House on Haunted Hill Page #18

BLACKBURN:

What are you babbling, you lunatic??

And then clarity comes to Price's eyes.

PRICE:

Electro-shock.

INT. HALLWAY/ELECTRO-SHOCK THERAPY ROOM - BASEMENT

-- and the Noise suddenly stops. The lights stop pulsing.

Pitch dark and dead quiet.

Eddie squints and points at something deeper in the room.

EDDIE:

There's something --

-- MOVING inside the Room. Blackburn lashes his arm out,

stopping anyone from going any further into the room. He

whispers:

BLACKBURN:

Don't move, don't make a sound...

In the darkness, in the distance, they can make out

AN ANIMATE PRESENCE at waist level. Pale. With something

flowing from its sides, almost wing-like. And it's

squirming, undulating like a snake -- and then, softly

this time, that calf-like cry. High-pitched, almost female-

sounding.

Price ducks under Blackburn's arm and starts walking slowly

into the room, towards it. No one tries to stop him.

ON PRICE as he gets closer, and can see that whatever it

is, it's perched atop one of the TABLES --

-- the CRY -- and Price steps closer, and he can make out

to the side of the table, something that looks like....a

hand?

-- the CRY -- closer now: a hand discerned -- human -- with

rings on the fingers, polish on the nails --

PRICE:

...Ms. Marr...?

-- no response -- just the CRY -- Price reaches out to

touch that hand --

SARA:

Is it Melissa??

-- a look of horror comes to Price's face:

PRICE:

OH JESUS NO!!

-- and then lights flash BLINDING WHITE -- and the bug-eyed

face of EVELYN STOCKARD-PRICE is seen -- screaming that CRY

through the RUBBER BITE-DOWN that's been taped tight to her

teeth --

-- her head, her torso, her limbs BUCKING like they're jet-

propelled against the leather straps restraining her --

-- as the MASSIVE VOLTS of electricity from the DYNAMO she's

wired to punch into her like ten thousand razors at once --

-- and Price reaches for her instinctively --

-- only to have Blackburn lunge in and yank his hand away --

BLACKBURN:

-- are you crazy!?!

-- and for a moment all anyone can do is watch as Evelyn

gets jolted and slammed again and again and again -- and

sparks fly from the electrodes on her head and smoke starts

to billow --

PRICE:

Turn it off!! Somebody turn

the damn thing off!!

En masse, the Guests charge into the room, scrabbling

everywhere around the DYNAMO, looking for a wire, anything

they can use to stop the current ripping through her body --

-- and Price is near-insane, smashing buttons, yanking

switches off their moorings as he watches the pupils

disappear from the eyes of his bucking, jerking wife --

-- and Sara pulls a cord from a socket in the wall and

nothing happens --

-- and Blackburn spies something running down the table

leg --

-- and Price is literally SCREAMING --

-- and Blackburn yanks the table-leg wire with all his

might --

-- and everything stops. The light show. The screaming. The

smoke.

-- and Evelyn, too. Her body drops back down on the table

with a horrible THUD. Her eyes stare sightlessly. Blackburn

leans over her. Head to her chest, a finger to her neck.

Beat. And then he stands back up straight.

BLACKBURN:

I'm sorry --

PRICE:

-- she's not dead! Just have to

get her heart pumping aqain!

SARA:

Mouth-to-mouth!

Price yanks the bite-piece from Evelyn's mouth -- a plume of

purple ARTERIAL BLOOD spews from her lips and cascades all

over her face.

EDDIE:

Oh, Jesus....

PRICE:

Adrenaline -- in your bag, Blackburn,

you must have --

BLACKBURN:

-- even it we were in the E.R.,

Price:
it's too late -- her heart's

burst!

Price puts his ear on Evelyn's chest -- listens -- his face

falls.

PRICE:

No...

Sara puts two fingers to Evelyn's wrist pulse. Feels.

SARA:

She's gone.

Even Pritchett gets into the act, taking the flashlight and

shining it into Evelyn's fixed pupils.

PRITCHETT:

They don't get any deader.

Price strokes his wife's hair, tears begin to form in his

eyes.

PRICE:

No.

With his other hand, Price begins to unbuckle the restraints.

SARA:

I...don't think...anybody should be

touching the body.

PRICE:

I think I'll do what I damn well please.

BLACKBURN:

She's right, Price. It's a matter

for the police.

He takes Price's hands firmly and removes them from Evelyn.

PRICE:

It is in-f***ing-deed. At the risk of

stating the obvious: this wasn't exactly

a goddamn suicide.

He smacks the now-loose steel-and-leather restraint with his

hand -- in the tense silence of the room, the buckle BANGS

like a GUNSHOT against the table, over and over again.

PRITCHETT:

House 2, Guests 0.

PRICE:

I think, Pritchett, we've got a

situation here that even you can't

explain away as "ghosts." This is ice-

cold homicide by person -- or persons --

He glares furiously at his Guests.

SARA:

-- not entirely unknown.

She c*cks her pistol and aims it at Price.

PRICE:

Convenient place to point blame, hon',

but this time, the only wrong one: for

all I know, somebody should be pointing

that gun at you.

She shakes her head and keeps the gun where it is.

SARA:

I was upstairs with Eddie --

EDDIE:

-- that's the fact, bud --

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