The Lodgers Page #3

I suppose you

better come inside.

[INAUDIBLE WHISPERING]

Wait!

I thought you wanted me to?

I can feel eyes on me.

Rachel,

there's no one here.

We're never alone.

Young man, this house is

in a state of dereliction.

We live simply here.

Simply?

You live in squalor!

It's clear management

of this property is

beyond you and your sister.

EDWARD:
You'd have us leave?

I see no option, but

for you to do so.

RACHEL:
Our ancestors fled where

they came from to this place,

where nobody knew,

they built this house

to hide their shame,

but their shame took form

and it punished them.

They'll never be free of it.

We'll never be free of them.

Free of who?

They live below

and we live above.

The day is ours,

the night is theirs

and as long as we

keep to the rules

that's how it remains but

now we're of age.

I feel them pressing at us.

Rachel, who lives with

you in that house?

Some of these items

could surely be sold.

Clean and restored they

would fetch a price.

This, for instance,

might be a fine piece.

Flemish, perhaps 17th century.

Surely, there are other

properties in the family,

other holdings?

That ceiling is near

eaten through with

damp, young man.

Clearly, this house

is beyond you.

A return to England perhaps

might be the soundest idea.

EDWARD:
We aren't

English, Mr. Bermingham.

Not English by birth perhaps,

but for all intents

and purposes...

There's no name for what we are.

[REPEATED SLASHING]

Rachel, what you're

telling me, it's a story

to scare children,

to make them behave.

It's no better than the stories

they tell in the village.

And what would you know?

Was it a story that

drove my mother

and father into

the lake and theirs?

Is it a story that has

my brother and I locked

into our bedrooms each night?

It's a punishment.

Our parents followed

all the rules,

taught us to follow

them but in the end,

they couldn't bare it!

And when we've fulfilled

our purpose like they did,

we'll go the same way.

Do you think I want

to live like this?

Afraid to live,

afraid to touch

anything that lives!

Cursed.

Rachel,

you make your own fate.

Nobody is cursed to die.

Cursed to die?

Our curse is to live.

Go on then.

You're no use to me.

You're no use to anybody.

No.

No...

No...

Oh, no...

[DRIPPING]

LODGER:
Never let a

stranger through your door.

Forgive me!

Where you off to, traitor?

Get out of my way.

Your way?

Got heirs with your

friends up there, have ya'?

Huh?

What's that, traitor?

Grab him, lads.

Get off!

Get off!

Get off me!

Around here,

we fight our own war,

our own ways, understand?

And we have no use

for you here, cripple.

We have no use for

traitors around here.

You get me?

I've killed better men than you!

Let me past.

You've hurt yourself.

It's nothing.

It was the bird.

It scratched me.

You're sick, Edward.

This can't go on.

Who have you been with?

Tomorrow I leave

with or without you.

I won't stay and

become what they did.

Edward, I know it's you.

You won't stop me.

LODGER:
Never leave

each other all alone.

It's not your time!

I kept to the rules!

LODGER:
Good sister be.

Breed our immortality.

I kept to the rules!

They've been in our room.

You, you brought Bermingham

into the house, didn't you?

- You made this happen!

- Rachel, I had to do it.

They don't have to hurt

us if we only obey.

There's only

the master bedroom now.

Where will you go like that?

You'll never survive out there.

Rachel?

Don't even say her name, Sean.

See who that is, mam.

I'll tend to him.

It's you.

What do you want?

I've come to see your son.

Come to see the damage

you've done, have you?

Tell him I'm here, please.

I know what you're like!

Tell him I'm sorry

for what I said.

I'll tell him nothing from you.

Washing the filth

out of your sheets,

your parents and

the ones before them.

You think I don't know

what goes on in that place?

I need his help.

There's only one thing

you're good for

and don't think

he doesn't know it

so why don't you pay

your bill and leave

before you cause

any more trouble!

I have nothing to pay you with.

Not half, you don't!

More fool of my boy for thinking

he could get it out of you!

Take this then.

It's all that's left of us.

Don't touch it!

She'll be back.

Wait!

Please.

This is yours.

She told you then?

Told me what?

Oh, Sean.

In my dream, I saw

things, things I can't...

Whatever that girl told you,

whatever awful things,

it's all true.

Mam?

How could people like us

ever help someone like her?

It's not that I'm

not sorry for them.

I've seen them when

I was at the house

with the mending and washing.

Just two little children too

young to know what they were.

Do you believe that two

people can do something so,

so unnatural that it

leaves a stain on them

and that the stain goes

on to their children

and to their

children's children?

They were all like us, twins.

My mother, my father.

Their mother and

father before them

and their mother and father

before them

since we came to this place

and shut ourselves away

so nobody would

know what we are.

I thought your brother

might be the one to help me

but no one can.

Now don't go

rushing off again, Kay.

There's not much left of that

traitor for you to run back to.

Get that one!

You wouldn't dare

come in here, you filth!

You're not worth the bother.

Let's leave her alone

Leo, she's done nothing.

What can I do?

What would you have me do?

Mother.

Mother!

Edward?

[WOMAN SCREAMING]

No!

[THUNDER RUMBLING]

What have they done to you?

You would have

left me here to die.

They knew you'd come back,

you'll always come back.

I saw, Edward, what you

saw down by the lake.

I know you've been so afraid,

but Mother wanted us to be free.

She wanted us to be free.

Edward, there's still

a chance for us.

Edward, are you listening to me?

We know what you've been doing.

You found yourself some man,

some peasant down in the village

you've made yourself a whore.

Edward!

You think just because you're

outside we don't see you.

You think we don't see everything

you do, everything you feel.

You can't believe

this is meant to be?

Then why do we

feel what you feel,

why do we see what you're

thinking before you do?

This house speaks to us.

It belongs to us and we to it.

Even the bird

speaks in its voice.

Enough!

There's no bird in that cage!

You'll see what we see soon.

You think that we're cursed,

that we're being punished

but what we have is a gift.

You crave it, too.

We feel your yearning

for the consummation,

to breed our immortality

in the pit of your body.

Get away from me.

Good sister good brother be

You know they mean

for me to claim you.

I'm already claimed by

that peasant at the lake.

It's true.

I made myself a whore for

him to be free of you.

What have you done?

You stink of longing

for his rotting seed!

There's nothing left

for us to do but die.

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