Tad Williams - A Stark And Wormy Knight

JANICE (a ragged whisper)

We should have taken Kimmy…

ERIC

We were afraid…

JANICE

We left her there to bleed to death.

BRENT (staring at them)

Who are you?

ERIC

What?

BRENT

Who are you? Is it you again, another trick? Do we have to do this all over again? (he begins to cry)

I’ve been here for years. There’s nothing left you can do to me…

JANICE

Brent, it’s us. We’re here. It’s really us.

ERIC (to nobody in particular)

You know what we need to do, don’t you?

BRENT

But how do I know that?

ERIC

We need to go upstairs.

JANICE closes her eyes, not arguing, knowing its true.

BRENT

Upstairs? We can’t! (whispers)

He’s up there.

ERIC (to JANICE)

I tried to make it all go away. I was wrong. I lied to you about Kimmy, because… she and I were making out, getting it on, and… and I was feeling like everything would fall apart if you found out.

JANICE (startled)

Oh, God, Eric, really?

ERIC

But I lied and it killed her.

JANICE hesitates, trying to decide what she feels. At last:

JANICE

You can’t change the past. You can’t let it haunt you. We all wish we’d done things… differently.

Without quite realizing it, they both look at BRENT, but he will not meet their eyes. ERIC We should have have called someone — the police, an ambulance. Instead of just leaving Topher there all night, turning into… whatever it was. (a sudden, nasty thought)

Whatever it is.

BRENT

He hates us. We betrayed him.

JANICE

We didn’t know any better.

She looks at ERIC, then holds out her hand, which he takes. As if they’ve had a silent conversation, they both move toward the STAIRS, then, with only the smallest hesitation, they mount up into the shadows. BRENT stares after them for a moment.

BRENT (quietly)

Don’t leave me here.

He stands for a moment, then — with an expression of great hopelessness — he pulls the GUN out of his pocket and starts up the steps after them.

BACK WITH ERIC AND JANET: the stairway is impossibly long, as distorted as some of the earlier hallucinations. They climb silently, clutching each other’s hands. A little MIST or STEAM drifts down from the doorway at the top and eddies past them down the stairs.

They finally reach the door at the top and look into the upper hallway. It’s DISTORTED like 1976, with mist along the wood floor, but empty like “now”. A few leaves rustle beneath their feet, blown in through the broken window at the end of the hall. Silently, ERIC and JANICE step up and begin to walk down the hall. A small cracked voice begins to sing close by.

TOPHER

“Oh I’m glad I’m not an Oscar Mayer wiener. That is what I’d never like to be-ee-ee… ”

As ERIC and JANICE reach the bedroom door, it swings open. The empty bedroom has EXPANDED — it seems dozens of yards across. At the far end, a pale shape — TOPHER REBORN — sits in front of the wall in low mist, head sunken on his chest. The EYE WITH SUN RAYS is scrawled on the wall above his head in dried blood.

TOPHER (cont.)

“… ’Cause if I was an Oscar Mayer wiener, there would soon be nothing… left… of… me… ”

TOPHER lifts his head. He is VERY PALE all over, without any hair, his skin raw and clammy, like some sea creature that has been pulled from a shell. His eyes are all BLACK.

TOPHER (cont.)

Hi, Erky. Hi, Jan-Jan.

JANICE tries to say something, but TOPHER lifts his hand and her mouth works without sound. ERIC takes a step toward him, but TOPHER lifts his other hand and ERIC and JANET are both frozen in place.

TOPHER

Ssshhhhh. It’s time for you to be quiet.

A strange SHIFT in perspective and TOPHER is suddenly right in front of them, still sitting cross-legged. TOPHER (cont.)

I spent a long time being quiet, while I changed. It was like being buried alive. Helpless in the dark — screaming but no one could hear me. Twenty-five years. Twenty-five years, screaming! Think about that. (he reaches out and touches JANICE’s face, then ERIC’s.)

I thought of lots of ways to make you suffer for leaving me. Oh, I lay there a long time in the dark, trapped in that body, thinking about it. What I would do to you. When I had finished… changing.

TOPHER stands. He has no genitals, no nipples, no fingernails or toenails. Music begins to play — Roxy Music again, “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”, slow and building.

TOPHER (cont.)

I thought I might… melt you. Or turn you inside out. Or maybe just let you experience what happened to me — a quarter of a century locked inside yourselves — but that all seemed so… obvious. And after a while, I began to really think…

BRENT suddenly appears in the doorway — staggering, panting for breath.

BRENT

Leave them alone!

TOPHER

Hey, I was wondering when you’d show up!

BRENT

Fuck you! You know it’s not them you want. You know it!

TOPHER

Do I? It’s funny how you think you know things about your friends, isn’t it?

BRENT suddenly levels the gun and shoots, five times in rapid succession, screaming as he does so.

BRENT

Fuck you! Fuck you!

When the smoke clears, the REBORN TOPHER is still standing there, unharmed but for five little puckered holes across his pale body. He smiles and looks down at the bloodless wounds. They close up.

TOPHER

Did you really think you were in a place where that would work? This all belongs to me — don’t you know that? This is all my dream, and this time I’m taking you along.

BRENT sobs and lifts the gun.

BRENT

There’s one bullet left…

TOPHER

Go ahead. What was it you said? “One bullet in the brain of Topher Holland will end all this?”

BRENT slams the gun against his own head and pulls the trigger. Nothing. A moment later the gun crumbles into dust in his hand.

TOPHER

You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?

He turns to ERIC and JANICE; they tumble to the floor, moving again.

TOPHER (cont.)

I never finished my story. See, I spent a long time — years — thinking about what to do to you. But then, slowly — oh, I had a lot of time — I came to understand that there are levels of betrayal. Many levels. And you were scared and young, just like I was. (a beat)

But there are some betrayals that can’t be forgiven. (he turns to BRENT)

Right, Topher? Come here.

BRENT (as we’ve been thinking of him) sways and crumples to the floor. TOPHER (as we’ve been thinking of him) points, and BRENT begins to crawl toward him, despite himself. TOPHER’s skin is giving off faint curls of smoke now. The music is growing more insistent as it builds toward its slow climax. TOPHER

You ran, and ran, and ran, didn’t you? But you never really got away. BRENT (weeping, fighting, crawling)

No, please! I didn’t mean to…!

TOPHER

But you did it, and that’s all that matters. Abandoned this body like rats off a burning ship. Pushed me out of my own, so I had nowhere to go. (a beat)

Black Sunshine. We’ll never know quite what that shit was, will we? The answer is probably buried in some government file forever. But it was sure something strange, something… bad. But no one asked you to take those pills, Topher. It was your own stupid idea. So why didn’t you live with it, you selfish bastard? (he

leans down toward crawling BRENT/TOPHER)

You wanted to get out of this body bad, didn’t you? What you did to Kimmy, all the other crazy shit — none of that bothered you. But when the pain came, then you wanted out. And you got out. Jumped right into my body, didn’t you, Topher? And I had nowhere to go but this ruined, mutating shell. You took my body, didn’t you? You took my whole life!