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After fleeing Babette’s plantation, Louis and Lestat arrived in New Orleans. There, Lestat casually murdered an old man in the street and bribed a hotel clerk to secure them a suite and champagne. Louis threatened to leave for good, but Lestat mocked him, daring him to face the reality of his new existence.

In the present-day interview, Louis confesses that he couldn’t bring himself to abandon Lestat. Despite everything, he still feels a strange sympathy for the remnants of humanity he sees in Lestat. Louis explains that his choice to feed only on animals was a way to deny his vampiric identity—but over time, that denial began to fade.

Louis eventually wandered through New Orleans alone, feeling alienated from the world and unsure if he could ever reclaim his humanity. As his thirst intensified, he heard a child crying. He found a young girl beside the corpse of her mother. Torn by guilt and hunger, Louis fed on the child—but stopped short of killing her. Suddenly, Lestat appeared, mocking Louis before picking up the mother's body and dancing with it. Horrified, Louis fled while Lestat chased after him.

Back at the hotel, Louis—shaken and angry—was reminded by Lestat that sunrise was near and he needed to get into his coffin. That day, Louis was plagued by disturbing dreams about his past, his brother, and his morality. The following night, he awoke to find Lestat entertaining two drunk women. When he noticed Louis watching, Lestat killed them, having orchestrated the scene as a grotesque performance meant to shock and humiliate him. Louis was disgusted.

Lestat’s constant manipulations finally pushed Louis to his breaking point. Determined to leave and start over, he made plans to go—until Lestat offered him a twisted gift: the young girl Louis had nearly killed. Lestat proposed she could be Louis’s “daughter” and companion, preying on his loneliness and conflicted morality.

To torment Louis further, Lestat took him to a hospital filled with orphaned children, victims of a plague outbreak. There, they found the girl again, barely clinging to life. Lestat abducted her, and under pressure, Louis fed on her once more—an act that brought both guilt and a troubling sense of pleasure. Lestat then gave her his own blood, turning her into a vampire.

When the transformation was complete, the girl—now calm and strangely poised—declared that she belonged to Louis. He named her Claudia. Soon after, Lestat lied about an “accident” and brought home an enslaved boy for Claudia to feed on. Louis was horrified by how quickly she had changed. Lestat declared that Claudia was now their daughter and would live with them.

Louis began to grasp the full horror of what they had done. Though trapped in a child’s body, Claudia was already developing an adult’s mind. And now, through Claudia, Lestat had found a new way to bind Louis to him—using her as both a companion and a means of emotional control.

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