When a Stranger Calls Page #16

OPERATOR (O.S.)

I don't know, sir. Maybe the number

was just recently disconnected. Maybe

there's a temporary malfunction in

the wiring. Why don't you try it

again in the morning?

CLIFFORD:

Yeah, okay. Thanks.

CUT TO:

INT. LOCKHART HOME - UPSTAIRS HALLWAY - NIGHT

Jill is walking down the hall to the children's bedroom. She

opens the door.

INT. CHILDREN'S BEDROOM

As Jill quietly enters. The children are asleep. Jill goes

to June and tucks her in. Then she walks over to Stevie's

bed. He is sleeping, but with a Sugar Daddy in his hand.

Jill looks down at him, again puzzled. She leans over, takes

the Sugar Daddy and gently wakes him.

JILL:

Stevie... Stevie...

STEVIE:

(stirring, but not

fully awake)

Yes?

JILL:

Stevie, listen to me. Where did you

get this candy?

STEVIE:

What?

JILL:

Where did you get this?

STEVIE:

(very groggy)

The man gave it to me...

JILL:

What man?

STEVIE:

(drifting off)

I don't know... He was... Wings on a

horse...

He closes his eyes and is asleep.

Jill stands up, turns and starts to walk out of the room.

Halfway across the floor, Jill stops. She stands rigid as a

thought penetrates her own drowsiness. She turns very slowly

and moves to the closet in the children's bedroom.

She stands before it a moment. Then she reaches her hand

forward for the knob on the closet door. She very slowly

pulls the door open. She looks inside. There is nothing.

Jill quietly closes the closet door and leaves the room.

INT. BEDROOM

Jill enters. John is still asleep facing the wall. Jill gets

into bed, sitting up. She is wide awake now. She sits for a

moment in the darkness, thinking.

Then she reaches for the princess phone on the bedside table.

She doesn't get a dial tone. She quietly pushes the phone's

disconnect button up and down several times. Still no dial

tone.

Jill hangs up and thinks for another moment, apprehension

creeping over her face.

Then, in the darkness of the bedroom, she begins to hear the

muttering of a man's voice, low and deep. It is Duncan in

the throes of Guy du Marraux.

Jill freezes. As the voice gets steadily louder and more

menacing, her attention focuses on the door to the bedroom

closet which is a couple of inches ajar.

JILL:

(urgently whispering)

John?... John?...

She reaches for the bedside lamp and turns it on, never taking

her eyes away from the closet door. As soon as the light

comes on, the voice stops.

Her eyes still riveted to the door, Jill grabs her husband's

shoulder and shakes him, her voice cracking with fear.

JILL:

John!... John!...

The body beside her stirs, rolls over, looks at her hideously.

It is Duncan!!

Jill shrieks, and makes a move to leap out of the bed.

Duncan, the hideous and terrifying sound of his madness

grumbling out of his throat, manages to grab the back of her

nightgown.

As Jill struggles to get off the bed, the gown rips slightly

while she fights to get away.

Duncan rolls to her side of the bed and manages to grab Jill's

ankle while letting go of the gown. It causes Jill to lose

her balance and tumble onto the floor just short of the

doorway leading out of the room.

Duncan is on her in a flash, clutching at her and moving his

hands for her throat. Jill screams again. It is the desperate

sound of a woman facing certain death.

Suddenly, two quick shots ring out, overwhelming all other

sound. Duncan falls back with a groan and a thud.

Out of the darkness of the hallway steps Clifford, pistol in

hand. He crosses to Duncan. He is dead. Then Clifford walks

around the room to the far side of the bed and looks down.

On the narrow strip of floor between the bed and the wall

lies John. Clifford nudges the body with his foot. John stirs,

as if he has been knocked unconscious, but it will be some

time yet before he comes to.

Clifford starts to walk out of the room, stepping over

Duncan's body, edging past Jill who is propped up in the

doorway, sobbing hysterically.

CLIFFORD:

Your husband's okay.

Then he is gone.

As Jill sits there unable to rein in her emotions, June and

Stevie toddle up to her groggily from the hallway.

JUNE:

Mommy?

Jill clutches her children to her heaving breast and buries

her face between them.

INT. DOWNSTAIRS HALL

Looking through the open front doorway into the quiet night

beyond.

FADE OUT:

THE END:

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