

(MORE)

(CONTINUED)

51.

CONTINUED:

LESTAT (CONT'D)

Yet with the wealth I showered

upon her -- the wealth Magnus hadgiven me -- she accomplished theone thing I never expected. She

made the journey to Paris to seeher son for the last time.

Lestat stops before a bedroom door.

A NURSE emerges gesturing for him to be quiet.

NURSE:

Madame is very ill. Yet she is

dressed and waiting to see you.

All day we've waited for you! Do

you think death waits on everyspoilt young lord?

Lestat is anguished. Slowly he goes into the room. He

stands in the shadows. In the light of a candle, we see:

Gabrielle, his mother, pale and very sick obviously, yetbeautifully dressed and seated in a gilded armchair bythe big heavily-draped bed. She is almost too weak to

rise.

GABRIELLE:

Lestat, oh, my darling... Comeinto the light where I can see

you.

Lestat remains in the shadows.

LESTAT:

Put out the candle, Mother. I was

a pauper when last you saw me. I

might dazzle you now.

GABRIELLE:

So were we all, my darling, beforeyour good fortune. It is you I

came to see. Not your fineclothes.

LESTAT:

Put out the candle, Mother.

She pinches out the candle. Only light comes throughhigh window.

GABRIELLE:

Please, come to me. Let me take

you in my arms.

(CONTINUED)

52.

CONTINUED:

Lestat draws nearer, trancelike.

LESTAT (V.O.)

How could I tell her? How could

I explain I wasn't her son

anymore, that this is what I'd

become? You know what you see

with your vampire eyes. Imagine

the sight of her to me with my

new vision. She was dying. She

could not have lived another

week, perhaps not another night.

And her thoughts, I could hear

them. She was afraid of dying!

That's why she'd come to me.

She'd thought it would be easier

with me there!

Lestat in anguish draws nearer. Gabrielle struggles toher feet, eyes full of tears and reaches out. As she

touches him, she realizes he's not human anymore. She

falls back, losing her balance, grabbing for the bedpost.

Lestat stares at her sadly.

LESTAT (V.O.)

Countless mortals I'd deceived in

the ballrooms and the theatres,

in the boulevards and the cafes.

But I could not deceive her. She

knew the moment that she touched

my skin. What could I do but

explain to her silently, making

her see it in images, that I

hadn't chosen it, that it had

been done to me, against my will.

CASCADE OF IMAGES

A) Magnus

B) The Towers

C) Jewels

D) Lestat drinking blood from a mortal in an alleyway.

BACK TO SCENE:

Gabrielle moves trancelike toward Lestat. Though hislips don't move, we hear his whisper.

(CONTINUED)

53.

CONTINUED:

LESTAT:

I hide nothing from you, not myignorance, not my fear, not thesimple terror that if I try Imight fail. I do not even know

that it is mine to give more thanonce, or what is the price ofgiving it, but I will risk thisfor you, and we will discover ittogether.

GABRIELLE:

Take me. Bring me with you! Do

it!

Gabrielle opens her arms just as she is about to fallfrom weakness. Lestat enfolds her in his arms, lovingly,

sinks his teeth into her throat and enters a swoon. Theyembrace tightly. As she weakens he wakes her and slashing

his own throat with his fingernail puts her lips toit and she begins to suck his blood. Again, he closeshis lips on her wound. They make a cycle, each drawingblood from the other. Sound of HEARTBEAT. Sound of

DRUM.

Gabrielle steps back, wiping the blood from her lips,

transformed.

EXT. ROOFTOPS

Gabrielle and Lestat hurry over the roofs together. Theydrop down on the top of a passing coach, laughing, holding

tight to each other.

EXT. HOTEL PARTICULEIR (PARIS) - NIGHT

Gabrielle is dressed as a man now, standing over a corpsefrom which she took the clothes. She ties her hair in a

long pigtail with the dead man's ribbon and taking Lestatby the arm they walk off together.

GABRIELLE:

Now, don't look so heartbroken.

There's no reason for me to wear

skirts any longer.

Lestat reaches for her long hair.

LESTAT:

Just... don't cut your hair,

Mother. Do that for me, don't

cut your hair.

(CONTINUED)

54.

CONTINUED:

GABRIELLE:

Gabrielle now, Lestat. Let go ofthat word, Mother. Let it go withthe mortal coil. And if the hair

means so much to you, very well.

Gabrielle kisses him. They walk off together, arm in

arm.

BACK TO:

INN (NEW ORLEANS) - LESTAT

He smiles sadly at the amazed Louis.

LESTAT:

Yes, my mother. I am such a

devil. If you were I, would youhave let her die?

LOUIS:

I don't know. But she was the

strong companion you needed, thatmuch is plain.

LESTAT:

You think so? But how this

angered the ragged coven beneathLes Innocents! I had broken the

rule of all rules. Being abastard was one thing. Makinganother of one's own mother, why,

you'd think I'd trampled on theSacred Host itself.

INT. LES INNOCENTS

The ragged coven of twelve vampires surround Lestat andGabrielle. Gabrielle is in her male garb with her hairin a braid. The vampires hold torches with which theytaunt the pair. Gabrielle clings to Lestat but she is asgrimly angry as he is.

ARMAND, a boy with an angel's face and auburn curlinghair appears. He points a denouncing finger at Lestat.

LESTAT:

What devil do you serve? Where is

he? Who says that you cannot gointo the cathedral of Notre Dame,

if you want to? That you must livehere in filth among the old bones!

(CONTINUED)

55.

CONTINUED:

ARMAND:

(gently, sadly)

Blasphemer. We are the devil's

children.

LESTAT:

You're a pack of fools.

Suddenly he remembers something. He drags a jeweledrosary out of his pockets. The vampires gasp and back

away.

GABRIELLE:

Look, he took it from one of his

victims. He's stolen a hundred.

The cross has no power.

She snatches the rosary from Lestat and dangles the crossin the light of the torches.

GABRIELLE:

These are but superstitions. You

are as deluded as mortals. More

deluded. Who in the Paris above

you believes in God as you

believe?

CLOSE ON ARMAND'S STRICKEN FACE

as the argument continues. Armand is being mentally andspiritually destroyed.

LESTAT (V.O.)

Don't you see? I was the first

one among them to discover that

these old curses didn't matter.

A bunch of monks and nuns, that's

what they were, Satan's

mendicants. And it was all

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