Tad Williams - A Stark And Wormy Knight

CUT TO:

INT./EXT. — DRIVING — MINUTES LATER

There are repair crews out along the road. ERIC and JANICE are behind an ambulance and firetruck, which turn down a side road.

ERIC (slowing car)

That’s…

JANICE

They’re going to the convalescent hospital. Have to be. It’s the only thing down there.

ERIC pulls the car around and follows the ambulance as we CUT TO:

EXT. — HOSPITAL — MINUTES LATER

The front grounds of Las Lomas Convalescent Hospital are a surreal sight. Many of the windows are broken out, and a tree has crashed down on the front of the building, smashing the roof and damaging one of the walls. Several of the patients are wandering around the grounds, many still in nightgowns. Police and fire people are trying to clear some of them out of the driveway so the firetruck and ambulance can get in.

ERIC and JANICE park the car and walk across the front lawn. Some of the patients are just wandering. Others seem frightened or dreamy, but all turn to STARE fixedly at ERIC and JANICE as they walk past.

The ADMINISTRATOR is standing next to the fallen tree, talking to one of the police officers while the ambulance guys roll a stretcher in through the ruined doors. The ADMINISTRATOR looks up in surprise as ERIC and JANICE approach.

ADMINISTRATOR

Mrs. Moorehead? Did someone…? I mean, how could anyone have called you when the phones are out…?

JANICE

Called me? Why would anyone call me?

ADMINISTRATOR (flustered)

Oh. I just thought… because of your friend, Mr. Holland. (her look grows sharper)

If no one called you, how did you know?

CUT TO:

INT. — HOSPITAL — MINUTES LATER

ERIC and JANICE are walking fast down the hallway, across leaves and other debris which have blown in through the broken doors and windows. The NURSE is walking with them, talking fast and nervously.

NURSE

He’s the only one… it’s a miracle more didn’t wander away — it was terrible! Some of them were so frightened they hid under the beds and we missed them when we did the count this morning.

JANICE

But you said he couldn’t move — that he couldn’t even get into a wheelchair by himself!

NURSE

It’s so strange — I’ve never heard of anything like it. In a way, it’s a kind of miracle… oh, but I hope he’s all right! Poor Mr. Holland. Poor, poor Mr. Holland…

The OLD WOMAN that ERIC had met previously is standing in the hall, wearing a jacket over her nightgown. As they push through the door of TOPHER’S ROOM she calls after them:

OLD WOMAN

He’s gone home! I heard him when I was sleeping! Tell Mama I’m all right, ‘cause he’s gone home!

TOPHER’s empty “shell” is still lying on the bed.

JANICE muffles a noise of fear and disgust behind her hand. After a moment, ERIC steps forward and hesitantly touches it. He lifts the masklike skin of the face, staring at the hollow eyeholes. It breaks apart in his hand as we DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — LATER IN THE MORNING

ERIC and JANICE are walking up BRENT’S walkway. There’s only one SUV in the driveway now.

JANICE

He can’t be more than a few hundred yards from there, Eric. He’s crippled! He’s been mostly bedridden for years!

ERIC

A chrysalis — that’s what the nurse said the first time I saw him. Like a cocoon. And now he’s hatched.

ERIC knocks at BRENT’s door.

ERIC (Cont.)

You don’t think all that’s a coincidence, do you? The power failures, all that shit, and Topher just sheds his skin and walks away? After all these years?

JANICE

What are you saying? That he did it, somehow? I thought you were supposed to be the rationalist.

ERIC

When the facts themselves are irrational, you still have to work with them. Just think about it for a second. Think! What night is it tonight?

JANICE stares at him in incomprehension as the door opens.

BRENT is standing there clutching his hand, with blood on his arms and shirt. He looks numb and half-dead.

JANICE and ERIC gasp.

BRENT

I was wondering when you’d show up. (Their expression finally penetrates; he looks down at the blood)

Oh. I broke a glass. Guess you might as well come in.

He turns as if he couldn’t care less and walks inside. After a moment, ERIC and JANICE follow him.

INT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — HALF AN HOUR LATER

BRENT is pretty drunk. He’s sitting on the couch with his head in his hands while ERIC and JANICE make coffee on a camping stove they’ve set up on the counter.

BRENT

I sent Tracy and Joanie away. Tracy didn’t want to go, but I think she thought I was going to get violent or something… Joanie wanted to take all her dolls. (fighting tears)

Oh, God, I sent them away…!

ERIC pours a cup of coffee for himself, sips it and burns his tongue. He blows and sips it again gratefully while JANICE takes a cup to BRENT.

BRENT (cont.)

I should have gone with them. I don’t want to be here. It’s all going to hell.

ERIC

Shut up and get some coffee into you. Jesus, Brent, do you always drink like this?

BRENT (indignantly)

What? Are you going to tell me everything’s normal? That it’s fucking inappropriate to be drinking in the morning? You think I should just sit here sober waiting for that… thing to come kill me?

JANICE (sharply)

You knew he got out of the hospital?

BRENT looks up with such SHOCK in his eyes that he clearly did not. His hands begin trembling so badly that coffee spatters the rug.

BRENT (looking down at the mess)

Jesus. Jesus, look at that.

ERIC

Give it to me.

He sets it on the table in front of BRENT. As he stares at haggard, shivering BRENT, his face softens.

ERIC (cont.)

You didn’t know he’d gotten out of the hospital?

BRENT

Christ, no. But I had dreams…

JANICE

We all had dreams. But he’s a sick man, catatonic — a cripple!

BRENT

He’s coming for us. He wants… he’s angry. Because of… of what we did.

JANICE

But that doesn’t make any sense! We were his friends! And why now, after all these years?

ERIC

Maybe because he had to get ready. Like a caterpillar who had to wait until he could become a butterfly. He was just waiting all that time, changing inside, growing into… something else. (turns to JANICE)

You know what tonight is, don’t you? Don’t you? Why are your kids coming back tomorrow?

JANICE

Oh, shit, I never called them. What do you mean, why are they coming back? Because they have to be back for school… (it finally hits her)

Oh. Oh, God, tonight is…

ERIC

Yeah. The last Saturday night of the summer.

They look at each other across the sunlit living room of a nice, ordinary house as we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. — BRENT’S HOUSE — HOURS LATER

The living room is beginning to look a bit like a cage. A house of cards has fallen over on the coffee table. BRENT and ERIC are smoking. BRENT has sobered a bit — he just looks hellishly depressed. JANICE is clearing up in a sort of obsessive way, straightening things on shelves, etc.

ERIC

Leave it alone. It’s okay.

JANICE

It’s driving me crazy. All this mess… It’s something to do, for God’s sake. What are we waiting for?

ERIC

The power to come back on. The phone to start working. A monster who used to be our friend to knock on the front door. Who knows?

JANICE

If you really think this is going to happen, why don’t we just leave? Let’s just get in the car and go! BRENT

Won’t do any good… ERIC

For once I agree with Zenger. What if the engine just happens to die while we’re driving down some back road somewhere? There we’ll be, out in the woods somewhere, stuck, no walls, no locked doors…