A Book Fr The Dead: The Story of Claudia

A BOOK FROM THE DEAD: THE STORY OF CLAUDIA
Written by Lestat D. Bratt

INTRODUCTION

Bit of info: She has the soul of Claudia (the vampire child who tried to kill Lestat) in her. Now she's back on earth, reincarnated as a mortal. She has the same characteristics as Claudia, seemingly sweet and innocent, yet forever in thought, analyzing everything around her. She does not have a complete recollection of her past life, but she gets flashes of them at times. She does not recognize Louis nor Lestat in this time, though somehow she felt like she is being pulled back to New Orleans, like somehow, this is where she belonged.

Author's note: This story a fanfiction based on the Anne Rice novels The Vampire Chronicles. It's best if you have read at least one of the books so you'll have a basic idea of the characters, although information about this story is taken from Interview With The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned and Tale of The Body Thief. Aside from being a fanfic, some of the elements in this story, like the setting and some of the characters in the later chapters, are based on a Yahoo! RPG Club, Lestat's New Orleans College RPG , for which the character of Claudia was initially created.

Unfortunately, that particular club had been deleted a few weeks back. There was some conflict between some of the co-founders and one of them deleted the club, without the original founder even knowing of it! My symphathies to Heather. But much of the storyline continues in {user:Darth Pencil}'s yahoo club Lestat the Brat Prince

PROLOGUE

He scanned the crowd with his intense blue eyes hidden behind his dark shades.
A multitude of mortals and vampires alike greeted his sight.

"So this is the college that the famed Lestat runs.", he thought to himself.

He laid his eyes upon one such mortal. She was tall, 5'11" in height, with long blonde hair and amazing green eyes. One look in them and he knew, this soul is definitely an old one, older than his perhaps.

"Classic.", he said to himself.

He eyed her again as she walked to the dorm. He moved in the same time as she, and in fact lives in the same floor, two doors from her own. She is mortal, I am not. But that always wasn't the case. She had been one of us, that he can be sure. In another life, a long time ago, one of us, one of the immortals, a vampire - vampire child to be exact.

Her charms, they are the same, only heightened by the fact that now she is a woman, both in body and soul, not a mature mind trapped in a child's form, but a living and breathing eighteen-year-old. Mortal. But with my help, it won't be long until she's back to where she belongs - together with the immortals.

He smiled, feeling the vampire fangs with his tongue. He too started walking towards the dorm as the rain started to fall.

"I think I'm gonna like New Orleans afterall."

~~~~~~~

"Why in the world did I move to New Orleans?", she asked herself that over a million times since she finally got there.

She knew inside that this place for her is home, though she doesn’t know how. She grew up in another part of the world, in Paris. Her parents died in an accident almost a year ago and since then, she had been on the move. Just when she thought she had no place else to go, she decided to move to the US. She was fortunate to have heard of this New Orleans College, and was thrilled to find out that they offer courses on vampires. The paranormal and the occult are things she had always been interested in, and the truth was if she hadn't find out about New Orleans she would have equally loved to have to gone to Egypt and study the pyramids. But New Orleans is closer, and more convenient. She replayed this list of reasons in her mind as she unpacked her things and settled in her dorm room. She pushed the question out of her mind and instead thought of how her first day would be. Somehow she sensed she'd like it here, especially if what they say about the mysterious headmaster is true...

Chapter I: SENSE

She could feel it even when she tried to ignore it, feel the eyes following her everywhere she goes. Feel the eyes burning a hole behind her back during history class, the sense of being observed even in her sleep. She’d have nightmares about it; about a stalker following her through the streets of New Orleans, sometimes even to Paris, and other foreign lands she’d never even heard of in geography.

It had been the same today, that same creepy feeling. She walked out of her dorm room, ready for another day in college.

“This whole place is creepy,” she reiterated to herself.

Ever since coming here she had felt or ‘sensed’ something about the other students and even the professors themselves. She had had these feelings before back when she was a child and in the streets of Paris, but then the sensation had always been fleeting, there for a moment, gone the next. It’s different here, she could sense them consistently, and the feeling is as great as ever.

Maybe I should ask for a room change. It hadn’t been the first time that the idea crossed her worried mind. She was quite sure that her mysterious stalker is the guy living a few doors from her own room.

Stop frightening yourself. You’re not a child anymore. Not a child anymore… the phrase echoed in her head. It’s what her father had said to her the last time she saw him. She remembered it clearly, prom night, a few weeks before her high school graduation. She tried to fight back the tears. He was right, you’re not a child anymore.

Suddenly a scene flashed before her eyes, a childhood that she had lived. It wasn’t her childhood but the child was unmistakable. It was she; in the frilly dresses women of lost centuries in England wore. And dolls, she had lots of dolls, every year she got them, and destroyed them. She hated being a child, being in a child’s body. I’m not a child why can’t you see that. She had screamed at her father, her tall blue-eyed father with the long blonde hair. Another day, another memory, the day she met her ‘fathers’

I want my mommy.
Hush, my child.
You’re not my father.
We’re going to take care of you now, Louis and me.

Just as quickly as it had come, the memory was gone in a blink of an eye.

She pushed the thought out of her mind for the meantime, she’d analyze it later, replay it over her mind. Not that she ever forget about them anyway.

For now I have to get to class. And see this Mr. de Lioncourt.

Chapter II: THE CONFRONTATION

She couldn't take it anymore, these incidents, seeing him obviously following her, and hiding, always the hiding.

In anger she walked out of the room, marched down the corridor and banged loudly on his door, ready for the confrontation. Seconds passed with no answer, her resolve had gone weak. Cursing to herself she turned around, ready to march right back to her room when she heard the locks being pulled and the creek of the door as it opened.

He stood there, wearing the same dark, concealing clothes he'd been wearing before. His ever-present sunglasses weren't there, however, and she found herself staring at the most incredible pair of blue eyes.

"You want to tell me something?" He said with a smirk, obviously reading her mind.
Suddenly all the rage came back to her and she screamed at him.
"Why in bloody hell are you following me!"

He smiled at her, amused by her English-accent.
"Bloody hell," he said, mimicking her.
"You don't know what bloody hell is. Then again maybe you do."

She barely heard what he was saying. She couldn't take her gaze off his eyes.
Something registered. There is something sinister about the way he smiled, the way the light danced in his eyes. She knew. All of a sudden she knew.
He was one of them.

But one of who?

She took a step back, not realizing that her mouth was wide open. Even before she had made the decision to run, he had quickly grabbed for her wrist and pulled her close to him, so close she found herself staring directly at his teeth, and two sharp points. The fangs! My God, he has fangs.

"Let me go!", she said, both with fascination and fear.
To her astonishment, he did what she said. He let go of her, and assumed his position by the door as if nothing happened.

For a moment she just stood there, and watched him, thinking it was a trick. Realizing that it wasn't she bolted as quickly as her panicked feet can get her out of there, out of the building, to somewhere, anywhere but there.

He watched, as he did before; watch her form barreling down the stairs and into the night. He smiled. He was satisfied; he had accomplished what he meant to do. Now she knows. It's only a matter of time before she remembers. Remember her past, remember Louis, remember Lestat. Only a matter of time...

She ran, as far away as possible, as far away from the college, she ran. Block after block she traveled, never stopping just meaning to get away, to get away from it all. But it seemed she couldn’t. Memories are suddenly rushing into her head, confusing her further. They weren't her memories, she had never known those people, never been to those places. But yet it was she, in some other time, some other life.

She continued running for what seemed like hours. She doesn’t know which direction to go to. The only thing she knows is that she has to keep moving, she has to keep running away.

She stopped finally when the rain that had come so sudden had soaked her and made her cold. I need to get inside. The first rational thought she had, since she had been at... since she had seen... no, it can't be true. There are no vampires. It's just some stupid folklore. It must be a joke, a terrible joke. But I saw fangs. No, they must be fake. But his eyes, and his smile, they're inhuman! No, you're just hallucinating. She kept repeating this in her head, trying to make some sense, her intuition and rational fighting in a tug-of-war. She continued walking in the rain for a few moments before she realized that she was lost. She'd never been to this part of New Orleans. Maybe it's not even New Orleans anymore. Stop it, you're being paranoid. An old street, part of what used to be the French Quarter. I've never been here but somehow the place looks familiar. An abandoned building, maybe she could keep dry in there. She pushed the boards out of the way, letting herself in the dusty rundown building. A ray of light from a lamppost outside was all the illumination she has. She saw something, someone moving. She squinted her eyes to adjust in the dark. Nothing. There, something on the floor, a woman. She walked closer, expecting to see a homeless person maybe passing the night, the same as her, seeking some shelter. She moved closer still, the lone light casting eerie shadows on the wall, broken sometimes by the passing of cars. The woman, seemed to be sick, crouched in pain.

"Miss, are you alright?" she asked. She touched the woman's shoulder, and felt something hard through the tattered clothing. When she moved her hand away she saw bone, decaying human bone, and the face, the face was full of maggots and flies. She screamed.
Oh my God. That woman is dead.

In another time, in another life...
"Mommy wake up, please wake up,” she had cried.
Louis was there, he was going to help. He carried her into her arms but she cried still. Then he sank his fangs into her neck. Fangs!
And Lestat, Lestat was there too. He danced with her dead mother. Maniacally laughing all the way.
She felt herself dying, being drained, felt Louis drop her as he ran away and she faintly heard the footsteps as Lestat ran after him, leaving her behind, leaving her to die...

She screamed. Bringing herself back to reality, back to the present. There was no abandoned building. There is no dead woman. Only the rain, and the empty street she's standing on.

She's confused, more than ever. These memories are hers she's sure, but they never happened, not that she know of. She's clear about one thing, there's only one person who can she'd some light into this. She had to go back to the college. She had to go and see Louis.

She reached Louis’ apartment and hurriedly knocked on the door, silently praying that Louis was there. Please Louis, answer the door, a silent call she kept repeating. As if by magic, the door opened only it wasn’t Louis who greeted her.

“Lestat,” she said in surprise.
“Yes.” He was holding a glass of wine.
The last person I want to see right now is Lestat.
Quickly she regained her composure and although stammering she had managed to speak.
“I’m sorry I must have the wrong apartment.”
“Are you looking for Louis?” Lestat quickly asked.
She didn’t reply, just stared at him, scrutinizing his face, trying to associate a memory with it.
“He went out for a moment but he’ll be right back. Do come in.” He led her to the living room.
Her mind was still wondering, she can’t find any words to say. Her brain was going into overtime analyzing the current situation and how it fit with the rest of what she knows or think she knows.
“Ma Cherie, look at you. You are soaked to the bone. You must be awfully cold.” Lestat exclaimed, leaving the room for something, leaving her alone with her thoughts.
Bone. Cold. She recalled the grisly memory she had. Anger was the only thing she felt now.
Lestat came back to the room with a heavy wool blanket and carefully placed it over her shoulders.
You danced with my dead mother. She thought angrily, staring daggers at him.
“What did you say?!” Lestat almost screamed. He closed the distance between them in a fraction of a second.
She didn’t notice the sudden movement. She stared right back at him, anger rising within her, her face only inches from his.
I want you dead. She though again, laced with more hatred than before.
This time Lestat got the message clearly and he backhanded Claudia sending her flying across the room.
Louis came into the room, in time to see Claudia crash on the floor.
“Lestat”, he called quickly, assessing the situation and chose to stop Lestat from hurting Claudia more. But Louis, sweet, naïve Louis, did not recognize just who the damsel in distress that he was saving was.
“Don’t get into this Louis.” Lestat commanded.
Claudia was already on her feet and was heading towards the door. With a backward glanced she shouted.
“I hate you both!” the bitterness and hate in the words more piercing than the words themselves.
Then, just then, did Louis found out. The face, the emotion, and the eyes, the intense green eyes were unmistakable. He knew. Shock was his first reaction; he was shocked to the core. It can’t be, but it his. His darling Claudia, his vampire child, she’s alive, she’s here, she came back. And she’s a mortal!
In that human fashion, Louis quickly ran to follow her, to make amends to touch her face, to see her again. “My beloved Claudia.” He whispered.
But Lestat got in his way. Lestat would not lose Louis to Claudia, no, not again.
“Get out of the way Lestat.” Louis said.
“No, Louis.” He said softly.
“But it’s Claudia. My Claudia…” Louis kept repeating her name.
“No, Louis. She’s mortal. She’s not yours.”
“Lestat, don’t you see? It is Claudia. She came back.” Louis said, with a pleading look in his eyes, desperate for confirmation.
“No, Louis. Claudia is dead.”

Chapter III: CONFIRMATION

She was on the run again, into another neighborhood. She had to see David. And he has to have the answer, he has to. It’s the only thought that keeps her from losing her mind completely.

She reached David’s door and pressed the doorbell. She was panting from running, and only through the reflection on the glass door did she realize she was bleeding on the lip, from the blow that Lestat gave her. At the thought of Lestat and Louis, she was angered again, and this time she did not bother to ring the bell, banging on the door instead.
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” a male voice from behind the door said.
Finally opened, she let herself in without waiting for an invitation. Once inside she realized that it was Joey, not David who had opened the door. And Joey was wearing nothing but a flimsy bathrobe.
“Joey?!?” she said, more in annoyance than a question.
“Where’s David? I need to talk to him.”
He jerked his thumb to the man sitting on the couch.
David, sensing Claudia’s anxiety signaled for Joey to make himself scarce. He took a handkerchief from his pocket and gently wiped the blood off of Claudia’s face.
Finally, he spoke.
“To have come here at this time of the night and in this weather must mean there is something very important you want to ask me about.” David said calmly.
Immediately, Claudia knew she had made the right decision to come.
“I do hope this is not about problems with the college.”
He invited her to sit close to him and she accepted.
“It’s not about the college. It’s about me.” She paused.
“I need you to be honest with me and tell me…” she swallowed before continuing, choosing her words carefully.
“What I am and who I am.”
When she finished the sentence David stood up and walked towards the mantle.
“David you have t tell me. I know you know. I can see it in your eyes.” She said, louder than she intended to.
David took something out of a wooden box, something on a chain. He faced her once more and into the light he held out a necklace.
“Do you recognize this?” he asked, straightening his arm so that the locket is now directly in front of Claudia’s face.
Tears started to form in her eyes.
“That’s me isn’t it.”
David merely nodded.
“Then it’s true? All of it. All the things that I remember.”
David only replied by placing the locker in her hands. In it was a portrait of a child, of Claudia when she was a child. It was the locket Lestat had found on her dead mother.
She cried as the final realization came to her. She cried, and there’s nothing anyone could do but watch her. Watch her grieve for the hundred years that had passed. Watch her cry for what she had lost; watch her cry for what she had gone through. Watch her, once again, die inside.

Chapter IV: PRETERNATURAL ALLIANCE

Two hours before sunrise, she finally made it back to her dorm, tired and exhausted from the night's ordeal. She knew that by this time most vampires - the early sleepers - are already getting settled in their coffins. Others, however, the early risers, stayed awake for an hour or so. She knew he belonged to that last group. He always made a lot of noise coming in just before dawn. And she knew that by this time, HE would be out hunting, a last meal before Hell's Bells call him into the vampire slumber.

And so instead of entering her own room she walked further to the end of the hall. His door was locked. No matter how unnecessary worldly possessions are to vampires, they still love what they own. And protect it like hell. She took out her ATM card and deftly slid it between the door and the doorframe. She twisted and pushed the plastic before she finally heard the distinct click of the lock giving way. She was no longer in her sorrowful mood, she's almost jubilant. A plan had formed in her mind and she almost smiled as she thought of it, the one word that described all that she felt – Revenge.

He was standing in the doorway, the keys jingling in his hand. He was whistling as he turned the doorknob and slowly pushed the door open. He had a good night. Who wouldn't? He had two very filling kills, both young women, with blood so sweet he wished more was held by their slim bodies. Maybe tomorrow, he thought to himself. He had his right foot through the door when he saw something glistening in what little light the moon offered. Like a piece of trash forgotten, there was a mangled ATM card thrown haphazardly beside the door. Before he had finished reading the inscribed name on the card, his vampire sense alerted him of another person in the room. The scent of mortal blood filled the air. Before he could even plan his strike he heard her distinct voice, like that of a silvery bell.

"So other than stalk dormant vampires, what else do you do?"
She was sitting on his reclining chair, her back to the window, the streetlights from outside only powerful enough to show her outline but not her face. It didn't matter, he knew who she was.

"Took you long enough." was his cool reply.

"Oh, you know how mortal memories can be. Too stubborn to come out the surface on its own. But I'm alright now. I know everything." Claudia said.

"Oh, so know you think you're the high and almighty, miss-know-it-all." Michael said with a smirk.

Claudia's face darkened at his smartass reply, and he felt it, the anger in her rising, even though she could not see her in the dark. But he wasn't done yet. Before she could think of an equally nasty comeback, in the mind game they are playing, Michael cut her off.

"Do you think that being a vampire in a past life is all that you need to know? Do you seriously think that every other bit of knowledge about the world of vampires can be at your hands through your books of folklore and magic? And if you honestly think that Lestat had said everything in his so-called Vampire Chronicles, then you are dead wrong." He had moved closer to her, his towering frame making Claudia look small and weak sitting on that chair by the window. They were face to face and Michael could see the confusion and anger in her eyes. She had almost felt defeated, and one look into his iridescent eyes gave her feelings away.

"I thought so." He said as he started to walk away from her.

"Wait." she whispered weakly.

"Wait." she repeated again, louder but without strength.

He paused for a second, waiting.

"I'm... sorry..." she stammered.

He smiled, or grinned rather, all though she could not see it.

"Apology accepted. Is that all?" He tried to appear nonchalant, although his mind was doing cartwheels at the same moment.

"No." came the meek reply.

He patiently waited for her to swallow her pride and accept defeat. He knew she would eventually. He had known from the start that she was stubborn, but he played right and now he can have her.

"I want you to tell me..."

He slowly turned around, he faced her and made eye contact. She shook her head for a moment, frowning at the lack of conviction in her voice. She was on the verge of tears. Surrender, never was in her vocabulary, and what she meant to do not only meant that, but also that she had to trust this person, someone whom she had hated since she'd known of him. But she needed Michael to get back to the other person, the other vampire whom she hated more, but more importantly she needed HIS BLOOD.

He walked closer, anticipating for her to say the words that would finally make her his. She swallowed and raised her head, meeting his gaze. Gone was the doubt. He knew she had decided. The battle is over, he had won.

"I want to learn from you." He nodded.

"I want you to make me a vampire." And then he smiled.

Chapter V: THE VAMPIRE MICHAEL

Claudia might not know it, but this is HIS plan, not hers. He had put those thoughts inside her head, even fabricated the memories for her, from what he could picture in the books he had read. They do have one thing in common, the want for revenge. Claudia was the ultimate blow that he could give to Louis and Lestat. As a vampire, he is definitely inferior to the older and stronger too. But he knows exactly where it hurts the most to hit them; in the one regret they ever had as immortals, Claudia.

Nobody knows about his story. He'd been a loner, even when he was still alive. He moved from place to place, never staying long in one city, just gathering information then disappearing again. Nobody knows where he's from, or who made him. But most puzzling of all, nobody knows why he loved and hated Lestat de Lioncourt.

It was June 7th 1980, the night of his 21st birthday. He and his college buddies had gone out to celebrate his birthday by getting into every bar in town. And New Orleans had plenty of them. It was almost morning and they got thrown out of the last bar they went to because, at last, it was almost morning and shops were closing up.

He walked the French Quarter and the Rue Royale. His friends lived on the other side of town and were wise enough to catch a cab. He wasn't. From the tops of the buildings he saw movement. He dismissed it quickly, thinking it was his drunkenness and overactive imagination. He chuckled and thought of maybe finding a coffee house opened despite the hour to clear his head. It was almost dawn but New Orleans always slept late and people would not be in the streets until well after the sun is over the horizon.

He had immediately liked the place when he came here to study. He was an econ major at a nearby university, and he just finished his junior year. Things were looking bright for him, and he was expecting to get accepted to a respectable law school the next year. And since it was his birthday, he felt like he was on top of the world. Then his world turned upside down.

It was quick, like a breeze passing by your ear; only he felt a sting on his neck. Before the swoon of blood loss made him unconscious he took one hard look at who held him captive. He tried to struggle and he caught something metallic in his hand. He wanted to know who it was who's draining him of his very life and cheating him of a bright future. His forced his eyes to flutter open and if it he hadn’t been in that situation he would have stared in awe at the magnificent person who was standing in front of him, its fangs in his neck. The vampire reflected his very image - 6'1" frame, blond hair and blue eyes. The eyes and the fixing gaze of the vampire were the last he remembered before he succumbed to the sweet sleepy feeling of blood being drawn. His heart ached and he knew it was not from the blood his beautiful man was taking from him but because he longed to open his eyes once more and become transfixed in his very presence. He felt him pulling away, and he ached once more, to feel like one with the vampire again in the exchange of blood.

But the vampire had other plans. He left him dying on the sidewalk, and retreated quickly from the rising sun.

Luckily, a police car swept by. The men in blue almost run his head over as it was precariously hanging by the gutter. They thought he was just another college kid who had too much too drink. But his pale and bluing complexion alerted them that he needed medical help and brought him to the nearest E.R. He survived, barely. The odd thing was, he wished he hadn’t. All the time that he spent lying in that hospital bed was time spent on thinking who that mysterious stranger was, thinking about how good it felt to look at him. But most of all, he wanted to know who that man was, and he wanted to be just like him. He wanted to be a vampire.

To be continued... "Invalid Item"