Louis narrates: I was 24. Younger than you are now. But times were different then. I was a man at that age. The master of a large plantation just south of New Orleans...
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"...I had lost my wife in childbirth. She and the infant had been buried less than half a year..." |
"...I would have been happy to join them. I couldn't bear the pain of their loss. I longed to be released from it..." |
"...I wanted to lose it all. My wealth. My estate. My sanity..." |
Louis displays a hand of four aces. Gambler: 'How many aces are in a deck?' |
Louis: 'You're calling me a cheat?' Gambler: 'No, I'm calling you a piece of stinking offal!' |
Louis: 'You lack the courage of your convictions. Do it!' The gambler pulls out a pearl-handled pistol and points it at Louis. |
Louis exposes his chest. The gambler's finger on the trigger. |
The gambler's hand shakes. He finally lowers his gun, scowling. Louis's voice: "Most of all, I longed for death. I know that now... I invited it. A release from the pain of living..." |
"...My invitation was open to anyone. To the whore at my side. To the pimp that followed... But it was a vampire that accepted." |
Pimp: 'Give me your money, or you die!' |
Lestat kills the whore and the pimp. |
Lestat floats down on top of him and sinks his teeth in his neck. |
Lestat starts drinking from Louis's blood. |
Lestat lifts Louis in the air. They float higher and higher above the ground. |
Lestat: 'Do you still want death? Or have you tasted it enough?' Louis: 'Enough...' Lestat smiles and lets him go. |
Louis narrates: 'He left me there, on the banks of the Mississippi, somewhere between life and death.' |
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