Monkeybone Page #10

HAND WOMAN:

I heard you were going to be here tonight. This

is so cool!

JUMBO the ELEPHANT GOD is dancing in ungainly fashion nearby. His trunk

swings out and hits one of the HAND WOMAN'S arms - which SNAPS OFF like

marble statuary. Before she can let out a squeal, he does it again. Now

she's armless - a regular Venus de Milo!

HAND WOMAN:

You fat slob! Watch what you're doing!

JUMBO:

Why don't you slap me? Go on, slap me!

HAND WOMAN:

Come on, Stu. Let's go where the real fun is.

She leads him over to the sunken living room. Among the other guests, we

see a CYCLOPS, a YETI, a BBQ PIG. A number of sofas and lounge chairs

are arranged around a big crystal ORB in the center of the room.

The ORB is where nightmares happen. Although the perspective shifts and

the locales change abruptly, as in a movie, all the nightmares have a

3-D quality - as if they're taking place right here in the room with us!

STU:

Wow. Live feed, huh?

HAND WOMAN:

You bet. Hyp gets all the best stuff before it

goes out to the theatres.

STU grins in anticipation. He finds an empty chair and starts to sit

down - but there's a SLUG with a MAN'S HEAD already in it!

SLUG WITH A MAN'S HEAD

HEY!

STU:

Sorry.

STU picks another seat. The HAND WOMAN sidles up alongside him.

HAND WOMAN:

Shh! There's a new one just starting.

EXT. FIELD OF FLOWERS (NIGHTMARE ORB)

In long shot we see a handsome young couple dressed in paisley prints.

Emerging from a sylvan glade, they kiss in golden sunlight. Then the MAN

breaks free - sprints through knee-high sunflowers to the middle of the

field, where a picnic blanket is waiting.

CLOSEUP - STU

HIS FACE GOES PALE as he recognizes the man in the paisley shirt.

STU:

That - that's me.

CYCLOPS:

Nice shirt, dude!

EXT. FIELD OF FLOWERS (NIGHTMARE ORB) - DAY

Paisley-shirted STU pours champagne for two. Toasts his beloved - who

is, of course, JULIE, the dreamer of the dream.

He pulls out a little velvet RING BOX and offers it to her. But when she

tries to take it, he pulls it away, teasing her, and STEALS A KISS.

Suddenly the two of them are locked in a tight embrace, rolling together

through the flowers, LAUGHING, full of joy.

INT. HYP'S HIDEAWAY - THAT MOMENT

The DARKTOWNERS are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of

horrors to come. STU looks from one misshapen face to the next, his

heart pounding with dread.

STU:

What is this? Who's dreaming this??

(beat)

Julie??

YETI:

Hey, keep it down!

EXT. FIELD OF FLOWERS (NIGHTMARE ORB) - DAY

JULIE rolls onto her back on the grass, FACE AGLOW. Only to realize...

that STU IS NO LONGER THERE BESIDE HER.

She looks around. Gets to her feet. Turns. And the BACKGROUND behind her

MORPHS suddenly into...

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM (NIGHTMARE ORB)

The room is decorated for a FAREWELL PARTY, complete with streamers and

confetti. KIMMY, DR. EDELSTEIN, various MEDICAL PERSONNEL and FRIENDS

are wearing party hats, lifting champagne glasses in a toast to the

guest of honor...the comatose Stu!

INT. HYP'S HIDEAWAY - THAT MOMENT

The DARKTOWNERS clustered around the orb can barely conceal their animal

excitement. It's obvious that the nightmares they're watching are more

than mere entertainment - they get some kind of addictive, visceral

charge from the spectacle of human terror.

STU:

JULIE!!

He tries to push his way forward to the orb. An angry CYCLOPS elbows him

aside. A YETI grabs his coat and pushes him out of the way.

HAND WOMAN:

Stu!! What are you doing? Chill out!!

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM (NIGHTMARE ORB)

COMATOSE STU stands in the center of the room, UPRIGHT and IMMOBILE in a

party hat. A weird UMBILICAL CORD extends from his navel to a huge

groaning BELLOWS DEVICE - like an artificial lung, it's all that keeps

him breathing.

EDELSTEIN hands a pair of OVERSIZED CEREMONIAL SCISSORS to KIMMY, and

she CUTS THE CORD, as if opening a new mall. Applause all around. JULIE

races toward STU in slo-mo, SHRIEKING -

- as he DEFLATES into a LIMP PUDDLE OF FLESH before her eyes!!

JULIE:

No. No. STU!

INT. HYP'S HIDEAWAY - ON STU

JULIE's distress is killing him. Yet all around him, DARKTOWNERS are

cackling their heads off, growling, howling, punching their fists in the

air like rowdy drunks at a football game. He LOSES IT ALTOGETHER.

STU:

JULIE! I'M HERE, DOC! DON'T LET THEM PULL THE

PLUG! I'M HERE!!!

He won't be stopped this time. He makes for the orb - climbing over

sofas, pushing guests aside, knocking over their drinks -

CYCLOPS:

HEY! Watch it, you stinkin' gringo -

STU:

JULIE! I'M HERE! I LOVE YOU!

Somehow, JULIE has heard him!! Down in the nightmare orb, her dream self

is looking UP, trying to locate the source of STU's disembodied voice!

He struggles to reach the orb, but the CYCLOPS is holding him back.

JULIE:

Stu? STU...?

STU breaks free and FLINGS HIMSELF on the ORB - which SHORTS OUT in a

haze of smoke and sparks, abruptly ending the nightmare. JULIE's image

vanishes - and STU gropes at the air, DESPAIRING.

INT. STU'S PRIVATE ROOM - NIGHT

The real JULIE awakens suddenly and lets out a scream of her own.

JULIE:

STU!!!!

Only now does she realize where she is. She's fallen asleep in the

visitor's chair next to STU's bed. The clock on the wall reads 1:15 AM.

STU'S READOUTS are spiking like crazy.

INT. HYP'S HIDEAWAY - THAT MOMENT - NIGHT

STU is being dragged across the dance floor by the YETI and JUMBO THE

ELEPHANT GOD. HAND WOMAN brings up the rear.

JUMBO:

Who invited this schmuck, anyway?

HAND WOMAN:

Oh, it's my fault. I thought he was cooler than

that.

STU:

Listen. Please. It's my girlfriend. I've gotta

get a message to her...

But just then a hush falls over the room, and someone screams...

WOMAN'S VOICE

HYP!!!

A WALL PANEL does a 180-degree turn, and a CIRCULAR BED rotates into the

room. Languishing atop it, garbed in a silk robe which exactly matches

the black & white checkerboard pattern of the bedspread...

...is a CHUBBY, GRINNING, SLEEPY-EYED SATYR, with horns and hooves. TWO

WASP WOMEN are with him on the bed, brushing his furry goat legs and

feeding him grapes.

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