Lestat
relax! Please, dont panic until I have explained what has happened.
No, you dont understand! My eyes . . . my eyes are bleeding!
This realization only made Lestat cry all the harder, producing
more blood, which caused the cycle to repeat itself. Louis did the only
thing he could think of, which was grabbing both Lestats hands and holding
them, staring him in the eye and speaking slowly. Lestat, hush! This is
normal
Normal! Are you blind?
Louis made no motion, only held Lestats gaze until the hysterical
shaking ebbed to soft sniffling. A great change was wrought in you when
you did as Black Cat asked. He gave a little life in some way, and pain,
but you gave something more. You are no longer human, as I am not human.
Youre mad!
I am as sane as you, and I am speaking in as rational a manner as I
can muster. What can I do to assuage your fears? You are a vampire, now
and forever, by the power of the spell under which I was placed. Louis
looked down and his face seemed so troubled that Lestat thought his own
misery must be small compared to whatever haunted the man before him. I
suppose, he continued, that this is as good a time to tell you everything
as any other.
Lestat felt as though his insides were shaking so badly that his
body might quake itself to death. He sat down heavily upon a convenient
chair, gripping his arms to still the trembling in his fingers. Vampire?
Louis nodded, misery etched across his face as he watched his
companion. Yes, I will get to that. There is much which came before.
Lestat nodded, fear shining in his eyes, though he couldnt help a
little curiosity. Tell me everything then as plainly as you can.
It began many years ago, far before you could have been born. I was
master of this castle, presiding over the vast land of Pointe du Lac
bequeathed to me by my dying father. I ruled effectively for a few years,
until fate intervened. There was a tragedy . . . Louis sat down on the
bed, the sound of springs as his weight, a human weight, settled there was
strangely comforting to Lestat despite his own reservations. He hadnt
realized how accustomed hed grown to having long discussions with a cat,
and Louis was very much a man. Even in his obvious distress, Lestat felt
himself drawn to the morose gentleman.
Privately Lestat wished that somehow all that had been done could
be reversed, but also he wanted Louis company in a way he just couldnt
describe. It was a natural and inevitable as growing thirsty and, seeing
the desired carafe of water, taking ones fill. Lestat could not help but
be drawn to this strange man, despite all that had happened and all he did
not know, and the realization left him confused and full of longing. Go
on, Louis, please. I want to know what happened here. He glanced at his
fingers. They were clenched tightly in his lap but still smudged with
blood.
Louis nodded, reaching in his coat pocket for a handkerchief which
he retrieved and, whetting it in a porcelain wash basin; he busied himself
with cleaning Lestats hands as he spoke. My brother, you see, was a very
beautiful man, very clever, but also very prone to wild ideas in
opposition to my own purely logical mind. One night, there was an argument
between us. I dont remember what we argued about, or why I so furiously
mocked him, but he left my chamber this chamber in a rage. I turned back
to my desk, for he had interrupted my affairs, when there was a terrible
thudding, as though someone had shoved a sack of meat and stones down the
stairway. I froze in my writing as the repeated thudding continued,
wondering what it could be. I had never before heard such a sound, you
understand; but then I heard the most abominable cry. I will never forget
the sound which rose up the winding staircase after the last of those
chaotic poundings, a sound like the wailing of some mournful beast,
inhuman yet capable of too much feeling. I jolted from my seat and made
for the door, bounding down the stairs with reckless abandon as a knot of
panic took hold in my belly. There, at the foot of the stairs, I
discovered what made the keening wail my sister. In her arms she cradled
the broken, bloodied body of my brother, dead from a fall down the winding
stone stairway we have just climbed.
Lestats eyes were very wide and Louis nodded, I was just as shocked
as you, and I recall even rebuking my sister for an instant, demanding
that she tell me what happened; but I would never get an answer from her
for anything after that. She became a mute on that very night, refusing to
speak for any reason. I apologized, begged, and pleaded but to no avail.
My life was left in a shambles from that point my sister hung herself
three days later from her favorite cherry tree at the castle gate.
He lowered his eyes as though the tale were done, and Lestat
couldnt help but wonder what all this had to do with Black Cat and Louis
being trapped in an enchanted portrait; but then Louis gazed into Lestats
eyes again, and resumed the tale. After that I was never the same. I had
the tree chopped down and the stairway to my chamber decorated in the
finest tapestries and adorned with candlelight, but it did no good. I
became little more than a ghost of myself, haunting the halls of my
castle. I conjoured a little here and brought upon spells now and again in
the hopes of rekindling my interest in life. The practice did improve my
abilities as a mage, but I still failed in my spells more often than not.
The weather outside the castle was my own doing in a misguided effort to
make the flowers bloom early within the garden my sister had so loved; but
the world had taken on a monotony from which I could not escape.
Despite all my best efforts I had no energy to pull myself from my
mental anguish. Eventually I fell ill, and though my servants tried all
their remedies, I wanted nothing more than to pay for any wrongs Id ever
committed. I had by then accumulated a little talent in the magical arts,
you saw the effect my charmed dagger had upon those demon wolves when they
attacked you, and so I summoned the most feared magician in this or any
land Dark Lord Santino. My spells by that time were fairly accurate,
though nothing compared to the powers of Lord Santino. He responded
immediately to my summons, and was at my side within the week. I relayed
all that had taken place, and begged that he might devise some penance for
me and then, if he would be so kind, end my life for I hadnt the courage
to do the deed myself. The dead eyes of my sister, her body swinging back
and forth in the breeze from the flowered branches, and the broken body of
my brother dead from my own spiteful words it was driving me mad.
However Santino was not so kind. He found my self pity appalling
and set out to teach me a lesson. He told me I only felt pity when it
suited my own ends, and that I wore sorrow like black velvet, my tears
like gems carefully placed to underscore my vanity. I objected to this,
claiming that I was indeed genuine in my sorrow, but the seeds of
self-doubt had been placed, and I could no longer see my own actions in
the same light. So they would not coddle me, Santino sent away my
servants, replacing them with invisible spirits of utmost kindness and
devotion yet still unable to be seen. I was left entirely alone to my own
misery as I thought I deserved; but this was not the full extent of
Santinos machinations. He placed a curse upon me, dividing my soul. He
sealed my human appearance and my sorrow away in the painting, and placed
the rest of my essence in the form of my favorite animal and one he
thought would serve me well. I became Black Cat, retaining all my memories
and knowledge. Only my sorrow and my physical shape was taken from me.
Louis smiled thinly. So you see, Lestat, Black Cat and I were one in the
same. You killed me, but only the feline part of me. When you freed my
soul with your selfless act of love and obedience, both parts merged again
and, in the crossfire of the magical fusion, the monstrous beast was
killed that so wished you harm.
