LORD OF ILLUSION

CHAPTER 23

INT. HARRY'S CAR - NIGHT :

Indecision is written all over Swann's face: to help or not to help? HARRY (V.O.) Swann! He decides. Gets out.

EXT. NIX'S GRAVE - MIGHT:

Swann goes to the graveside, terrified. HARRY Give me a hand. I got Valentin. Together, Harry and Swann lift Valentin out of the grave and lay him in the blaze of the headlamps. VALENTIM He's got Dorothea. SWANN And Nix? VALENTIN Him too. HARRY We've got to get you to a hospital. VALENTIN Don't bother. HARRY Shut up. We've lost enough lives already.

VALENTIN I'm sorry, D'Amour... HARRY What about? VALENTIN ... Looks like you're going... to lose... one more. Valentin dies. HARRY (despairing) ... no... SWANN He's better off this way. HARRY (furious) Nobody's better off this wav! SWANN You don't get it, do you? We're shit. D'Amour. He puts his foot beneath Valentin's body. It rolls back into Nix's grave.

SWANN That's where we're all going. HARRY In my time, and nobody else's. ON THE EMPTY GRAVE, as we HEAR the SOUND of Harry and Swann getting into the car. The doors SLAM. The CAR LIGHTS retreat. The grave is left to DARKNESS.

EXT. NIX'S HOUSE - NIGHT :

The house is silent now.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAYS - NIGHT :

We TRACK through the house. The CULTISTS, all Seventeen of them, stand in the passageways, looking toward Nix's sanctum. ON THE SANCTUM DOOR. Butterfield emerges. He is wearing WHITE now.

BUTTERFIELD Do you wish him to be amongst us? CULTISTS Yes... BUTTERFIELD Will you come to him on your knees? CULTISTS Yes... BUTTERFIELD Be ready. Now we see that the Cultists have BOTTLES in their hands. With looks of ecstatic fervour on their faces, they SMASH the bottles to the ground at their bare feet.

Then they pick up MORE BOTTLES, and SMASH them, littering the ground with razor sharp pieces of GLASS. ON Butterfield, smiling. He steps back into the Sanctum.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - SANCTUM - NIGHT :

HIGH, WIDE SHOT of the room, as Butterfield approaches the BODY of Nix. It lies on a table, surrounded by bowls of OIL. Bandages, soaked in oil, are laid over its limbs. Beside its head, Butterfield's INSTRUMENTS are laid out. ON Dorothea, crouched in the corner of the room, terrified as she watches Butterfield remove the multi- part MASK screwed into Nix's face. He works with surgical precision. DOROTHEA Listen. You've got everything you want. You don't need me. .. A piece of the mask comes away from the cheek. A subtle POWER plucks at dust around the room, disturbing it minutely.

We CUT CLOSE to Dorothea's face throughout this sequence (on occasion her eyeball fills the screen) as she sees these signs of disturbance in the ether, growing in magnitude. BUTTERFIELD No, but he will. After what you did to him. He pulls a piece of the mask from Nix's mouth. BUTTERFIELD He'll want vengeance. Simple PS that.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAYS - NIGHT :

The bottle-breaking has ceased. The Cultists stand, breathless with anticipation. INT. NIX'S HOUSE - SANCTUM - NIGHT On Nix's emaciated mouth. The lips TWITCH. On Dorothea. The DUST moves around her. And Nix DRAWS BREATH. On Butterfield, TEARS in his eyes. BUTTERFIELD Oh my Lord. He's coming home...

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT :

The whisper runs through the congregation: CULTISTS He's coming home... he/s coming home...

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - SANCTUM - NIGHT:

ON Dorothea, eyes wide. DOROTHEA Christ in Heaven. ON Nix, as his body starts to thirstily soak up the oils. His withered flesh starts to REHYDRATE; his veins start to THROB. Butterfield is watching the process in amazement. Nix's HANDS move up to his face, where the last portion of the mask is still screwed over his eyes. BUTTERFIELD He's with us...

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT:

CULTISTS He's with us... He's with us...

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - SANCTUM - NIGHT:

Unnoticed by Butterfield, who has his eyes on Nix, Dorothea gets to her feet and creeps away to the door. Very quiet TRACK. Suddenly, the snake-handling Cultist steps into view, snakes coiled around his face and fingers! DOROTHEA Oh God! Butterfield looks up. BUTTERFIELD Hold her! On Nix, as he starts to pull at the mask on his face. It comes away with a moist, WRENCHING SOUND. At last, we see his eyes.

NIX'S P.O.V. The candle-lights blaze, BLINDING his sensitive eyes. NIX (fury to agony) Aaarrrgh! He gets up and flings himself around the room, knocking over all the lights but two. Then he strikes Butterfield to the ground, and slams his foot on Butterfield's neck, knocking him unconscious. It's a terrifying, almost demoniacal display of instant physical superiority. Throughout, he literally ROARS in rage.

INT. NIX'S HOUSE - PASSAGEWAY - NIGHT:

The Cultists SCREAM in sympathy, letting out years of repressed frustration. Many of them are dancing on the shards of glass now, crazed.