Tad Williams - A Stark And Wormy Knight

He didn’t take all the pills. They’re around here somewhere. It’s okay! Everything’s going to be okay…!

An even stranger NOISE comes through the roof, a long muffled shriek. The three teenagers look up. For a moment none of them move or speak, although the music continues loud. YOUNG JANICE

I’m going to get her.

She reaches the stairs, then turns to the two boys. She’s clearly terrified, but trying to be brave.

YOUNG JANICE

Well? Are you coming with me?

YOUNG ERIC

Everything will be all right.

YOUNG BRENT (dropping the bits of shattered record)

No. It won’t.

JANICE waits until YOUNG ERIC drags himself off the carpet and stands. ADULT ERIC leaps to the stairs and tries to block the way with his body.

ADULT ERIC

Don’t go up there! Don’t…!

But he’s insubstantial — they walk THROUGH HIM as we DISSOLVE TO:

INT. — STAIRS, THEN — MOMENTS LATER

We’ve dropped back into the shaky, distorted perspective from the beginning of the film, more or less YOUNG ERIC’s POV. YOUNG JANICE leads, YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG BRENT right behind. We can still hear the music, but it seems odd, underwater.

Everything upstairs is very trippy — angles seem strange. The hall lights are FLICKERING between bright and dim. It makes for an eerie, almost “strobelight” effect. YOUNG JANICE

Kimmy! Kimmy, where are you?

YOUNG ERIC

Where’s… where’s Topher?

YOUNG BRENT

I don’t know. He was here a minute ago — man, he was acting so strange… I think he cut himself or something…

The corridor is distorted, the walls so narrow that it seems they might crush the viewer. YOUNG ERIC looks down to the far end, sees the door to his GRANDMOTHER’S ROOM — the place he left KIMMY. He turns like a sleepwalker and moves toward it. We follow right up to the door, feel him hesitate, then push it open.

Inside, there’s only the one light of the bedside lamp, flickering, making a little humming noise as though you can HEAR the ELECTRICTY. The bed is empty now, the sheets disarranged, smeared. On the wall over the head of the bed is the EYE WITH SUN RAYS, drawn crudely in smeared dark liquid, still wet.

There’s a brighter light coming from under the bathroom door.

ERIC moves toward it slowly. He stands in front of it and we hear a strange muffled THUMPING noise, and also heavy breathing and moans, like someone quietly reaching orgasm. ERIC pushes the door and it swings open. There’s something in the tub, moving clumsily, hidden from us by the shower curtain.

YOUNG ERIC

Kimmy…?

YOUNG JANICE is stuck behind YOUNG BRENT, and cannot see properly. She makes a face as something CRAWLS over her foot. She looks down blankly and sees that she’s standing in a couple of dozen ANTS. She shudders and takes a step back, trying to brush them off.

YOUNG ERIC (cont.)

Is that you, Kimmy?

He pulls the shower curtain aside and we see that KIMMY is huddled on her hands and knees, face pressed against the wall, partially hidden by the curtain. She’s breathing in a very jerky way, and her voice is very thin.

KIMMY

Eric? I’m… scared. It’s dark, Eric. But Topher’s… going to help me to see… like he does. Could you turn off the water? I’m getting all… wet.

YOUNG JANICE (still behind BRENT, trying to get over the ants and past him)

Kimmy? Are you okay?

YOUNG ERIC reaches out to KIMMY and she turns. Her eyes are GONE — only RAGGED BLACK SOCKETS — and her face and shirt are soaked in blood. The wall where she’s been leaning is smeared with blood and the bathtub is full of it — she’s kneeling in it.

ERIC and BRENT both scream and reel back, knocking JANICE over, tumbling in a panic on top of her, which prevents her from seeing.

YOUNG JANICE

Kimmy! Kimmy? Eric, what’s wrong?

YOUNG ERIC

Don’t look! Don’t look!

Scrambling away from the bathroom, he tries to pull JANICE with him, but she’s fighting him, crying, trying to get to KIMMY. She manages to grab the doorframe of the bathroom and pull herself crawling onto the tiles. As she turns away from fighting with ERIC, she sees (with her face at floor-level) a black knot of ANTS, boiling, swarming over some small object lying on the tiles just a few inches from her nose. It’s a bloody EYE — one of KIMMY’s eyes.

The POV SWINGS CRAZILY as she flails backward, retching and shrieking, tangling with ERIC and BRENT as they try to rise. They tumble back into the bedroom, sprawling on the floor. The lights are still flickering slowly on and off, and in a moment of shadow we see that there’s a LARGE DARK SHADOW on the ceiling — like a stain, but more complicated.

As the lights flicker up again, the shadow opens its EYES — it’s TOPHER, stretched on the ceiling as though it were the floor. A trail of BLOODY HANDPRINTS leads up the wall and across the ceiling to where he is.

TOPHER

Seen enough?

The three terror-stricken teenagers crush themselves into the corner of the bedroom, staring as TOPHER crawls back across the ceiling and down the wall like a spider, until he reaches the floor and stands at the center of the room, blood-smeared arms held wide.

TOPHER (cont.)

It’s almost done now. I can fucking feel it happening — I don’t need this body anymore, don’t need any of this…

YOUNG JANICE (a ragged screech)

What did you do to Kimmy…?

TOPHER

I helped her. Helped her to see… all the way… to the end…

TOPHER suddenly convulses — not just a twitch, but something that physically distorts his ENTIRE BODY. He SCREAMS — a whistling shriek of agony.

TOPHER (cont.)

Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!

He is thrashing now, his body BULGING and TWISTING. STEAM begins to rise from his skin, leaking from his mouth and nostrils, and his gasps and screams become even more tortured. The three teenagers are all weeping in terror, fighting to force themselves even farther back into the corner. TOPHER is between them and the door.

TOPHER (cont.)

Oh, fuck, it hurts! Help me! It hurts it hurts it hurts! I don’t want to be… inside this… any more… Ah! Ah!

TOPHER suddenly staggers forward, his face seeming to MELT from within, little ripples of flame lifting from the skin. He grabs YOUNG BRENT, who shrieks and struggles. ERIC and JANICE do not try to help him, but only fight to get further away, clawing at each other. TOPHER pulls BRENT close so that their faces are only inches apart, wreathed in steam, and shrieks at him. T

OPHER (cont.)

Get me out of here! Fuuuuuck! Make it stop!

The biggest convulsion of all, a moment in which TOPHER seems almost to turn INSIDE-OUT, and BRENT is flung away, slamming against the bedroom wall. TOPHER falls onto the floor, writhing like a smashed snake, making awful gargling noises. YOUNG BRENT slowly climbs to his feet, stumbling and gasping, then staggers out the bedroom door.

TOPHER (cont.) (his voice is different now, weak and ragged)

Stop! Come back! It’s… this is all wrong…

YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG JANICE struggle onto their feet and sprint for the bedroom door. TOPHER’s twitching has slowed — he raises a quivering hand after them.

TOPHER (cont.)

Come… back! Eric! J-Janice! Don’t… leave me… Don’t leave me…

We are on ERIC and JANICE as they hurtle down the stairs in a distortion of sound and vision. YOUNG BRENT is already gone, the front door swinging, and they CRASH through it after him, still screaming into the darkness, screaming, SCREAMING…

As the door swings back and clicks shut (we see it from the inside) the screaming abruptly STOPS.

We are in the empty, current LIVING ROOM with ADULT ERIC, ADULT JANICE, and ADULT BRENT. They turn in unison from the front door and look at the entrance to the stairway. There is a long, grim silence.