Interview with the Vampire: Season 1, Episode 1

1. There are stories out there that need to be told.

2. There's shit out there that's just...

3. you know, wrong.

4. People need to know about it. That's the job.

5. It's not a complicated job,

6. other than how it'll mess with your life.

7. News used to be a bunch of guys who look like me

8. huddled around a desk at a Page One meeting

9. deciding what the news was.

10. This little fucker changed all of that.

11. I've been fired from three papers,

12. hired back at two of them.

13. Third got gobbled up by Knight Ridder.

14. So, to be clear here,

15. I'm a goddamn reservoir of do's and don'ts.

16. Your sources are your Sherpas.

17. Your editor is your priest.

18. Honesty is not a tactic.

19. You still want this job?

20. It's your money.

21. I'm Daniel Molloy.

22. This is my— The Russian backed

23. separatists have been waging guerrilla warfare

24. - since 2014. - Can he make his fantasy

25. a reality?

26. Walker at the top of the key.

27. Pick and roll from Jones. Walker drives and finishes.

28. With a tough left hand. That's seven straight for Walker...

29. Yeah. Hey, doc. Yeah. Thanks for getting back to me.

30. I, uh... Yes, that's right. I have—

31. I have an appointment scheduled for later in the week,

32. but the— the thing I'm trying to figure out is,

33. what's the deal with this sub-variant business?

34. I mean, is that more contagious?

35. Is it...

36. Uh-huh.

37. Yeah, 'cause, I mean, there's no reason to get more...

38. Okay. So you think— Yeah.

39. I mean, that's what I'm thinking.

40. Why get any closer to the bug than I—

41. than I need to?

42. Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

43. Uh-huh.

44. I gotta call you back.

45. Um, first question.

46. You weren't always a vampire, were you?

47. No.

48. I was a 33-year-old man when I became a vampire.

49. How did it come about?

50. There's a simple answer to that.

51. I don't believe I wanna give simple answers.

52. I think I want to tell the real stor—

53. "Dear Mr. Molloy.

54. I hope this letter finds you safe and thriving,

55. if such a thing were a possibility

56. in this bleak hour.

57. I've been following your career with some interest

58. since our last meeting.

59. Please allow me to congratulate you on all your successes,

60. those professional and those personally redemptive.

61. The passage of time and the frailties

62. that accompany it have provided me perspective.

63. And I suspect the same might be for you, as well.

64. I'm hoping health and pride

65. won't deter you from the following proposal.

66. In a week's time, in a setting of my choosing,

67. we revisit the project

68. boyish youth prevented us from finishing.

69. 49 years and thousands of miles

70. removed from the room we shared in San Francisco,

71. I offer, for your journalistic pleasures,

72. my full attention and my life story.

73. All affinities,

74. Louis de Pointe du Lac."

75. I told my editor I was meeting with the, uh,

76. most dangerous man in the world.

77. Gave him two choices.

78. He came back with "Bezos. Putin."

79. He thinks I'm in Praskovéyevka.

80. You've grown old, Daniel.

81. Yeah, well, mortality beats a heavy drum.

82. I wasn't sure you'd remembered me.

83. Your book makes no mention of our prior meeting.

84. Gritty memoir, drugs, humiliation,

85. self-pity kind of thing.

86. Mention vampires in one of those,

87. readers tend to call bullshit.

88. You've had some health concerns of late.

89. Whole planet's having a moment, I'd say.

90. You have Parkinson's disease, Daniel.

91. Yeah.

92. And you've got your own hangar at the airport,

93. privileges on the Royal Meydan Bridge,

94. and zero presence online.

95. Have I hit a nerve?

96. I know the Emirates are big on privacy,

97. and that's probably important to you,

98. but I gotta ask, what does it cost,

99. this haven't-aged-in- half-a-century,

100. killer-views-in- all-directions anonymity?

101. Quite a lot.

102. Only my family and my doctor know I'm sick.

103. I don't dig the one-way hack.

104. Yeah?

105. And here's another question.

106. That's the sun out there.

107. Where's your coffin?

108. You're standing in it.

109. I have to be very careful whom I let in.

110. Yeah, well, things didn't end well the last time,

111. so forgive me if I'm a little nervous.

112. This, after all I've told you, is what you ask for, boy?

113. Yeah, well, you don't know what human life is like.

114. I mean, you've forgotten, man.

115. I mean, you don't even understand the meaning

116. of your own story!

117. No! Hey, stop!

118. You were disrespectful.

119. I was high.

120. You were not worthy of my story then.

121. Maybe your story wasn't worth telling.

122. You've got the tapes. Hire a transcriber.

123. I don't do puff portraiture anymore.

124. And yet, you got on a plane,

125. with an auto-immune disease, in the middle of a pandemic.

126. Alright.

127. That's my voice, but I don't remember it.

128. I ask all the wrong questions.

129. - Yes. - There's contradictions

130. in your story I never follow up on.

131. Yes.

132. The few good ones I do manage to get out,

133. you steamroll over them.

134. It's not an interview. It's a...

135. It's a fever dream told to an idiot.

136. Yes.

137. And you?

138. Why again? What's changed?

139. The world, circumstances.

140. Me, I've changed.

141. And I, too, find the tapes lacking.

142. So...

143. a do-over.

144. Truth and reconciliation.

145. I ask the questions. You answer the questions.

146. Anything that can't be verified, I send to my researcher.

147. - No third parties. - I write it.

148. You get to see it before it goes to print.

149. I get the final edit.

150. That is not the agreement you signed.

151. And one more thing.

152. I do my best work one-on-one.

153. Would you see to Mr. Molloy's room?

154. Have Chef prepare a meal for him.

155. I think it best we start when our boy's had a rest.

156. I am not your fucking boy.

157. I'm an old man with all the triggers that come with it.

158. And I'm ready.

159. So let's do this.

160. I'm Daniel Molloy.

161. It is 10:08 in the morning on June 14, 2022.

162. I'm in the penthouse apartment of the Al Sharaf Towers

163. across from Mister...

164. Louis de Pointe du Lac.

165. So...

166. Mr. Du Lac...

167. how long have you been dead?

168. The year was 1910, the fall of the fifth year

169. of my father's passing and the fall of the fifth year

170. as the executor in charge

171. of the de Pointe du Lac family trust.

172. The eldest son. The favored son.

173. And a sizable trust to oversee as a consequence.

174. Capital accrued from plantations of sugar

175. and the blood of men who looked like my great grandfather

176. but did not have his standing.

177. But then decades of Jim Crow

178. and the electrified light of a new century

179. had vanquished any idea of a free man of color.

180. So it followed the only place in New Orleans

181. a gentleman of my complexion could do a righteous business

182. was a neighborhood called Storyville.

183. That was the old red-light district. Yeah?

184. 20 blocks of drinking, gambling,

185. and gluttonous whoring.

186. Okay, so as the honorable executor

187. of the family's estate, you were in

188. what business exactly, Mr. Du Lac?

189. You could say I managed and operated

190. a diversified portfolio of enterprises.

191. You were a pimp.

192. The product was desire,

193. and it came in as many forms as there were ways to move it.

194. Of the two dozen sporting houses on Liberty Street,

195. I owned eight of them.

196. Modest in proportion to the venues on Basin Street.

197. What they lacked in size and elegance,

198. they more than made up for in efficiency and reputation.

199. Mr. Du Lac.

200. Finn.

201. You hiding any bills in them fat fucking rolls of yours?

202. I was, admittedly, a rougher thing then.

203. Mr. Du Lac!

204. You had to be if you wanted to survive.

205. You couldn't look weak on Liberty Street.

206. Damn, Doris, you gon' lose your

207. good leg runnin' out like that.

208. Mr. Du Lac, sir, we got bad trouble.

209. I apologize. I apologize. I apologize.

210. I was only tryna show you my love.

211. Fuck you.

212. What happened?

213. - The cunny hit me! - Oh, I'm a cunny now?

214. A minute ago, I was his love.

215. - Alderman Fenwick? - Hmm?

216. You hit an alderman? God damn it, Bricks.

217. He stuck it in my shitbox.

218. I did no such thing.

219. Gave him a chance to pull out, and he kept on fucking,

220. so I gave him a little squirt of my catfish dinner

221. for going there.

222. Don't believe me, check his dick.

223. Who the fuck you talkin' to? I ain't checkin' no man's dick.

224. - Oh. - Oh, goddamn.

225. Hell, I mighta even said yes if you would just ask.

226. But I don't care who you is, you put a dick in an asshole

227. without asking, that's against Jesus.

228. Fuck you.

229. What y'all laughin' at?

230. Someone go and fetch Doc Johnson.

231. And you, get some clean water and a towel.

232. Get your hands off me, nigger!

233. You gon' make me regret my support, you repeat yourself,

234. Mr. Fenwick.

235. Louis de Pointe du Lac, sir.

236. Oh, Pointe du Lac.

237. Oh, forgive me. I...

238. It was... There's so much wine.

239. Don't worry none. We'll keep this here 'tween us.

240. Someone got the good doc on the way.

241. Oh, Miss Williams. Isn't she a vision?

242. I ain't cleanin' his dick.

243. Oh, Jesus, Mary.

244. Got a situation here, Finn.

245. Yeah, well, you got another one outside 122.

246. Man acting the maggot, driving away business.

247. Ain't that what I pay you for?

248. It's a citizen priest.

249. Do you not realize, sister, your body

250. is part of Christ the Lord?

251. - Second time this month. - When you take that body

252. and enjoin in harlotry you are defiling the Lord.

253. And I could give two moons if he's your brother, Mr. Du Lac.

254. I'm gonna knock his skull in the Pontchartrain!

255. you deny your victory with Christ.

256. He shall come again to judge the living and the dead.

257. And who has come and gone will rise again

258. and throw their bodies into everlasting fire.

259. Go on home. Tell Mama not to wait up.

260. There's blood on your shirt.

261. What wickedness is it tonight?

262. You're not helping me here, Paul.

263. Oh, but I am.

264. The Lord told me to come, Louis.

265. In my head, like a family of birds, many voices,

266. but also one voice—

267. Saying it a second time.

268. Listen to me, please.

269. I'm having a fucking night, okay?

270. I can't have it with you foo—

271. Get on home, else I'll bleed ya like a kochon, bruh.

272. Did I want to pull a knife on my brother?

273. No.

274. But as I alluded to before,

275. you couldn't look weak on Liberty.

276. You never knew who was watching.

277. He pulled his knife on me, Mamaw.

278. You were disrupting mother's business interests.

279. D'you hear that, Mother? He's made you a madam.

280. Oh, Paul.

281. Profiting from the damnation of souls.

282. Let's not fuss on the particulars.

283. Mornings with my family followed a pattern that year.

284. My mother consumed herself with preparations

285. for my sister's wedding,

286. while Paul confused the dining table

287. with a pulpit none of us would recognize.

288. We should tithe that o'er to St. Augustine's

289. 'fore this house falls in on us.

290. This is just a temporary situation

291. until Louis can find us a more respectable business.

292. Daddy was here, we'd still be in sugar cane.

293. Daddy was alive, you'd still be locked up

294. in that hospital in Jackson.

295. Louis, let's not have that talk.

296. A month from my wedding day, and what do I dream about?

297. Dancing in my husband's arms?

298. Children running in the yard? No.

299. I dream of what a quiet breakfast might look like.

300. Your man Levi's a Baptist, no respect for the Holy Mother.

301. Paul!

302. He's gon' make your daughter jump a broom.

303. - I'm sitting right here. - Plenty of brooms

304. down the street at the Mayfair sisters' home.

305. He's calling me a witch, Mamaw.

306. Paul de Pointe du Lac, you walk that back.

307. Your brother sounds like a pain in the ass.

308. Fragile, stubborn, indulged.

309. I'd promised our father on his death bed

310. to look after him.

311. But when Paul's mind was right, he was no burden.

312. Point of fact, I loved him more than anyone on earth.

313. And our daily stroll to St. Augustine

314. was the measure of a good day started.

315. - Good morning, Paul. - Good for you maybe.

316. Morning, Louis.

317. Pew's got a good shine.

318. If it wasn't beneath you, I'd send shoes your way.

319. Nothing is beneath me, son.

320. I'm ready, Father.

321. I wanted to thank the family for last Sunday's donation.

322. Baby-sitting money. Church calms him down some.

323. Well, we're always here for him.

324. And the money goes a good way towards the renovation.

325. I want Father Matthias. Thank you.

326. You ain't got nothing to confess to anyhow.

327. Wasting a good man's time.

328. Be right there, Paul.

329. I haven't seen you in confession of late, Louis.

330. You know, you can always come here if you're in need, son.

331. My business and my raised religion were at odds,

332. and the, uh...

333. latencies within me, well, I beat those back

334. with a lie I told myself about myself—

335. that I was a red-blooded son of the South,

336. seeking ass before absolution.

337. And you maintained this delusion how exactly?

338. A particular woman who worked for the competition.

339. As if rickety shacks were a competition

340. for Tom Anderson's Fairplay Saloon.

341. Ah, Louis du Lac. The night begins.

342. Miss Carroll, Miss Lily working tonight?

343. Miss Lily's on the terrace.

344. It was a palace of opulence and splendor.

345. A Sazerac, Mr. Du Lac?

346. That'll do fine, Miss Carroll.

347. And catered to an almost exclusively

348. Caucasian clientele,

349. which helped me separate the locals

350. from those visiting from other southern states.

351. Shakin' the money tree tonight I see,

352. Mr. Anderson, sir.

353. Can't see the dirt for the dollars fallin'.

354. Private game on Friday if your datebook is free, Louis.

355. Can do, Mr. Anderson. Can do.

356. I don't know much what you're saying.

357. But it sure sounds nice.

358. "Only the impossible can do the impossible."

359. Miss Lily.

360. Bonsoir, monsieur. Do you speak French?

361. We speak all sorts of tongues in New Orleans.

362. It's a hard table to get. How'd you manage it?

363. How'd you manage to get yourself through the front door?

364. Excuse me?

365. I mean that as a compliment,

366. a man of your race to have privileges here.

367. Louis has a small empire of his own down the street.

368. It gives him privileges.

369. Somethin' funny about that?

370. Your name is Louis.

371. Of course it's Louis.

372. I didn't get your name, fella.

373. I know who you are, sir.

374. You're the man who made me buy a townhouse in the quarter.

375. I owe you everything. Please, join us.

376. I know sometimes men of my race,

377. we all look alike to you people.

378. But I didn't sell you no townhouse.

379. Louis, have a seat.

380. Let me explain.

381. New to the... the New World, I am.

382. That explains the clothes.

383. A 19th-century man at heart, yes,

384. making his, uh, trans-Atlantic journey by ship,

385. planning very carefully on settling myself upriver.

386. The Sazerac, sir.

387. Put that on my account, thank you.

388. And two more for us.

389. And another round for the musicians, whatever they want.

390. Yes, sir.

391. Oh, where was I?

392. On a boat.

393. So, I'm out on

394. the Crescent coast, floating past your village,

395. when I hear music playing,

396. and the shadows of men and women dancing by the water's edge.

397. I disembarked for the music, but then there was the food.

398. What's been your favorite this year, Mr. Lioncourt?

399. A favorite?

400. Mm. Mm.

401. She puts a pistol to my head.

402. I couldn't believe it.

403. Staring me down as his hands

404. went wandering the seams of Miss Lily's dress.

405. I wanted to take the end of my cane

406. and slit his throat with it.

407. Why didn't you?

408. I couldn't move.

409. My body was seized with weakness.

410. His gaze tied a string around my lungs,

411. and I found myself immobilized.

412. And the women, all shades of skin—

413. white, Black, cinnamon.

414. I've emptied a bank vault sampling, I must say.

415. But it was not until a few nights later...

416. that I said to myself...

417. "Lestat, unpack your trunks.

418. You're home."

419. What did he say just now?

420. A little more than he should of.

421. I had planned to make a new life for myself in St. Louis.

422. That was to be my destiny.

423. And now I know I was right.

424. Only it turns out the saint is not a city,

425. but a handsome man with a most agreeable disposition.

426. You're his destiny, Louis.

427. Destined to be very good friends.

428. The Orient room is available for the next few hours,

429. Miss Lily.

430. The gentlemen are swappin'

431. andouille sausage recipes, Miss Carroll.

432. Hmm.

433. The Orient room is yours, monsieur.

434. Please get my friend here anything he wants.

435. Wonderful to meet you.

436. I do hope I run into you again, Louis.

437. Emasculation and admiration in equal measure.

438. I wanted to murder the man, and I wanted to be the man.

439. I had come there for Lily.

440. But I left thinking of only him.

441. Come now.

442. Who the devil...

443. Our friends in the police tell me there's

444. an outbreak of fever in town.

445. It's unfortunates living near the wharf, mostly.

446. If you find yourself riverside of Decatur...

447. you have only yourself

448. to blame, I say.

449. Agreed.

450. Still, very peculiar, they say.

451. Each one the same— small wounds to the body,

452. and upon examination, entirely devoid of blood.

453. It is their theory some new kind of rat

454. has come ashore.

455. Of the six-foot variety.

456. We call those bureaucrats in France.

457. Gentlemen, well, you all know Louis du Lac.

458. Louis, let me introduce you to Mr. Lestat de Lioncourt.

459. We met already, Mr. Anderson, sir.

460. In front of a florist, wasn't it?

461. We both wanted the last bouquet of lilies.

462. Aren't you gonna ask the alderman how his head is, Louis?

463. Now, why would I do that, Mr. Anderson, sir?

464. You see, Mr. Fenwick, just as I told you,

465. a most discreet Negro.

466. Would that his doctor had the same standards.

467. Gentlemen, show your cards.

468. Hoo! Mr. Lioncourt,

469. your hand is incomprehensible.

470. Oh, yes.

471. I'm terrible at cards.

472. Did I not mention that to everyone?

473. Would you mind getting me some more of these money chips?

474. Louis, did you know that Alderman Fenwick here

475. recently purchased both the title and deed

476. to the Horton rooming house on Villere Street?

477. Yeah, Mr. Anderson believes it could make

478. a fine sportin' house.

479. I recommended the alderman find a managing partner

480. before he commits his money.

481. I recommended he think of you, Louis.

482. Very kind of you, Mr. Anderson, sir.

483. What do you think of the location?

484. It ain't Basin Street.

485. But throw enough Edison bulbs on the facade,

486. get a good margin on the alcohol,

487. no-nonsense madam to keep the girls clean,

488. I reckon a man could make a decent sum.

489. Yes, sir, Mr. Fenwick, sir.

490. I said you'd do it for 10 percent.

491. A-all respects, Mr. Anderson,

492. but you proposing 10 percent for all the work?

493. 15%?

494. There's capital investment,

495. and there's labor.

496. Both has its seat at the table.

497. Wouldn't you say, Mr. Lestat?

498. Well, I can only speak of my experience,

499. which is, I'm sure, different in my country.

500. Par exemple, you fine gentlemen have heard of the success story

501. that is Le Bon Marché, shopping experience like no other.

502. Aristide Boucicaut invests in a new vision...

503. These men look down on you.

504. I have to say, I find it appalling how men like yourself

505. are treated in this country of yours.

506. It is undeniable. I came to my wealth honestly

507. and at great sacrifice, I might add.

508. However, it was not the sacrifice of many.

509. I had no partners in my various...

510. - 10 percent. - The financial risks...

511. 15 percent.

512. Do you not know your value?

513. Do you suffer these indignities for some larger purpose?

514. And do you think two pair will win the hour?

515. I believe there is great opportunity in this city,

516. but to seize it, I'll need protection from the wolves.

517. And that's all to say,

518. forgive me, Mr. De Pointe du Lac,

519. for my bias, but where is the business

520. if there is no capital?

521. - It does not exist. No? - Alright, boys.

522. Show 'em.

523. Ooh.

524. Full boat, Mr. Du Lac.

525. Got you beat, Tom.

526. He wouldn't tell me how he did it,

527. his trick to make the world stop.

528. "In time, Louis. Patience, Louis.

529. Ask me next week, Louis."

530. You started hanging out?

531. He was in love with my city

532. and wanted to know everything he could about it.

533. So you played docent to the gentleman vampire?

534. He had not revealed his vampire nature yet.

535. I'm assuming you only met at night.

536. It's New Orleans.

537. Days are for sleeping off the previous evening's damage.

538. Perfect cover for a vampire.

539. Racing ahead again, Mr. Molloy.

540. Let the tale seduce you.

541. Just as I was seduced.

542. Money would arrive, wired from France,

543. and the shopkeepers, who would usually close at sunset,

544. were very happy to accommodate him.

545. He ransacked the import houses to furnish his town house,

546. ravaged the booksellers of their oldest volumes

547. for a library,

548. and, with encouragement, updated his wardrobe

549. to the fashion trends of the season.

550. It was a cold winter that year, and Lestat was my coal fire.

551. And I found myself for the very first time,

552. to anyone other than Paul,

553. confiding my struggles to another man.

554. I was being hunted.

555. And I was completely unaware it was happening.

556. I'm switchin' rooms.

557. I don't need to hear you and your good man making noise.

558. You'd have to be home to hear that.

559. - I come home nights. - You come home some nights.

560. Out cattin' with some white man, I hear.

561. He ain't white, he French.

562. Oh. That's a new kind of white, is it?

563. French white?

564. He different.

565. Invite him over for dinner.

566. Mother loves European.

567. I'm gon' tell Levi you fishin' for a richer man.

568. Don't. Don't deny your sister.

569. I wanna meet this French white.

570. I'm just trying to give you the word of the Lord.

571. Understa— Yes. Yes. No. That is never my—

572. Paul crawled up on my bed last night.

573. Wept for good near an hour.

574. He ain't takin' it, you gettin' married.

575. Levi told me of a place over in Gretna,

576. takes in men like Paul.

577. It's not some crazy person's house like—

578. How'd that work last time, huh?

579. He come out worse than before.

580. Gretna. It ain't happenin'.

581. He died on the cross for you.

582. Yes... you.

583. I worry.

584. I worry so much—Worry about your own life.

585. Worry about being a bride.

586. Worry about what you gon' wear

587. in London, in Paris, Florence.

588. Now, y'all gon' be in steerage outta New York,

589. but once you get to Europe,

590. it's first class on boats, trains, and hotel rooms.

591. What did you go and do?

592. You should put the band by the deck

593. and the food by the fountain.

594. Mamaw!

595. I'm goin' 'round the world!

596. I can't thank you enough, Mama du Lac.

597. I never been east of Alabama,

598. and now I'm going to see the pyramids.

599. Oh, I think every young family deserves

600. a little adventure.

601. Wouldn't you say, Monsieur Lioncourt?

602. Oui, Madame.

603. My mother, she gave me every advantage in life

604. as a young man.

605. My first Mastiff, first flintlock rifle,

606. the means to make my way to Paris.

607. It was Louis that purchased your holiday, Levi.

608. It's Louis who controls the money.

609. Pay no mind, Levi.

610. And I don't know who gave you the right

611. to call our mother your mother.

612. She's not your mother yet

613. and will never be your scientific mother.

614. Paul.

615. I do love this bouillabaisse.

616. Wha?

617. Down here, we call it gumbo.

618. We had a gumbo the other night, didn't we, Louis?

619. Uh, right after the opera.

620. Oh, we've got Louis to an opera.

621. "Iolanta."'Bout some blind princess,

622. didn't know she was a princess.

623. Stomach got grumbling, left half way through.

624. And what exactly is the nature of your relationship with

625. my brother, Monsieur Lioncourt?

626. Your brother and I have been discussing

627. a few investment opportunities.

628. The birds asked me to ask you.

629. I wasn't being rude.

630. Monsieur Freniere, would you tell me

631. how you came to propose to this delightsome young woman?

632. Oh, that's a good yarn.

633. Are you one with Christ, Mr. Lioncourt?

634. How 'bout you shut your damn mouth?

635. - Louis. - That's alright,

636. Louis, Madame, the birds speak for him.

637. I came to know Christ in a monastery.

638. I wanted to be a priest.

639. Just like you, Paul.

640. And under the guidance and discipline of the monks

641. who lived there, I came to memorize both the testaments,

642. the writings of Assisi,

643. Aquinas, Erasmus, all the saints and scholars.

644. My father, a vulgar man, did not think much of this education,

645. and so he and my brothers conspired to pull me out,

646. lock me away, where, between beatings,

647. starvations, and the failure of Christ

648. to intercede the beatings and starvations,

649. I slowly forgot all about the testaments, Assisi,

650. Aquinas, Erasmus, all of it.

651. - Stop. - And so to answer

652. your boring question, there is an ocean

653. - between Christ and myself. - Stop!

654. Don't do that shit here!

655. Not with my family.

656. You understand?

657. I am cursed with my father's temper at times,

658. and the rudeness is all mine.

659. That's alright.

660. It's the humidity. It does that sometimes.

661. Why don't we have some ice wine?

662. And Levi here can tell us all again

663. how he won my joychild's heart.

664. I fear your family has taken a permanent offense at me.

665. When Paul ain't pickin' at his plate,

666. he pickin' a fight.

667. If I had your tricks, I'd have done the same.

668. You must envy him.

669. The boy thinks God speaks to him through birds in his head.

670. How you figure envy?

671. The liberty he has with his thoughts.

672. However misshapen they may be,

673. your brother has no shame in sharing them.

674. You sayin' I got shame?

675. The lie you told about leaving the opera house early.

676. You were near weeping when the curtain fell.

677. Why hide that from your family?

678. Don't everybody need to know what I do.

679. Dishonesty breeds dishonesty.

680. They sit in judgment.

681. Paul is the only one to say it to my face,

682. but I know my ma and Grace think it, too.

683. My daddy ran our sugar business into a swamp.

684. When he passed, we was four months—

685. four months from going bankrupt if I didn't do something.

686. You don't need to defend yourself to me, Louis.

687. I know what you go through to keep your family

688. ignorant in their comfort.

689. It ain't easy, the work I do.

690. Nothing but broken souls around me,

691. and the ones that ain't broke are greedy.

692. Bone-tired.

693. Drink up, my good man.

694. The Earth's a savage garden.

695. You did good gettin' off that boat when you did.

696. St. Louis is dull as dishwater.

697. Yes, I feel quite at home here.

698. Shall we have a nightcap?

699. Um...

700. Probably had enough for tonight.

701. Gotta make my rounds back on Liberty.

702. You must, Louis.

703. I bought you a gift.

704. A gift?

705. A flower.

706. That's a nice music box you got there.

707. It's one of the few things I brought with me

708. from the continent.

709. What's that lil' song playin'?

710. Do you like it?

711. I composed it for a young violinist I once knew,

712. a boy of infinite beauty and sensitivity.

713. I believe that is for the lips, Miss Lily.

714. I don't like the way mine look plain.

715. And Mr. Du Lac don't mind when I do it.

716. Mm-hmm.

717. A pair of misfit beauties.

718. I can see why you both run to the other.

719. Miss Carroll know you're here, Lily?

720. I can assure you, the Fairplay has been

721. handsomely compensated for the evening.

722. Sent a two-horse carriage to pick me up.

723. Felt like the queen of the quarter.

724. I told Mr. Lioncourt, you and me usually just talk.

725. And why is that, Louis?

726. What kind of a man wastes this waist with words?

727. A beautiful man.

728. There's nothing to be nervous about.

729. The curtains are closed, the servants sent home.

730. Even the planets and stars are blindfolded.

731. That's your thing, then? You like to watch?

732. I've been watching you for some time now, Louis.

733. From river to lake, lake back to river,

734. looking for my companion heart.

735. How you do that?

736. Do what?

737. Do what?

738. Get in my head like that.

739. Such a pretty head.

740. That's fine, love.

741. Ah. Ah.

742. It bears repeating, I did not consider myself

743. a homosexual man at the time.

744. I mean, I had had experiences.

745. Guilt, shame,

746. floating-on-a-sea-of-vodka type encounters.

747. Obviously, I've come to embrace my sexuality.

748. Course, you know that.

749. We met at a gay bar, didn't we, Daniel?

750. It was a good place to score.

751. I did what I had to.

752. You've been married?

753. Twice.

754. But we're not here for me, are we?

755. When you were using drugs, Mr. Molloy,

756. do you remember the best you ever had?

757. Berkeley, 1978.

758. Some Mexican black tar that Carly and Pedro were slinging.

759. So imagine that

760. flowing inside your veins again.

761. Now multiply it by miles,

762. to the rings of Saturn and back.

763. He had taken what he called "un petit coup"--

764. the little drink.

765. Not enough to kill me,

766. but just enough to keep him fit.

767. It takes an enormous amount of restraint for us,

768. the little drink.

769. For a human, experiencing it for the first time,

770. it was...

771. unsettling.

772. And not for the physical toll on my body,

773. which was significant,

774. but for the feelings of intimacy it awoke within me.

775. I had never allowed myself

776. to feel emotionally close to anyone,

777. much less a man.

778. I had no room for feelings like these in my life.

779. You could be a lot of things in New Orleans,

780. but an openly gay Negro man was not one of 'em.

781. I vowed never to return again.

782. I shut that night out of my mind

783. and turned my attentions back to life as it was before.

784. One, two, three, jump!

785. Hold still now.

786. We are missing my father today.

787. He's supposed to dance with me to start the night off.

788. I'm trying not to cry now.

789. And I thought the best way to honor Daddy

790. would be to make my brothers do the work.

791. Mm!

792. Mm-hmm.

793. Half of y'all don't know this,

794. but these no-good boys used to shuffle for pennies on Sunday.

795. Called themselves "The ABCDEFGs".

796. Remember that, Father Matthias?

797. Oh, yes.

798. "Alter Boys Come Dancing

799. Every day For God."For God."

800. That's right!

801. I remember their collection hat

802. didn't always make it to the collection plate.

803. That's right.

804. Paul, Louis?

805. - Oh, come on, now. - Please!

806. Hey, now. Come on, please!

807. It's for me

808. - on my wedding day. - Come on, brother.

809. Alright!

810. Shoes are tight.

811. Oh, the shoes is fine. It's the feet that's fat.

812. Hey, what kinda rhythm you want, boss?

813. Just play it loud so they can't hear our feet.

814. Alright. What you remember?

815. Um...

816. Hey, come on.

817. - Hey! - Go ahead now!

818. - Whoo! - Hey! Hey!

819. You still got it!

820. Alright! Okay!

821. They still got it!

822. - Oh! - Yeah, Louis!

823. Okay. You ain't gon' do it. You ain't gon' do it.

824. That's right!

825. Amazing.

826. We gonna miss it.

827. Quit talkin'. I have to concentrate.

828. It's them three pieces of checkered cake holding you back.

829. Five pieces of checkered cake, the Pompano fillet,

830. three boudins, dirty rice,

831. beef, green beans, five, six wines.

832. Eat anything else,

833. the buttons on your vest gon' pop off

834. like cannon balls,

835. take down the neighborhood.

836. 9,517.

837. That's how many days we've been in his house.

838. You do that math all by yourself?

839. You remember the day I got taller than you?

840. Always bringin' that up.

841. Shot up like a Nuttall oak.

842. Daddy said I was gon' look down on you for the rest of days.

843. Yeah, yeah.

844. Half an inch.

845. That was a good month, that month.

846. I think you should get married next.

847. Do you now?

848. And you should marry Hazel.

849. Hazel? Who that?

850. The one you were dancing too close with.

851. You dance that close, you ought to be married.

852. I didn't catch her name.

853. Well, it's Hazel.

854. You still doing business with that man Lestat?

855. Nah. Didn't work out.

856. That's good.

857. 'Cause he the Devil.

858. You think everyone's the Devil.

859. He's here to take souls. He told me so.

860. He spoke to me without moving his lips.

861. He got tricks is all.

862. Mortal sins must be confessed, Louis.

863. Ain't never gon' see him again, Paul.

864. You think Levi loves her enough?

865. You know, Grace needs a lot of love.

866. I do.

867. Do you think he's givin' her everything he's got inside him?

868. Mm-hmm.

869. Mother made a good party for Grace.

870. Mm-hmm, yeah.

871. Yeah, they gon' talk about this one for years.

872. Yeah.

873. I love you, Louis.

874. And I love you, too, baby brother.

875. I ate too much checkered cake.

876. Paul.

877. Paul!

878. Paul!

879. - Oh, my lord! - Paul!

880. That was the last sunrise I ever saw.

881. Perhaps the kindest thing the dark gift has given me.

882. I don't miss the sun,

883. the reminders it carries.

884. I have seen death over and over

885. and over and over again.

886. It's boring.

887. That'll make a great blurb.

888. The diagnosis you received, Daniel,

889. it winds your clock.

890. This virus has turned the world sideways.

891. I get it.

892. I'm gonna die.

893. They're gonna die.

894. But not the vampire.

895. The vampire is bored.

896. The human was destroyed.

897. Utterly destroyed.

898. I was at the funeral home.

899. Everything is going as it should.

900. Good men there. Promised me that—

901. You musta said something to him, Louis.

902. You musta said something to him

903. to make him do that to himself.

904. Paul slipped and fell, Florence.

905. I don't think this is something you want to pursue.

906. He was a fragile boy.

907. He always was.

908. And you, you always had to have the last word,

909. didn't you, Louis?

910. You always had to take him down a peg.

911. Mamaw.

912. What did you say to him?

913. Why was you even up there?

914. Watchin' the sun come up, Mama.

915. You don't get past the gates iffen you kill yourself.

916. Don't you know that?

917. Paul gone down the other way.

918. Paul's in Hell because of you.

919. Storyville lowered their hats,

920. gave their propers, because it was custom.

921. But if you look past those lined up on the sidewalk,

922. you'd see the bars hadn't stopped serving,

923. the whores hadn't stopped whoring.

924. What was Paul's life worth to them?

925. What was my life worth?

926. The big man of Liberty Street,

927. trailing the satin-lined evidence of his failure.

928. Easy prey for the discerning predator.

929. An elegant coffin. Would you tell me where you purchased—

930. Move on.

931. I wait on my balcony every night.

932. - You've been avoiding me. - I have been occupied.

933. Miss Lily proved herself a poor substitute.

934. And I don't take kindly to being avoided.

935. It's my brother's funeral!

936. Believe me when I tell you,

937. your brother longed for that flagstone.

938. What'd you say to me?

939. I got it, boss. Keep walking.

940. Lestat's ambush had disoriented me.

941. The sermon that was given, I could not hear.

942. And when the gathering cut loose the body,

943. I could not join the transformation

944. of those in attendance.

945. He would not let me.

946. Come to me.

947. Come to me.

948. No.

949. Walk you home, Mama?

950. No, thank you.

951. Levi, do you mind?

952. Of course, Mama Du Lac.

953. She didn't mean nothin' by it.

954. Oh, but she did now.

955. She just needs to put it somewhere.

956. Don't let it inside.

957. See you back at the wake?

958. Come to me.

959. I did not go to the wake.

960. I did not want to face my mother's blame...

961. my sister's pity.

962. I wanted to grieve alone.

963. But he would not allow it.

964. Come to me, Louis.

965. Come to me.

966. Hello, handsome.

967. Sazerac.

968. My heart broke when I heard of your brother's passing.

969. Miss Lily.

970. Oh, my dear.

971. I don't care if she busy with someone.

972. I'll pay more.

973. 'Cause I like Miss Lily, and I need Miss Lily.

974. Miss Lily died, Mr. Du Lac.

975. Two weeks ago.

976. Police found her under the docks.

977. Said she contracted the fevers that's been going around.

978. Blood went and dried up inside her.

979. Viens à moi.

980. Father! Father Matthias!

981. Help me!

982. Help me, please. He's in my head, Father.

983. The Devil is in New Orleans.

984. Calm down, son.

985. Catch your breath.

986. Bless me, Father, f-for I have sinned.

987. Grievously sinned.

988. Sign of the cross, son.

989. I'm a drunk, Lord.

990. I'm a liar.

991. I am a thief, Lord.

992. I profit off the miseries of other men,

993. and I do it easy.

994. Drugs, liquor, women.

995. I-I-I-I lure them in and grab what they got, Lord.

996. I take daughters with no homes

997. and I-I put 'em out on the street, Lord,

998. and I lie to myself, saying I-I'm giving them a roof

999. and food and dollar bills in they pocket,

1000. but I look in the mirror, I know what I am—

1001. the big man in the big house,

1002. stuffing cotton in my ears so I can't hear their cries.

1003. And Lord, I dragged my family into this mess with me.

1004. I shame my father.

1005. I f— I failed my brother.

1006. No, son.

1007. I lost my mother and sister,

1008. and rather than fix it like a man should, Lord,

1009. I run like a coward.

1010. I run to the bottle.

1011. I run to the grift.

1012. I run to bad beds.

1013. I-I laid down with a man.

1014. I laid down with the Devil.

1015. And he has roots in me,

1016. all his spindly roots in me,

1017. and I can't think nothin' anymore

1018. but his voice and his words!

1019. Please, help me!

1020. I am weak!

1021. I wanna die!

1022. Oh!

1023. No!

1024. Do you think God heard you, Louis,

1025. in that tawdry box, through this pig vessel,

1026. this— this charlatan?

1027. Do you not see how unworthy he is?

1028. How can you humiliate yourself like this?

1029. You killed Lily.

1030. Cut short that magnificent life she was living.

1031. What a tragedy.

1032. Ain't no fever out there. That's you.

1033. You bringin' the death to town.

1034. I give death to those deserving.

1035. I'm not the Devil.

1036. You were wrong about that.

1037. But I can give you death.

1038. This primitive country has picked you clean.

1039. It has shackled you in permanent exile.

1040. Every room you enter,

1041. every hat you are forced to wear—

1042. the stern landlord, the deferential businessman,

1043. the loyal son—

1044. all these roles you conform to

1045. and none of them your true nature.

1046. What rage you must feel as you choke on your sorrow.

1047. The first time I laid eyes on you,

1048. your beautiful face,

1049. I saw that sorrow.

1050. I did not know how it got there

1051. or why it was so voluminous.

1052. I can take away that sorrow, Louis.

1053. I can give you that death

1054. you begged your feeble, blind, degenerate,

1055. nonexistent god for.

1056. But I can do it...

1057. joyfully.

1058. I can swap this life of shame,

1059. swap it out for a dark gift

1060. and a power you can't begin to imagine.

1061. You just have to ask me for it.

1062. You just have to nod your beautiful head...

1063. and say yes.

1064. I love you, Louis.

1065. You are loved.

1066. I send my love to you,

1067. and you send it back round to me.

1068. And this circle,

1069. this home we barely had a glimpse of...

1070. know it frightens me as much as it does you.

1071. It is difficult to explain

1072. how his words disarmed me,

1073. how efficiently succinct and impenetrable

1074. his argument was.

1075. All my conceptions,

1076. even my guilt and my wish to die

1077. seemed utterly unimportant,

1078. and I completely forgot myself

1079. and the barbaric scene that surrounded me.

1080. For the first time in my life, I was seen.

1081. Be my companion, Louis.

1082. Be all the beautiful things you are,

1083. and be them without apology.

1084. For all eternity.

1085. He drained me to the very threshold of death.

1086. Mm.

1087. The blood, it came as a dull roar at first.

1088. And then a pounding,

1089. like the pounding of a drum,

1090. growing louder and louder,

1091. as if some enormous creature

1092. were coming through a dark and alien forest.

1093. A huge drum.

1094. And then, there came a pounding of another drum,

1095. as if another giant were coming behind him,

1096. each giant intent on his own drum,

1097. giving no notice to the rhythm of the other.

1098. Throbbing in my lips, fingers, and flesh of my temple.

1099. Above all, in my veins.

1100. Drum, and then the other drum.

1101. I opened my eyes.

1102. And it was then that I realized

1103. the drum was my heart,

1104. and the other drum had been his.

1105. I saw him sitting a length away from me.

1106. Radiant.

1107. And we sat there for some time.

1108. In throes of increasing wonder.

1109. The end.

1110. The beginning.