Luminary [Interview with the Vampire]

Another one like you

"Get down from there," Louis said, moving closer.

"Your life is boring," she said, her French accent drawing the English words with exaggerated flourish.

Lumiere Noire was made up of many, many families, spurned from settlers, traders, and fishermen. Still, with their growing numbers, Louis knew most people. And if he didn't know someone, he knew someone who knew them enough to verify their presence in his town. But this girl looked like no one from Lumiere Noire ever would.

Her pale, white skin contrasted against the darkness in the tree behind her. She dressed with a distinctive, almost somber elegance of grey, muted fabrics. Her long, cream skirt paired trailed down the branch, dancing in the wind, as a thin grey scarf danced around her neck. She had on a fitted, silk blouse with frills up her chest. Her hair was permed and curled to the center back of her head.

In an eerily familiar way, she reminded Louis of Lestat, for some reason.

"Who are you?"

"Madeline," she smiled.

"Get down from there, Madeline."

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Did you hear what I said?" he asked back.

"Twenty?" she replied instead. "Sixty? A hundred?"

All the worry inside of Louis drained away at her question. It was one thing for a stranger to be lurking around Lumiere Noire swamps. It was another thing for them to be asking about his age in such a manner. Especially when the only people who knew who he was and how old he was, were people he'd known for all his life or all of theirs.

"Who are you?" Louis asked, clenching his fists as he took a step toward the stranger.

"You don't seem very special," she said, once again ignoring Louis' inquiries. "I don't know what all the fuss is about."

By the time Louis reached the tree she was sitting on, he lowered the light to the ground so as not to be rude.

"All the fuss about what?" he asked.

"You."

"Me?"

"I thought you'd be smaller. Gentler. I heard you had the voice of an angel," she said, waving her hand over her bald head. "I heard you were shy."

"Who have you been talking to about me?" Louis asked as he ran his hand over his head, missing his afro already.

"People." She shrugged.

Louis tried to imagine who would describe him as gentle. He'd been described as quiet, aloof, mysterious, sometimes abrasive.

Never gentle.

"Listen, Madeline," he said. "I don't know where you think you are, but you shouldn't be out here at night. It's not safe."

She laughed, leaning back on the branch without care as Louis raised his hands, rushing beneath her in case she fell. She steadied herself, looking down at him like he was the biggest joke.

"Safe from whom?"

Adjusting, she shifted forward and jumped down from the tree, landing in a light thump on the mulchy grass.

"Impressive," Louis noted when she didn't buckle or break a knee.

"Really?" she asked, coming up to him. "Do you want to see my other tricks?"

Before he could reply, she rushed at him, too quickly for a human being, shoved Louis against the tree as she leaned into him and bit his neck.

Louis whimpered, holding the tree behind him. What little sanity he'd had shimmered, letting the blood flow from him as the distinct tingle of a new vampire's venom seeped into his blood. His entire body called to it, opened up under her assault, knowing that this wasn't Lestat. Knowing that this was another vampire. One whose venom could cause irreparable damage if Louis let this continue.