A Stark and Wormy Knight

by Tad Williams

  He goes back to his relentless combing of the carpet, crawling with his face practically down against the fibers. YOUNG BRENT comes back in and walks past them, then heads up the stairs. ADULT ERIC looks after him, then closes his eyes.

  YOUNG JANICE doesn’t know what to do. She looks up at the stairway, then toward the front door. She watches YOUNG ERIC for a moment then sits back, hugging herself and looking very frightened. ADULT ERIC moves toward her, and although she can’t see him, he kneels in front of her.

  ERIC

  You were right. Oh, God, I was a fucking idiot, a terrified kid, trying to talk myself into thinking everything made sense.

  (a beat)

  And now I’m a just a ghost and you can’t hear me…

  For a moment YOUNG JANICE almost does seems to hear him: she tilts her head, as though searching for a tiny sound. Abruptly, the stereo comes on full-blast — “Iron Man”, by Black Sabbath — and she jerks her head back around to stare at it. There’s no one nearby: it has turned on by itself.

  We begin to experience the first scene over again, but this time from ADULT ERIC’s viewpoint.

  YOUNG JANICE

  Eric! Eric, talk to me!

  YOUNG ERIC looks up blearily from the carpet.

  YOUNG JANICE

  Eric, I want to get out of here right now… !

  YOUNG BRENT, staggers down the stairs, clutching his hands against his stomach, panicky but trying to stay calm.

  YOUNG BRENT

  Shit, it’s bad — Topher’s freaking out for real up there.

  YOUNG JANICE

  Where’s Kimmy, Brent? What’s going on?

  YOUNG BRENT

  I don’t know! I can’t find her. I think… I think something bad happened! I…

  As if finally realizing something, BRENT lifts his hands away from his body and stares at them. They are covered in blood, smeared to the elbows. His eyes bug out.

  YOUNG JANICE

  Oh my God!

  ADULT ERIC stares at BRENT, then looks up at the ceiling. He SEES something no one else can see, and cowers back in horror, gasping in panic, covering his face.

  YOUNG JANICE

  Eric! Eric, what’s going on? Stop that!

  YOUNG BRENT has just noticed the music playing.

  YOUNG BRENT

  Why is this on? Who put on Sabbath? I hid the Sabbath!

  YOUNG JANICE

  (panicked, overwhelmed)

  It just… came on. Why do you have blood on you?

  YOUNG BRENT

  No, no, no! It’s all wrong! It’ll fuck everything up!

  BRENT runs to the stereo and starts trying to turn it off, but can’t make the buttons work. Blood is smearing on the stereo knobs. He takes out the record and throws it on the floor, but “Iron Man” keeps on playing. He picks the record up and breaks it. He’s crying. The music keeps on playing. Something begins thumping on the ceiling — weird sounds, like there’s a large animal thrashing around up there.

  YOUNG JANICE

  (suddenly certain)

  Oh, no. Kimmy’s up there. With him.

  (to YOUNG ERIC)

  She’s up there.

  YOUNG ERIC shakes his head, but it’s not a denial.

  YOUNG ERIC

  (gesturing frantically at carpet)

  He didn’t take all the pills. They’re around here somewhere. It’s okay! Everything’s going to be okay… !

  An even stranger NOISE comes through the roof, a long muffled shriek. The three teenagers look up. For a moment none of them move or speak, although the music continues loud.

  YOUNG JANICE

  I’m going to get her.

  She reaches the stairs, then turns to the two boys. She’s clearly terrified, but trying to be brave.

  YOUNG JANICE

  Well? Are you coming with me?

  YOUNG ERIC

  Everything will be all right.

  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 tumb
le 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!

  R/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.