Wes Craven’s Page #14

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Heather JOLTS as if prodded with an electric wire, twists

around and stares wide-eyed at

NOTHING. OUR WIDE ANGLE FROM DIRECTLY ABOVE SHOWS twisted

blankets, nothing more.

Chilled, Heather pulls the sheet around her. Then pulls it

back open. Realizes it's cut into ribbons along its entire

length.

She jumps out of bed, breath caught in her throat. Then

there's a METALLIC SCRRRIIIIITCH from the kitchen.

DYLAN (O.S.)

(distant)

One two, Freddy's coming for you. Three

four, better lock your door...

INT. STAIRWELL/DEN/KITCHEN - NIGHT

Heather appears at the foot of the stairs, heart in her

throat. Twenty feet away, advancing slowly from the kitchen,

Dylan is chanting the old refrain

DYLAN:

Five six, grab your crucifix...

Heather starts for him.

REVERSE ANGLE PAST DYLAN TO HEATHER, and from this vantage

point, we can see the cluster of steak knives he's taped to

his fingers, making a serious-looking claw, hidden behind his

back. Heather shakes her head, almost to him.

HEATHER:

Sweetie, don't sing that...

She reaches for him, and he strikes like lightning, slashing,

barely missing. Advances again, breath coming in little

asthmatic rasps. Heather backs away.

DYLAN:

Seven eight, better stay up late!

She bangs up against a wall, he's too near for her to dodge

away. They grapple, the boy suddenly with the strength of a

feral animal. He raises the blades, hissing at her

DYLAN (cont'd)

Nine ten!

Heather lurches backwards as he strikes, and

INT. CHASE AND HEATHER'S BEDROOM - DAWN

CRASH! she falls out of bed, now truly awake.

DYLAN (O.S.)

Never sleep again.

Pad, pad, pad.

INT. DEN - DAWN

Heather enters, limping. Looks. Sees her child circling in

the center of the room before the lit TV, crying softly...

DYLAN:

Never sleep again, never sleep again...

And scattered all around him on the floor are the filthy

pages of letters.

HEATHER:

Dylan...

Then she stops, staring more closely at the letters on the

carpet. For the first time she sees that using the single

letter from each page, Dylan has spelled out:

A*N*S*W*E*R

T*H*E

P*H*O*N*E

Then the phone RINGS.

Heather stares at Dylan, stunned. The phone RINGS again, and

without even thinking about it, she picks it up.

HEATHER (cont'd)

Yes?

FREDDY (FILTER)

I touched him.

Before she can react the telephone suddenly thrusts a long,

fleshy tongue into her mouth in an appallingly obscene lick.

She flails backwards, flinging it away, and as she does,

Dylan lets out a piercing scream and falls gasping on his

side, legs kicking like an animal struck by a car.

Heather grabs him and runs for the door.

INT. HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY

EYES, PEERING FROM BEHIND THE FLARE OF LIGHT

CLOSER STILL ON DYLAN'S EYES - WIDE - UNBLINKING.

DOCTOR HEFNER, a tall, powerful looking woman in her 40's and

Chief of Pediatric Medicine, clicks off the light and looks

at Heather.

DR. HEFNER

Any history of epilepsy in your family?

HEATHER:

No.

DR. HEFNER

Diabetes?

HEATHER:

No.

DR. HEFNER

Was there any trigger event? A trauma,

shock or...

(looks at her more carefully)

You haven't shown him any of the films

you make, have you? The horror stuff?

HEATHER:

(not sure she imagined it or

not)

No...

Hefner nods, scowling.

DR. HEFNER

Good. I'm convinced they can tip an

unstable child over the edge.

Heather swallows, hardly able to find her voice.

HEATHER:

Unstable? Dylan's not unstable, he's...

just...upset.

The doctor's looks at her, as if wondering if Heather's

competent enough to handle a painful truth. Then she just

scrawls something on a prescription sheet.

DR. HEFNER

We'll run a battery of tests and know in

a few days.

Heather looks at Dylan, eyes haunted by a terrible

vulnerability.

Dylan is stone silent. No evil behavior. Just exhausted and

withdrawn, like some small creature escaped from a predator

by the skin of his teeth, now just following core instinct:

stay in hiding. Do not make a sound.

HEATHER:

Does he have to stay here over night?

DR. HEFNER

Absolutely.

The doctor draws her out into

HALLWAY OUTSIDE DYLAN'S ROOM

She holds Heather's eye and speaks low, so Dylan can't hear.

DR. HEFNER (cont'd)

Anything more happen we should know

about?

Heather tenses ever-so-slightly.

HEATHER:

Like what?

DR. HEFNER

Sometimes what a child says or fantasizes

will give a clue to what ails him. Did

he say anything while he was still lucid?

Heather looks to Dylan. He's looking at her with trusting

eyes.

HEATHER:

(low)

No. Dylan didn't say anything.

She goes into the room. Dr. Hefner watches her carefully. A

nurse walks by and Hefner hands her the X-rays.

NURSE:

What have we here?

DR. HEFNER

(low)

It's too soon to know for sure, but the

early symptoms point towards childhood

schizophrenia.

INT. DYLAN'S HOSPITAL ROOM - DAY

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