The Crow: City of Angels Page #23

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Even as Ashe fights to free himself of the chain, Judah loops

one end of it over a street lamp. He jumps from the marquee,

using his body weight to pull Ashe from the ground...

ASHE:

is dragged up into the air, dangling above the faces of the crowd.

EXT. CITY STREET, JUDAH'S TOWER - NIGHT

Sarah rushes out the front entrance of the tower, into the Day

of the Dead crowd which swarms below. She pushes through the

mob, trying to fight her way across the street.

EXT. CITY STREET - MOVIE PALACE - NIGHT

Ashe swings like a puppet from Judah's improvised hangman's noose.

His coat and short have been all but torn to shreds.

Judah drags down on the chain harder, lifting Ashe even higher,

tightening the noose. He secures the chain on a hydrant, then

strolls forward, inspecting his work. Judah circles Ashe, grinning

like the cat who swallowed the canary.

JUDAH:

Now don't we look pretty...

Ashe struggles, choking, causing...

THE TATTERED PAINTING

of Danny's that Ashe had kept in his coat pocket to fall free.

It flutters to the ground, landing at Judah's feet.

Judah kneels, picking it up. As he unfolds the painting, we see

that it has been stained with Ashe's own blood. He tilts it this

way and that -- as if he were appraising the craftsmanship of

the piece.

JUDAH:

Nice. If you prick him, does he not bleed?

Judah looks up at Ashe, his eyes full of crazed humor, then he

very deliberately tears the painting to shreds, letting the pieces

fall away into the night wind.

Judah reaches for metal rod, lashing out at Ashe's bare, bloodied

back...

WHACK! Ashe SCREAMS. Judah is hell-bent on beating Ashe into

oblivion. With every stroke of the switch the crowd CHEERS.

CLOSE ON ASHE:

His eyes are rolling to whites as consciousness begins to recede...

ASHE'S POV

The swirling faces of the masked celebrants, with Judah front

and center. Mob mentality, everyone drunk and LAUGHING, jeering

at Ashe, the dangling fool. It's a scene out of Hell...

.. and behind Judah, a familiar figure pushing her way to the

front of the crowd...

SARAH:

lunges forward, clutching the misericord, shoving a reveller

aside...

SARAH:

Get away from him!

Judah turns. Sarah drives the misericord into Judah's eye. Judah,

momentarily blinded, falls back...

Sarah unlashes the end of the chain from the hydrant...

ASHE:

falls to the street as the chain CLATTERS over the street lamp.

He unravels the chain from his throat and drags himself back

up...

ASHE:

Sarah, get back!

Too late. Judah has torn the misericord from his eye. He rushes

up to Sarah and...

...THUNK! Drives it deep into her chest.

ASHE:

SARAH!!!

Sarah gasps, drops to her knees, clutching at the dagger's handle.

She pulls the misericord out. Blood begins to well up from the

wound. She stares at her blood-covered hands in disbelief, then

falls back.

Silence now as the crowd begins to back away. The mood has shifted.

Ashe drops by Sarah's side. She stares up at the sky, eyes wide

with wonder...

SARAH:

The crows...I can see them coming...

SARAH'S POV

Once again, the crows are wheeling around the ceiling of the

sky.

BACK TO SCENE:

Ashe looks up at Judah, fueled by a righteous rage that's been

burning since the moment of his resurrection. He rises. All reason

is gone. The only think that remains for Ashe is an unbridled

animal fury.

Ashe launches himself at Judah, sending the villain tumbling

back into a nest of scaffolding. One of the pipes punches clear

through Judah's chest, impaling him!

Judah hangs there, transfixed like a butterfly with a pin stuck

through it. He struggles to pull himself from the piping, but

even so, he's laughing hysterically...

JUDAH:

You can't stop me anymore, Ashe. You don't have the power.

Ashe's eyes boil with hatred.

ASHE:

If it were just me, you'd be right, Judah. But I have an eternity

of pain to call upon...

Ashe lifts his hands up, exposing his bleeding palms.

ASHE:

And the pain gives me strength.

ASHE'S PALMS

As we watch the stigmata close themselves up, blood drawing itself

back into the wounds.

Ashe raises his arms to the sky, gesturing to the crows which

spin high above his head.

ASHE:

TAKE HIM!!!

EXT. JUDAH'S CAMPANILE - NIGHT

The murder of crows spirals down from the sky like a black tidal

wave. They descend on Judah as one entity, SCREAMING down from

the heavens like a storm of razor blades.

JUDAH:

NO!!!

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