The Possession Page #20

(CONTINUED)

113.

CONTINUED:

Christabel drifts to the window. Golden summer sun floods

in.

CHRISTABEL:

`... The truth is, that you have a

daughter, who is well, and married,

and the mother of a wonderful boy.'

She looks down from her isolation onto the grass knoll

below, so well-kept in its day. A beautiful woman in her

late 20s, MAIA BAILEY, plays with her baby boy.

CHRISTABEL:

`... She is beautiful, and called

Maia, and resembles, I think, both

her parents, neither of which she

knows to be her parents...'

Christabel turns from the window, lost in her memories.

FLASHBACK - EXT. FIELD (BRITTANY) - NIGHT (1860)

Christabel's memories. We are FLYING OVER rugged winter

terrain before a farmhouse, TOWARDS a barn in Brittany,

decades ago.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... We agreed to leave each other

and never look back. And for

pride's sake, and yours, I resolved

to keep my side of it. When I

discovered my condition, Blanche and

I quarrelled bitterly. I could not

come to you. So I made arrangements

-- I found a place to go in France

-but you came searching after

me...'

The doors of the barn open for us, and we CREEP PAST cows

and mules that stare TOWARDS us.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... So I fled, I fled...'

We REACH a haystack in the back, where the squatting

Christabel trembles in agony. CIRCLE AROUND, we see her

sweat-drenched face.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... I concluded that no decent

refuge remained fit for me...'

She opens her mouth to scream, as -

114.

INT. CHRISTABEL AND BLANCHE'S HOUSE (RICHMOND) - 1859

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... And when I thought of poor

Blanche...'

INT. SITTING ROOM

Alone, Blanche sewing pockets of a dress: stones (from

Whitby) expertly bound with needle and thread...

ON TABLE:

A suicide note in Blanche's writing, placed on a desk: "To

whom it may concern..." Weighed down by a stone.

EXT. THAMES RIVER - CHELSEA BRIDGE - 1859

Upon a bridge, Blanche looks into swirling waters of a dark

river. In her pockets, silvery-black stones sewn in by

thread. As she walks to the precipice of the bridge, and

jumps -

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... I knew I had killed her...'

UNDERWATER:

At the bottom of the river, Blanche tumbles, bubbles slowly

expiring from her mouth. Her body weighed down by the

fossil stones, she floats eerily in the cold darkness...

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... I could not face the world.

Nor you...'

EXT. CLIFFS (BRITTANY) - 1860

In a dark cloak, Christabel, alone, facing out to sea. At

her lowest ebb. Distraught, tears streaming down her

cheeks.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... I felt haunted, cursed, and

alone...'

DISSOLVE THROUGH TO:

115.

INT. SEAL COURT - CHRISTABEL'S ROOM - DAY (1888)

Despite the memory, Christabel's face is calm and peaceful.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... So I gave dear Maia to my

sister Sophie Bailey, who brought

her up as her own...'

Christabel wanders into the shadows of her room, which are

covered with stacks of papers. A lifetime of words.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... Now I want to make amends, let

these ghosts rest in peace. I have

flown about the battlements of this

stronghold, crying on the wind of my

need to see and feed and comfort my

child, who knows me not and -- to

whom can I say this, but you? -- who

loves me not...'

She returns to the window.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... And yet, she is so happy. Ah,

but if you were here, you would see

how I dare not disturb her peace...'

CLOSEUP ON YOUNG MAIA'S FACE

She looks up, perhaps her eyes meet Christabel's. But the

young mother quickly averts them.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... I have been angry for so long

-with all of us, with you, with

Blanche, with my poor self... and

now, near the end, I think of you

with clear love...'

She moves to her desk, signs her name to the letter, then

picks up a small art-nouveau picture frame. She removes the

photo.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... I send you her picture. She

will have nothing of her strange

name, and prefers to be called May,

which suits her...'

116.

CLOSEUP ON PHOTO

of a woman on her wedding day. Original of the photo on

Maud's mantelpiece, her great-great-grandmother, May.

CHRISTABEL (V.O.)

`... Did we not -- did you not

flame, and I catch fire? Is that

not fine? Shall we survive and rise

from our ashes...?'

ON CHRISTABEL'S FACE

as she prepares to part with her photo. A burst of sunshine

surges through the window.

She is consumed in white. As the light slowly fades, we

HOLD ON photo, but now it's old, faded, and in muddy hands.

END OF FLASHBACK.

DISSOLVE THROUGH and REVEAL -

EXT. CEMETERY - DAWN

Rain starts. The sun is about to rise. Roland and Maud sit

at the graveyard by the mausoleum. On the ground -

MAUD:

(reading letter)

`... And so, "in the calm of mind,

all passion spent," I thank God -if

there must be a dragon -- that he

was you.'

The box has been opened, the letter (with crest) sits out of

its envelope, photos in their hands, watch with its braided

lock of golden hair. Roland holds it against Maud's own

hair.

ROLAND:

It's her. May. She was...

MAUD:

My great-great-grandmother, yes.

May...

ROLAND:

Now I know why they left all this -the

clues, the poems, the letters.

They wanted you to know, Maud. They

left them for you.

(CONTINUED)

117.

CONTINUED:

Holding the old crumpled pictures of May, Maud is overcome.

MAUD:

She looks like Christabel. You can

see it.

ROLAND:

She looks like you. She looks like

Randolph Henry Ash, too.

MAUD:

So I look like Ash?

A hint of lightness. Roland smiles, gently touches her

face.

ROLAND:

I would never have thought of it.

But yes -- here, at the corner of

the eyebrow -- the edge of the mouth

MAUD:

Now you see it, you'll always see it

ROLAND:

I'll never be free of it.

MAUD:

No. We'll never be free.

Maud smiles too, looks up at Roland, as if for the first

time. Roland reaches out to her, holds her close to him.

ROLAND:

Maud... I... love you so much...

The ice queen melts. Maud buries her face, tears fall.

ROLAND:

I just love you. That's how it is.

Maud raises her arms to him, his hands stroke her wet hair,

tracing the curves of her shivering body. As -

MAUD:

The worst possible way then.

They pull away for an instant.

(CONTINUED)

118.

CONTINUED:

ROLAND:

Yes, total obsession. The worst...

They move closer. Roland knows her heart is barely

triumphing over her fear. Fighting every inch of the way,

Maud softly brings her lips to his. A heartbeat away from

a...

Long, lingering kiss. Until --

Maud opens her eyes, looks up slowly. And behind Roland,

sees -- over the brow of the hill, a familiar figure:

Beatrice. Smiling, white hair streaming in the rain.

Roland swivels around, to see -

A gathering crowd of sodden, desperate scholars: Beatrice,

Cropper, Hildebrand, Fergus, gloomy; ever Blackadder and

Leonora.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote