A Stark And Wormy Knight (39 page)

ERIC

(hoarsely)

Who… ?

He picks up a broken table-leg and the lantern and slowly moves toward the open door. JANICE grabs a heavy vase and moves up beside him. BRENT is on his knees on the floor behind them. They reach the doorway and peer out. Empty, dark street. ERIC cautiously extends the lantern, taking a step outside, looking, looking…

ERIC

There’s no one here…

ERIC glances down. A symbol written in FLAMES on the porch — a crude drawing of an EYE, surrounded by rays like the sun — is flickering out. As it disappears, the PHONE rings, making them all JUMP in shock. It takes a second for the import to reach them.

JANICE

(excited, relieved)

The phones! The phones are working!

The cordless phone is in the table-wreckage near BRENT, but he doesn’t move. JANICE picks it up and listens for a second. Her eyes widen, her jaw drops. She turns like an accident victim in shock and hands the phone to ERIC.

JANICE

It’s for you. It’s… it’s Kimmy.

KIMMY

(on phone; as if from a great distance)

Help me… ! I’m lost, and it’s so dark! Come home, Eric! Come home… !

ERIC is pale and half-dead-looking as the phone drops from his hand. He looks at JANICE, then at weeping BRENT. He and JANICE turn to stare at the open door.

DISSOLVE TO:

EXT. — STREETS — MINUTES LATER

The ADULT versions of ERIC, JANICE, and BRENT walk down the dark, deserted suburban streets like they’re going to their own execution. All the houses are lightless and look deserted.

ERIC

I told you the car wasn’t going to start. It’s not going to work that way — none of it.

JANICE

We could wait until tomorrow and call the police! He’s an escaped patient! This isn’t just us having some hallucination — he’s real!

ERIC

You think that’s going to happen?

JANICE

It makes more sense than walking into your grandmother’s deserted house, looking for him. The lights have to come back on some time… the phones…

ERIC

Let’s find out.

ERIC suddenly steps out of the road and walks across a lawn toward one of the houses. He stops in front of the door and pounds on it.

ERIC

Hello? Can you help us, please? It’s an emergency.

(no answer; he knocks louder)

You don’t have to open the door, just talk to us.

JANICE

Eric, you’re acting crazy…

ERIC

Am I?

He vaults over the hedge to the next yard and begins pounding on that door, too. No answer.

ERIC

Help! Nuclear war! Invasion of wild pigs! Call the police! Call the National Guard!

He picks up a porch chair, heaves it over his head, then SMASHES it through the picture window.

JANICE

Stop it! Why are you doing this!

ERIC

Because there’s nobody there, Janice! No-fucking-body! Look at the windows — no candles, nothing. People in the real world have batteries, Janice. They have radios and flashlights. They still go out and walk their dogs, even when there’s a blackout.

ERIC reaches for a chunk of the windowsill and pulls it away. It comes off like it’s rotten and CRUMBLES into dust in his hands. He pushes his hand through the wall and another section breaks away and dissolves into powder.

ERIC
(cont.)

He’s playing with us. Don’t you remember that night, when we were walking on this same road?

JANICE

Stop it. You’re making it worse.

ERIC

Do you remember what I said? He remembers. He’s pulled us back into it — it’s all happening again, but twisted up…

As ERIC speaks, we do a slow DISSOLVE into 1976. The street is still dark, but only because it’s a quiet neighborhood, late at night. There are a few lights in the windows, streetlights, the glow of a television through curtains. YOUNG JANICE and YOUNG TOPHER are walking with YOUNG ERIC, who has stopped in the middle of the street, clearly beginning to feel the acid. JANICE turns and starts back toward him.

YOUNG JANICE

Eric? What you doing?

(quietly, now she’s close)

Would you come on? Topher’s making me nervous.

ERIC lets himself be led. As they catch up to TOPHER, ERIC is clearly disoriented.

YOUNG ERIC

Is it… this year? In all the houses?

YOUNG JANICE

What are you talking about?

YOUNG ERIC

I thought… for a minute I thought… I mean, how do we know it’s still now?

TOPHER

Oh, he’s coming on real good.

YOUNG ERIC

No, really. I mean, we don’t know. Time could have just… stopped. For us, I mean. And like everyone else just went on. So in all those houses, it could be twenty years later, but we’re still stuck in this one night, forever. Like we were ghosts.

YOUNG JANICE

Don’t say things like that. You’re giving me the creeps.

TOPHER is swigging from a beer, even more full of manic energy. He’s carrying the rest of the two six packs in a bag.

TOPHER

Twenty years there ain’t gonna be no town here — ‘cause one of these days I’m gonna burn the fucking place down. Maybe I’ll do it tonight.

(turns to ERIC)

You want another beer? It’ll cut the harsh on that buzz.

YOUNG ERIC

No. I don’t think so. Not now.

YOUNG JANICE

I feel really strange, Eric. I wish you hadn’t said that. I feel… empty.

TOPHER

(oblivious)

I told you we could pimp some brews up at the One Stop, no problem, man. It’s cause we had a chick along, just like I told you. Those older guys, they always want to look cool when there’s a chick around.

YOUNG JANICE

I can see my hand moving — look. It’s all blurry.

TOPHER

You got tracers, baby! It’s coming on!

YOUNG ERIC

(forcing himself back to reality)

How ‘bout you, Topher — you okay, man?

TOPHER

(a flash of suspicion)

Why? You think I’m acting weird? You’re just paranoid — you always get paranoid, Pierson. I’m fucking great. Black Sunshine, bay-bee! I’m so big I’m gonna blow up like a balloon!

YOUNG JANICE

I hope Kimmy’s all right. We should have made her come with us. She’s really nervous about all this…

YOUNG TOPHER

Zenger’s sniffin’ after her. Boy is workin’ hard, workin’ hard.

YOUNG JANICE

(suddenly)

I probably will still be here in twenty years. This fucking dead town.

(she is suddenly very emotional)

You’ll go off to college and you’ll be some famous guy, and I’ll see you on television, and I’ll still be working in that coffee shop, refilling the catchup bottles.

ERIC is lost in thought, silent, plodding along.

YOUNG TOPHER

Yeah, you’ll be sixty years old, wearin’ that fucking little skirt. “Hi, my name is Janice, happy to serve you!”

YOUNG JANICE

Like you’ll be doing anything different, Topher. At least I’ll have a job, which is more than you’ll have when they find out you were ripping off the lab.

TOPHER

Man, I’ll be so far out of here. Once I bag fuckin’ high school, I’m gone, and my dad can fuck himself. I’ll join the fuckin’ Air Force, be a pilot. I’ll be all over the world, checkin’ out the señoritas, all that shit.

TOPHER’s voice is getting strangely loud and off-key. He’s even twitching a bit. ERIC is staring at him.

TOPHER
(cont.)

I’ll be so fuckin’ high you won’t even be able to see me. You and Pierson and all the others, you’ll be pretending you’re my friends, but you’ll be on the ground, living in this dick town, on the ground, round and round on the ground…

YOUNG JANICE

(angry)

Shut up, Topher. You aren’t going to do shit. Your old man’s going to throw you out and you’ll wind up hangin around on the benches at Tyner Park like all the other losers…

TOPHER

(suddenly screams)

Fuck you, bitch!

TOPHER is suddenly shaking with rage, eyes rolling. ERIC, startled out of his reverie, takes a step forward.

YOUNG ERIC

Hey, man, cool out…

TOPHER

Keep your woman in line, man! She can’t talk to me like that… !

YOUNG JANICE

You can’t talk to me like that…

TOPHER

(screaming again)

I ain’t stupid! I ain’t fucking stupid! I’ll fucking show you!

TOPHER turns and runs away down the street. ERIC looks at JANICE in worried irritation, as if to say it’s her fault, then starts after him. They have reached the end of the wooded street that leads to the orchard and the Pierson House. TOPHER stops under the last streetlight before the orchard, huddled. ERIC approaches him slowly.

YOUNG ERIC

Topher? Topher, man, just take it easy…

As ERIC is reaching to put a hand on his shoulder, TOPHER looks up, grimacing in MISERY. His features appear for a moment to RIPPLE, like something powerful is shifting below the skin. As he shrieks at ERIC, the streetlight above them EXPLODES in a shower of glass.

TOPHER

Leave me alone!

ERIC reels back, shielding himself from falling glass, as TOPHER flees into the orchard and we CUT TO:

EXT. — STREET — SAME TIME, BUT THE PRESENT

ADULT ERIC is clutching the same streetlight, unbroken now but also unlit. ADULT JANICE is beside him, crying, staring out across the empty lot where the orchard was, while ADULT BRENT simply stares.

JANICE

I don’t want to go there. I don’t care if this is all real or not. I don’t want to go there.

LONG SHOT: PIERSON HOUSE, NOW

Over her shoulder, we see the dark house in the empty field.