Lord of Illusions Page #17

ON HARRY, verging on insanity.

HARRY:

Oh God... oh God...

HARRY'S P.O.V.

Harry sees a WOMAN, wrapped in the sickly-sensual embrace of

some glistening, barely visible OBSCENITY. We can't see her

face. Only her mouth is visible in the coils of her

devourer.

ON HARRY:

as he approaches the wall, on which this woman is painted.

Reaching out for the image.

HARRY'S P.O.V.

The Woman reaches for Harry.

WOMAN:

Help me.

ON HARRY:

as he touches the wall.

HARRY:

Dorothea!

He starts to SCRATCH out the plaster on which the image is

painted.

HARRY:

Dorothea! Dorothea!

HARRY'S P.O.V.

Darkness swallows the image of the woman. She is still

screaming when she disappears.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - MEDITATION ROOM - NIGHT

ON SWANN, dragging his broken body to the door.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT

ON HARRY:

literally beating his head against the wall!

HARRY:

No! No! No!

DOROTHEA (V.O.)

Harry...

Harry stops. Dare he believe this is truly her voice?

DOROTHEA:

It's not real, Harry-

Harry turns around. Dorothea is there.

HARRY'S P.O.V.

For a moment, he sees Dorothea as she is.

ON HARRY, relief flooding his face. Then --

HARRY'S P.O.V.

-- the image MORPHS. Dorothea's beauty is replaced by

primeval muck.

ON HARRY, appalled. Dorothea grabs hold of him.

DOROTHEA:

Harry. Listen to me. Whatever's

good between us, believe it.

Harry's face is deathly white, and pouring SWEAT. He's

fighting the delirium. Or doing his best.

HARRY:

... oh... God...

DOROTHEA:

I'm here, Harry.

HARRY:

...yes?

DOROTHEA:

Yes.

Nix steps from the shadows of the doorway behind Harry.

NIX:

(to Dorothea)

There you are, child.

Harry starts to look round.

DOROTHEA:

Don't look.

HARRY:

I... have... to.

NIX:

Come on, child. I want Swann to

see you die.

Harry turns and looks at Nix.

HARRY'S P.O.V.

Nix's face darkens as it MORPHS. And the flesh in the middle

of his brow UNFOLDS, revealing a dark, pulsating THIRD EYE.

NIX:

(to Harry)

What are you looking at?

ON DOROTHEA, who has gone to the door of the Meditation Room

and now slips inside.

ON HARRY, staring up at Nix.

ON DOROTHEA, re-emerging from the Meditation Room. In her

hand, Harry's GUN. Harry looks round at her.

HARRY:

(points to his brow)

There... there!

ON NIX, as he looks up at Dorothea.

ON DOROTHEA, as she raises the GUN. She FIRES.

The bullet STRIKES Nix's FOREHEAD. He sinks to his knees,

BLOOD pouring down his face from the hole where his third EYE

used to be.

ON HARRY, as Nix's mind-hold falters. He leans against the

wall, shaking.

DOROTHEA:

Harry?

HARRY:

I'm okay. I'm okay.

Harry opens his eyes. Looks up at her.

HARRY'S P.O.V.

The last of the MORPHING fades. He sees Dorothea as she

actually is. Dorothea goes down to comfort him, and they

embrace.

Suddenly, a ROAR from Nix. They look towards him --

-- it isn't over.

One last, terrifying transformation is overtaking Nix as he

kneels in the GLASS. His sallow flesh is running in STREAMS

up his body towards the DARK HOLE in the middle of his

forehead --

NIX:

One... last... illusion...

-- his humanity is disappearing, vanishing into the vortex of

the bullet wound.

DOROTHEA:

Oh my God.

Harry and Dorothea start to get up...

Nix is no longer human. He is a shape of gleaming DARKNESS,

stripped of features. He opens his mouth, the only visible

element on his body is his toothed maw, which looses an

utterly inhuman SHRIEK!

SWANN (V.O.)

... D'Amour...

Harry glances through the door into the Meditation Room.

Swann is on the threshold.

Nix RISES now. He is a terrifying spectacle, his bulk

somehow more intimidating than ever in this simplified form.

He comes at Dorothea, who has no choice but to back away into

the Meditation Room.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - MEDITATION ROOM - NIGHT

The pit still yawns in the middle of the floor. Dorothea is

backed towards it by Nix.

When Nix SPEAKS, his voice is not remotely human. It is

DEMONIACAL.

NIX:

I am the purest of the pure. I am

the darkest of the dark...

Harry is at the door now, starting towards Nix.

SWANN:

Harry. You can't kill him.

Harry crouches beside Swann.

HARRY:

(whispers)

He did something with the ground.

SWANN:

Yes?

HARRY:

Can you do it?

SWANN:

I don't know.

HARRY:

Try.

ON DOROTHEA. She's a couple of yards from the pit now.

NIX (V.O.)

I'm beyond Heaven. I'm beyond

Hell.

Suddenly, Harry lunges at Nix, grabbing hold of his legs.

Nix topples.

ON SWANN, who puts his hands on the ground. Closes his eyes.

A wave of LIQUIFICATION runs through the ground from Swann's

broken fingers --

-- the Cultists' bodies MOVE in the softening ground, like

corpses in surf, and ROLL towards the pit, their dead faces

resurfacing --

Barbara's body floats past Nix, and disappears over

the edge of the pit.

HARRY:

(to Dorothea)

Get out of here!

The ground is very liquid now, and the corpses are lodging

around Nix as they're all carried towards the pit. So's

Harry, of course.

Nix tries to get up, but he's too late. The corpses weigh

him down, the ground is too fluid for him to get a proper

hold, and Harry still clings to his legs.

NIX:

No! No! No!

He's at the edge of the pit.

DOROTHEA (V.O.)

Harry!

Harry looks round. Dorothea's behind him, risking the

flowing ground to offer him a hand.

Nix starts to fall into the pit. At the last minute, he

reaches for Harry, as --

-- Harry is pulled out of reach bv Dorothea.

Together they stumble to THE DOOR, where Swann still lies.

They look back to see

NIX, as he goes over the edge of the pit and FALLS SCREAMING.

At the door, Dorothea lifts up Swann's head. He's dead. She

closes his eyes.

CUT TO:

INT. THE PIT

What we are about to witness is the longest fall-to-his-

death by any villain in the history of cinema...

Nix is falling through rock. Still SCREAMING. He CRASHES

against a layer of stone, which his body smashes to

smithereens. And as he falls --

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT

DOROTHEA:

Is it finished?

HARRY:

I think so.

No it's not. Nix keeps falling, breaking through another

layer of rock as he descends deeper and deeper into the

earth.

And now... there's a hint of FIERY LIGHT below. He's

approaching MAGMA.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT

DOROTHEA:

Come on...

She puts her arms around him. Kisses him, sobbing with

relief.

INT. THE PIT

Nix hits a layer of molten rock, and, SCREAMING, he

disappears. A BURST of dark, roiling ENERGY erupts from the

spot where he sank, and starts up the pit --

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - MEDITATION ROOM - NIGHT

The room TREMBLES. There's a ROAR in the earth.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT

HARRY:

What the f***?

DOROTHEA:

Harry-?

HARRY:

Out! Out!

They race for the front door --

INT. THE PIT

-- the wave of ENERGY, like a howling, dark WIND, ascends at

a breath-taking rate

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT

Harry and Dorothea race for the open air, as

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - MEDITATION ROOM - NIGHT

The ENERGY ERUPTS from the pit.

EXT. NIX'S HOUSE - FRONT DOOR - NIGHT

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