The Crow: City of Angels Page #16

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by her lover. Gabriel, who's lounging nearby, suddenly looks

up and HISSES.

UP ABOVE THEM:

the Crow lands on the skylight, staring down at Sarah, watching...

There's a KNOCK at her door. Sarah approaches, looks through

the peephole...

SARAH:

Who is it?

SARAH'S POV (THROUGH FISH-EYE PEEPHOLE)

Kali stands there, cradling an automatic. She's flanked by TWO

IDENTICAL TWIN THUGS. Kali FIRES into the lock...

EXT. TUNNEL MOUTH - NIGHT

The chase continues. Curve approaches the bridge doing well past

ninety. Abruptly, he cuts down a roadway which parallels the

river. There's a chain-link running across the mouth of the tunnel.

Up ahead is a hole in the fence leading down to a tunnel spillway.

Curve guides his bike through the hole...

INT. TUNNEL - NIGHT

Curve speeds into the dark tunnel, splashing through puddles

of water, whipping past graffiti. As he nears the mouth at the

other end, Curve brakes hard, TIRES SQUEALING, almost going down...

CURVE'S POV

We are now beneath the bridge. It's a stone-cold dead-end. The

roadway slopes sharply downward, spilling out into the concrete

river bed which is filled to capacity with rushing flood waters.

BACK TO SCENE:

We hear the ROAR of an approaching motorcycle, then an engine

cutting out. Curve looks back the way he came...

AT THE OPPOSITE END OF THE TUNNEL

Ashe's siilhouette steps into view. He's on foot now, clutching

the sawed-off shotgun. He lets loose a LAUGH which chills Curve

to the bone.

ASHE:

"I have a rendezvous with Death, on some scarred slope of battered

hill..."

Ashe starts into the tunnel. His WET FOOTSTEPS echo off the weeping

walls...

ASHE:

"God knows, 'twere better to be deep where love throbs out in

blissful sleep, pulse nigh to pulse and breath to breath..."

As Ashe draws closer, his death-like face emerges from the gloom

- a ghastly visage floating in the ether...

ASHE:

"But I have a rendezvous with Death. And I to my pledged word

am true..."

Ashe stops some twenty feet away, grinning like the Cheshire

Cat.

ASHE:

"I shall not fail that rendezvous."

Silence like knives. Ashe and Curve facing one another. Curve

is tense, dry-mouthed...

CURVE:

You think i'm afraid of you, you f***ing freak?! YOU THINK I'M

AFRAID?!!

Curve SCREAMS and guns his cycle forward, rolling the throttle

all the way open - a kamikaze run aimed straight at Ashe.

Ashe stands his groupd, lifts the shotgun, FIRST at Curve's customized

teardrop gas tank. There's the woman doing the wild thing with

Death and...

BOOM! CURVE'S MOTORCYCLE

disintegrates beneath him, breaking apart into a RUSHING COMET

OF FLAMING WRECKAGE. Shrapnel skids along the tunnel walls, SPEWING

SPARKS.

CURVE:

lies on the garbage-strewn tunnel floor in a spreading pool of

blood - burnt, battered, a barb of steel sticking up from his

chest. Still, Curve has one glorious, giddy moment where he thinks

he's actually succeeded in defeeating Ashe, then...

CURVE'S POV

as Ashe steps through the gasoline flames.

Curve's elation vaporizes.

ASHE:

Can you hear me, Curve?

Curve offers a weak nod.

ASHE:

You're going to die now.

Curve tries to speak, blood spills from his mouth. Ashe places

a finger to his lips.

Ashe drops down, kneeling over Curve's chest.

ASHE:

People used to put coins in the mouths of the dead. Do you know

why? So they could pay the ferryman to take them across the river

Styx.

(reaching to Curve's ear)

What's this?

In a parody of a stage magician, Ashe retrieves one of the Peep-O-Rama

tokens from Curve's ear. The embossed eye logo flashes.

ASHE:

Open your mouth, Curve.

Curve,s eyes are wide, filled with terror. He MOANS.

ASHE:

Shhh. It's not so bad. Trust me. I've been there.

Curve slowly opens his mouth. Tears run from his eyes. Ashe places

the coin on Curve's tongue, like a priest administering a Holy

wafer.

Ashe stands, grabs Curve by the coat collar. He pulls him back

towards the end of the tunnel...

EXT. TUNNEL MOUTH/RIVER - NIGHT

Ashe drags Curve down the sloping end of the spillway to the

waters edge.

ASHE:

I want to thank you for showing me my pain, Curve. You made me

what I am.

ON ASHE:

As he releases Curve, letting the current carry him away. Ashe

stands, tracking Curve's progress.

ON CURVE:

as he floats downstream, limbs outstretched, consciousness fading

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