Dark Quests (Three Screenplays)
Page 8
TREY
And what if Frost used the
Dewey Decimal System?
EVE
We don’t have time for jokes, Trey.
TREY
Then I suggest we first look here.
Trey steps before the massive rendition of the Last Supper, which is painted directly onto the stone wall in front of them. TIGHT SHOT on the Last Supper. The painted figures grouped around Christ appear to shimmer and move due to the lively shadows cast by their flashlights.
EVE
Fine. So what are we looking for?
TREY
For starters, let’s find Judas.
Trey walks along the length of the massive painting and stops before one figure, the fourth man on the left.
TREY
Here he is. The Great Betrayer.
TIGHT ON the figure of Judas, who stares plaintively at Jesus.
EVE
Do you know all of the figures in the painting?
TREY
Yes. I got an ‘A’ in art history.
Eve ignores him. Her mind is racing. She seems to be onto something.
EVE
And who sits next to Judas?
TREY
Andrew is to the left.
EVE
And let me guess. Peter is to the right?
TREY
Yes, how did you know?
EVE
Between A and P.
Now it’s Trey’s turn to be amazed. He immediately steps forward and shines the light closely onto Judas.
TREY
Unfortunately, I don’t walk through
walls like our friend Draken.
Eve steps next to him and touches the painting with her open palm. She suddenly smiles.
EVE
I feel a draft!
She continues her exploration, until she finally settles on a particular section of the wall.
EVE
Seems to be coming from here!
Trey steps forward and runs his hand along an invisible seam along the stones. Then he sets down his flashlight and places both hands on the wall. He takes a deep breath, and gently pushes...nothing. He pushes harder and still nothing. While pushing his right hand actually touches an abnormality in the wall. He grabs his flashlight and shines his light on it.
TREY
It’s a slot, of some sort.
EVE
A slot?
She steps up behind him, examines it. She frowns, and then smiles. She reaches inside her shirt, roots around a bit, and produces a Judas Coin. Trey is immediately angry.
TREY
I thought I told you to leave those behind.
EVE
We’ll talk about it later.
She inserts the coin in the slot like an ancient vending machine. Suddenly, a small section of the wall begins to rotate. The sound of stone grating on stone is loud in the empty library. A small opening has now appeared in the wall, revealing a dark passage beyond.
TREY
You’ll make a master thief yet, kiddo.
Let’s go.
Once through the wall, Eve retrieves her Judas Coin from an opposite slot—this one inside the wall—and follows Trey down a spiral stone staircase.
INT. LIBRARY
From a safe distance, the guide watches the two disappear through the wall. He also watches as the stone wall swings back into place. The guide grins and turns and heads back through the library.
EXT. NOBLE ISLAND – DAY
Two speedboats dock on the sandy shores, away from the tourists. Draken and two dozen of his men issue from the two boats. Greeting them is the red-headed tour guide, who leads the way into a side entrance, hidden behind over-grown ivy.
INT. CIRCULAR STAIRWELL – DAY
The winding stairway eventually dead-ends in a hallway. Trey and Eve have two choices: left or right.
TREY
Which way?
EVE
We go left according to the diary.
INT. CASTLE LIBRARY – DAY
The tour guide leads Draken and his men to the library. The guide stops before the painting.
DRAKEN
What is this?
TOUR GUIDE
Patience, Senator.
(a beat)
Oh, and I will need to borrow one
of your coins.
Draken unbuttons his black shirt, revealing his crisscrossing bandolier filled with silver Judas Coins. He plucks one from its mount and hands it over, clearly not liking the idea of even briefly losing one of his valuable coins.
TIGHT ON the tour guide taking hold of the coin with his bare fingers. Perhaps not a good idea. Nothing good can come from touching one of the cursed coins.
The tour guide finds the slot and drops the coin in. Once again, the wall swings open, grating loudly. Draken’s bloodless lips form a wicked smile. Draken reaches behind the wall and snatches the coin, slips it back into place, and buttons up his shirt. He motions to his men who now silently enter the passageway. Draken is about to follow when the young tour guide clears his throat loudly. Draken turns slowly, carefully. His blood-red eyes stare deep into the tour guide’s own.
DRAKEN
Is there something else?
TOUR GUIDE
There is the small matter of payment.
Draken is clearly not pleased to be disturbed by such petty matters. A sort of fire burns just behind his pupils. The tour guide sees this and backs up.
TOUR GUIDE
Of course, we can always discuss payment later.
(a beat)
I should probably be going.
As he’s about to turn around, there’s a loud scraping sound from behind him. A hulking shadow falls over the young guide. Alarmed, he turns—
Behind him is the iron maiden, looming. It wasn’t there just a minute before. The guide gasps, turns back to Draken, who smiles.
DRAKEN
The Maiden is waiting.
TOUR GUIDE
No...Please!
Invisible hands suddenly pin the tour guide’s arms to his side. Draken next flicks his finger nonchalantly and the iron maiden’s door swings open, revealing the razor sharp teeth inside. Row upon row of spikes, all rusted with ancient blood.
Draken makes another motion with his hands—a shoving motion—and the tour guide is hurled back into the waiting jaws of the torture device. He screams. Blood spills from his lips. Iron spikes punch through him in a dozen different spots. Draken motions again, and now the lid slams shut. Blood spills out of the maiden and spreads over the stone floor.
DRAKEN
Love hurts.
INT. LABYRINTH BENEATH THE CASTLE
With the sound of dripping water everywhere, Trey and Eve continue through a creepy network of tunnels deep beneath Noble Castle. Soon, they come upon a huge door at the end of a long hallway. Eve is reading the diary.
EVE
We go through here.
TREY
As you wish.
He grabs the long iron handle and gives it a tug. No good. He applies pressure but nothing happens. Next Trey reaches inside his leather jacket and removes an assortment of lock picks...but Eve rudely pushes him aside.
EVE
We don’t have time for your gimmicks.
TREY
What the hell has gotten into you?
She ignores him and instead passes a hand over the door handle and lock, concentrating. Almost immediately we hear the clicking sound of tumblers falling into place. The door opens silently. The coins, we realize, are giving Eve her own dark power...
TREY
(confused, shocked, impressed)
What the hell did you just do?
And why haven’t you shown me this
trick before—
But she brushes past him and through the open door. Trey, mouth hanging open, follows behind her.
INT. HIDDEN CAVERN
Before them is what appears to be a dark cavern, although it’s hard to
tell because it’s pitch black. Still, like a laser light show, their flashlights cut through the inky darkness, splashing on far walls. Speaking of splashing, Trey hears the sounds of lapping water. He shines his light down...
Indeed, far below them, is a dark pool of water. The two explorers appear to be standing on a rock ledge. The huge iron door didn’t open into a room, it opened into a natural cavern. Trey removes a torch from Eve’s backpack, lights it, and sets it into a groove on the rock wall next to him. The flickering torch illuminates most of the gloomy cavern.
WIDE SHOT on a remarkable underground chamber, easily hundreds of feet deep. However, the most dominant feature is a huge central pillar which rises straight up from a pool of black water. Trey whistles.
TREY
The mother of all phallic symbols.
EVE
Freud would have a field day.
The pillar is perhaps fifty feet tall, and winding around the outer edge of it is a stone stairway. The stairway rises up from the water and leads all the way to the top. And there, high above, pulsating with silver light, is a leather pouch. Eve’s eyes glow with something that could be considered greed.
EVE
The remaining eight coins!
Trey looks at her curiously, and then steps over to the edge of the ledge. He looks down. Another stairway, cut into the stone. It leads down into the black pool.
TREY
Wait here.
EVE
But I want—
TREY
No.
Trey carefully climbs down the narrow stairs as Eve watches anxiously above.
EVE
Be careful.
Trey nods, then almost slips. Finally, at the bottom of the stairs, he steps down into the cold water. He shivers. The water gets deeper with each step. And when it reaches his shoulders, he eases into the water, and begins swimming toward the central pillar, whispering and muttering to himself:
TREY
Please let there be nothing lurking
in the water...
Trey continues swimming. The stone pillar is before him, rising straight up from the depths, easily fifty feet high.
CUT TO: Eve watching him from above, shining her light down onto him.
CUT BACK TO: Trey swimming up to the pillar’s outer spiraling stairway. He clambers out of the water, dripping, shivering. He looks over to Eve, who gives him a thumbs up sign.
WIDE SHOT on the fifty foot column, as Trey doggedly works his way around and around the spiraling staircase. Up and up he goes. The equivalent of a 5-story climb—minus the handrails—Trey finally reaches the top, gasping for air, bent over. Finally, he looks up.
There, sitting on a marble pedestal, is the leather pouch pulsating with inner light. Silver light. The scene is surreal, unearthly. And even stranger, there seems to be moaning and howling coming from within the bag, as if lost souls are trapped within.
Trey looks concerned, but he’s already seen enough of the creepy supernatural not to be overly alarmed. He moves carefully over the slick surface of the pillar’s summit, and soon stands next to the glowing bag. He looks over at Eve, and from across the cavern she urges him on and begs him to be careful.
Trey nods, and slowly reaches down for the bag. With his breathing rapidly increasing, he carefully lifts the bag. He waits, expecting the worst, but nothing happens. Relieved, he opens the leather sack and looks inside.
CAMERA TIGHT on the bag’s contents: eight Judas Coins all piled together, emitting an unearthly silver glow. They look at once beautiful and imminently wicked. Trey smiles—and looks over at Eve.
TREY
This is it—
But he stops short. Holding Eve is Draken, surrounded by his dark-clad men. As he speaks, Draken’s voice echoes from across the cavern.
DRAKEN
I believe you have something that is mine.
The Senator motions and—to Trey’s utter amazement—the bag of silver coins leaps from his hands and flies through the air. A moment later, it lands neatly in Draken’s upturned palm. The gaunt man smiles.
TREY
Fine. You’ve got the coins—now let her go.
DRAKEN
I have twenty of the coins. There’s eight
in this bag. Ms. Eve Friday seems to have
the remaining two coins on her persons,
forcing me to— eh hem—do a more thorough
search later.
Eve suddenly drives her elbow hard into Draken’s gut. But her elbow has no effect. Draken, instead, throws her over to his men, who promptly drag her away, screaming.
EVE
Trey!
But she disappears out through the massive door, and within a blink she’s gone. Draken stares at Trey for another beat. We sense that the dark figure would love nothing more than to kill this man who’s proving to be a thorn in the Senator’s side, but Trey’s Fourth Nail keeps the man at bay.
Instead, he closes his eyes and holds out both hands. The pillar begins to violently shake. Next, Draken raises his left hand and Trey watches in horror as the water begins to rise.
Draken opens his eyes, smiles at his handiwork, and then disappears through the massive door, which slams shut behind him.
Trey, now left alone in the massive chamber, suddenly finds himself on a crumbling pillar, while the dark water rises all around.
TREY
This can’t be good.
As huge stone chunks fall away from the column, Trey leaps from the summit, diving down into the churning water. A beat or two later, Trey appears at the roiling surface, coughing, treading water, struggling to keep his head above the churning whitecaps. All around, sections of the pillar are plunging down, missiles that just narrowly miss him.
All the while, the water continues to rise. The ceiling rapidly approaches. Within moments, Trey’s airspace is reduced to just a few feet. He swims desperately, weaving through the forest of hanging stalagmites, searching for air and a way out—
The water continues to rise. Trey’s breathable airspace is reduced to a foot, and then a few inches. He tilts his head back, his mouth and nose just barely above the waterline. Finally, he takes a last, deep breath, and plunges under water.
INT. CAVERN, BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE WATER
An unearthly blue glow emanates from below, lighting his way. Trey swims desperately toward this glow. He swims past the central pillar with its now-broken winding stairway. The rock formation is still crumbling, the blocks of stones falling away in slow motion through the water.
Trey swims past the pillar, down through the chamber. Toward the blue glow, like a moth to a flame. He swims swiftly, bubbles trailing behind him. Now we see what he sees: the glow is coming from an underwater tunnel. Trey swims straight for it.
INT. UNDERWATER TUNNEL
A much brighter blue light is at the far end of the tunnel. Trey swims toward the light desperately. Here, in this world, all is silent, eerie, and surreal. As he swims, we see what he sees: the approaching end of the tunnel. Now dark spots appear at the corner of Trey’s vision. We also hear his heartbeat in the background, beating loud and clear.
WIDE SHOT OF TREY EXITING THE TUNNEL
Trey exits the womb-like tunnel and enters the cold loch. He looks up. The surface is at least a hundred feet up. The setting sun ripples far above. Too far. We see again from Trey’s perspective. We can also hear his heartbeat slowing. Even his movements begin to slow. More dark spots fill his vision. He’s very close to passing out, but he pushes onward.
CUT TO: A massive creature swimming in Loch Endes. It’s long, powerfully built, serpentine, prehistoric. It also looks scary as hell. We only catch a glimpse of it as it speeds past the camera, its tail flicking. It flashes beneath Trey, just a dark, impossibly scary shadow. But Trey’s too weak to care or even to acknowledge its existence. And as darkness nearly engulfs Trey’s vision entirely, he senses rather than sees a dark shape rising up rapidly beneath him...
EXT. LAKE S
URFACE – DAY
Trey breaks the surface of the water, gasping, sucking in air like a newborn. Breaking the surface next to him is a very slick, black-skinned creature that flicks its tail once, twice, and then plunges back deep beneath Loch Endes.
Trey watches this extraordinary scene with passive indifference; after all, since his near death, it’s all he can do to stay afloat and not drown.
INT. FISHING BOAT – DUSK
Trey is huddled in a fishing boat, sitting on a bench and wrapped in a blanket. An older man is at the boat’s helm. The man looks back at Trey.
OLD MAN
(Scottish accent)
So what in the devil were you doing