INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE

The bodies of the thief and whore float by. Above on the wharf, Louis, now awake, stares down at them. He turns, to see Lestat, towering above him.

LESTAT

They would have killed you -

LOUIS
Then my luck would have changed.

LESTAT
You want death? Is it death you want?

LOUIS
Yes...

Lestat floats down on top of him, then lifts him in the air, draws his head back by the hair and sinks his teeth in his neck.

ON LOUIS' FACE - every muscle rigid, teeth clenched, as the blood is drained from him.

ON THIER FEET - hovering above the ground, like two quivering dancers.

THE WIND - billows through the ghostly white sails and rigging of the boats around the wharf.

LESTAT - floats higher, with Louis in his arms, draining his blood. One hand reaches out and grips a rope, hanging from a shipmast. The other holds Louis. He withdraws his teeth, and looks into Louis' drained face.

LESTAT
You still want death? Or have you tasted it enough?

Louis can barely get the words out.

LOUIS
Enough...

Lestat smiles and lets him go. Louis falls and plummets into the water below.

LOUIS' FACE - coming to the surface, in the water lapping by the wharf. The bodies of the whore and thief float beside him. He looks up and sees Lestat way above him, dangling from the rope of the shipmast.

INT. ROOM. SAN FRANCISCO.

ON MALLOY'S FACE
captivated, terrified, enthralled.

MALLOY
That's how it happened?

LOUIS
No. The Gift of Darkness requires more than that, as you'll see.

EXT. WATERFRONT. DAY.

Louis floating by mudflats, surrounded by dead fish, the carcases of animals, eighteenth century rubbish. He gets to his feet and walks weakly through the mudflats. The sun is coming up over the sea behind him.

LOUIS (VO)
He left me half dead that morning. he wanted something from me. He came back the following night.

INT. LAVISH FRENCH-FURNISHED BEDROOM AT POINT DU LAC.

Louis is delerious in a four-poster bed, shrouded with mosquito netting. A female slave, YVETTE, bathes his face with a rag. She is crying. Other slave women hover in the shadows. Yvette puts out all candles save one by the bed, and withdraws, with the others.

Candlelight flickers on the face of the bisque virgin.

Louis tosses and turns, dreaming, murmuring incoherently. Then he opens his eyes.

LESTAT, exquisitely dressed in French clothing, stands by the bed smiling. In the light of the candle we see that he is not human; skin too white; eyes too bright. Lestat looks amiable, even mischevious, but impossible - and angel or monster.

Louis grabs his pistol from the table and cocks it.

LOUIS
Who the hell are you? What are you doing in my house?

LESTAT
And a beautiful house it is too. Yours is a good life, isn't it?

Louis takes aim. Lestat puts his hand over the barrel. Louis fires. The bullet tears a hole in Lestat's hand. Lestat is unfazed. He takes the gun from Louis' hand and throws it away. His hand begins to heal.

LESTAT
You're not afraid of anything, are you?

LOUIS
Why should I be?

Louis reaches for his sword, hanging by the bed, and point it. Lestat laughs indulgently. He draws closer.

LESTAT
Are you going to put that through me too? Ruin my beautiful clothes?

He comes closer to Louis, right up to his face, so the sword passes through his waistcoat.

LESTAT
Were all last night's promises for nothing?

He reaches out with his now-healed hand and plucks out the sword.

LOUIS
What do you want from me?

LESTAT
I've come to answer your prayers. You want to die, don't you? Life has no meaning anymore, does it?

Lestat sits down on the bed, drawing up one knee. Louis is becoming spellbound.

LESTAT
The wine has no taste. The food sickens you. There seems no reason for any of it, does there? But what if I could give it back to you? Pluck out the pain and give you another life? And it would be for all time? And sickeness and death could never touch you again?

The vampire theme rises, with the sound of a heartbeat. Dissolve to:

EXT. GRAVEYARD. NIGHT.

The camera drifts through the graveyard where Louis' wife is buring. Everything is lit with an eery glow, as if seen through some unearthly eye.

LESTAT
Vampires, that's what we are. Creatures of darkness, only we see it that darkness more clearly than any mortal has ever seen...

Louis and Lestat drifting, dreamlike, through the overhanging vines, comes to the grave of his wife and child. Above the crypt, the statue of angel, mother and child.

LESTAT
Wouldn't it be sweet to bid pain goodbye? To wave away anguish and grief? To embrace the peace of the unending night?

The marble fingers of the child on the statue move. The angel raises her head and has the face of Louis wife, Diane. she raises her hand and touches Louis tear-streamed face. The child speaks.

MARBLE CHILD
Papa...

Louis reaches out to embrace them and finds himself touching cold marble. He cries out in anguish-

LOUIS
Diane!!!!

LESTAT
They are gone, Louis. Death took them. Death which you can now destroy...

LOUIS
NO!!!!!

INT. LOUIS BEDROOM. NIGHT.

Louis, thrashing on the bed in a delerium. Lestat places a hand on his forehead and soothes him.

LESTAT
You have to ask me for this. You have to want it, do you hear me?

LOUIS
Give it to me!!!

LESTAT
Vampires. We thrive on blood.

LOUIS
I want it!

Lestat bends close as if to drink Louis' blood. Louis does not shrink back, but stares into his eyes. Lestat draws back, then stands up and goes to the French doors.

LESTAT
Tomorrow night. You must prove yourself. I will give you the choice I never had.

He looks outside.

LESTAT
The sun's coming up. Watch it carefully. If you come with me tomorrow, you'll never see it again.

He leaves. Louis sits dazed, staring at the empty French window. The sun rises with unnatural beauty, over the swamplands and the plantation, filling the room, striking water-pitcher, glass, mirror, and the picture of his dead wife.

LOUIS (VO)
My last sunrise. That morning I was not yet a vampire, and I saw my last sunrise. I remember it completely, yet I don't remember any sunrise before it. I watched the whole magnificence of the dawn for the last time, as if it were the first. And the I said goodbye to sunlight and went out to become what I became.

EXT. PLANTATION. NIGHT.

Lestat and Louis walk through the slave quarters, huddles groups around fires, music, singing. The sound of whipping is heard.

LESTAT
Your grief has unhinged you. You've let your estate rot.

In the woods beyond the quarters, the white overseer is whipping a black slave, with horrifying savagery.

LESTAT
You let your overseer run riot, work your slaves to the bone. We'll start with him.

LOUIS
How do you mean, start?

LESTAT
Call him.

Louis calls.