INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

LOUIS
You mean we are not children of Satan?

ARMAND
No.

He smiles at Louis. A smile of infinite compassion.

ARMAND
I understand. I saw you in the theatre, your suffering, your sympathy for that girl. I saw you with the boy. You die when you kill, you feel you deserve to die and you stint on nothing. But does that make you evil? Or, since you comprehend what you call goodness, does it not make you good?

LOUIS
Then there is nothing.

ARMAND
Perhaps...

He passes his finger through the candle flame.

ARMAND
And perhaps this is the only real evil left...

LOUIS
Then God does not exist...

ARMAND
I have not spoken to him...

LOUIS
And no vampire here has discourse with God or the Devil?

ARMAND
None that I've ever known. I know nothing of God or the Devil, I have never seen a vision nor learnt a secret that would damn or save my soul. And as far as I know, after four hundred years I am the oldest living vampire in the world.

He stares at them, his face angelic, hypnotic, young. His eyes hold them both in a trance.

LOUIS
My God... So it's as I always feared. Nothing, leading to nothing.

ARMAND
You fell too much. So much you make me feel...

He stares from Claudia to Louis. He seems to be reading their souls.

ARMAND
The one who made you should have told you this. The one who left the old world for the new...

LOUIS
He knew nothing. He just didn't care.

ARMAND
Knew? You mean he is...

Claudia appears suddenly to Louis' shoulder, interrupting.

CLAUDIA
Come, beloved. It's time we were on our way. I'm hungry and the city waits.

She stares hard at Armand. Armand looks from her to Louis.

ARMAND
So soon to go?

He seems genuinely regretful. But Claudia pulls Louis out.

INT. DARKENED CORRIDORS AND THEATRE. NIGHT.

Louis and Claudia feel their way through darkened corridors, trying to find their way out.

LOUIS (VO)
The place was dark as we left, a darkness that confounded even Claudia. And as we blundered through it, again came the thought: I have wronged Lestat, I have hated him for th wrong reasons.

Suddenly a light comes on. They see they are in the empty theatre. Santiago stands on the stage, under a candle.

SANTIAGO
How did you wrong him?

Louis is stunned.

LOUIS
You read my thoughts?

SANTIAGO
You said a name -

LOUIS
A name I don't want to say again.

SANTIAGO
I seemed to recongise it...

Other vampires appear behind him.

SANTIAGO
There is but one crime among us vampires here.

He looks at Claudia.

SANTIAGO
You should know, who are so secretive about the vampire who made you.

Claudia laughs.

CLAUDIA
Boredom!

SANTIAGO
It is the crime that means death to any vampire. To kill your own kind!

CLAUDIA
Aaaah! I was so afraid it was to be born like Venus out of the foam, as we were! Come Louis, let's go!

EXT. HOTEL SAINT GABRIEL. NIGHT.

Claudia and Louis enter the Lobby.

CLAUDIA
I lothe them! I can't stand the sight of them! Stupid bourgeois Parisians, all dressed in black like some private club! I've searched for them the world over and I despise them!

LOUIS
What danger?

CLAUDIA
I can feel it from them! They want to know who made us, what became of him. They have their rules, their idiotic rules!

They come to their room, enter.

INT. HOTEL ROOMS. NIGHT.

Louis closes the door behind him. Claudia paces.

LOUIS
Do you think I would let them harm you?

CLAUDIA
No, you would not, Louis. Danger hold you to me.

LOUIS
Love holds you to me. And we are in danger, not you.

CLAUDIA
Love?

She smiles at him. A strange, sad, adult smile.

CLAUDIA
You would leave me for Armand if he beckoned you.

LOUIS
Never.

CLAUDIA
He wants you as you want him. He's been waiting for you. He wants you for a companion. He bides his time that place. he finds them as dull and lifeless as we do.

LOUIS
That's not so.

CLAUDIA
Do you know what his soul said to me without saying a word? When he put me in that trance...

LOUIS
So you felt it too!

CLAUDIA
Let him go, he said. Let him go.

She touches his face.

CLAUDIA
Is that what I should do Louis? Let you go? My father? My lover? My Louis, who made me?

There are tears in her eyes. Louis lifts her up in his arms.

LOUIS
He can protect us, Claudia.

CLAUDIA
You really believe that?

EXT. DOLL-SHIP. NIGHT.

Claudia, staring at the dolls. We see Madeleine inside, painting a doll. She sees Claudia and smiles and waves.

INT. THEATRE. NIGHT.

Louis, sitting alone in the box, as the curtains draw back, to show Santiago as death, as before. Louis takes advantage of the darkness to slip away.

INT. ARMAND'S ROOM. NIGHT.

Armand opens the door to Louis' knock.

ARMAND
I was waiting for you...

LOUIS
Listen to me.

He follows Armand into the room.

LOUIS
Claudia is dear to me. My... daughter.

ARMAND
Your lover.

LOUIS
No, my beloved, my child.

ARMAND
If you say so. You are innocent.

LOUIS
I'm not innocent. But I'm afraid. She feels she's in danger from the others.

ARMAND
She is.

LOUIS
But why?

ARMAND
I could give you reasons. Her silence. Her youth. It's forbidden to make so young, so helpless, that cannot survive on its own.

LOUIS
Then blame the one who made her...

ARMAND
Did you kill this vampire who made you both? Is that why you won't say his name? Santiago thinks you did.

LOUIS
We want no quarrel with him.

ARMAND
It's already begun. If you want to save her, send her away.

LOUIS
Then I leave too.

Armand smiles.

ARMAND
So soon? Without any of those answers you so longed for?

LOUIS
You said there were none.