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    All Fade characters

    More about Fade

    Louis Everett

    An antiques dealer in St Jeoire, a village of four hundred people. Louis is happily married to Anne, short of money, and plagued by headaches, sleepless nights and the same dream every night. He takes pills every morning and forgets more than he should.

    Anne Everett

    Louis’ wife: up before him every morning with her inevitable cigarette, fond of him, nosy and always with the last word. She has been seeing a fortune teller, Astrid, and has something important she wants to tell her husband.

    Félicienne

    Louis’ assistant at the antiques shop: devoted, highly strung, forever tidying his office and terrified of heights and boats. She doesn’t like Anne, and she takes medication for her nerves.

    Alex Eytellat

    A scruffy stranger who asks Louis for a cigarette outside his shop and wants to know where folks have fun around here. Louis tells him to get lost. Alex knows Louis far better than Louis knows him.

    Mr Belleville

    An important customer of Louis’ antiques business, white-haired and charming, with a twinkle in his eye. He has a deal that could solve Louis’ money troubles, an urgent appointment with his taxidermist, and an errand he can’t be seen doing himself.

    The desk clerk

    The weekday clerk at the Hôtel des Lilas in Paris, more interested in his newspaper than his guests. He has always dreamed of being a private eye.

    The man at the café

    A nervous regular at the Dauphin café across from the hotel, in love with the hotel’s maid and unsure how to talk to her.

    The maid

    The chambermaid at the Hôtel des Lilas, guarding the corridor “like Cerebus would guard Hades”, broom in hand.

    The ticket clerks

    The staff of desks 3, 6 and 8 at the Paris station, each sending Louis to the next.

    Christine Leather

    A young woman with short red hair whom Louis meets on the train home from Paris. She says she has known Anne a long time, and seems hurt that Louis doesn’t remember her.

    Jean

    Louis’ best friend and next-door neighbour, who works for the train company. Since his wife Christine left him, the bottle has been his best friend.

    Amedee Vanderbrughe

    Louis’ neighbour, half of a lovely elderly Dutch couple, or so Louis thinks. He never opens the door.

    The bartender

    The man behind the bar at Le Père Tranquille, the village bar, who doesn’t like to pay attention to what women do.

    The drunk woman

    A regular at Le Père Tranquille with short red hair, who orders gin for Louis and knows his name.

    Xavier

    Louis’ neighbour and the village drunk, usually found at Le Père Tranquille.

    Astrid

    The village clairvoyant, who lives at the end of a dark alley and has been reading cards for Anne. Louis is supposed to hate clairvoyants.

    The police officers

    The officers of the local police station, who listen to Louis’ evidence late one night, and the police who later call him to the Love Woods.

    The singing patient

    A cheerful man in the park of San Lazzaro, the first person Louis sees there, who answers every question with another line of a song.

    Zampano

    The guard at San Lazzaro: strong, tanned, always in a bad mood, and the object of the receptionist’s affections. When he isn’t watching Louis, he is in the staff toilets.

    Gelsomina

    The receptionist at San Lazzaro, a lady in white with a strange smile, who keeps telling Louis to calm down and is in love with Zampano.

    The insect eater

    A frightened patient at San Lazzaro who won’t touch the food, which he believes is made of human flesh, and lives on insects instead.

    The nurse

    The busy, suspicious nurse in San Lazzaro’s sick bay, who is sure every patient is after his drugs.

    The librarian

    The keeper of San Lazzaro’s library, who insists patients ask her before taking a book.

    The patient at the chapel

    A patient who wanders outside the chapel asking who won the World Cup in 1968 and multiplying four-figure numbers in his head.

    Mario

    San Lazzaro’s cook, who shouts at anyone in his kitchen in German and serves Brussels sprouts.

    The priest

    The chaplain of San Lazzaro, who once did missionary work in France. White wine gives him a stomach ache; kir is a different matter.

    The meditating patient

    A patient practising yoga by the gardeners’ hut, a lotus flower who can’t quite concentrate.

    The doctor

    San Lazzaro’s psychiatrist, polite and regretful, who has formalities to follow before any patient can leave.

    Parx

    A grinning pyromaniac locked in cell 3 on the first floor, the only patient ever to escape San Lazzaro. Fire, he says, is the way of God.

    Salvatore

    The patient in cell 4, with the most intense stare Louis has ever seen and a feud with the man in cell 1.

    The patient in cell 1

    A man with bloodshot eyes who can’t stand his neighbour Salvatore, “this cretino”.

    The man in the attic

    A silent man standing in San Lazzaro’s attic with a cloth over his head, pointing at the floor.

    Gisèle Montfort

    The caretaker of a building at 45 rue de Haxo in Paris, who remembers Anne as a child and wants nothing to do with Louis.

    Gisèle’s neighbours

    The voices on the intercom at 45 rue de Haxo: Lady Gradoux, Victor, Josephine Petipas, a fortune teller and Doctor Ali Kafour.

    The streetsweeper

    A street cleaner in Pigalle who knows everything about the EXIT from the outside, and is pleased that someone says please.

    The bouncer

    The doorman of the EXIT, unimpressed by Louis’ clothes until he hears the right names.

    The EXIT’s customers

    The regulars of the EXIT: the man on the couches who isn’t into girls, the woman who knows Christine, and the man at the bar who wants to show Félicienne his boat.

    The tortured man

    A man tied to a radiator in Saint Arman’s apartment, filmed on a camcorder tape.

    The banker

    A suspicious man at the Central Bank on Wagram Street, uneasy about Anne’s unusual power of attorney.

    The cult members

    Saint Arman’s followers, in robes, in a cave beneath San Lazzaro and in “The Hell” beneath the EXIT.

    Antoine de Saint Arman

    A master of the occult with a long ponytail and a three-piece suit, the man Anne was seen with in Paris. His followers say he is everywhere and nowhere.

    The assault squad

    Armed men in black who storm Louis’ mother’s apartment in the middle of the ritual.

    The Damocles crew

    The people Louis wakes up to at the very end of the game.