Interview with the Vampire

Chapter 17

"I watched him drink, patiently waiting.
"'And Emily... : he continued.'She thought it fascinating. What with the fire out there and a decent dinner and a proper glass of wine. She hadn't seen that woman! She hadn't seen what they'd done,' he said desperately.'Oh, I wanted to get out of here; I offered them money. "If it's over," I kept saying to them, "one of you ought to want this money, a small fortune just to drive us out of here."'
" But it wasn't over... ' I whispered.
"And I could see the tears gathering in his eyes, his mouth twisting with pain.
"'How did it happen to her?' I asked him.
"'I don't know,' he gasped, shaking his head, the flask pressed to his forehead as if it were something cool, refreshing, when it was not.
"'It came into the inn?'
"'They said she went out to it,' he confessed, the tears coursing down his cheeks.'Everything was locked! They saw to that. Doors, windows! Then it was morning and they were all shouting, and she was gone. The window stood wide open, and she wasn't there. I didn't even take time for my robe. I was running. I came to a dead halt over her, out there, behind the inn. My foot all but came down on her... she was just lying there under the peach trees. She held an empty cup. Clinging to it, an empty cup! They said it lured her... she was trying to give it water....
"The flask slipped from his hands. He clapped his hands over his ears, his body bent, his head bowed.
"For a long time I sat there watching him; I had no words to say to him. And when he cried softly that they wanted to desecrate her, that they said she, Emily, was now a vampire, I assured him softly, though I don't think he ever heard me, that she was not.
"He moved forward finally, as if he might fall. He appeared to be reaching for the candle, and before his arm rested on the buffet, his finger touched it so the hot wax extinguished the tiny bit that was left of the wick. We were in darkness then, and his head had fallen on his arm.
"All of the light of the room seemed gathered now in Claudia's eyes. But as the silence lengthened and I sat there, wondering, hoping Morgan wouldn't lift his head again, the woman came to the door. Her candle illuminated him, drunk, asleep.
"'You go now,' she said to me. Dark figures crowded around her, and the old wooden inn was alive with the shuffling of men and women.'Go by the fire!'
"'What are you going to do!' I demanded of her, rising and holding Claudia.'I want to know what you propose to do!'
"'Go by the fire,' she commanded.
"'No, don't do this,' I said. But she narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth.'You go!' she growled.
"'Morgan,' I said to him; but he didn't hear me, he couldn't hear me.
"'Leave him be,' said the woman fiercely.
"'But it's stupid, what you're doing; don't you understand? This woman's dead!' I pleaded with her.
"'Louis,' Claudia whispered, so that they couldn't hear her, her arm tightening around my neck beneath the fur of my hood.'Let these people alone.'
"The others were moving into the room now, encircling the table, their faces grim as they looked at us.
"'But where do these vampires come from!' I whispered.'You've searched your cemetery! If it's vampires, where do they hide from you? This woman can't do you harm. Hunt your vampires if you must'
"'By day,' she said gravely, winking her eye and slowly nodding her head.'By day. We get them, by day-.'
"'Where, out there in the graveyard, digging up the graves of your own villagers?'
"She shook her head.'The ruins,' she said.'It was always the ruins. We were wrong. In my grandfather's time it was the ruins, and it is the ruins again. We'll take them down stone by stone if we have to. But you... you go now. Because if you don't go, we'll drive you out there into that dark now!'
"And then out from behind her apron she drew her clenched fist with the stake in it and held it up in the flickering light of the candle.'You hear me, you go!' she said; and the men pressed in close behind her, their mouths set, their eyes blazing in the light.
"'Yes... : I said to her.'Out there. I would prefer that. Out there.' And I swept past her, almost throwing her aside, seeing them scuttle back to make way. I had my hand on the latch of the inn door and slid it back with one quick gesture.
"'No!' cried the woman in her guttural German.'You're mad!' And she rushed up to me and then stared at the latch, dumbfounded. She threw her hands up against the rough boards of the door.'Do you know what you do!'
"'Where are the ruins?' I asked her calmly.'How far? Do they lie to the left of the road, or to the right?'
"'No, no' She shook her head violently. I pried the door back and felt the cold blast of sir on my face. One of the women said something sharp and angry from the wall, and one of the children moaned in its sleep. 'I'm going. I want one thing from you. Tell me where the ruins lie, so I may stay clear of them. Tell me.'
" 'You don't know, you don't know,' she said; and then I laid my hand on her warm wrist and drew her slowly through the door, her feet scraping on the boards, her eyes wild. The men moved nearer but, as she stepped out against her will into the night, they stopped. She tossed her head, her hair falling down into her eyes, her eyes glaring at my hand and at my face.'Tell me... ' I said.
"I could see she was staring not at me but at Claudia. Claudia had turned towards her, and the light from the fire was on her face. The woman did not see the rounded cheeks nor the pursed lips, I knew, but Claudia's eyes, which were gazing at her with a dark, demonic intelligence. The woman's teeth bit down into the flesh of her lip.
"'To the north or south?'
" To the north.. . ' she whispered.
"'To the left or the right?'
"'The left.'
"'And how far?'
"Her hand struggled desperately.'Three miles,' she gasped. And I released her, so that she fell back against the door, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. I had turned to go, but suddenly behind me she cried out for me to wait. I turned to see she'd ripped the crucifix from the beam over her head, and she had it thrust out towards me now. And out of the dark nightmare landscape of my memory I saw Babette gazing at me as she had so many years ago, saying those words,'Get thee behind me, Satan.' But the woman's face was desperate.'Take it, please, in the name of God,' she said.'And ride fast' And the door shut, leaving Claudia and me in total darkness."
"In minutes the tunnel of the night closed upon the weak lanterns of our carriage, as if the village had never existed. We lurched forward, around a bend, the springs creaking, the dim moon revealing for an instant the pale outline of the mountains beyond the pines. I could not stop thinking of Morgan, stop hearing his voice. It was all tangled with my own horrified anticipation of meeting the thing which had killed Emily, the thing which was unquestionably one of our own. But Claudia was in a frenzy. If she could have driven the horses herself, she would have taken the reins. Again and again she urged me to use the whip. She struck savagely at the few low branches that dipped suddenly into the lamps before our faces; and the arm that clung to my waist on the rocking bench was as firm as iron.
"I remember the road turning sharply, the lanterns clattering, and Claudia calling out over the wind:'There, Louis, do you see it?' And I jerked hard on the reins.
"She was on her knees, pressed against me, and the carnage was swaying like a ship at sea.
"A great fleecy cloud had released the moon, and high above us loomed the dark outline of the tower. One long window showed the pale sky beyond it. I sat there, clutching the bench, trying to steady a motion that continued in my head as the carriage settled on its springs. One of the horses whinnied. Then everything was still.
"Claudia was saying,'Louis, come ....'
"I whispered something, a swift irrational negation. I had the distinct and terrifying impression that Morgan was near to me, talking to me in that low, impassioned way he'd pleaded with me in the inn. Not a living creature stirred in the night around us. There was only the wind and the soft rustling of the leaves.
"'Do you think he knows we're coming?' I asked, my voice unfamiliar to me over this wind. I was in that little parlor, as if there were no escape from it, as if this dense forest were not real. I think I shuddered. And then I felt Claudia's hand very gently touch the hand I- lifted to my eyes. The thin pines were billowing behind her and the rustle of the leaves grew louder, as if a great mouth sucked the breeze and began a whirlwind.'They'll bury her at the crossroads? Is that what they'll do? An Englishwoman!' I whispered.
"'Would that I had your size... ' Claudia was saying.'And would that you had my heart. Oh, Louis....'
And her head inclined to me now, so like the attitude of the vampire bending to kiss that I shrank back from her; but her lips only gently pressed my own, finding a part there to suck the breath and let it flow back into me as my arms enclosed her.'Let me lead you... ' she pleaded.'There's no turning back now. Take me in your arms,' she said,'and let me down, on the road'
"But it seemed an eternity that I just sat there feeling her lips on my face and on my eyelids. Then she moved, the softness of her small body suddenly snatched from me, in a movement so graceful and swift that she seemed now poised in the air beside the carriage, her hand clutching mine for an instant, then letting it go. And then I looked down to see her looking up at me, standing on the road in the shuddering pool of light beneath the lantern. She beckoned to me, as she stepped backwards, one small boot behind the other.'Louis, come down... ' until she threatened to vanish into the darkness. And in a second I'd unfastened the lamp from its hook, and I stood beside her in the tall grass.
"'Don't you sense the danger?' I whispered to her.'Can't you breathe it like the air?' One of those quick, elusive smiles played on her lips, as she turned towards the slope. The lantern pitched a pathway through the rising forest. One small, white hand drew the wool of her cape close, and she moved forward.
"'Wait only for a moment....'
"'Fear's your enemy....' she answered, but she did not stop.
"She proceeded ahead of the light, feet sure, even as the tall grass gave way gradually to low heaps of rubble, and the forest thickened, and the distant tower vanished with the fading of the moon and the great weaving of the branches overhead. Soon the sound and scent of the horses died on the low wind. 'Be en garde,' Claudia whispered, as she moved, relentlessly, pausing only now and again where the tangled vines and rock made it seem for moments there was a shelter. But the ruins were ancient. Whether plague or fire or a foreign enemy had ravaged the town, we couldn't know. Only the monastery truly remained.
"Now something whispered in the dark that was like the wind and the leaves, but it was neither. I saw Claudia's back straighten, saw the flash of her white palm as she slowed her step. Then I knew it was water, winding its way slowly down the mountain, and I saw it far ahead through the black trunks, a straight, moonlit waterfall descending to a boiling pool below. Claudia emerged silhouetted against the fall, her hand clutching a bare root in the moist earth beside it; and now I saw her climbing hand over hand up the overgrown cliff, her arm trembling ever so slightly, her small boots dangling, then digging in to hold, then swinging free again. The water was cold, and it made the air fragrant and light all around it, so that for a moment I rested. Nothing stirred around me in the forest. I listened, senses quietly separating the tune of the leaves, but nothing else stirred. And then it struck me gradually, like a chill coming over my arms and my throat and finally my face, that the night was too desolate, too lifeless. It was as if even the birds had shunned this place, as well as all the myriad creatures that should have been moving about the banks of this stream. But Claudia, above me on the ledge, was reaching for the lantern, her cape brushing my face. I lifted it, so that suddenly she sprang into light, like an eerie cherub. She put her hand out for me as if, despite her small size, she could help me up the embankment. In a moment we were moving on again, over the stream, up the mountain.'Do you sense it?' I whispered.'It's too still.'