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 wishe
