Complete Short Fiction, page 82
YOUNG BRENT
(dropping the bits of shattered record)
No. It won’t.
JANICE waits until YOUNG ERIC drags himself off the carpet and stands. ADULT ERIC leaps to the stairs and tries to block the way with his body.
ADULT ERIC
Don’t go up there! Don’t . . .!
But he’s insubstantial—they walk THROUGH HIM as we DISSOLVE TO:
INT.—STAIRS, THEN—MOMENTS LATER
We’ve dropped back into the shaky, distorted perspective from the beginning of the film, more or less YOUNG ERIC’s POV. YOUNG JANICE leads, YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG BRENT right behind. We can still hear the music, but it seems odd, underwater.
Everything upstairs is very trippy—angles seem strange. The hall lights are FLICKERING between bright and dim. It makes for an eerie, almost “strobelight” effect.
YOUNG JANICE
Kimmy! Kimmy, where are
you?
YOUNG ERIC
Where’s . . . where’s Topher?
YOUNG BRENT
I don’t know. He was here
a minute ago—man, he was
acting so strange . . . I think he
cut himself or something . . .
The corridor is distorted, the walls so narrow that it seems they might crush the viewer. YOUNG ERIC looks down to the far end, sees the door to his GRANDMOTHER’S ROOM—the place he left KIMMY. He turns like a sleepwalker and moves toward it. We follow right up to the door, feel him hesitate, then push it open.
Inside, there’s only the one light of the bedside lamp, flickering, making a little humming noise as though you can HEAR the ELECTRICTY. The bed is empty now, the sheets disarranged, smeared. On the wall over the head of the bed is the EYE WITH SUN RAYS, drawn crudely in smeared dark liquid, still wet.
There’s a brighter light coming from under the bathroom door.
ERIC moves toward it slowly. He stands in front of it and we hear a strange muffled THUMPING noise, and also heavy breathing and moans, like someone quietly reaching orgasm. ERIC pushes the door and it swings open. There’s something in the tub, moving clumsily, hidden from us by the shower curtain.
YOUNG ERIC
Kimmy . . .?
YOUNG JANICE is stuck behind YOUNG BRENT, and cannot see properly. She makes a face as something CRAWLS over her foot. She looks down blankly and sees that she’s standing in a couple of dozen ANTS. She shudders and takes a step back, trying to brush them off.
YOUNG ERIC (cont.)
Is that you, Kimmy?
He pulls the shower curtain aside and we see that KIMMY is huddled on her hands and knees, face pressed against the wall, partially hidden by the curtain. She’s breathing in a very jerky way, and her voice is very thin.
KIMMY
Eric? I’m . . . scared. It’s dark,
Eric. But Topher’s . . . going to
help me to see . . . like he does.
Could you turn off the water? I’m getting all . . . wet.
YOUNG JANICE
(still behind BRENT, trying to get over
the ants and past him)
Kimmy? Are you okay?
YOUNG ERIC reaches out to KIMMY and she turns. Her eyes are GONE—only RAGGED BLACK SOCKETS—and her face and shirt are soaked in blood. The wall where she’s been leaning is smeared with blood and the bathtub is full of it—she’s kneeling in it.
ERIC and BRENT both scream and reel back, knocking JANICE over, tumbling in a panic on top of her, which prevents her from seeing.
YOUNG JANICE
Kimmy! Kimmy? Eric, what’s
wrong?
YOUNG ERIC
Don’t look! Don’t look!
Scrambling away from the bathroom, he tries to pull JANICE with him, but she’s fighting him, crying, trying to get to KIMMY. She manages to grab the doorframe of the bathroom and pull herself crawling onto the tiles. As she turns away from fighting with ERIC, she sees (with her face at floor-level) a black knot of ANTS, boiling, swarming over some small object lying on the tiles just a few inches from her nose. It’s a bloody EYE—one of KIMMY’s eyes.
The POV SWINGS CRAZILY as she flails backward, retching and shrieking, tangling with ERIC and BRENT as they try to rise. They tumble back into the bedroom, sprawling on the floor. The lights are still flickering slowly on and off, and in a moment of shadow we see that there’s a LARGE DARK SHADOW on the ceiling—like a stain, but more complicated.
As the lights flicker up again, the shadow opens its EYES—it’s TOPHER, stretched on the ceiling as though it were the floor. A trail of BLOODY HANDPRINTS leads up the wall and across the ceiling to where he is.
TOPHER
Seen enough?
The three terror-stricken teenagers crush themselves into the corner of the bedroom, staring as TOPHER crawls back across the ceiling and down the wall like a spider, until he reaches the floor and stands at the center of the room, blood-smeared arms held wide.
TOPHER (cont.)
It’s almost done now. I can
fucking feel it happening—I
don’t need this body anymore,
don’t need any of this . . .
YOUNG JANICE
(a ragged screech)
What did you do to Kimmy . . .?
TOPHER
I helped her. Helped her to see . . .
all the way . . . to the end . . .
TOPHER suddenly convulses—not just a twitch, but something that physically distorts his ENTIRE BODY. He SCREAMS—a whistling shriek of agony.
TOPHER (cont.)
Oh God! Oh God! Oh God!
He is thrashing now, his body BULGING and TWISTING. STEAM begins to rise from his skin, leaking from his mouth and nostrils, and his gasps and screams become even more tortured. The three teenagers are all weeping in terror, fighting to force themselves even farther back into the corner. TOPHER is between them and the door.
TOPHER (cont.)
Oh, fuck, it hurts! Help me! It
hurts it hurts it hurts! I don’t
want to be . . . inside this . . . any
more . . . Ah! Ah!
TOPHER suddenly staggers forward, his face seeming to MELT from within, little ripples of flame lifting from the skin. He grabs YOUNG BRENT, who shrieks and struggles. ERIC and JANICE do not try to help him, but only fight to get further away, clawing at each other. TOPHER pulls BRENT close so that their faces are only inches apart, wreathed in steam, and shrieks at him.
TOPHER (cont.)
Get me out of here! Fuuuuuck!
Make it stop!
The biggest convulsion of all, a moment in which TOPHER seems almost to turn INSIDE-OUT, and BRENT is flung away, slamming against the bedroom wall. TOPHER falls onto the floor, writhing like a smashed snake, making awful gargling noises. YOUNG BRENT slowly climbs to his feet, stumbling and gasping, then staggers out the bedroom door.
TOPHER (cont.)
(his voice is different now, weak and
ragged)
Stop! Come back! It’s . . . this is
all wrong . . .
YOUNG ERIC and YOUNG JANICE struggle onto their feet and sprint for the bedroom door. TOPHER’s twitching has slowed—he raises a quivering hand after them.
TOPHER (cont.)
Come . . . back! Eric! J-Janice!
Don’t . . . leave me . . . Don’t leave
me . . .
We are on ERIC and JANICE as they hurtle down the stairs in a distortion of sound and vision. YOUNG BRENT is already gone, the front door swinging, and they CRASH through it after him, still screaming into the darkness, screaming, SCREAMING . . .
As the door swings back and clicks shut (we see it from the inside) the screaming abruptly STOPS.
We are in the empty, current LIVING ROOM with ADULT ERIC, ADULT JANICE, and ADULT BRENT. They turn in unison from the front door and look at the entrance to the stairway. There is a long, grim silence.
JANICE
(a ragged whisper)
We should have taken Kimmy . . .
ERIC
We were afraid . . .
JANICE
We left her there to bleed to
death.
BRENT
(staring at them)
Who are you?
ERIC
What?
BRENT
Who are you? Is it you again,
another trick? Do we have to
do this all over again?
(he begins to cry)
I’ve been here for years. There’s
nothing left you can do to me . . .
JANICE
Brent, it’s us. We’re here. It’s
really us.
ERIC
(to nobody in particular)
You know what we need to do,
don’t you?
BRENT
But how do I know that?
ERIC
We need to go upstairs.
JANICE closes her eyes, not arguing, knowing its true.
BRENT
Upstairs? We can’t!
(whispers)
He’s up there.
ERIC
(to JANICE)
I tried to make it all go away. I
was wrong. I lied to you about
Kimmy, because . . . she and I
were making out, getting it
on, and . . . and I was feeling like
everything would fall apart if
you found out.
JANICE
(startled)
Oh, God, Eric, really?
ERIC
But I lied and it killed her.
JANICE hesitates, trying to decide what she feels. At last:
JANICE
You can’t change the past.
You can’t let it haunt you. We
all wish we’d done things . . .
differently.
Without quite realizing it, they both look at BRENT, but he will not meet their eyes.
ERIC
We should have have called
someone—the police, an
ambulance. Instead of just
leaving Topher there all night,
turning into . . . whatever it was.
(a sudden, nasty thought)
Whatever it is.
BRENT
He hates us. We betrayed him.
JANICE
We didn’t know any better.
She looks at ERIC, then holds out her hand, which he takes. As if they’ve had a silent conversation, they both move toward the STAIRS, then, with only the smallest hesitation, they mount up into the shadows. BRENT stares after them for a moment.
BRENT
(quietly)
Don’t leave me here.
He stands for a moment, then—with an expression of great hopelessness—he pulls the GUN out of his pocket and starts up the steps after them.
BACK WITH ERIC AND JANET: the stairway is impossibly long, as distorted as some of the earlier hallucinations. They climb silently, clutching each other’s hands. A little MIST or STEAM drifts down from the doorway at the top and eddies past them down the stairs.
They finally reach the door at the top and look into the upper hallway. It’s DISTORTED like 1976, with mist along the wood floor, but empty like “now”. A few leaves rustle beneath their feet, blown in through the broken window at the end of the hall. Silently, ERIC and JANICE step up and begin to walk down the hall. A small cracked voice begins to sing close by.
TOPHER
“Oh I’m glad I’m not an Oscar
Mayer wiener. That is what I’d
never like to be-ee-ee . . .”
As ERIC and JANICE reach the bedroom door, it swings open. The empty bedroom has EXPANDED—it seems dozens of yards across. At the far end, a pale shape—TOPHER REBORN—sits in front of the wall in low mist, head sunken on his chest. The EYE WITH SUN RAYS is scrawled on the wall above his head in dried blood.
TOPHER (cont.)
“. . . ’Cause if I was an Oscar
Mayer wiener, there would
soon be nothing . . . left . . . of
. . . me . . .”
TOPHER lifts his head. He is VERY PALE all over, without any hair, his skin raw and clammy, like some sea creature that has been pulled from a shell. His eyes are all BLACK.
TOPHER (cont.)
Hi, Erky. Hi, Jan-Jan.
JANICE tries to say something, but TOPHER lifts his hand and her mouth works without sound. ERIC takes a step toward him, but TOPHER lifts his other hand and ERIC and JANET are both frozen in place.
TOPHER
Ssshhhhh. It’s time for you to
be quiet.
A strange SHIFT in perspective and TOPHER is suddenly right in front of them, still sitting cross-legged.
TOPHER (cont.)
I spent a long time being quiet,
while I changed. It was like
being buried alive. Helpless in
the dark—screaming but no
one could hear me. Twenty-
five years. Twenty-five years,
screaming! Think about that.
(he reaches out and touches
JANICE’s face, then ERIC’s.)
I thought of lots of ways to
make you suffer for leaving
me. Oh, I lay there a long time
in the dark, trapped in that
body, thinking about it. What
I would do to you. When I had
finished . . . changing.
TOPHER stands. He has no genitals, no nipples, no fingernails or toenails. Music begins to play—Roxy Music again, “In Every Dream Home A Heartache”, slow and building.
TOPHER (cont.)
I thought I might . . . melt you. Or
turn you inside out. Or maybe
just let you experience what
happened to me—a quarter
of a century locked inside
yourselves—but that all seemed
so . . . obvious. And after a while,
I began to really think . . .
BRENT suddenly appears in the doorway—staggering, panting for breath.
BRENT
Leave them alone!
TOPHER
Hey, I was wondering when
you’d show up!
BRENT
Fuck you! You know it’s not
them you want. You know it!
TOPHER
Do I? It’s funny how you think
you know things about your
friends, isn’t it?
BRENT suddenly levels the gun and shoots, five times in rapid succession, screaming as he does so.
BRENT
Fuck you! Fuck you!
When the smoke clears, the REBORN TOPHER is still standing there, unharmed but for five little puckered holes across his pale body. He smiles and looks down at the bloodless wounds. They close up.
TOPHER
Did you really think you were
in a place where that would
work? This all belongs to me—
don’t you know that? This is
all my dream, and this time I’m
taking you along.
BRENT sobs and lifts the gun.
BRENT
There’s one bullet left . . .
TOPHER
Go ahead. What was it you
said? “One bullet in the brain
of Topher Holland will end all
this?”
BRENT slams the gun against his own head and pulls the trigger. Nothing. A moment later the gun crumbles into dust in his hand.
TOPHER
You didn’t think it would be
that easy, did you?
He turns to ERIC and JANICE; they tumble to the floor, moving again.
TOPHER (cont.)
I never finished my story. See,
I spent a long time—years—
thinking about what to do
to you. But then, slowly—oh, I
had a lot of time—I came to
understand that there are levels
of betrayal. Many levels. And
you were scared and young, just
like I was.
(a beat)
But there are some betrayals
that can’t be forgiven.
(he turns to BRENT)
Right, Topher? Come here.
BRENT (as we’ve been thinking of him) sways and crumples to the floor. TOPHER (as we’ve been thinking of him) points, and BRENT begins to crawl toward him, despite himself. TOPHER’s skin is giving off faint curls of smoke now. The music is growing more insistent as it builds toward its slow climax.
TOPHER
You ran, and ran, and ran,
didn’t you? But you never really
got away.
BRENT
(weeping, fighting, crawling)
No, please! I didn’t mean to . . .!
TOPHER
But you did it, and that’s all
that matters. Abandoned this
body like rats off a burning
ship. Pushed me out of my own,
so I had nowhere to go.
