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Louis tells the interviewer about the overwhelming joy he felt when he arrived in Paris. The city’s beauty felt optimistic compared to the bleakness and despair of Eastern Europe. He and Claudia settled into a grand suite at the Hôtel Saint-Gabriel, and although she had a love of beauty and luxury, Louis sensed she was restless and upset––and her mood was only getting worse. Her days were filled with shopping, ordering new furnishings, and filling the rooms with flowers. One evening she showed Louis her delicate china doll, which she called “lady doll”, and complained about its ribbons and dress. Angrily, she crushed the doll in her hand and bloodied fragments of the doll scattered across the floor. She laughed maniacally and accused Louis of failing her and of pretending to be her father. The conversation ended with a painful realization of how rocky their relationship had become. 

As time went on in Paris, Louis struggled with Claudia’s unhappiness and his growing feelings of inadequacy. He described Claudia’s eerie stillness, her bitterness toward the world, and her demanding questions about other vampires and their origins. As she matured mentally, Claudia became more independent and often traveled around the city on her own. 

One night, while walking alone and feeling ashamed for being an unfit father, Louis realized he was being followed. Oddly, the footsteps mirrored his own perfectly: they stopped when he stopped and started to move when he moved. His stalker turned out to be a vampire who unmistakably resembled Louis from his clothing to his gestures. The vampire mocked him and a violent fight broke out between them; Louis was physically weaker than the other vampire, who slammed him into walls and threw him to the ground. Just as Louis began to lose consciousness, a second figure intervened and ended the fight.

Waking up on the ground, Louis was helped to his feet by a strange vampire in a black cloak. The figure handed him a card marked with a time and address for the Théâtre des Vampires and instructed him to bring Claudia. The feeling that he was the only one on the street to see the shadowy figure had haunted him. Still shaken up from the encounter, he rushed back to the hotel. 

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