Neverwas Page #5

---

Almost a decade before.

And this letter

he sent to Gabriel...

I wasn't even born yet.

Gabriel's been in and out

of hospitals and clinics

for 40 years.

He was at Millwood.

Well, that was before my time.

It's right here.

They were here together.

Listen to this.

It says my father

seems to be fixated

on the world of

a young patient -

Gabriel Finch.

I mean, it doesn't make sense.

Gabriel came up with Neverwas,

down to the name,

before he even met my father.

No, he didn't come up with it.

He lived it.

It was all very real to him,

part of his elaborate delusion.

No, it's right here.

Gabriel's original admissions

intake 30 years ago detailed

that he had a paranoid delusion

that one day people would come

and take the land

he is living on.

He said a wizard named Ghastly

was sending an army

to his castle.

Well, that's basically the plot

of your father's book,

if I remember.

He based his book

on Gabriel's fantasy.

It's an A.A. Milne

sort of thing.

What?

Well, he wrote

Winnie-the-Pooh.

He based the character

of Christopher Robin

on his own son,

Christopher.

The Hundred Acre Wood

was a real forest.

Or Lewis Carroll, who wrote

Alice in Wonderland.

He created the elaborate fantasy

of Wonderland,

and Alice was based on

a little girl that he knew.

Your father might have

done the same thing.

Put me into

Gabriel's delusion.

One man's insanity...

another man's

children's book.

It's a fine line.

I have to talk to Gabriel

about this.

No.

That's impossible.

You have your own agenda

for being here,

and it has nothing to do

with my patients.

So not only am I taking you

off Gabriel's case,

I'm forbidding you

to ever speak to him again.

Did you hear what

I was just saying?

To be honest,

I'm more concerned

about your own mental state.

I am well aware of

my mental state, Doctor.

And I have everything

under control.

Well, then, you can come up

to my office tomorrow morning

and we'll discuss

what we can do about it.

But for right now,

I'm asking you to leave.

Get out of my clinic,

Dr. Riley.

(rings doorbell repeatedly)

Maggie?

Hello?

Maggie?

(whispering) Maggie.

(whispering) Maggie.

(reporter) Today the world

mourns the loss of

children's book author

T.L. Pierson.

Pierson gained

national attention

with his children's book,

Neverwas.

He is survived by his wife

and young son.

(turns off tape)

(beep)

(Maggie) A piece commemorating

the life of Pierson

on the 25th anniversary

of his death.

Even though T.L. Pierson sold

over 15 million copies

of Neverwas,

his son Zachary has

never touched any of

the royalty money.

I wanted to tell you.

Don't freak out on me.

I'm just a friend.

You're my friend?

Yes.

I wanted to tell you yesterday.

I couldn't.

I got scared of you telling me

that you couldn't see me

anymore, and--

A reporter?

Are you kidding me?

I just wanted to know who

the real T.L. Pierson was.

I told you, I have nothing

to do with my father's book.

Listen. Zach, wait.

Please!

Zach, can you stop?

Please wait. Please!

Everything that happened

between us is real, everything.

Do you think I want

this kind of complication,

this kind of confusion

in my life? Well, I don't.

I like things to be nice

and clean and simple,

and this isn't.

I'm sorry if Neverwas

meant nothing to you.

I'm sorry if it represents

something dark and painful,

but for me and for millions

and millions of other people,

that's all we had.

Zach, I needed something

better than my life.

And your father,

he gave that to me.

He gave me something hopeful.

I wanted to write about that.

I wanted to write

about the hope.

But there isn't any here,

is there?

Get out of my way, Maggie.

(starts engine)

(siren)

(faint dispatch voice)

Dad?

(dispatch voices continue)

This gets weirder and weirder.

(Katherine) Zachary!

(door opens)

(door closes)

I didn't know

where else to go.

You knew my father?

Yes, of course.

Thomas was my friend.

He wrote to you.

Yes, we wrote.

That letter you found

is one of many.

He was a worthy counselor.

He listened.

And he believed.

Believed in what?

What lies through

the Mossy Rock.

Gabriel, please.

What are you talking about?

Neverwas.

And he more than

believed in it.

He often used to come

and visit me there.

On the other side

of the mountain.

My kingdom, boy.

There.

That mountain?

That's where he used to go?

For days, weeks?

I was beginning to doubt

the truth of your coming.

And then I read the oracle.

I get the tips

from the guards.

You don't understand.

Thomas, in these pages,

wrote of your coming for me.

It's the secret oracle

of Neverwas.

Gabriel, you talked about

me coming to rescue you

from our first session on.

I hoped and remembered.

You were to rescue him.

I hid and watched.

I saw you take him

by the hand and lead him

out of this dungeon

as if you were cloaked

in invisibility.

Ghastly's guards

wouldn't dare stop you.

Wow. I was just

picking him up after a stay.

He w-- That's all.

He was sick.

Ah. Poor Thomas.

He was at the end.

Yes, he couldn't fight

Ghastly's spell.

It destroyed him.

There was no spell.

I wish there was,

but there wasn't.

You couldn't have

stopped it, boy.

Yes, I could have.

That night, Gabriel,

he was outside of my room.

I wouldn't open the door.

I could see he just wanted

to hear my voice,

to know that I loved him,

that I needed him a little.

(crying) Maybe that

would've been enough.

I let him die.

Those are nightmares.

Dreams. I had them once.

Terrifying.

The bottom of a dark hole.

Kept quiet, voice banned.

No light.

Never seen.

But that wasn't real.

It was just a dream

I once had.

Neverwas is real.

You're real.

Saving me is real.

Read this.

You are innocent.

Now you must leave

before the guards find you.

Tomorrow at the day's end,

you must meet me

at the Mossy Rock

at the edge of the kingdom.

And come alone.

Don't be late,

or I'll be forced to battle

the minions on my own.

I'm not gonna let you

out of here, Gabriel.

I promise you'll get help.

That's all I'd ever

wanted from you.

Your help, Zachary.

It's inhuman that they don't

let you outside at night.

Well, come on, then!

(laughs) Out of this dungeon!

Come on!

All of you!

Feel the night air again.

Yes.

It begins.

(Thomas) Dear Gabriel,

I write to you in hopes

that you are in good health

and your kingdom is

in safe hands.

This, regrettably, might be

my last letter I write to you.

I feel ashamed of

who I have become,

ashamed that I can no longer

fight this battle.

I have been emptied.

This black hole I have

lived in for so long

is growing darker,

even as love for my son

grows deeper.

I missed you.

I missed you.

A lot.

How can this impossible

human paradox exist?

(tires screeching)

The wizard, Gabriel,

he has won.

He has banned me

from your world and mine.

I existed because I dreamed.

I dream no more.

I just wanted to explain

to him and...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes