Lord of Illusions Page #10

JENNIFER:

Have we met before?

HARRY:

No.

JENNIFER:

Only I forget. They give me pills,

you know, to keep me... even...

and... I forget things,

HARRY:

Well, you didn't forget me. I just

came because I wanted to know if

you knew a man called Butterfield.

JENNIFER:

Maybe... I... don't...

HARRY:

What about Philip Swann?

JENNIFER:

I knew Swann.

(sudden vehemence)

He's a f***ing liar.

A WORKMAN saunters past, carrying pipes.

HARRY:

Why's that?

JENNIFER:

He said he knew how to protect us.

But he didn't know anything. He

made us think it was over and done

with.

HARRY:

What is?

JENNIFER:

(tears nearing)

I don't want to think about it. If

I think about it he'll hear me.

He'll find me.

HARRY:

Swann?

Ahead now, the site where the workmen are digging a hole,

laying pipes. The CAMERA doesn't focus on this action, but

we're aware of it.

JENNIFER:

I told you. I don't --

She stops. Looks ahead of her. Her face is suddenly ashen

and clammy. Harry follows her gaze to:

The hole. Somebody is in it, digging. Earth emerges in

shovelfuls, piling up beside the hole.

JENNIFER (CONT'D)

(screaming)

God no! Oh God no!

She backs away from the hole. The Nurse grabs hold of her.

NURSE:

Calm down!

She delivers the Nurse a backhand SWIPE. The Nurse is flung

back.

JENNIFER:

He's not going to get me!

She races down towards the street. Harry goes after her.

JENNIFER (CONT'D)

He's not! He's not!

HARRY:

Who's not?

He catches up with her.

JENNIFER:

Nix! Nix!

HARRY:

Is he the Puritan?

JENNIFER:

Yes! Yes!

HARRY:

And he's dead?

JENNIFER:

No. He's coming back. He's

digging his way out!

The Nurse appears behind Harry.

NURSE:

I'll take care of her now.

Jennifer struggles in Harry's grip.

NURSE:

Let go of her, Mr. D'Amour!

The Nurse breaks Harry's hold on Jennifer, who slips away

instantly, racing towards the street.

HARRY:

Jennifer!

She scrambles up over a wall, and flings herself from the

top. There's a SCREECH of brakes, then the smashing of

metalwork and glass. Harry gets to the wall before the

Nurse. Hoists himself up onto it. Looks down.

HARRY'S P.O.V. OF STREET

Jennifer is dead in the middle of the street, beneath the

wheels of a car. The DRIVER is out, and yelling

incoherently.

HARRY:

Jesus.

He slips back down the wall, and leans against it.

He looks towards the hole. The Workman has stopped digging.

His mud-encrusted hands emerge, and for a moment, before his

head appears, the image is eerily like somebody climbing from

a grave. Harry closes his eyes.

HARRY:

(very quietly)

Jesus.

EXT. LOS ANGELES - DUSK

The sun is setting, the city giving way to night.

INT. HARRY'S HOTEL ROOM - DUSK

Harry's on the phone.

HARRY:

I want to speak to Dorothea.

VALENTIN (V.O.)

I'm afraid she's not in.

HARRY:

When will she be in?

INT. SWANN'S MANSION - STUDY - NIGHT

Valentin on the phone in the study.

DOROTHEA:

Who is it?

Valentin puts the phone down.

VALENTIN:

Crank call. I'll get the number

changed.

DOROTHEA:

No word from D'Amour?

Valentin shakes his head.

VALENTIN:

It's better he's gone. He would

have done more harm than good.

DOROTHEA:

Harm to whom? Me? I don't think,

so. Try him again at the hotel.

VALENTIN:

I left three messages already.

Dorothea nods, plainly sad at Harry's desertion. She turns

and leaves the room.

INT. HARRY'S HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

ON BILLY WHO'S CARD, in Harry's hand.

HARRY:

(on phone)

Billy? It's Harry. Suppose I

wanted to get into the repository

at the Magic Castle?

CUT TO:

INT. MAGIC CASTLE - SKYLIGHT ROOM - NIGHT

THE PLACE IS EERIE BY NIGHT: ALL MASKS AND SHADOWS.

PAN UP TO THE SKYLIGHT. HARRY IS CUTTING AWAY A PANE OF

GLASS. BILLY'S BEHIND HIM. THE PANE STARTS TO FALL. WITH

LIGHTNING REFLEXES, BILLY REACHES THROUGH AND CATCHES IT.

HARRY:

You've done this before.

BILLY:

I've had my moments.

INT. MAGIC CASTLE - HALLWAY OUTSIDE REPOSITORY - NIGHT

Harry's manipulating the lock.

BILLY:

I'm sure they'll have this place

rigged.

HARRY:

How?

BILLY:

It'll be something hokey.

CLICK! The door opens.

BILLY:

Houdini'd been proud of you.

INT. MAGIC CASTLE - REPOSITORY - NIGHT

Undusted shelves piled high with manuscripts, old books, and

posters in every direction.

BILLY:

(impressed)

Whoa...

On the wall, plaster LIFE-MASKS. In glass cases, the tools

of the great magicians: KNIVES, KEYS, GUNS, WANDS, even an

IRON MAIDEN. Billy is in awe. He wanders around wide-eyed

while Harry scans the shelves. The dialogue runs as they

investigate.

BILLY:

I hear Mrs. Swann's quite a babe.

HARRY:

You heard right.

BILLY:

You ever been married?

HARRY:

Yeah. She was killed in a car

crash. Her lawyer was driving. She

was filing for divorce.

BILLY:

Why?

HARRY:

My life was too weird for her.

BILLY:

(grinning)

I love weird.

Harry has seen a small SIGIL carved onto one of the shelves.

HARRY:

Billy? This was on Miller's

forehead. Any idea what it is?

BILLY:

Nope.

Harry presses it. The entire bookcase opens up, CREAKING.

BILLY:

What did I tell you? So f***ing

hokey.

Inside, there is a small shelf. On it, FILES and PAPERS.

HARRY:

What have we got here?

Ever-eager, Billy steps into the recess. And --

two spiked, latticed gates close on his arm!

Harry grabs the gates before they snap closed, inches from

skewering Billy's flesh and bone! He keeps them open, his

sinews straining.

HARRY:

Grab the files!

Billy reaches in and pulls out a handful of the files. As he

steps out of range. Harry lets go and the gates close with a

CLANG!

BILLY:

Jesus!

He slams the files down. He's trembling.

BILLY:

I could have lost my f***ing hands.

HARRY:

That would have kept you out of the

Magic Circle.

(he studies the files)

Which was presumably the idea.

(a beat)

These are about Nix.

Harry takes a sheaf of papers, and hands them to Billy.

HARRY:

You go through these. Go on!

Reluctantly, Billy does so. Harry picks up a faded

PHOTOGRAPH of the doorway to Nix's HOUSE (with the sigil

painted on it) and BUTTERFIELD the child standing in the sun.

There are other CULTISTS standing around. And in the DOORWAY

-- a barely visible figure (and all the more intimidating for

that) - is NIX.

HARRY:

Wait a minute...

He stares at the boy's face. The eyes are clearly different

colours.

HARRY:

That's Butterfield...

BILLY:

(points to nan in)

doorway)

And who's that?

ON HARRY, staring at the ambiguous presence.

ON THE PHOTOGRAPH of the shadowy figure.

HARRY:

At a guess? The Puritan. Nix.

Billy picks up an ETCHING, water-stained and dirty. It shows

a horror we recognize: a man's HAND pressed into the FLESH

of another man's HEAD.

BILLY:

Take a look at this.

HARRY:

(looking at it)

A Nix specialty?

Billy is getting subtly spooked now. He puts the etching

down and starts to go through others in the series. We

glimpse them as he does so. In one, a MAN regurgitates a

serpentine form made of FLAME. In another, a MAN stares at

his own HAND which is STRIPPED OF FLESH. There is no bone

beneath. Only a form of solid blackness. In a third, we see

a HEAD with a slit in the middle of the brow, emanating

DARKNESS.

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